How to research frozen planets

Monsters can be captured by crafting a Creature Capture Station at tier 4, then using that to craft Capture Pods. These pods can be thrown at small, grounded creatures with less than 50% health to have a small change to capture them.

Higher threat levels generally mean more abundant ores, and ores of higher rarity. However, especially rare ores like gold or diamond can still be hard to come by, generally occurring only at the deepest levels of the planet. Personally, I'm mining level 19 planets for gold and maybe producing 4 ores by the time I reach the planet's core. I found two gems (8 ores) worth of diamond in the 1-9 planets, and haven't seen any since.

That said, planet type may have something to do with it. I've noticed that moons contain a more ores than I'm used to, in addition to being a bit easier to dig through. Desert and arid planets are super easy sources of iron, copper and coal since you can just dig into the sand to dislodge everything.

Some advice: hoard your iron. You'll want it for Sector Beta.