Irradiated Valakkar Pearl (Grade B)
Harvesting
- Category
- Animal
- Sub-type
- pearl
- Source
- Valakkar
AI Overview
Compiled by AI from community sources — may be incomplete or inaccurate; verify before relying on it.
A radiation-altered organic "pearl" harvested from the hide of an Irradiated Valakkar (the giant sandworm), graded B on the quality ladder and turned in to Wikelo's Emporium for Wikelo Favors.
What it is
The Valakkar pearl is a biological concretion that forms inside the skin of a valakkar, the massive armor-plated sandworm of the Pyro and Nyx regions. When a large piece of grit penetrates the creature's thick hide and cannot be expelled, the surrounding skin grows to encase it, coating the debris in layers of organic matter that isolate it from the vulnerable dermis and prevent infection. Over long periods these "pearls" can grow substantial in size. The "Irradiated" variant comes from a valakkar that was exposed to radiation for a prolonged period, giving the pearl unusual properties. It is classified as a Miscellaneous / Harvestable item (an animal body-part), not a weapon or wearable.
Gameplay use
The pearls are primarily a turn-in commodity for Wikelo's Emporium, the alien vendor introduced alongside the Valakkar/Storm Breaker content. Players convert harvested pearls into Wikelo Favors through the Emporium's active collection contracts; Favors are then spent on Wikelo's exclusive rewards (ships, items, paints). Conversion is grade-dependent — community trackers report Grade AA pearls convert at roughly 12 pearls per Favor, with lower grades such as Grade B requiring a larger quantity per Favor. Pearls are not sold by any standard vendor and have no fixed buy price, so the secondary use is player-to-player trade. (Third-party boosting sites also claim pearls feed high-end crafting/ship-module recipes, but that is unconfirmed by the wiki and should be treated as speculative.)
Sources:starcitizen.toolsstarcitizen.toolswikelotrades.comexpcarry.com
Value & where to sell
Grade B is not sold directly by any in-game vendor and has no listed standard buy/sell price (cstone marks it "Not Sold directly or at all"). Its real value is realized either by turning it in at a Wikelo Emporium for Favors, or by selling it on the player-driven UEX marketplace. Player-market prices are extremely volatile and grade-driven: lower grades trade for hundreds of thousands of aUEC per unit (e.g. base "Valakkar Pearls" listings around 450K–500K aUEC), while top Grade AAA pearls have been listed anywhere from ~300K up into the millions (and joke/inflated listings far higher). Grade B, sitting low on the ladder, trades toward the cheaper end of that range. Treat all figures as snapshots, not fixed prices.
Sources:finder.cstone.spaceuexcorp.spaceuexcorp.spaceuexcorp.space
Where to harvest
Pearls are looted from the body of a defeated valakkar, so harvesting means hunting the worm itself. Valakkar are found burrowed in desert and volcanic-ash terrain, most notably on Monox in the Pyro system (where they are described as an invasive species) and in the scorching deserts of Leir III; community reports also place them around Pyro I and Daymar. They remain hidden beneath the sand until they surge up in ambush. After killing one, players loot its body parts — pearls, fangs, and hide — from the corpse. The "Irradiated" prefix ties the pearl to radiation-exposed/high-tier (Apex) encounters such as the Apex Valakkar "Storm Breaker" event.
Sources:starcitizen.toolstheimpound.comrobertsspaceindustries.commmopixel.com
Source creature
The source is the Valakkar — a giant subterranean, armor-plated sandworm with a three-lobed mouth that engulfs prey and spits hardened sand/rock at attackers. It has three life stages: juvenile (~5 m), adult (~15 m), and apex (up to ~300 m), the apex being a multi-player boss-tier fight. Its teeth (fangs), hide, and pearls are all lootable. The "Irradiated" pearls specifically come from valakkar that have absorbed long-term radiation exposure.
Sources:starcitizen.toolstheimpound.com
Grades & variants
Irradiated Valakkar Pearls form a quality ladder. From the cstone/UEX item sets the tiers run, lowest to highest: Grade C, Grade B, Grade A, Grade AA, Grade AAA, with Grade AAA being the best/most valuable. Grades differ by the pearl's size, which shows up as item volume/occupancy: Grade C ≈ 0.0016 SCU, Grade B ≈ 2100 μSCU (0.0021 SCU), Grade A ≈ 0.0029 SCU, up to Grade AAA ≈ 0.0091 SCU. Grade B is therefore a low-mid tier pearl — bigger and worth more than Grade C, but well below the prized AA/AAA pearls that command the highest player-market prices and best Wikelo conversion ratios. Sibling harvestables from the same creature include the Irradiated Valakkar Fang (Juvenile/Adult/Apex), Irradiated Valakkar Hide, and Valakkar Egg.
Sources:finder.cstone.spacestarcitizen.toolsstarcitizen.toolsfinder.cstone.spacefinder.cstone.space
Effects
No consumable, medical, or buff effects are documented — the pearl is an inert trade/turn-in material, not an edible or medical item. Its only "effect" is economic (Wikelo Favors / market value).
Lore & trivia
The pearl's in-fiction backstory mirrors a natural oyster pearl: an irritant (grit) gets trapped, and the body walls it off in organic layers — except here the "oyster" is a 300-metre sandworm. The Valakkar were a headline addition tied to Pyro and the Apex "Storm Breaker" hunt, drawing frequent Dune comparisons from players. Lore around the species also references Jacques Villaume, a trader whose pet juvenile Valakkar escaped captivity. The whole Valakkar harvestable economy (pearls, fangs, hide, eggs) exists to feed Wikelo's Emporium, making big-game worm hunting a route to Wikelo's exclusive rewards.
Sources:starcitizen.toolstheimpound.comrobertsspaceindustries.com
Some data from starcitizen.tools (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0).