ASTRONEER-Game Stage Guide

This guide shows how you can drive through those metaphorical craters in ASTRONEER.

Early game stage

So, you've just landed on some strange planet. The planet's name is "Terran", but you don't have to keep up with that yet. Anyway your base has a landing pad. Look at the terminal and hold "Q". You will hit the button and confirm it. The startup package should now be on the pad. Unpack the large platform, and put the medium printer on it. Now what you want to print is (ironically) a small printer, a large platform, and a research lab. You will need resources called, "Resin" and "Compound". There are usually some around your base to start out with. Press "E" to take out your terrain tool to mine them. You should also make a canister (made from resin in your backpack) to hold soil. That is what you use to build terrain from. More info is in the tutorial. Attach the canister to your terrain tool, and you will be set. Once you have all of your base components set up, you should make something called "Tether Bundles". Tethers are like power lines (or oxygen lines?). They provide you air and energy when attached to your base, and each other. Anyway, you may find yourself broke as a joke in "Bytes". Bytes are like the currency in ASTRONEER. If you have enough, you will be able to unlock things, such as (in order) things you can make in your pack, with a small printer, with a medium printer, and a vehicle bay. Your main focus now is to find things to research. You can find them by digging up plant life, including enemies! Go into a cave, and try to find some enemies. Once you have 250 Bytes, buy a Smelting Furnace. (You might also want to make beacons and work lights) After that, we will move on to the Mid game stage.

Mid game stage

Now, we are entering mid game stage. This is the time when you might be facing some metaphorical craters. Such as, running out of storage, direly in need of resources, and possibly power shortages. Let's solve power shortages first. You can make a bunch of generators, but I wouldn't. I would hook all of the platforms up to each other, and the base. Then put a generator/solar panel/wind turbine on the holders above the base's power cords. And problem solved! (For now). Next, since you have a shipload of resources, we will solve the storage issue. First make a Large Platform B. Not a Medium platform B. This will require 3 resin. Then, with your Small Printer, print 4 medium storages, if you can. Place them all on the platform, and you are set! Now you have a 32 item external storage platform. This also keeps them from blowing away in a sandstorm. Now you probably burned your items down just to make these, so it is the perfect time to go caving. To get to all the goodies, you will have to go down to the "green zone".
You might find some open holes that already lead down to one...from a great height. Not a problem!
Just dig a very gradual slope, (about to where you can walk up it) and once you hit green, dig sideways towards the direction of the cavern. What you are looking for, is Laterite. Laterite is aluminum ore. Aluminum is in a lot crafting recipes for the next tier. Possibly what you see in your research computer, under the Medium Printer Icon. You will also see that there are these spiky mushrooms around. These are called "Spikers".
They can be very dangerous, especially if you die next to them, because they make it hard to get to your dead body. Anyway, now you have all these items to safely put away in your storage platform. Finally, we can get to one of the most fun parts of the game. The vehicles. If you don't have one already, make a Vehicle Bay from 3 compound. Once hooked up to a platform and a power source, if I am right, you will want to smelt 6 Laterite in your smelting furnace. And if you have some more, you can make a buggy/rover later! Now, build a small shuttle. But why not a buggy you ask? Because a shuttle will make your life easier for now. Now make 2 solid fuel thrusters. Why 2? The solid fuel thruster is a consumable. It has a one time use for a trip to a planet. So if you leave with one, you will be stranded on another planet...forever. Anyway once you have your seat in, and you have a complete shuttle, you will need to prepare before you go, Eager Mc Beaver.

Tethers: 3 or 4 tether bundles will do.
Packed Thruster: Of course!
Generator: Just one
Organic: Optional
Packed Medium platform A: What?
Some Free Space: Obviously.
Now you have all that in your backpack. Good Luck!

Late game stage

You should know the drill by now. It is time to go exploring! Once you blast off, you will start circling around your home planet, Terran. This is actually the landing sequence. To leave orbit, press Z or X. This will activate a planet selection sequence that reminds me of the "Mario Galaxy" galaxy selection for some reason. The planets in the final alpha build are Terran, Barren (Terran's moon), Exotic, Arid, Radiated, and Tundra. Each planet has a different setting. Terran, is like Earth. It is the safest place you have in the solar system. Barren, reminds me of Mars. It's a moon with lots of wide open dunes. The days and nights pass fast (It's a moon after all), so solar panels work best here. Exotic, reminds me of a planet on Metroid Prime. It has dangerous flora that you would find in caves, but on the surface! Arid, is pretty much a desert. It even has tumbleweeds that hurt you.

Radiated reminds me of Fallout. The atmosphere is a greenish color, and it has creepy inhabitants called "worms", and they are not fun to die from.
Tundra always reminds me of this.

