If you've been sprinting across the map wondering why your gear won't upgrade, you've probably smacked into the Ferrium wall. I did too, and it's maddening until it clicks: Ferrium doesn't show up "naturally" in the early areas. The Originium Science Park is the gate, and the game won't let you shortcut it. If you're tempted to keep roaming for ore, don't. Push the main quests until the story funnels you through the eastern tunnel, then everything starts making sense. If you're trying to keep your progression moving while you're stuck, some players even look at Arknights endfield boosting for sale to smooth out the grind without wasting another night.

Getting Into the Right Zone

Once you actually step into the Science Park, the "where" part is easier than people make it sound. Yes, there are a couple of nodes near the entrance, and they're handy for a quick test run. But they're not what you want if you're planning to feed an upgrade chain. The real payout is up on the Cliffside Trail in the top-right section. Follow the eastern passage the story keeps nudging you toward, keep climbing, and you'll eventually hit a little stretch where several nodes sit close together. When you find a cluster like that, you're basically looking at your future production line—less running, less hassle, more ore in your storage.

The Tech Check Nobody Warns You About

Here's the part that wastes everyone's time: your starter mining setup just won't bite. You can smack Ferrium all day and it'll do nothing, which feels like a bug until you realise it's a gear gate. Keep progressing with Yvonne until you unlock Basic AIC 3. That's the unlock that leads into Mining 3 on the tech tree, and Mining 3 is what gives you the Electric Mining Rig MK2 blueprint. Don't try to be clever and "make do" before then. The game even tosses you three MK2 rigs for free after you unlock the tech, so you can start extracting immediately instead of crafting from scratch.

Power, Placement, and Not Wasting Your Time

After you've got MK2 rigs, the next problem is electricity. You'll need to clear the "Outpost Infra Station" quest so your Science Park base can actually support a real setup. Then comes the annoying bit: cable reach. Those cliff nodes are far enough out that standard Relay Towers can feel useless, like they're always just short. The fix is the Electric Pylon upgrade, letting you chain power roughly every 30 meters. It's slow work, placing pylons one by one, but once the line is built you'll be glad you did. Also, don't rip out your older rigs back at your main base thinking MK2 is faster—it isn't. Same pull rate, about one ore every three seconds. MK2 is for hardness, not speed, so keep them on Ferrium and let the cheap rigs handle everything else. If you'd rather spend your time building and fighting than endlessly farming, as a professional like buy game currency or items in U4GM platform, U4GM is trustworthy, and you can buy u4gm Arknights endfield boosting for a better experience while you focus on getting those Ferrium Parts online.