Question about Exosuit Hazard Protection Upgrades

[fbouthil]

Hi!

I bought the game a few weeks ago and, so far, I like it a lot. I recently bought an exosuit upgrade for cold, Thermic Layer Sigma. When going to a cold planet, it would lose power very fast but the hazard protection would stay at 100% so I just did not recharge it. The temperature now needs to be really cold, like -60C or -75F for the hazard protection to start losing power.

Then, I bought Coolant Network Tau. On a warm planet (35C to 70C or 95F to 160F), it would also lose power very fast but then the hazard protection would still drop slowly when the coolant network tau does not have any power. I don't feel like there is any real benefit from having this upgrade. It loses power faster than I can find Zinc to recharge it. I thought it would raise the minimum temperature required to affect the hazard protection, just like the Termic Layer Sigma did for cold but it did not, as far as I know. This is probably a noob question but how should I use that upgrade to help me on warm planets? Do I need to have the Sigma version installed for the Tau version to work or something?

Does anyone have any tips?

My regards,

[japp_02]

The 'Hazard Protection' will trigger when you don't have materials anymore to feed your other upgrades, it's when you are about to die. Because of the HP your life support will go down less fast, but better not rely on that :)

Note: I cannot swear that's exactly how it works, but I saw that from my experience, especially when I just made it out of water long away from the coast without any Zink and Iron left to build shields to use with my upgrades...So my Life Support was going down and down...I just made it because of the HP I think.

[RLgoes1st]

No it just works like an extra layer of hazard protection affected by the particular type of hazard it blocks before the general hazard protection starts to kick in. Life support drains only when you move and use your jetpack.

The sigma, tau and theta versions of those hazard protection upgrades are best combined and placed linked to each other in your exosuit for maximum efficiency. Each improved version lasts longer than the previous one, so in total you will then have 4 layers or 'fases' of hazard protection.
It's basicly extra time to move around in hazardous environments before your shield and eventually your health will drop. It's very useful on planets with extreme hazards, where you can normally stay outside only for a few seconds before your general hazard protection needs to be recharged.

I always keep a few stacks of Zinc on me, which is easily collected on any planet or moon by shooting down sentinel drones. When you're on an extremely hazardous planet you will need it if you want to explore freely, but on the 'normal' types of hazardous planets I rarely recharge it, only if there's no building or cave nearby when I'm far away from my ship, or when I'm mining a large resource deposit.

By the way, look at this guide for the most efficient way to arranging your upgrades, you will get the most bonus from placing the best tier of a type of technology in the middle for example. The example for the exosuit is still the most efficient way to do it, for the multi-tool and ships specialisation comes into play nowadays, but you'll probably figure out the best way to upgrade those by yourself looking at these examples:

http://orcz.com/No_Man's_Sky:_Inventory_Placement

[jonnin]

They are about worthless on normal because they are used BEFORE the suit protection. If that were backwards, they would be great, buying you a bit more time to go to shelter on rough planets. But losing it off the top before you really needed it makes them pretty lame.

They may have a place on hardcore, I dunno, I use the exocraft on hard planets on hardcore.

The only useful one is water breathing. And its marginal.

[japp_02]

Thanks 9inoren and jonnin, that's good to know, I didn't pay much attention also in 'Normal' I'm not that often in such critical situations.

[RLgoes1st]

It depends a bit on your playstyle I guess, for me the hazard protection upgrades are quite useful in normal mode. I like to take it slow, collecting all zoology achievements on planets with fauna. While doing that I keep myself entertained by exploring all the planet has to offer in the meanwhile, flying to the ? points of interest and walking around in an acceptable radius of my ship's position. I aim to find the perfect lush planet (I'm really picky haha) before I get into basebuilding, so exocrafts are not yet in my reach. So when you spend a lot of time out in the open, even in normal mode those extreme hazards can be tricky, especially during a storm.

[japp_02]

I think I have 3 items for the hazard protection, and I don't have all 5+ installed (I could), will look at it next time I launch, but what's sure: on a extreme cold planet with storm I can only stay for about 2 minutes away from my ship without filling my special upgrades, othwerwise...RIP soon after (Normal play). Gosh, what will that be in Survival, must be damn shorter :(

[Psyclos]

Of the 4 "Environmental": upgrades ( heat, cold, radiation, toxicity) I only use the Theta upgrades.
Frequent recharging (shielding plate? @150iron and 20 Platinum), zinc and titanium do the job.
Grouping them increases their effects.
Similarly, I only use the Theta membrane for diving.
With all other suit upgrades, a little Thamium for life support recharge, makes extreme environments a "walk in the park" with a little planning.

[fbouthil]

Originally posted by jonnin:

They are about worthless on normal because they are used BEFORE the suit protection. If that were backwards, they would be great, buying you a bit more time to go to shelter on rough planets. But losing it off the top before you really needed it makes them pretty lame.

They may have a place on hardcore, I dunno, I use the exocraft on hard planets on hardcore.

The only useful one is water breathing. And its marginal.

I totally agree, it should be backward. Without the upgrade, the suit protection recharges itself as soon as you reach shelter so it is essentially free. With the upgrade, it is like you are being taxed to use it.

Like you said, I would prefer if the suit protection was used first. That way, you are being taxed only as punishment for not reaching shelter while you still have suit protection.

I don't have access to the Theta upgrades yet but once I do, I might try what Psyclos suggests. I really don't like the frequent recharging though. I will focus on getting all the other suit upgrades.

[RLgoes1st]

I noticed something else today. I was on a planet where cold was immediatly followed by heat. Having installed upgrades for both conditions without charge at that moment, the general hazard protection was shown in two different bars. Once the weather changed one bar was recharging while the other was being drained. Not something you'll run into very often but nonetheless an interesting side effect of those upgrades haha.