There are 8 resources available in their native states in the environment:

• light (not a ware) everywhere;
  
• Hydrogen, Ions, and Plasma (liquid wares) in gas clouds;
  
• Crystal, Ice, Nividium, Ore, and Silicon (bulk wares) as asteroid fields.

See a guide on Mining for how, where, and with which tool to acquire these resources.

The first key resource for everything is Energy Cells (energy ware, 4m^3), they are consumed in all manufacturing processes. E-Cells are produced from raw light at Solar Converters, ECell Fabs, or Solar Channels in Solar Energy Arrays {5 modules}, Solar Energy Farms {4 modules}, Solar Energetics {51 modules}, and Energy Arrays at a base rate of 8400 per hour per module {+10% in Glaring Truth / DeVries due to low solar orbit}.

I consider Water (liquid ware, 10m^3) to be the second primary resource as X-Rebirth is taking the realistic view of drinking water being a basic necessity for living humanoid crewmembers and / or plant life. Every six units of water are purified from five units of Ice (bulk, 12m^3) and one E-Cell at Condenser Stills in Water Distilleries or H_2O Additives Facs at a base rate of 14 400 per hour {OL: five Water using four Ice and one Energy each at 12 000 per module-hour in Water Prep Plants}. Rather than being consumed by station employees directly, the water is bundled into food items {DV: water, energy, and food are net consumed by Life Staples units of each Canterran Habitation}.

Now, lets make some basic organic materials from water and sunshine (plus energy for enviornmental systems and whatnot).

Wheat / Plankton, Spices, and Soy Beans are all in this category.

Now comes the first refinement and processing step: cook some food. We'll need this to perform (almost) all of the further refinement and assembly steps, as it represents the application of humanoid labour.

In Omicron Lyrae {OL} that means combining 42 Plankton, 21 Soy Beans, and 15 Spices, stir with 27 energy and viola one has 54 crates of BoFu (container, 4), at a rate of 2160 per hour. This is done in each of the 9 BoFu kitchens in a BoFu Star complex.

Both the Canterrans {DV} and residents of Albion {Alb} have a more intensive diet of animal protein. Instead of using Soy Beans which can be farmed simply, they use Meat (bulk, 4) which must be fed 7 wheat and 7 water with 3 energy to get every 8 sides of meat (1920 per hour in the solitary ring-shaped Terran Processing module at the Crystal Castle, or in each module of an Argnu Stockyard), thus it can be argued they have a spare tech tier of pre-food (ranching past farming).

Food Rations (container, 2) are then produced in sets of ten from equal parts Meat and Spice to four Wheat and two energy (12 000 per module hour in the other two Terran Processing modules at the Crystal Castle).
{DV} The Canterrans in in such survival mode that they eat food rations mulitple times on their Habitations : each of the one (entertainment dock) or two (repair dock) Life Staples modules representing their space-confined civilian population makes 40 new Food Rations an hour, while eating 240 and drinking 240 water, with 720 energy per hour on their utility bill. This makes them the only instance of people shown to be drinking water directly, probably on account of being the only unemployed station population present.

In terms of further production, Food Rations are approximately half the food per unit as BoFu - conserving both volume and price of the food consumed.

The other thing humans will always do with crops is fermentation.
Age 1 unit Plankton flavoured with 2 units Spice in 8 units Water, cook with 4 cells of Energy, and you'll have 8 cases of Spacefuel [Booze] (container, 4). This recipe is followed at a base rate of 960 per hour in each Liquor Still of a Licensed Distillery.

X-Rebirth has now added a mechanical benefit to supplying luxury goods to factories. Happy workers will produce 15% more resources in the alloted time (and from the alloted inputs). Which luxury good is used, and how quickly, depends on the work being done.

Solar plants use Food as a secondary resource.

The most ubiquitous luxury good is Booze (aka Spacefuel), followed by Narcotics and Medical Supplies.

Now that we can feed workers, it is time to begin rough processing of the other six raw resources (using Energy + Food + Time).

Plasma and Ions are bottled in their respective Cells, Ore is processed into Refined Metals, Hydrogen is mysteriously converted into anti-matter in contained AM Cells, and Nividium is neatly formed into Nv Cubes. Crystals are also turned to Cut Crystals, but this takes more Water too.


