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Fortunately, I was farming this stuff in early access, so I know a thing or two about digging in the dirt for the glowy bits. Here's how to get Nightstar Sand in Palworld, along with a few recommendations on how to approach farming a haul respectful of your time.

Recent updates

July 15, 2026: It looks like there's a new source of Nightstar Sand in Palworld 1.0, but it's an endgame pal. Starryon Primo, which spawns in the World Tree region, drops Nightstar Sand. It's still easier to farm sand from the beaches, but I've included details on Starryon below.

Palworld Nightstar Sand location

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Head to the Twilight Dunes or Sakurajima

There's an easy spot to farm Nightstar Sand in the Dessicated Dunes at night. Just take the fast travel point to the Searing Dunes Watchtower, look north, and glide off of the cliff ledge to the glowing sand nodes below.

Nightstar Sand nodes are only visible when it's dark out, but their faint glow begins just as the sun sets in the evening. You can even get lucky and stumble upon it during daylight hours, but that relies on luck and paying close attention to the action prompt. You likely won't need very much, and I had plenty to make the items I wanted after a few nightly trips.

• Feybreak Island beaches have way more Nightstar Sand than the dunes, but it's a tough area to navigate at lower levels. Visiting the Searing Dunes location was an easier trip when I was alone or under-levelled.
• The Dessicated Dunes have more Nightstar Sand around the Tower of the PIDF, but deposits there seem pretty sparse. I wouldn't spend a lot of time hunting for more sand further away from the fast travel point recommended.

Feybreak Island deposits often extend further inland, so follow trails of Nightstar Sand from the light-colored beaches into the grassy areas. I've gotten around 100 just from one night.

The Desiccated Dunes Nightstar Sand deposits are sparse, so don't pull your hair out scavenging for more. The dunes don't have much foliage either, so you'll see the glow from a mile away.

Pals that drop Nightstar Sand

Starryon Primo

Starryon Primo, the white and gold horse trotting about the World Tree region, drops Nightstar Sand. You can find them hanging around in the middle of the map, just after entering the zone.

Nightstar Sand crafting recipes

The glowing sand is mostly used to make weapons, tools, and accessories, so you won't need a hefty supply for things like ammo or potions. Here are a few crafting recipes for reference:

• Advanced Bow: (20) Nightstar Sand, (25) Carbon Fiber, (40) Plasteel
• Beam Sword: (20) Nightstar Sand, (30) Plasteel, (100) Palladium, (1) Computer
• Metal Detector: (20) Nightstar Sand, (30) Plasteel, (100) Palladium, (15) Computer
• Double Air Dash Boots: (30) Nightstar Sand, (30) Plasteel, (100) Palladium, (30) Dark Fragments

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Andrea has been covering games for nearly a decade, picking up bylines at IGN, USA Today, Fanbyte, and Destructoid before joining the PC Gamer team in 2025. She's got a soft spot for older RPGs and is willing to try just about anything with a lovey-dovey "I can fix them" romance element. Her weekly to-do always includes a bit of MMO time, endlessly achievement hunting and raiding in Final Fantasy 14. Outside of those staples, she's often got a few survival-crafting games on rotation and loves a good scare in co-op horror games. %!s()

There are many to choose from. This list highlights some of the most extraordinary speed machines, from design icons like the SR-71 Blackbirdto the North American XB-70 Valkyrie, a bomber transformed into a high-speed research platform for supersonic travel, while also covering Soviet defense legends such as the MiG-25 and MiG-31 aircraft. Many of these aircraft were capable of cracking Mach 3 — that's three times the speed of sound — and in some instances, even more than that. For the record, that's notably faster than the fastest jets a civilian could ever own.

While this list covers five of the fastest military aircraft ever developed and focuses on their headline figures, the aircraft themselves are so much more important than the numbers. They come from a time of technological ambition, each with a fascinating story behind its creation and purpose.

North American X-15

Dean Conger/Getty Images

The X-15 is an unusual entry, being an experimental fighter jet, rather than one designed for actual service. Despite having been developed in the late 1950s and into the 1960s, it still ranks at the very top of the charts today among military aircraft, with a mind-boggling top speed of Mach 6.72, or 4,520 mph.

