How to start a new base FAST!

[Jeff]

I've watched streams of players on Astroneer that are still going down into the caves to get a few resources in their backpack after they have been playing for weeks on one game file. The Paver changed all that and has increased mining a hundred fold. See below for details.

The first thing you do on a new game is get your small shuttle and solid thruster built and get to Desolo for Wolframite. Go back to Sylva and build the chem lab. Unlock Drill Mod 1, Booster Mod and Wide Mod. Make a medium shuttle (2x ceramic and 1x aluminum alloy (aluminum and copper). This shuttle will hold 3x Medium Storage (skids). Take all the copper you can find and aluminum if you have space. Fly to Glascio and start again (this place will unlock everything in a couple hours. Atrox has higher bytes per nugget, but Glascio have far more of them.

Time to speed up your gameplay 100x
Make 2x aluminum alloy (aluminum and copper) and 2x rubber (organic and resin). This makes the large rover.

Then mix carbon and tungsten together to make Tungsten carbide and with ceramic make the drill strength 1.

Paver = Aluminum Alloy and Silicone (Resin and Quartz)

Medium Canister = Plastic (carbon/compound) and Glass (make 2)

Rover seat = 2x compound

Small Generator = Compound (make 3)

Floodlight = tungsten (make 3)

Large Storage = 3x Ceramic

Put the Drill and Paver up front. Then the seat and a skid (folded) on the top/front. Place floodlights on it facing forward. Put the 3 small generators at the back of the skid. This will all be redone once you get titanite to make medium silos. Then put three floodlights at the bottom 3 holes facing front.

Place Large Storage at the back/top and fill with the two Medium Canisters and two skids filled with organic (fuel).

Place 2 skids at the back for resources (you only use one rover to mine, because it is too hard and SLOW to back up with more).

As soon as you get titanite, change out all skids with Medium Silos. When you get the Large Silo B unlocked, put one at the back filled with med silos.

Mining with this rig on every planet will net you a limitless resource generator. You can fill up the 288 slots on the large silo b with resources in 20 to 25 minutes. Then go back to the base and plop it down on an extra large platform C with three smelters and the game will change immediately for you.

[aRPeaR]

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1950035019
I only build a single base, unlocked all the essential research that you see + hydrazine thruster and drill mod 3.

[Jeff]

A lot of stuff missing. This must have been a while ago.

[aRPeaR]

For me there is nothing missing, this all I need.
I can put everything on the rover and drive off or place everything on the shuttle and fly to a new planet.

[Jeff]

The reason I figured your base was incomplete, because ours are so much larger. One industrial base we built covers a few square miles. The long rover trains run through them to bring in supplies and to haul processed goods to the warehouse area or to remote bases around the planet or to others.

I've always been very creative. Trying to stretch the limits of the game. To make new base designs and new vehicles using every type of power and for any application. Not only do I design the vehicles, but I run them in every way. I've got over 500 hours in operation (have driven a tractor trailer in real life for 43 years (the first 38 hauling over-sized loads). Check out my screenshots for the latest creations. I'd post them here if I knew how.

The reason I posted how to get going fast was not to reach the end more quickly, but to get yourself in a better place much earlier. When I play any game, my goal is never to get to the highest level. My goal has always to see all content, to have fun and to see what else I can do with this program beyond what they say you can do.

[aRPeaR]

Just like in real life, I don't need that many things

I think my self creative as in finding the best way to play the game. I also try all the different items to find new ways and enjoy the game longer. Currently 926 hours of astroneer gameplay.
I also worked in the transport business for 17 years, I used to be the first crane driver of the
Terex-Demag Challenger 3160[vertikal.net].

To place screenshots: Go to your screenshots in your profile, click the picture you want to post, new window appears with the picture, in the top bar of that window you see the address of that picture, copy that address and paste it in your forum message.

[Jeff]

I worked with crane operators most of my career. They lifted the large loads I hauled off my trailer to where it would go. They let me operate one for a day (on lighter loads). One of the largest loads I hauled (1982) was a single family house that had to be moved to a new location 45 miles away. It was due to a highway coming through. The first half measured 119 feet long, by 22 feet wide and 17.5 feet tall. Behind the 7th axle on the trailer the overhang was 54 feet which meant I couldn't move the steering wheel at all going across bridges. Just had to pick a path and try that :) Took me 11 hours to move both halves.

