Hardly's List of Lamentable Mistakes

Space is harsh. Here's a (growing) list of the many disasters I have brought upon myself in Stationeers, presented so that you might succeed where I have failed.

Space is Harsh

So is early access. Combine the two ..... and there are plenty of ways for everything to go horribly wrong. Most of these will have the potential to cause complete and utter doom unless you respond effectively, though sometimes the disastrous consequences will only become apparent in the long run. Be creative, never give up, and you might just have the ultimate satisfaction of surviving against all the odds.

That said, save often, and don't be afraid to reload or even start over if things go too pear-shaped. Don't make yourself unnecessarily miserable.

I should also disclaim that I've spent all of my time tinkering in singleplayer - I'm sure multiplayer has its own host of unique calamities, but I won't cover those here. This list is not exhaustive, not guaranteed to contain an accurate understanding of game mechanics, and is gluten free.

So, without further ado .....

Spacesuits, Jetpacks, and poor choices.

1. Press the "I" key while outside
   • it flips open your helmet, allowing all the benefits of your suit's breating air and temperature control to espace into the great outdoors, leaving you toasty and gasping.
     
   • if you want to live, tap I again to close it.
     
   • ideally, do this before you pass out
     
   • and then lock your helmet to stop it from happening again accidentally (tap 1 for the helmet controls menu)
2. While indoors, remove the waste tank from your suit, and open it to see what's inside
   • sadness and atmospheric toxins, that's what
     
   • now you need to go work out how to use that portable air scrubber
     
   • you'll need a battery cell, and put filters into the back of the scrubber for what you want to remove
     
   • one of the cartridges has a handy-dandy gas analyser program for your tablet, so you can see exactly what you did
     
   • after the scrubber has scrubbed out all the nasty gasses, drag it back outside, otherwise it'll just gradually leak back into your habitat's atmosphere
     
   • or if you want to recycle the gasses, wrench the scrubber down onto a pipe connector, and attach pipes etc... to process the gasses however you like.
3. Jetpack all the way up!
   • yes, well, depending on your fuel situation ....
     
   • that means no jetpack all the way down
     
   • however
     
   • be quick with the controls, and the waste tank (or the oxygen tank for that matter) from your spacesuit can work as emergency jetpack propellent.
     
   • probably better to use the waste tank so you don't waste oxygen, but in an emergency, the oxygen tank is faster to get
     
   • presuming you don't already have one of them open, the exact emergency keypress sequence is Q 2 F 3 F
     • Q to empty hand
       
     • 2 to open suit
       
     • F to grab oxygen tank (one click of scroll up will let you get the waste tank instead)
       
     • 3 to open jetpack
       
     • F to swap the propellant bottles
       
     • (if still plummeting, you may need to tap J to turn your jets back on)
4. Leave your duct tape at base, you won't need it while mining
   • except there's great big holes everywhere
     
   • and a bad fall will tear your suit
     
   • a long run home while leaking out all your delicious oxgen is not ideal
     
   • it's not even good excercise, because the game doesn't model that
     
   • so always always always keep a roll of tape handy for emergency suit repairs
5. Use a small battery cell while your big one recharges
   • how much juice can a spacesuit need anyway?
     
   • it's just a really fancy raincoat
     
   • what do you mean the small battery cell didn't last till morning?
     
   • oh, the suit really was spending a lot of power keeping me from melting/freezing
     
   • a small cell is an emergency backup, but you better have a plan for getting a better battery soon
     
   • a reserve of coal for powering the solid fuel generator is great for emergency midnight battery charging

Welder-propelled rockets

UPDATE: as of 0.1.1014.5083 (if I understand the patch notes correctly) the welder protects the tank from solar heating - the first-day welder explosions should be over! I'll still leave this bit here though, so we can remember those first hours of confused skyrocketing.

1. I'll weld all day and get lots done
   • actually, no
     
   • because thermodynamics are a thing
     
   • the sun is toasty
     
   • the welder has a tank full of an oxy/hydrogen mix
     
   • it gets enthusiastically energetic when it gets too hot
     
   • and tosses you into the sky
     
   • also, it's really quite involved to make a replacement tank and fill it with the right gasses, requiring most of the available manufacturing equipment and a complex set of pipes and stuff to mix the gasses
     
   • weld at night, hide it in a cool place (a shaded cave works well) during the day
     
   • note: apparently there is a bug at this time causing ultra explosive welder syndrome. It is being fixed, so shouldn't be such a big issue, but I suspect will remain something to be aware of - heat management is important.