It reached altitude of 354,200 feet, around 67 miles high. Given the risks surrounding atmospheric pressures in these environments, pilots had to wear full-pressure spacesuits. Of the 12 pilots who flew the X-15, eight received their astronaut wings, demonstrating how the X-15 carefully trod the line between flights within the atmosphere and early space exploration. Among those pilots was the one and only Neil Armstrong, one of the historical figures Jalopnik readers would ride shotgun with.

Despite taking its last flight in 1968, flight number 199, the X-15 remains a technological marvel that still impresses today. Remarkable military aircraft have come and gone, but none have ever threatened the incredible top speed record held by this literal hypersonic rocket with wings.

Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird

Nasa/Getty Images

The SR-71 is one of the most iconic aircraft in U.S. history, and one of the very few planes actually fast enough to outrun the Earth's rotation. While its top speed is impressive at Mach 3.3, or around 2,500 mph, it cannot compete with the speed of the aforementioned X-15.

Its final ever flight perfectly demonstrated the SR-71's speed and ability. In March of 1990, an SR-71 managed to clock an average speed of 2,124 mph when traveling from Los Angeles to Washington, D.C. in just 1 hour 4 minutes and 20 seconds. Upon landing, the SR-71 was handed over to the Smithsonian, and Lockheed's record-breaker has been grounded ever since, after an impressive 24 years and 2,800 hours of active service for the U.S. Air Force.

Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG25 'Foxbat'

vaalaa/Shutterstock

This next entry brings us to Russian, or USSR, territory. Like the previous examples, the MiG25 dates back to the 1960s. It's an interceptor, meaning its primary purpose was to 'meet and greet' intruders.

It emerged as a solution to a unique and troubling set of problems that the Soviet Union faced in the late 1950s. American spy planes and bombers could operate at impressively high altitudes, and the Soviets' air defenses were simply not equipped with the tools required to intercept aircraft like the XB-70 bomber and the U-2 surveillance aircraft. It boasted an operational top speed of Mach 2.83, which, as a mass-produced military aircraft, was only ever bested by the SR-71. Given the opportunity, the MiG-25 could reach Mach 3.2, but doing so risked irreparable damage to its engines, hence the lower operational limit.

It was designed to perform with an operational altitude of around 88,500 feet. In 1977, a modified example reached altitudes north of 123,500 feet in a record-breaking flight, demonstrating that the 'Foxbat' was truly a force to be reckoned with. In 1976, a Soviet Lieutenant defected and hand-delivered a MiG25 to Japan, where the West finally had a chance to get intimate with the MiG's design. Around this time, the 'Foxbat' was retired, in time for the MiG31 'Foxhound' to be sworn in as a direct replacement.

XB-70 Valkyrie

Andreas Stroh/Shutterstock

Before we visit that replacement, though, the XB-70 must be covered, slotting in nicely between the two MiG aircraft with a maximum speed of Mach 3.1, or 2,056 mph. Only 2 XB-70s were ever produced, and interestingly, they ended up serving a different purpose than originally intended.

It was designed in the 1950s to serve as a high-altitude strategic bomber, capable of soaring at  around 70,000 feet at speeds of Mach 3. At such heights and speed, it would prove remarkably difficult to defend against. However, the arrival of new surface-to-air missile systems in the early 1960s and the development of intercontinental ballistic missiles rendered the XB-70 outdated almost overnight. At this point, just 2 XB-70s were under construction, and instead of becoming bombers as intended, they wound up serving as testbeds for supersonic transport, or SST.

Early flights in the first XB-70 were successful, although it became unstable at speeds above Mach 2.5. A slight adjustment to the aerodynamics of the second plane worked a treat, and in total, 9 flights were completed by the second XB-70 at speeds north of Mach 3.

That second XB-70 sadly crashed in 1966, leaving just the first to remain. From 1969, it retired to museum life, but the research conducted using these two planes was invaluable. We of course did end up with supersonic transport, and while it's been off the cards for some time now, there is potentially room for supersonic flight to return if sonic booms can be quiet enough for commercial travel.

