Maia quick start guide.

Thanks for Tom for putting this quick guide together.

New to Maia? Colonists keep dying of hypothermia? Then this is the guide for you! This simple guide will explain some of the basics of the game, and offer a useful build order to get yourself started. It’s divided into three stages: how to survive the opening few minutes, how to survive in the long term, and what to do when your survival is assured.

This guide is accurate up to Release 0.58

Step One.

Step One: How To Not Die Immediately

When you first start Maia you’ll have only a few minutes before your starting air runs out and your colonists all start suffocating. Therefore your number one priority should be building a Workshop Table, an Atmosphere Generator and some kind of power generator.

Top Tip: Although colonists can discern the importance of items themselves. Middle clicking on an item makes it a higher build priority for when you really need something fast.

Workshop Table

One of the first things you’ll want to build in Maia is a Workshop Table. While you can build some items without one (such as Portable Solar Panels) the vast majority require a table to be unlocked. Once you’ve solved your air problem be sure to add a Microwave Smelter to produce more building materials.

Atmosphere Generator

Priority one for your base should be establishing a breathable atmosphere. You can place Atmosphere Generators anywhere, but as Maia simulates airflow and heat circulation you should try and place your it somewhere where the air can flow through doorways or Air Vents and into multiple rooms. If you position it well you can supply an entire base with only one Atmosphere Generator (and some plants).

Power

To actually produce air you’ll need power. There are three kinds of generator you’ll have access to at the start of the game: Wind Turbines provide power as long as the wind is blowing, Solar Panels provide power during the day but not at night, and Geothermal Generators provide a constant supply of power, but can only be placed on geothermal vents. For now you’ll only need one, but eventually a mix of different generators will keep power flowing constantly.

Step Two

Step 2: How To Not Die Slowly

Now that your colonists can breathe they should be safe for the immediate future. In the long term however you’ll need to provide for their three most basic needs: Food, Water and Rest. Don’t worry if you lose a colonist or two while getting set up here, you can get more by hitting the lander icon on the bottom right of the screen.

Food

There are two main food sources in the game: Livestock and Crops.

You should have two Chickens at the start of every game (along with some cats and dogs, but you can’t eat those). To get more you’ll need to build a Livestock Containment Room and some Avian Feeders, at which point the Chickens will gradually multiply. There are also other kinds of livestock, but you can discover those for yourself.

Crops are grown in the Hydroponics Room. To build planters first you you will need a propagator. Once built the propagator will have some potato seedlings in it as default. By clicking on it you can generate seedlings of new types to build different planets.

There are several different kinds, but your colonists will get sick if they don’t get their vitamins, so I recommend a balanced diet. Plants will also provide air, so make sure the airflow from your hydroponics room is good. I also recommend placing some lighting in there to help the plants grow and keep the room warm.

Either of these methods will get you raw food. As I’m sure you know, eating raw chicken isn’t the best for your long term health. Thankfully you can convert your raw food to prepared food by building a Food Preparation Station or two in the Living Area, or just building more Ration Packs in the Storage Room.

Water

You start off with several barrels of water in your storage room already. They’ll last you quite a while, but you can get more by building a Solar Still outside. Eventually though you’ll probably want to build Condenser Units instead. These are great because they can be built on the wall of any room, and refill themselves automatically, so your colonists don’t have to waste any time getting a drink.

Materials

You start off with enough building materials to build a simple base. However to create more you must smelt the piles of minerals created by the IMP digging. Build a microwave smelter in the workshop and click it when the colonists have filled it to begin the smelting process. If the colonists stop building at any point, check their emails for complaints about building materials or minerals.

Rest

Although not as urgent as food and water, eventually colonists with nowhere to rest will die of exhaustion (or hypothermia from lying on a cold rock floor). The best way to get your colonists to rest is to build a living area with some Single Beds and Couches for them to rest on. Your colonists are smart enough to sleep in shifts, so you don’t actually need one bed each.

Step Three.

Step 3: Do Whatever You Want

At this point long term survival should be assured and you can really experiment with whatever rooms you want. I’ve added some quick advice for the remaining paths.

More Power

If you haven’t already built a second power generator, it’s a good idea to do so. It’s also a good idea to make sure you’re using several different kinds of power generation, so you don’t get a blackout when the sun isn’t shining. Building two or three Flywheel Energy Storage Systems in the Storage Room will also help you get a backup power supply. It’s also worth building a Utility Robot: Repair or two to keep those generators in good shape without bothering your colonists.

Eventually when you get the required research done you’ll be able to build a Radiation Containment Room, which can house Fission and Fusion Reactors and Super Capacitors (better versions of the Flywheel). These are hard to get started, but once you do you’ll have all the reliable power you could ever need.

Medical

Once you’ve had your base going for a while, you might notice some of your colonists getting sick. Telltale signs are walking with a limp, using the toilet a lot, or simply emailing you about their symptoms. All these problems can be treated at the Medical Room. A Scanner will tell you what is wrong with a colonist, at which point they’ll get some medicine from the Medical Dispenser Unit and rest on the Meat Trolley until healed.

Base Defence

Depending on what kind of area you started in, you might find Maia’s native creatures lurking around your base. Placing Turrets and Proximity Bounding Mines outside can help keep your colonists and equipment safe. As can placing Glowsticks nearby so the colonists can see properly.

Research

Research is sort of the endgame for sandbox mode in Maia right now. It takes a lot of work to research everything, but it can give you all sorts of cool bonuses and new stuff to build. To start researching first build a research room with a Computer and a few Tape Storage Drives to store your information. After that it’s up to you, pretty much any object you can build in the research room will give you bonus research, as can the Weather Station and Seismic Monitoring Station outside. You can also manually mark trees and meteorites outside to send colonists out to get samples from them. Or dig further into the rock in order to try and find Fossils.

Have Fun

Like I said, once you’ve got your Food, Water and Rest covered, you can really build whatever you feel like. Go ahead and fill your living quarters with potted plants if you feel like. Or stick a Wall Panel in every room for scenic views. It really is up to you. If you have any more questions about the game, please leave them in the comments below and I’ll try and respond.

[Fotard2002]

it should be noted that as of update 0.60 there is a bug that does not allow the hydroponics room to function properly, the settlers will just run in there and show that they are starving run out and do it all over again. they will not use it as a food source and just allow it to rot on the vine so to speak. also you cannon place a vent system in the live stock area for some reason. i think it has to do with how the inside of the room has that fence around it making it impossible for the settlers to access the wall properly

[Trifler]

The "warm" lights mean that they have that redish-yellow color, not that they are heat lamps. They have warm and cool bulbs in real life too but it just refers tot he color. However, all worklights produce a tiny bit of heat (apparently they're halogen).

For actual heating there are wall heaters.

[Alharemi]

How to warm it up? Light, atm. generators in every room... 8-10C

[Rafael]

Very nice, I am struggling with exactly what you are explaining. But when you say about the air flow I got curious: Are you talking about those air intakes that you build on the wall? but for that the rooms would have to share walls? Thanks