Marvel's Avengers resources: Where to find DNA Keys, Uru, Polychoron, Plasma and other resources

You're not going to get far in Marvel's Avengers without resources.

You'll need them to buy or upgrade your gear, and while you don't really need them at the start of the game - there's seemingly no shortage of gear in Marvel's Avengers, especially to begin with! - some of the resources are particularly hard to come by, so it's always worth holding onto them until you do.

Our dedicated Marvel's Avengers gear page will explain the best ways to use your resources when you're ready - but until then, this page explains the various resources available - from DNA Keys to Uru, Polychoron and Plasma - and where to find them.

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How resources in Marvel's Avengers work

Resources are the components you need to evolve or improve your gear power (except DNA Keys, but more on those later). Sometimes, you can even use them as currency to exchange for cool, rare items Marvel Avengers' various vendors might have up for grabs.

There is quite an array available -and all with varying levels of scarcity, too - which means you should always take the time to properly explore every building or base you enter, including the walls, rooftops and behind every cracked wall... you never know what might be hidden away in plain sight.

If you're unsure about how many resources you have, your tallies can be found at the bottom of your Gear screen.

Where to find resources in Marvel's Avengers work

The good news is that a lot of Marvel's Avengers' resources are impossible to miss when you're exploring the world.

You'll see them give off their unmistakable blue, white, purple, or golden glow, often grouped together in those precariously fragile glass crates (you don't even have to melee them, by the way - just walk purposefully into them and they'll disintegrate like candy floss).

Smash every single one you see and gorge yourself on their insides - co-op players each get their own allocations, so there's no fear of snuffling up your buddy's spoils.

You may also see them in crates or containers hidden on high ledges, above doors, on roofs, or attached high up on the wall, too. Melee attack any box or crate attached to a building just to be sure you're not leaving precious loot behind.

Other times, they'll be locked away in chests that require you to solve simple environmental puzzles, such as activating a number of plates or buttons in a specific timescale (you can usually tell how many by the lights on or near the locked doorway).

While the pressure plates aren't always immediately obvious, they're not particularly hard to find, either, and are always in the immediate area, so make sure you properly case out a building. This includes looking up, as many buttons might be hidden up high...

The best way to acquire rarer resources is by dismantling your old or unwanted gear. While it's tempting to put your favourites away in your vault on the Chimera, chances are you won't return to it again. Make sure you regularly upcycle your gear by dismantling it entirely and use the resources earned to boost the power of your favourite high-level gear.

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For the rare stuff that's typically hidden in chests, listen to JARVIS as you thump and fly your way across all missions on the war table, as he'll often intimate there's something special nearby. You can also use your waypoint to highlight interesting areas, so make sure you check out any place with a "?".

At launch, there are nine different types of Marvel's Avengers' resources to collect. Here's what they are, along with some tips on where best to find them.

Catalysts in Marvel's Avengers explained

Casting a warm orange glow, Catalyst isn't super plentiful, but you'll need it to boost your ranged gear (which we use a lot, by the way, particularly when keeping our distance in early-game). Enemies drop it occasionally, but you'll mostly find it in crates, so keep an eye out.

Fragments in Marvel's Avengers explained

Used for upgrading gear and purchasing new stuff from Marvel Avengers' vendors, Fragments from salvaged mechanical parts can be found right across the game. Not only can you pick them up from chests and fallen enemies, but you'll also find them in those fragile glass crates you'll find around the place, too. It's the numerous white boxes that contain Fragments.

Nanite in Marvel's Avengers explained

Nanite is essential for levelling up your melee gear and/or purchasing stuff from vendors. You'll find it all about the place, either dropped by enemies or glowing a lovely purple in those glass crates.

Nanotubes in Marvel's Avengers explained

An important resource to build up your defensive/chest gear, Nanotube can be found in the blue crates. It's often released by dead foes, too.

Plasma in Marvel's Avengers explained

This resource glows yellow in crates, and is also dropped from fallen enemies, though not as much as the other resources. You'll need this to upgrade your Heroic gear.

Polychoron in Marvel's Avengers explained

This can only be collected as rewards for faction assignments or by completing villain sector missions, which makes it pretty hard to come by, but it's used to upgrade your Major Artifact. Use it sparingly, and make sure to routinely dismantle duplicates or unwanted lower-level gear to help bolster your (usually meagre) supplies.

Upgrade Modules in Marvel's Avengers explained

This is used for upgrading all gear. The best way to find upgrade modules is to regularly dismantle your old or unwanted gear. It's one of the harder resources to come by, too, so sadly you won't find it sitting in smashable crates. Instead, you'll probably find it hidden away in chests.

Uru in Marvel's Avengers explained

Uru doesn't upgrade your gear but it does boost your Minor Artifacts, which makes it pretty powerful stuff.

It's pretty hard to find wild in the world; you'll find it in crates and chests with other items, particularly in Strongboxes - as shown above - and crates that glow gold or purple, as they contain rarer resources. We recommend keeping an ear out for Jarvis' instructions - sometimes he'll hint if there's a chest with Uru nearby.

The best way to boost your supplies of Uru is to complete Drop Zone missions that come in variety of flavours, including Assault, Defend, Dominion, Elimination, or Sabotage.

While you might not find Uru itself during the mission, you are guaranteed a random Iso-8 Shard on completion, so even if it's not quite powerful enough as your currently equipped shard, it can be broken down into pieces of that rare resource.

DNA Keys in Marvel's Avengers explained

As for DNA Keys? These aren't used to upgrade your gear but are instead used to open special chests that contain particularly rare gear and resources, often top-tier, five-star stuff.

You'll get the single-use keys for kicking the villainous butts of the Avengers' bosses in War Zone or Villain Sector missions, which can be picked up from either of Avengers' faction leaders. The drop is frequent but not guaranteed, so it's always worth doing as many as you can and working them into your daily ritual.

The missions of the faction leaders' missions rotate daily, so make sure you check them out every day to maximise your chances of securing a DNA Key as they're one of the rarest resources in the game.

Once you have a couple of spare DNA Keys, load up a Vault mission to use them! Don't forget that you'll never find a DNA Chest inside a vault, so scour the surrounding area outside the vault before you head on in. Black with blue trim, they're easy to spot against the usual, humdrum Strongboxes - which are shown in the Uru description above.