I just competed the probe and toys achievements. Now finishing up "to infinity" (about halfway done. Using one large rover with drill/paver up front. Seat and lights on top/front, Oxygenator and one of the RTG's on top/back and a large silo B sticking out the back with 7 more RTG's, 4 medium canisters and one medium silo filled with resources needed to open up cores (started over on this game file). Also carrying tethers to walk down to the core. After I get the keys, I portal up to the satellite to add a key, then portal back and take the rover back up to the surface to a waiting large shuttle.

Thanks for the screenshot info!

https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/784122351418558793/D39822401637F8811B9E8CD7F71E2A23E96841B6/

[Zelgadis]

I feel your instructions are missing steps. Power management on Glacio was painful, until I went and farmed some Lithium (Vesania) for medium batteries and setup a medium generator. By this point, I already moved onto Hydrazine thrusters and a large shuttle.

Also, you make no mention of going to other worlds for gases such as Methane (Novus since you can get Hydrogen too) for the Silicone that's needed for the Paver.

You mention using Medium Silo B and filling it with Medium Silos but I'm fairly sure you meant Large Silo B. Actually, you say it correctly in the next paragraph.

I don't know how you found resources so fast, it took me a lot longer than you estimated but this is only my second save and I haven't played that long overall. I probably wasted a lot of time re-learning where things are and how they work.

Either way, I appreciate the mini-guide.

[Jeff]

Power management on Glascio is extremely easy, But few players know the secret. Allow me to enlighten you. Glascio is very high wind. So I never use anything but wind turbines to power the base (RTG's are just on vehicles later on). Its best to start your base out of the plateau where you landed for two reasons. More wind up top and your base beacon will be easier to see.

You can use a small generator just to get the soil centrifuge and smelter going. Then make quartz, quartz, quartz. Smelt them into glass and make tons of small wind turbines which is the very first thing I unlock. Place them on medium storage (skid) or silos later. Eight small wind turbines on a skid gives you 4 units of power (a medium wind turbine only yields 1 unit taking up the same power port). The higher up your wind turbine are, the more active they will be. Being that this is a sandbox game, you can build a platform way up there if you want and either use extenders or inactive small generators to bring the power cable down to your base.

Astroneer is very realistic when it comes to solar or wind power. Just like in real life, there is much more wind at higher levels and with no distractions. (placing a medium wind turbine on a platform at your base kills its true potential). Even solar works best up high away from the trees, buildings and other shadow creators. I've tested this. The higher up the wind turbine is, the more active it is.

Thanks for letting me know about the large silo B mistake. It has been edited.

The above "fast start" items do not require the atmosphere condenser. This is why I didn't mention this distraction. The recipe for a paver is Silicone (quartz and resin) and Aluminum Alloy (aluminum and copper). Again, no gas required. This guide was not designed to get you to the "end game" fast, but just to get you started in the right direction for everything else. Its to keep players from wasting many, many hours looking around in the mines for resources to fill their backpacks and running back up over and over again. Less than two hours after starting a new game, I'm mining with a large rover and you should too.

My backpack is never used to gather resources past the first 30 minutes. My ultimate load-out for my pack is a small wind turbine and hydrazine jetpack in the widgets (the wind turbine won't work in your lower pack slots). Then two small batteries, two small oxygen tanks, two small canisters, work light and a bundle of tethers. The printer has compound in it for more tethers as needed. The terrain tool has booster and wide mods and drill 3. The mods use up power, but if you are away from tethers, you can work with the terrain tool for a couple minutes on the small batteries with the wind turbine charging them from time to time. If oxygen runs low and there is resin nearby, I'll make a filter which refills the tanks).

I'm usually found operating a large rover(s) in many applications. My ability to work away from oxygen and power source allows me to get the rover train out of accidents like slipping off a road into a ravine or helping out a team member.

Thanks for your interest in bettering the experience!