Mikoyan MiG31 'Foxhound'

Historical/Getty Images

The MiG-31 technically had the same capability as its predecessor to crack Mach 3, but given the damage that came with it, they were limited in achieving such feats. A pair of Soloviev D-30F6 afterburning turbofan engines provides 34,000 pounds of thrust each, helping propel the Soviet creation to Mach 2.83.

The MiG-31 is no slight aircraft. Designed from the outset to carry advanced radar equipment and long-range missiles, it's actually one of the heaviest fighter-interceptors ever built, with a maximum take-off weight sitting at around 46 tons. The radar system in question allowed the MiG31 to locate up to 10 targets up to 120 miles away, and actively engage up to 4 at any given time, regardless of where they are in respect to the 'Foxhound' itself.

Production ran from the late 1970s up until 1994, with around 500 aircraft being built in total. Having entered the Soviet Air Defense Forces in 1981, the MiG-31 has been in service with Russian forces ever since, and continues to do so now, despite more than 40 years having passed since its arrival. Extensive upgrade programs have ensured it remains operational, with current models expected to continue service for some years yet. While fourth in this list, the MiG-31 remains the fastest military aircraft currently in service anywhere in the world. %!s()

The report provides an ecological characterization of two contrasting Annex I habitat groups under the Habitats Directive: inland peat-forming wetlands (Group 7, "Raised bogs, mires and fens") and coastal lagoons (habitat type 1150). Its findings are intended to inform monitoring and condition assessment under the Habitats Directive (HD), the Water Framework Directive (WFD) and the Nature Restoration Regulation (NRR).

Extent and status of wetland loss

European wetlands have undergone substantial historical loss, with an estimated 80% of the wetland area present a century ago no longer extant and more than half of remaining peatlands drained. Despite their comparatively limited spatial extent, peatlands are estimated to store nearly one-third of global soil carbon, while coastal lagoons account for approximately 13% of the global coastline and support disproportionately high levels of biological productivity and biodiversity.

Hydrology as the principal determinant of ecosystem condition

The report identifies the hydrological regime as the dominant control on the functioning of both habitat groups. In peatlands, a persistently high and stable water table sustains the anoxic conditions that suppress decomposition and allow peat to accumulate. When the water table falls—most often through drainage—peat oxidizes, subsides and compacts; vegetation and microbial communities shift; and fire risk increases. Because the structure of the peat is itself altered, much of this is effectively irreversible, and a long-term carbon sink can become a net source of greenhouse gases.

In coastal lagoons, freshwater-marine exchange, hydrographic and associated biological connectivity, and physico-chemical gradients regulate hydrodynamics, sediment transport, nutrient availability, community structure and biological productivity. They are associated with substantial natural variability and spatiotemporal heterogeneity independent of anthropogenic pressure.

Multiple interacting pressures

Degradation in both habitat groups is most often attributed to combinations of pressures rather than single causal factors. Drainage and land-use conversion, nutrient enrichment, peat extraction, contaminant inputs, coastal development and climate change act together and rarely in isolation, reinforcing one another through feedback that is often nonlinear and context-dependent. Because pressures compound in this way, ecological deterioration is difficult to detect, attribute and reverse.

Indicator frameworks and assessment methodology

The report concludes that no single indicator is sufficient to characterize ecosystem conditions in either habitat group. It proposes tiered indicator frameworks distinguishing essential from complementary variables across hydrological, physico-chemical, biological and functional dimensions. Assessment designs must account for the natural scales of spatial and temporal variability and for historical trends in the context of ecological succession—without this, frameworks risk mistaking intrinsic ecosystem dynamics for anthropogenic impact. Earth Observation should be integrated with in-situ measurement, keeping in mind that it is most reliably applied to hydrological and vegetation-related metrics and requires field-based calibration and validation.

Recommendations for future monitoring architecture

Wetland monitoring across Member States remains fragmented and inconsistent. The report sets out a transition pathway toward an integrated observation architecture combining Earth Observation, in situ measurement, numerical modeling and digital twin approaches. It recommends a dual design: standardized routine monitoring designed to capture relevant spatial and temporal heterogeneity, alongside adaptive, event-specific monitoring able to respond to extreme events and unforeseen impacts.

