There are 9 types of resources in the game. The first half of them (Primary Resources) are located on maps X-1, X-2, and X-3. They need to be collected only for quests.
The second half of resources (Secondary Resources) can be obtained by collecting resources after destroying NPCs, enemy faction ships, recycling simpler resources, or from the Yummy Tower.
Resources are the rock resource found throughout space which when collected at a high amount are used for various things such as:
The four primary resources are Cerium, Mercury, Erbium and Piritid. These primary resources are the most common that can be found in the Lower Maps.