The recipe for Jump Fuel Cells (fuel, 4) also fits here (54 from 48 Enegery plus 3 Food), at the Fuel Cell Mills in a Cell Recharge Fab.
SpaceWeed (bulk, 2) is at this tier even though it is made of drink, and not food (10 from 10 Water, 2 Booze, and 4 Energy at a Herb Garden in a Pharma-Spice Farm, Pharma Lab, or Med Dispensary).

The one ware Chemical Compounds (container, 8) is so broadly defined as to be widely used. Chemicals will be synthesized at a Chem refinery in R&D Chem Labs in batches of 280 from 200 Ions, 300 Ion Cells, 500 Plasma, and 400 Plasma Cells using 88 Food and 350 Energy (at 1680 per hour).

A specialized type of luxury chemical, Narcotics (container, 2) are produced in the Narcotics Lab of either Pharma Lab (a rare station). Ten SpaceWeed take six Energy to refine into 12 Narcotics (at a base rate of 1440 per hour).

Silicon Wafers (bulk, 16), really blank microchips, are churned out from Wafer Plants at a Metalframes Fab: making 22 units from 40 Silicon (bulk, 18), 4 Cut Crystals, 28 Energy, and 11 Food at a base rate of 1320 per hour.

Still not immediately useful, but recognizable (to a ship's engineer), products. While made at a recognizable module, there are a wide variety of (mil-)tech stations that mix and match their production lines.

Bio-Electric Neuron Gel (container, 12) performs the role of computer components now. The Gel Factory can grow them on two Silicon Wafers with two units Water and one unit Chemicals using 1.5 Energy and 3/8 Food each at a rate of 640 per hour.

Plasma Pumps (container, 14) occur in all engines. A PPP Plant produces these 30 at a time from 80 Plasma Cells, 40 Cut Crystals, and 40 Chemicals with 120 Energy and 30 Food (for a total of 240 per hour).

Quantum Tubes (container, 14) would seem to be a different type of computing component. The QTube Y Fab makes every eight units of QTubes from 12 Nv Cubes, 30 Refined Metals, and 8 Chemicals with 40 Energy and 9 Food (totalling 240per hour).

Also at this manufacturing tier is the completely different Medical Supplies (container, 2) which are manufactured in the Pharma Platfroms at either Pharma Lab. It takes 6 Energy and 8 more SpaceWeed to specialize 12 Narcotics into 12 Medical Supplies (reaching 1440 per hour base).

And now, for the parts that a pilot could point out to the mechanic.

EM Spectrometers (container, 38) used in Lyrian guidance systems are produced at an EM Fac Tower, 120 per hour (3 from 2 Bio-Electric Neuron Gel, 24 Silicon Wafers, 16 Cut Crystals, 8 Refined Metals, 1 QTube, and 2 Chemicals with 16 Energy and 4 Food).

Fusion Reactors (container, 76) are like back-up power supplies, produced at the obvious Fusion Core Fac. Three reactors are made from 60 Am Cells, 7 Bio-Electric Neuron Gel, 24 Nv Cubes, 5 QTubes, and 24 Refined Metals ith 32 Energy and 10 Food (at 90 per hour).

Plasma Flow Regulators (container, 92) seem to be combined fuel injectors, spark plugs, circuit breakers and dimmer switches. Made at a Plasma Tech simply from 4.5 BEN Gel and 4.5 QTubes with 40 Energy and 8.5 Food each, 40 per hour.

The inertial dampeners responsible for capital ship drag, Podkletnov Generators (container, 84) are made at the epinomous Podkletnov Fab. Every three units require 4 BEN Gel, 4 QTubes, 62 Silicon Wafers, 39 AM Cells, 32 Ion Cells, and 28 Nv Cubes to assemble with 50 Energy and 13 Food (at 60 per hour baseline).

The hard to obtain ship, drone, and station hull material, Reinforced Metal Plating (container, 20) is produced at Plate Foundaries (which are often included in ship parts factories, or URV mass production lines, or mass shipyards). Every four Plates require 24.5 Refined Metal treated with 3 Chemicals, 6 Nv Cubes and 1.5 Medical Supplies to construct via 30 Energy and 5.5 Food (at arond 320 per hour).

