What happens if I leave the planet?

[Hiphoptimus Rhyme]

I've been playing in open world and just bought a new envirosuit. My understanding is that to equip it I have to go back to orbit. Will I lose my structures and goods if I do this?

[oobymach]

Yes, so store all your stuff in a box before you leave, you'll lose hotbar, inventory, etc but returning to space is the only way to change your suit. Also if you have a bedroll set as spawn point you'll return nearby when you load your level.

[Rekal]

For mission mode the mission is closed and you cannot return.

For open world or outpost mode when you leave to orbit anything crafted on the planet that you are carrying is deleted. So stash all your gear in your base.

Your base will be perfectly fine and the entire map set to basically a stasis status. Nothing happens on the map while you're gone just like normal. So any tame animals will be fine.

To return, use the LOAD option and the loadout screen is where you equip your suit. Once you drop you'll drop in a location near your last drop but not exact.

[Hiphoptimus Rhyme]

Originally posted by Rekal:

For mission mode the mission is closed and you cannot return.

For open world or outpost mode when you leave to orbit anything crafted on the planet that you are carrying is deleted. So stash all your gear in your base.

Your base will be perfectly fine and the entire map set to basically a stasis status. Nothing happens on the map while you're gone just like normal. So any tame animals will be fine.

To return, use the LOAD option and the loadout screen is where you equip your suit. Once you drop you'll drop in a location near your last drop but not exact.

So basically just empty my pockets and I don't lose anything for my open world play through?

[JB-emmanuel-Zorg]

Originally posted by Hiphoptimus Rhyme:

So basically just empty my pockets and I don't lose anything for my open world play through?

Exact.

[william_es]

You can bring any workshop purchased gear back up to orbit. If you have bundles (like arrows) they have to be unopened. Opened bundles would be deleted like other things.

But, if you aren't sure what's workshop gear or gear you crafted in the open world, leave it all behind to be safe.

When you return in a pod you won't appear near any bedrolls/bed. You'll pick your landing zone, and then the pod will land somewhere around that area. I like to build a small hut somewhere in the center of that area. It helps a lot if you build next to a landmark visible on the map, or on the coordinate lines that show on the map. I put storage cabinets in the hut, and that's where I dump all my gear made in the open world. When I land, I run straight to the hut and re-equip it all.

[Rekal]

Originally posted by Kalad:

You guys lied to me, leaving planet destroyed everything.

No it didn't. Unless you were on a mission.

When you returned to your map did you pick new or did you pick load? If you picked new and then typed in the same name as your original map then you may have overwritten the map. It's not gone yet, you still have ~5 hours of auto-saves in your save folder that you could load back up.

Let us know what steps you did to end up where you are -- the more detailed the better -- and we can try to help you get fixed up.