Powerless

1. Kit (Solar panel), point, click, done
   • aaarggh but it's empty?
     
   • oohhhhh that's why there's glass panels in the Construction Supplies 1 box
     
   • grab them, and use them to finish the panel
2. Okay, sorted, now, just wire my panel to my machines ....
   • kinda maybe works a little bit
     
   • but your machines have short bursts of high demand
     
   • and your solar panel is more the slow-and-steady type
     
   • use a power controller! (pay attention to the arrows when placing, scroll to switch them)
     
   • with your spare starting battery cell in it
     
   • lever off the front panel with a crowbar
     
   • the dial switches can be ignored for now, they're not yet implemented
     
   • the power controller acts as a UPS (letting you do a little bit of night production)
     
   • but more importantly buffers the solar panels steady supply against your spiky demands
3. To keep things simple, I'll just leave my solar panel pointed straight up
   • this does sorta work
     
   • but you'll want to build a Kit (Solar) (instead of a Solar Basic) as soon as you can
     
   • then you can use the wrench to tilt it up/down and follow the sun
     
   • you'll get soooooo much more power to work wtih
     
   • protip: move your wrench out of your toolbelt and into your suit storage for faster access
     
   • (if you want a guide to atuomating this, check out {LEO} SuPeR GunshotXxX's Auto-Solar Guide here)
4. I'll build one of everything and run it from my starting panel
   • yeah, no
     
   • for when you absolutely must do lots of stuff at once before you can manufacture more panels
     
   • or you have a high-power job that takes longer than the sun is up
     
   • put down that starting solid fuel generator
     
   • stuff it full of coal, turn it on, and feed the power into your power controller
     
   • (also great for emergency midnight battery recharges)
5. Can I just link the in & out of a power controller so everythings just on one circuit?
   • but now everything is on fire?
     
   • oh, of course, that's a short circuit, ummm
     
   • <burning intensifies>
     
   • grab your wirecutters, quickly cut off the connections between the controller and the rest of your wires.
     
   • now, carefully go over all your wiring, and remove the sections that burned out
     
   • replace with fresh cable
     
   • consider investing in fuses (from the electronics printer, scroll while placing to set fuse limit) - the small cables can only safely carry 5kW of power max

Tools & Deconstsruction

1. Weld all the frames!
   • oh, but I want to run wiring through them
     
   • grab your wrench, and you can "de-weld" the frame, through both stages
     
   • to get rid of the initial framework too, use a grinder
     
   • they won't be airtight any more, so plan accordingly
2. Okay, so, grind all the walls that are wrong?
   • ..... nope
     
   • use a crowbar
     
   • then a grinder on the initial frame
     
   • maybe think of it as levering up all those iron plates on the wall?
3. Crow all the badly-placed machines too?
   • still no
     
   • most machines, airlocks, and things deconstruct with ....
     
   • the power drill, obviously
4. Wires can't be that much different?
   • yes they can
     
   • use the big two-handed wirecutters
5. Pipes are just wires for stuff bigger than electrons?
   • I suppose?
     
   • but anyway, use the wrench to remove them
6. Okay, surely that's everything?
   • but now my tools have stopped working?
     
   • switch them to your active hand, tap R to inspect
     
   • the battery cell is probably flat
     
   • recharge it, and you should be good to go

Consoles

1. This'll be easy, place console, put in circuit, done!
   • but the power switch just blinks yellow?
     
   • and where is the screen?
     
   • use a glass panel to put the screen on
     
   • (I still can't believe it took me three days to realise it needed a glass front >.<)
     
   • .... but now there's a config problem?
     
   • so put in a data disk, which switches it into configuration mode
     
   • set things up how you want, and remove the disk

Unplanned production

1. I'll just put 4- and 6-junction wires everywhere, that'll be handy later
   • well, true, maybe
     
   • but in the meantime those junctions use waaaay more wire
     
   • which means you'll have to rip up half of those junctions anyway just to finish powering up your new machinery
     
   • stick with laying down exactly what you need, and modify later
2. I'll just slap down all my machines next to each other, as compact as I can
   • works for a bit
     
   • until you realise the stuff that's spit out into the air from one machine...
     