Now we get to the factories making pieces that can actually be mounted on ships or stations - these products actually do something (when turned on by a liscenced manufacturer ;) ).

Force Field Projectors (container, 96) are apparently assembled without human oversight from 3 Plasma Pumps, 2 Reinforced Metal Plates, and half a Fusion Reactor each with 6 Energy (making 80 per hour in each Shield Facility).

Warhead Components (container, 48) recieve full military oversight in thier production, using 11 AM Cells, 1 Bio-Electric Neuron Gel, 1 unit Chemical Compounds, half an EM Spectrometer, 5.5 Refined Metals, 19 Energy, and 4 Food each (40 per hour at a Warhead Forge).


The Turret Forge produces HIT/MA Turrets (container, 54) at 320 per hour, Hailstorm/MA Turrets (container, 78) at 240 per hour, Plasma/MA Turrets (container, 188) at 120 per hour, Plasma/JET LR Turrets (container, 216) at 60 per hour, V Launchers (container, 244) at 40 per hour, or Astrobee Launchers (container, 276) at 20 per hour; whichever the station desires the module to produce. Each type seems to take a different amount of resources, but are all autonmously assembled from a store of Fusion Reactors + Plasma Pumps + Reinforced Metal Plates + Energy.

The URV Wharf module produces shoals of any particular URV model ordered by the station (e.g. 22 Mk2 Scoop Collectors in 30 minutes) from its reserve of Bio-Electric neuron Gel, EM Spectormeters, Fusion Reactors, Podkletnov Generators, Plasma Flow Regulators, Plasma Pumps, Reinforced metal Plates, Energy, and Food in some amount.

LV and XL V Ship Cradles at the BTO Shipyards produce captial ships on demand. It takes two to twenty minutes each, and some amount of the same resources URVs are made of (e.g. a Construction Vessel took 320 Energy, 40 BoFu, 12 Bio-Electric Neuron Gel, 10 Plasma Pumps, 8 Reinforced Metal Plates, 6 EM Spectrometers, 6 Podkletnov Generators, 4 Plasma Flow Regulators, and 4 Fusion Reactors) plus all the (crated ware) URVs, Force Field Projectors, and Turrets to be installed.

Medium Shipyards at Mass Shipyard currently don't work at all - it won't even register as part of the station it is in!

From the avaiable nodes that become visible once you have a Construction Vessel in your squad, Stations actually require only a moderately large amount of Energy Cells (2-5 thousand), Reinforced Metal Plates (1-4 thousand), Plasma Pumps (400 to 3000), and Fusion Reactors (250 to 750), PLUS all the turrets, Force Field Projectors, drones, and missiles you want the station to be equipped with. The amount of each ware varies by station, as does the number of hardpoints for each upgrade {I recommend jotting down a note of how much the architect asks for in a dummy station placement, then back out at the last screen}.

At the lonely pinacle of ninth tier goods we have ammunition produced at the Missile Forge. From a reserve of Bio-Electric Neuron Gel, Plasma Pumps, QTubes, Warheads, Energy, and Food the flavour of the hour is assembled: Newtonian V Crushers (container, 12) at 400 per hour, 200 Sunstalker missiles (container, 12) per hour, 100 Astrobee Swarmkillers, or Novadrones at 80 per hour.

It happens that all of this information for every ware and race is locked for the in-game encyclopedia. It gets added to the character's Betty files upon the user seeing the correct page with their own eyes:

1. scan (barnstorming) the production module itself
   
2. {.} open the zone map
   
3. select the station producing the goods of interest
   
4. {4} open the details screen for the station as a whole
   
5. scroll to 'Produsction modules' section, expand it
   
6. select the module producing the specific good of interest (it shows a rate of actual production here)
   
7. {4} open the details screen for the module.

If you have scanned the module enough, you have now seen the rate and type of resources consumed by the module, if it is fully scanned you also get to see the modifiers to its efficiency. Millitary / High Tech production modules require drone scanning to get sufficient information (and superior drone scans to reach 100%, if you care) - note that as of 2.1 this really is an illegal activity!