You need Aberrant Slivers and Fragments to upgrade your weapon forms. Ignore them and your Aberrant Strength stalls out — which means your damage multiplier stays low. The game never explains how to farm them efficiently. Here’s exactly where to look and what to kill.
Both materials are used in the Aberrant upgrade tree. Slivers appear early; Fragments show up in mid-tier nodes. You need them to unlock new primary/secondary forms and to push nodes from +1 to +2 bonuses. Every upgrade adds to Aberrant Strength — a 1% multiplier per point. Unlocking a new form alone gives +5.
Three cycles are enough to unlock a second primary form and upgrade it to mid-tier.
Defeat Heavy Enemies — The Only Reliable Source
Grunts (the small Hiss soldiers) drop nothing. Zero materials, zero source. Don’t waste time on them unless you need health.
Hiss Heavies — the ones with an armor icon (vest) or shield icon (white overlay) — are your primary targets. Each heavy drops at least one Aberrant Sliver or Fragment, sometimes both. The drop is guaranteed, not random. If you see a heavy, kill it.
Mold Heavies (in Park and other mold zones) drop fungal growth rather than slivers or fragments. Still worth killing for other materials, but not for slivers.
Where to find them early — the starting Central zone has two heavies near the Oldest House exit. The Evacuation Zone (east) spawns three heavies around the railyard station. The West Incursion Zone has heavies scattered near the parking garage. Each zone also has a “hold the line” world feat that spawns a heavy wave — complete those for extra drops.
Open Rare Crates — The Renewable Source
Not all crates are equal. Look for the ones with a small ice cream cone icon above them. These always contain Aberrant Slivers (small crates) or Aberrant Fragments (large crates). They are fixed spawns per zone.
Crucial detail the game doesn’t tell you: These crates respawn after every Resonant cycle. When you defeat a Resonant boss and the world resets (enemies respawn tougher), the ice cream cone crates also reappear. That means you can farm the same crate locations repeatedly.
There is at least one rare crate per zone. In Central, it’s behind a barred door you can open with the Crush hammer. In the Evacuation Zone, it’s on a rooftop accessible after you get the Reach ability. In West Incursion, it’s inside a fenced area near the parking garage entrance.
Purchase from Vendors — Only for Closing Gaps
The ice cream truck vendors in each zone sell a small stock of Aberrant Slivers and Fragments. Prices are fixed per item and are affordable early game. But the stock is limited — usually 3–5 pieces per vendor.
Smart use: Never buy these to fill an entire upgrade tree. Use vendor purchases only when you are one or two pieces short of a critical node. Otherwise you’ll burn through source you need for Living Shards (4,000 source each at vendors).
Vendor stock also refreshes after a Resonant cycle. So you can buy the same limited supply again after each boss kill.
The Farming Loop — Most Efficient Path
- Clear all heavies in Central, Evacuation Zone, and West Incursion Zone. Collect slivers and fragments from kills and from the ice cream cone crates.
- Do not defeat a Resonant boss yet — that raises enemy levels. First complete the world feats in those zones for extra zone XP and materials.
- Once you have collected everything accessible, defeat a Resonant boss (e.g., the Artist or the Deserter). This triggers a cycle reset: enemies respawn, but so do the crates and vendor stock.
- Repeat. Each cycle you can farm the same heavies and open the same crates again.
A single cycle run takes about 20 minutes and yields 6–10 Aberrant Slivers and 3–5 Aberrant Fragments. Three cycles are enough to unlock a second primary form and upgrade it to mid-tier.
What Not to Do
- Do not kill grunts for materials — they drop nothing.
- Do not buy Aberrant materials from vendors in bulk — save source for Living Shards.
- Do not neglect the combo finisher trees — they also require Aberrant materials and grant +30 Aberrant Strength when fully unlocked.
Stick to heavies and ice cream cone crates. Reset after each Resonant boss. You’ll have enough Aberrant Slivers and Fragments to keep your Aberrant Strength climbing without grinding the same mobs for hours.
- Which enemies drop Aberrant Slivers and Fragments?Only heavy enemies with armor or shield icons drop Aberrant Slivers and Fragments. Grunts drop nothing.
- How do ice cream cone crates work for farming?Ice cream cone crates always contain Aberrant Slivers or Fragments and respawn after each Resonant cycle.
- What is the most efficient farming loop?Clear all heavies and crates in the three zones, then defeat a Resonant boss to reset the cycle and repeat.