   • ...can land in the input chute of the next one
     
   • and I think there's a bug where stuff can get eaten
     
   • I'm still mad that my pipebender ate all my fancy floor covers from my manufactory, leaving just one retrievable
     
   • space things out, and check that you don't have unintended, err, "ballistic virtual conveyors"
3. Oh sweet, I can make a Fabricator from my electroprinter!
   • well, no, alas, you can't anymore.
     
   • you'll want an electronics printer, a pipe bender, and a tool manufactory to increase your manufacturing capabilities instead!
     
   • (and some upgrades for them one day too)
     
   • yes you can and that's a thing you should do
     
   • but the fabricator is too fancy to have it's own computer
     
   • so you also need to build a Computer, and install a Motherboard (Manufacturing)
     
   • and wire them to the Fabrictor's data point
     
   • or else it's just a really expensive paperweight in a game with no paper.
4. What're ice volatiles? What is even oxcite? Eh, I'll just smelt them in my arc furnace
   • no you won't
     
   • they'll evapourate on you
     
   • the swoosh will even provide enough atmo to carry your scream of frustration a few meters
     
   • hang on to those ices until you have a non-arc furnace setup
     
   • and lots of pipey stuff to handle the gas
     
   • (more notes later once I work out how to have a non-absurd gas-processing setup)

Gas

1. Weld all the things
   • until you run out of welder gas halfway through your engineering masterpiece
     
   • the default welder tank has an oxygen/hydrogen mix (34% O2, 66% H2, 5700 kPa)
     
   • one way to refill it is the portable scrubber you start with
     
   • you'll need to make a volatiles filter and oxite filter, and install them in the back
     
   • You'll need to make two more items at least - a tank connector, and a gas tank storage.
     
   • (you could also use an active vent instead of the scrubber, which skips the need for the tank connector & filters, but will still require you to make a gas tank storage)
     
   • power the scrubber up, and melt Ice (Oxite) and Ice(Volatiles) in front of it, in the ratio you want your gas mix to have
     
   • Drag the full-of-gasses scrubber onto the tank connector, and use a wrench to connect it
     
   • Use pipes to attach the gas tank storage to to the output of the connector
     
   • put your empty tank in, wait a moment and pull it back out
     
   • and you should have a new tank of welder gas!

Oh No Furnaces

1. Mash left-click to drop all your reagents in
   • especially while jumping to do so because you put the furnace to high off the ground
     
   • ARGHGGH OH NO
     
   • that was may ereader/powerdrill/other critical stuff
     
   • be careful with furnace input chutes, they are hungry
2. I'll just make some steel, how hard can it be?
   • very easy or very tricksy, depending on how fancy you want to be
     
   • an ultra simple setup is described here
3. I'm putting in 20x as much ore this run, so I'll put in 20x as much gas
   • <OMINOUS GLOWING>
     
   • A little hydrogen and oxygen goes a very long way
     
   • if you are worried your furnace might explode (and it can)
     
   • you can build an emergency vent
     
   • run pipes from the gas output, through a valve to a passive vent on a nearby frame
     
   • you really really do not want the vent inside, make sure you're venting to vacuum
     
   • check nothing important will get toasted by the exhaust gas
     
   • open the valve to purge the furnace.

How not to build an Airlock

1. Oh neat, I can save resources by using walls instead of frames for the sides and top
   • how thrifty of you
     
   • but you can't build useful stuff like consoles and vents on walls, only frames
     
   • (EDIT: in more recent builds, you can, in fact, build things on walls! Huzzah!)
     
   • at the very least, you'll need the side you put your vent on to be a frame
     
   • as of 2022 July, it seems, you can in fact build all-wall airlocks, if that's a thing you want
2. I'm going to use all the cool stuff in the Construction Supplies 2 box to make the most stylish automated airlock the world has every known
   • that is indeed a possibility
     
   • but to start with? Basic airlock function is much much faster to implement, and allows you to set up an oxygen-filled habitat much more quickly
     
   • You need two airlocks, two frames, two walls, an active vent, some pipes, and a crowbar
     
   • make your airlock chamber, one frame below, an airlock on each end, one more frame one of the sides to mount stuff on, and walls for the rest
     
   • use your crowbar when you lock yourself into an unpowered airlock
     
   • stick the active pump on the side-frame, run pipes back into the frame. (Without something connected to the other end, the pipes are sealed at the unconnected end, so they're just going to act as a simple gas storage for now)
     
   • run some power to the active pump, maybe a long run from your solar panels?
     
