Paint & Pigments: Boat, Caretaker and Weapon Paints

Update 02 introduced 37 full boat paint schemes and 4 paint zones. The paints can be found around the world.

Update 03 added ores, nuggets and pigments for crafting Caretaker paints.

Update 5.5 added coloring for the Caretaker’s scarf.

Update 3.5 introduced weapon paints for the bolt gun.

With the paint cans in your inventory, use the Customization Table on the boat’s bridge: it is on your left as you come in, next to the phone.

Apply the same paint 4 times to unlock its recipe in the build menu. Uses on either the Caretaker or the boat count. Once unlocked, the paint can be crafted with pigments.

Use a dismantle tool on the corresponding ore to obtain nuggets. Recycle each nugget in the Recycler to get 2 portions of its pigment.

Pigments cannot be applied directly to the boat or Caretaker. They are ingredients for crafting paints.

Before Update 5.5 (May and August 2026), recycling paint cans produced pigments, and those pigments could only craft paints already unlocked. Recycling all your cans before unlocking their paint can leave you unable to craft it.

Each paint is found at one fixed place, usually as 5 cans, and the same paint is always at the same place. Most are in Habitat Nodes, Helios Reserve nodes, navigation beacons, Quarantine Stacks and Lazarus Complex; the list above gives the place for every paint.

There are 37 paints: the wiki’s paint list and the Update 6 item listing name the same 37, matching the official count.

There are no paint cans at Refuel Outpost Delta, Sanctuary Dock 12 or Central Warehouse Alpha.