Active Matter Currency Guide: Active Matter, Credits, Prime and Merits

Active Matter has four currencies that do completely different jobs, and farming the wrong one is the most common early-game mistake. The anomaly resource dropped in raids is not the same thing as the Prime you get from an edition, and Prime is not the same thing as the Credits that buy your ammunition.

• The farming target changed three days ago. Build 0.4.0.156, dated September 26, 2026, raised Active Matter yields approximately 10x from Alpha Mimics and Alpha Flowermen, and 3-4x from Shy Girls.
• Prime and Merits are the only wipe-proof currencies. Both were confirmed in writing in build 0.4.0.122 on September 18, 2026.
• Credits and Prime are not the same resource. Prime is Crystallised Active Matter, granted once per edition.

Official source: Update 0.4.0.156

Active Matter: the harvested anomaly resource

This is the raw material that comes out of anomalies. It is the currency the game is named after, and it is the one most players mean when they say "I need Active Matter".

It is also the resource whose value changed most recently. Build 0.4.0.156 on September 26, 2026 increased yields as follows:

• Approximately 10x from Alpha Mimics.
• Approximately 10x from Alpha Flowermen.
• 3-4x from Shy Girls.

As of September 29, 2026 that means the alphas are worth roughly an order of magnitude more per kill than they were a week ago, and Shy Girls are no longer a throwaway target. If you have been farming one of those three because a pre-September-26 guide told you to, the math just changed under you.

The same build also added a partial Active Matter cost to fusion, which is the biggest sink change in the game's history so far. A fusion route budgeted purely in Credits no longer completes. That makes harvested Active Matter a required resource for crafting, not a nice-to-have.

Two smaller quality-of-life changes from the same period: build 0.4.0.122 on September 18, 2026 made dropped Active Matter land beside the creature's equipment instead of scattering, so you are far less likely to lose it.

Credits: the Shop money

Credits are the main currency. The Gaijin store page describes them as the main currency in Active Matter, and they are what the Shop takes when you buy a weapon, ammunition, a plate carrier or a medkit.

You get Credits from several places:

• Raids, including the escalating Credit rewards on Scrapyard's cooperative objectives.
• The Refiner, by refining objects.
• Completing investigations.
• Edition bundles, which is where new players get their first stack.

Edition starting bundles, confirmed on the official site and the store pages: Standard ships 25,000 Credits, Advanced ships 60,000, and Deluxe ships 185,000. Your first Monolith access level also hands you 10,000 Credits free.

Credits do not survive a reset. Treat them as a spend-it-now resource.

Prime: the one-time currency

Prime is Crystallised Active Matter, and it behaves nothing like Credits.

The Agency has been explicit about it since September 18, 2025, in Important information about Crystallised Active Matter: Crystallised Active Matter is not restored after wipes, it has no real-money purchase option, and you earn it through designated daily raid tasks. Each edition's allocation is issued once, and an extra matching allocation was added per account as a one-time bonus.

The edition allocations are one-time: Standard gives 300 Prime, Advanced gives 1,300, and Deluxe gives 5,500. The word "one-time" is on the official site next to every figure. Buying a bigger edition does not refill Prime later.

What Prime buys is narrower than Credits. Community tracking describes it as the currency for the Special section of the store and as an alternative currency for Monolith upgrades. Because it is wipe-proof, banking Prime before a reset is a real strategy rather than a guess, and it is one of the few currencies where holding a large balance is unambiguously correct.

Merits: the ladder currency

Merits are awarded to you as you clear Monolith access levels. As tracked on the community wiki ladder, they arrive as immediate access rewards: 100 at Beta, 350 at Gamma, 600 at Delta and 850 at Epsilon.

The Agency also paid a retroactive grant. In the Merits and Rewards post on September 18, 2026, players who completed access levels and created new Personal Timelines between the September 10 update, version 0.4.0.76, and the September 15 release received bonus Merits matching what those levels would have awarded. Players who reset progress at least five times during the first Harmonization Cycle received 10 copies of the permanent Red Shards weapon camouflage.

Like Prime, Merits survive account wipes. Build 0.4.0.122 on September 18, 2026 changed the in-game item text to say so directly, which was the first written confirmation players had.

Official source: Merits and Rewards!

Which one should you be farming

Building a kit for this cycle? Credits. You need ammunition, plates and a healing stack, and all three come from the Shop.

Trying to craft something? Both Credits and harvested Active Matter, because since September 26, 2026 fusion takes a partial Active Matter cost on top of the usual materials.

Climbing the Monolith ladder? Merits, indirectly. They arrive as access level rewards, so the farming action is raid objectives, not a Merit-specific route. The mechanics are in the Monolith progression guide.

About to reset the timeline? Prime first, then confirm you are not throwing away equipped chronogenes. Build 0.4.0.156 preserves equipped gear in a temporary stash and keeps Shelter items in place, but chronogenes are still discarded.

Filling your anomaly quota? Alpha Mimics and Alpha Flowermen, as of September 26, 2026. The anomalies guide covers what else is out there.

FAQ

What are the four currencies in Active Matter? Harvested Active Matter from anomalies, Credits for the Shop, Prime (Crystallised Active Matter) and Merits. Prime and Merits survive a wipe; Credits and harvested Active Matter do not.

What does Prime do in Active Matter? Prime is Crystallised Active Matter. It is used for Special store purchases and as an alternative currency for Monolith upgrades. It is not reissued after a wipe and cannot be bought with real money.

Is Prime the same as Active Matter? No. Prime is Crystallised Active Matter, a separate premium-tier resource issued once per edition. The Active Matter you harvest from anomalies in a raid is a different, per-timeline resource.

Which currency is worth farming after the September 26 update? Harvested Active Matter, and specifically from Alpha Mimics and Alpha Flowermen, whose yields rose approximately 10x, plus Shy Girls at 3-4x. Fusion also now takes a partial Active Matter cost, so it is needed regardless of what you are crafting.

Do Credits or Prime survive a Harmonization Cycle reset? Credits do not. Prime does. Prime and Merits are the two wipe-proof currencies, confirmed in build 0.4.0.122 on September 18, 2026, and the official FAQ explicitly excludes crystallised Active Matter from what a self-wipe returns to storage.

How do I get Prime if I already own the game? Through designated daily raid tasks. The edition allocation is issued once and is not reissued after a wipe, so a Standard owner who wipes still has their 300 Prime.

How much Prime does each edition include? Standard gives 300, Advanced gives 1,300 and Deluxe gives 5,500, each marked as one-time on the official site. Elite Squad is one Deluxe edition plus two Standard edition keys.

Related Guides

• Active Matter Monolith and Harmonization Cycle Guide - where Merits actually come from and what a reset costs.
• Active Matter Patch Notes - the September 26 yield buff and fusion cost change in full.
• Active Matter Loadout Guide - turning Credits into a kit that survives a raid.
• Active Matter Anomalies Guide - what actually drops Active Matter.
• Active Matter Editions and Price - the Credits and Prime each edition ships with.