   • use crowbar to operate doors, and active pump (set to outward) to drain atmo from airlock when exiting through it
     
   • bonus feature: run power to the airlock doors (also gives light)
     
   • now you can sit in your fancy airlock-sealed habitat while you try to work out how the automation stuff works (or you can have a look at my new auto-cycling airlock guide over here)
3. Hmm, the airlock is too high to jump, I'll just use my jets
   • this gets old really fast
     
   • and then you discover you've run out of fuel later on while falling down a giant pit
     
   • stairs are good
     
   • and come from the autolathe.

To be continued

It's early days yet, I'll keep adding more as I make new mistakes and discover new helpful tricks via accidental decompression.

Good luck, all you splendid and intrepid stationeers - and may your moonbase survive longer than mine.

- Hardly.

[Hardly]

Oh? Sweet, I un-strikethrough it then.

[Tim2162286]

@Skellitor301 The jet pack change you are talking about is a mod, if running a vanilla game it will still accept any canister that contains some gas, and the waste tank trick absolutely still works.

[mahashma]

Another fun one: dismantling tanks immediately dumps their contents into the local atmosphere.
I especially enjoyed the pyrotechnics when I accidentally dumped about 2kmol of H2 at 1800C into -145C 100% O2 Europan air all at once. Things caught fire that I didn't know COULD catch fire.

[dandykong]

A few of mine:

Storing nitrogen byproduct from the ice crusher in a tank, then forgetting about it... in a base full of oxygen. Kaboom.

Pumping filtered oxygen into a Martian base, this time with back pressure regulators so my previous atmos mishap doesn't happen again... with no outlet for the accidental coolant that soon began spraying out of the pipes.

Relying on the APC indicator light to tell me if the station battery is out so I can go fire up the emergency generator... placed outside... with a slow airlock... at night.

And one I saw on YouTube:

An atmos contraption heavily pressurizing a room labeled "fertilizer"... right next to the main gas storage. First the oxygen tank lit up, then the volatiles, and the entire base went up in a spectacular display of pyrotechnics that would make Cuban Pete balk. The player respawned, revealing the outside of their mountain base which was now erupting like a wreckage volcano.

[mahashma]

Creaking noises are bad.
Don't put your power controller on the floor then hold or drop water ice, it lets magic smoke out.
Don't head off on a 'short' mining run without determining if a storm is likely.
Don't forget what a tracking beacon is, what a tracking chip does, or how to use either.
Don't accidentally fill your base with N2/NO2 by dropping nitrite instead of oxite.

[Skellitor301]

Should probably mention that the waste canister in the jetpack no longer works. They made it so the jetpack requires fuel, a mix of volitiles and oxygen, so you can't just use anything in a canister anymore. Unfortunately, when you start a new map, they did not update the canister in your jetpack to include fuel, it's still a nitrogen canister. Thankfully though they give you a portable gas tank full of it so when you get a pipe bender and you make a canister. Using this to replace the nitrogen canister you start with will make your jetpack work again, and you can save the nitrogen for your atmosphere systems.

[the_nintern]

used to load ores and the necessary ice mix in a mining backpack so i could load the pack and walk away. Then I lost my entire mars base. I ended up putting my pack FULL of volatile and oxite in instead of the steel mix while i wen to mine some copper. Didn't know sound could carry that far in stationeers...

[hunstree]

Never hold your mining backpack in your hand while loading ore into the furnace. I have learnt it the hard way.

[Hardly]

Truly, a box of perilous wonders.

[Vernskey]

Might be an obvious thing, but be wary when grabbing hold of those storage crates you get from the lander. Was trying to organise my base and went to move one out of the way. Yet when I grabbed it, it decided I wanted it outside of the window it was next to. during a storm. so had to keep hold of it lest it blow away.

But it's not the end there; I had to get it back inside. These crates take up most of a full block so getting it in the airlock was the first difficulty, cramming myself in the next. I managed to do this before putting it down to cycle the airlock. My mistake was trying to pick it up again, as it decided to phase into a solid frame. Laws of physics do not like being broken and so it spat the crate back into the airlock with enough force to obliterate my suit; I could not yet to replace it. And to top it off, the crate had been wedged where none could grab it's handles again.