Such a system would reduce the reporting burden on Member States, improve comparability between regions and distinguish early warning signals from indicators of consolidated change. The report identifies this architecture as a foundation for a future EU Wetland Watch service, built on local and national observation systems integrated into a European-scale network.

The report is explicitly a scientific foundation rather than an operational assessment protocol. Calibration of habitat-specific condition thresholds—capable of distinguishing favorable conditions from early and severe degradation across the range of peatland types and lagoon contexts present in the EU—is identified as the critical next step, requiring coordinated analysis of monitoring data and reference conditions across Member States.

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Citation: Report details ecological characterization of peatlands and coastal lagoons in EU (2026, July 14) retrieved 17 July 2026 from https://phys.org/news/2026-07-ecological-characterization-peatlands-coastal-lagoons.html

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Before showing the audience the dinos, Spielberg shows Neill, mouth agape, eyes transfixed but uncomprehending, sweeping his hat off his head, slowly standing up and then — Neill’s coup de grace — snatching his sunglasses off with trembling, claw-like fingers. Seconds later, in the perfect audience communion Spielberg is famous for, Neill’s amazement becomes our own. The actor effectively authors how the audience feels about the movie. It’s the ultimate example of Spielberg Face.

It says a lot, then, that this shot is run a close second by one filmed a year later for John Carpenter's deranged 1994 horror movie In the Mouth of Madness. In fact, the film has a couple of great examples of Sam Neill Looking at Something. In the first (but not the best) Neill stares directly into the camera, through a tear between one dimension and another — or between reality and fiction, or perhaps between one fiction and another — while a voice narrates the unspeakable horrors he beholds.

Image: New Line Cinema via Everett Collection

Carpenter eventually shows us these horrors, but (unlike Spielberg's dinos) they can't quite match the ones we think we see reflected in Neill's eyes. No matter. Unlike Dr. Grant, Neill's character in Mouth of Madness — John Trent, an insurance investigator — hasn't willingly surrendered to the spectacle that’s been arranged for him. He fights it all the way. But in this shot, in Neill’s face, we watch his skepticism, his shield of human arrogance, start to crack in real time.

Trent has been sent by a publishing house to investigate the disappearance of its cash cow, a Stephen King-style horror author named Sutter Cane. Cane’s readers are being sent into a troubling state of hysteria by his books, but they’re selling like hot cakes, and the publisher wants either his next manuscript or a compensatory payout. Trent thinks the whole thing is a marketing ruse, but takes the gig; he believes he has located Hobb’s End, the fictional New England town from Cane's books, and reckons he will find Cane there. He goes, accompanied by Cane’s editor Linda Styles (Julie Carmen). Naturally, Hobb’s End isn't quite what — or, exactly, where — he thinks it is.

The audience already knows where this is going, because the film starts with a flash-forward showing us Trent being admitted to an insane asylum, bug-eyed and raving, amid dark reports of an epidemic of violence. He tells a visiting examiner what happened on his trip to Hobb's End. But the Trent we meet within his story is cool, smarmy, and cynical, resisting all the horror tropes the movie throws at him: axe murderers, angry mobs, creepy kids, black churches, tentacled things. Neill expertly treads the difficult path of an audience point-of-view character who's quite unlikable, and whose denial of what's right in front of him is essential to the story.

In the Mouth of Madness was written in the late 1980s and brought to Carpenter by Michael De Luca, a studio story editor and horror screenwriter and producer. (By the time the movie came out, he was a powerful executive at New Line, where he oversaw the likes of Boogie Nights and Seven; now he's co-chair and CEO of Warner Bros. Pictures.) It's obviously influenced by Stephen King, and especially by H.P. Lovecraft's obsession with the boundary between sanity and madness. The way horror is experienced by the characters is very subjective.

