So I started a survival mode game

[pmcollectorboy]

Not too shabby. I made it to my ship in one shot, which made me ponder whether I had a decent RNG roll or whether the whole "brave the environments" aspect was all it's cracked up to be, to hear people talk about how brutal the mode is.
Maybe it was just a mix of luck and smart scouting. I discovered that v shaped gouges in giant rocks can serve as temporary shelters, as well as carving out bits of mineral blocks with the mining laser to hide in. It was definitely fun jumping from hiding spot to hiding spot, fighting for yards the way a football team would. Something tells me this mode is going to be the most popular.
The pirates still blow chunks. They're even meaner in this mode than in the regular mode. There is no way the beginning ship is equipped to deal with even a few of them. I lost some stuff I wanted to keep, so I cheated a bit and reloaded a previous save back at the space station.

[pmcollectorboy]

Welp. Deleted. Back to normal mode I go.
I had managed to make the warp to the second system and earned the blueprint for antimatter, but the planet wasn't much in the way of heridium. So I tried the next planet over.
Frenzied sentinels. -.-
All I wanted to do was to get my heridium, mine some carbon, mine some iron and get off that damn rock, but everytime I returned to my damn ship after nonstop firefights with the sentinels, I got whacked by one of those whipvines, which was enough to send me to death, over and over. I had also planted a save beacon while out in the field as a precaution, but whenever I reloaded a previous save, stuff kept showing up as broken and needing repair. Ugh!

[Horizonist]

I used the same tactics as well, especially digging shelters in Nickel deposits. Super fun.

Biggest problem is the pirates once I got to space - they are hilariously OP (which is ok).

[JUST TABLES!]

Try this guide if you are still interested in survival (your biggest problem was not getting He before you took off)

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=822121236

I've restarted survival about 15 times now just to see how fast I can run it, have yet to find a planet I couldn't do in under 30 minutes. My fastest run is now about 12 minutes to ship up and running and taking off (started near a launch pad so remote repaired and bypass chip'd it to me--that was obviously a lucky spawn). But any planet can be done in under 30 minutes. They are ALL the same type of planets (1 EPS arrow drain during half the planet's rotation when you start, 2 during the other half, but you won't see the other half if you know how).

As for people struggling with pirates, you should have NOTHING in your ship's inventory when flying around early game except for stacks of shield shards and maybe Fe. Pirates show up in greater numbers depending on more stuff in your hull. You also shouldn't leave the starter planet with anything less than 500 Fe, 1k is better though.

When I leave the starter planet, I have about 500 Pu on me, whatever Plat I have, whatever Zi I have left, whatever th9 I have left and most importantly, 520 He (not a single less). That can easily fit into your starter suit. Keep any extra Fe in your hull and use it to repair. With only Fe in your hull (or nothing at all) you'll fight 1 weak pirate instead of 2-3 strong ones.


Just as a note, I play "Iron-man" survival, meaning if I die, I start over. So I've really found the best ways to be safe (I think) early game.

You shouldn't be landing on frenzied sentinal planets early game--and yes, you can tell if they are by examining from low orbit before landing (check out my other guide on how to find high Pu/Th9 planets--they look the same as those, except have carbon plant life on them--meaning no environmental elements like Coryzagen, Candensium, etc., but have plant life).

[jonnin]

survival just make the game drag. Its moderately challenging for a little while, until you start to get good stuff. After you have good stuff, all survival does is make it take 2-3 times the effort for every little task like launching your ship, repairing after a black hole, or restoring a busted ship, etc. It plays in reverse (normal does too) where the challenging part is getting to your ship the first time and getting off the first planet. From there it just gets easier and easier in both modes. After a bit, you will be unkillable and face no challenge greater than finding a plutonium stockpile.