Nanoshards

From Hellgatewiki.com

Nanoshards are stackable crafting materials required by the Nanoforge. Nanoshards were not originally in the game, but were added in Patch 1.0. The number of Nanoshards needed to upgrade an item at the Nanoforge ranges from 1 to 10, and is solely dependant on how many times the item has been upgraded. Specifically, it starts at one shard, and goes to ten, which is the maximum number of upgrades for an item (as of 1.0).

Official information about Nanoshards from the patch notes:

• A new, rare salvaged material crafting material called Nanoshards are now required to upgrade items.
  • Nanoshards can be obtained from any item, but the chance to salvage one is increased when disassembling rarer items.
  • The number of Nanoshards required to upgrade an item increases each time the same item is upgraded.

Nanoshards can also be dropped by demons in subscriber-only areas (i.e. Stonehenge areas). Nanoshards are indeed much rarer than the other stackable crafting materials.