That makes Carpenter, one of the horror genre's great literalists with a gift for suspense and physicality, an odd choice to direct. But it works — Carpenter's blunt style and Neill's almost dismissive performance are in perfect harmony. The crisp editing, as it jumps between different realities in the cursed Hobb's End, builds up an almost Lynchian sense of dissonance in the place, even as it uses much more conventional (and sometimes mildly goofy) horror imagery. The deeper Trent goes in his exploration of Hobb's End, the blurrier the line between reality and Cane's fiction gets; eventually, a kind of feedback loop is opened and the fiction of the film itself gets sucked into this vortex.

In the Mouth of Madness is one of the horror genre's great meta commentaries, but in a much more straight-faced and less self-referential way than Wes Craven's Scream, which came a few years later. To a great degree, its power rests on its final scene — the second-best Sam Neill Looking at Something moment of all time, and one of the great movie mic drops. In this moment, the now-mad Trent sees something that finally makes him understand the apocalyptic loop he and the rest of humanity is caught in — and he bursts out laughing. Out of nowhere, Neill summons one of the most memorable laughs in the movies: unhinged, despairing, but also genuinely, heartily, infectiously amused. It is a joke, after all, and a good one, if bitter. We have no choice but to laugh with him.

In the Mouth of Madness is free to stream on Tubi %!s()

After a viral media post brought Zaimont's likely involvement in Avatar Legends' development to light, the game's publisher has confirmed his role on the game.

"Mike Zaimont holds a position as an individual contributor at the developer Gameplay Group International working specifically on backend programming, engine architecture and netcode," a PR representative for publisher Paramount Game Studios wrote in a statement to PC Gamer.

When I reported on Diesel Legacy's development in 2023, the publisher's then-CEO Christina Seelye said that she hired Zaimont because "you have to create a way for [people] to show the world that they've changed and decided to do better," and that she believed he "was committed to it and that he didn't want everything that went down to be the end of his story. He wanted the opportunity to have the redemptive arc that's in so many stories that we all love."

Zaimont's former colleagues from Lab Zero who I spoke with disagreed with that framing. When the company fell apart, two of its former developers, creative director Mariel Cartwright and CEO Francesca Esquenazi, sued Zaimont over wrongful termination and retaliation. He counter-sued, which the employees I spoke with pointed to as one indication Zaimont hadn't actually made up for his past behavior, which included making a joke about the death of George Floyd in 2020 and an accusation of "frequently mentioning his genitals, forcing unwanted physical contact, making sexual comments about himself or about employee's bodies, insulting coworkers privately or openly in front of other coworkers, or using very personal details to threaten or demean coworkers when they didn't go along with what he wanted" at Lab Zero.

The lawsuit wasn't settled until April 2026, at which point a joint statement between Cartwright, Esquenazi and Zaimont "agreed to resolve" the lawsuit. Terms of the settlement were not made public.

Zaimont remains a controversial figure in the fighting game community, with Legend of Korra comic book artist Irene Koh raising his involvement with Avatar in a viral Bluesky thread last week.

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Hey y'all, I wanted give people a heads-up that Mike Z is still working on the Avatar Legends dev team, for anyone who wanted to know before deciding whether to buy/support the game. (If you don't know who that is or need a refresher, here's the Kotaku article: kotaku.com/workers-leav...)

— @koh.money (@koh.money.bsky.social) 2026-07-15T00:54:40.994Z

"As an Avatar + fighting game fan, I was extremely disappointed to hear that he's involved. I'm proud of my work on the Korra comics & contributions to the IP over the last decade," Koh wrote, after publisher Paramount seemingly went radio silent after being asked about his involvement.

Paramount has now disclosed Zaimont's role in development, but he hasn't returned to having a public presence online since 2020.

Wes has been covering games and hardware for more than 10 years, first at tech sites like The Wirecutter and Tested before joining the PC Gamer team in 2014. Wes plays a little bit of everything, but he'll always jump at the chance to cover emulation and Japanese games.

When he's not obsessively optimizing and re-optimizing a tangle of conveyor belts in Satisfactory (it's really becoming a problem), he's probably playing a 20-year-old Final Fantasy or some opaque ASCII roguelike. With a focus on writing and editing features, he seeks out personal stories and in-depth histories from the corners of PC gaming and its niche communities. 50% pizza by volume (deep dish, to be specific). %!s()