Even if the planets sound like they have no point in landing on, they actually have great materials there. Some that you can't even find on Terran. Sadly, if you are on a multiplayer server, you might already have some pranks in mind involving some of the planets' settings. But they are going to have to wait. I would recommend landing on the moon, Barren. But beware, Barren has a higher difficulty setting, than Terran. This is because they want to keep you engaged, instead of your usual hum drum expectations. Now, when you land on Barren, go ahead and remove your used thruster, and replace it with the fresh one in your backpack. Also, unpack your platform, and put it next to your shuttle. This allows you to have your generator on it, so it will provide you energy. Why did we have to come here first? Because Laterite is more common here. In fact, you might even find some on the surface! Grab as much as you can. Also, what you want to look out for, is a rare resource called Wolframite. Wolframite is another ore, the ore of Tungsten. Sound familiar? What you might have seen in the computer, are base components that require Tungsten, and something called Tungsten Carbide. Tungsten Carbide is a fusion resource. This is where it gets interesting. You can fuse certain materials in a Chemistry Lab, to form a new man made material. For example:

Tungsten+Carbon=Tungsten Carbide
Compund+Carbon=Plastic

Once you think you are set, you can return home to Terran. But before you do, place a beacon down next to where you land on a new planet. This will help you keep track of where you have been. You could also place beacons on you, or your car. So if you die, you can find them easily.

If you didn't find any wolframite, don't worry. It is more common on Arid and Tundra. You can also find iron and zinc there. (what about calcium?) I would recommend going to Tundra, because Arid is more dangerous. If you don't want to wait 30 minutes for just the right moment to get there, you can do something that I like to call, "Planet Hopping". You bring 4 solid fuel thrusters, (assuming you don't have tungsten) land on the closest planet to your destination, switch out the thruster, and then launch to the planet you want. Then when you come back, do the same thing.

When you have landed on Tundra, look on the surface for a spiky, greenish-yellow ore, that looks a little like Titanite. It is easy to miss. Also, find a red-ish version of that called, Hemamite. When you get your wolframite, smelt it, then make a trade platform. With this, and a soil centrifuge, you will never have to dig for ores again! I would also recommend building a large shredder. (Or a medium one if you want it to be compact) Now, you might not have realized that you just made a scrap farm out of the shredder, and the soil centrifuge. Obviously don't shred the things that you made from the trade platform. It will just make a loop of wasted time. Now, at this point in the game, you really can't go wrong.

There are also other things that I didn't cover, but they aren't really a "rung" of the ladder in this game. (You don't need them to progress)

Anyway, from here, you can do whatever you want. I have covered pretty much the basics, now this part is up to you. I hope you enjoyed this guide!

Extra Tips

When you find your first piece of Laterite, you can make something called a Soil Centrifuge.

A Soil Centrifuge is really useful in the early game stage. It empties the soil canisters of their soil (max 2), so not only does this let you contain other things, but the soil will churn up, revealing hidden resources in them! Mostly it's basic resources, but it beats having to go out and find some. Also, if you're wondering if the terrain analyzer mod affects it, it doesn't.

If you connect two rovers' cable plugs, they can form a train.

You can have all your different essentials on the engine, and use the other cars as storage bins, especially if you put large storages on them! This is useful if you are circumnavigating a planet, and find some resources along the way. Please note that Buggies do not have cable plugs. :( Keep in mind that there is a weight limit to the things you can pull. It even applies directional weight if you put too many heavy things on one side. (On a large storage anyway) So naturally, if you put 2 research on the left side of a large storage, and nothing else on the other, you can go a little to the left when you go straight. This could also be useful if you put a lot of weight on the engine. For example, in real life, it is easier to drive up a steep hill if you have a little weight on the front. The same rules apply in ASTRONEER, except of course, there is less gravity.

If you are playing on local co-op, you can assign different jobs to people. For example, one person can be the gatherer, and gather all the resources. Another person could be the manager, and use the materials from the gatherer, manage base building, and operate utilities. Another person could be the captain. They plan what the team should focus on next, protect the team, and deal with the problems they are facing.

You can have a backup generator by finding/crafting a medium battery.

Place the battery on an isolated platform, then place power sources on the platform. The platform isn't connected to anything, so nothing is demanding power. Therefore, all the power flows into the battery. Now, when the power is stretching to its thinnest, you can plug the platform in, and massively boost the efficiency to all the utilities. When you are done, just unhook the platform.

If you are really into having the most efficiency, you can use splitters and other power conductors to divide a certain amount of power to each facility. Also, you can unplug cable plugs from other facilities to stop the demand for power. This is useful if you have priority on a few things, and don't want to give away power to lesser utilities.

When you make your first atmospheric condenser, you will have one problem, not everything is unlocked.

The reason is that the planet you are on doesn't have enough concentration in the air to extract certain gases. For example, if you are on Terran, you will have unlocked: Hydrogen, Argon, and Nitrogen. But you haven't unlocked: Methane, Sulfur, and Helium.
Different planets have different gases. They are all in the reddit and wiki. But the problem is getting there. You should have at least a medium shuttle. You should also have a packed large platform, and a packed atmospheric condenser. Blast off to the planet you want, and put the packed things on the shuttle. Now, unpack the platform and put the condenser on it. Now everything is set up, except for the power. I would recommend coming back with the best medium power source (besides a battery) based on the planet's setting. If you are on Arid, I would recommend a medium wind turbine(s). If you are on Exotic, I would recommend a medium generator(s).

Certain power sources can sometimes not work right. For example, a wind turbine might not be spinning, even though it is in a sandstorm. There are easy explanations for this.
For a start, a solar panel will not work if it is stuck to something sideways. It has to be upright or diagonal to activate. Also, it has to have direct access to sunlight. Even if it is barely blocked, it might still think it's night. Wind turbines are the same way, except with wind. They also have to have the same Y coordinate to detect wind. If the wind is blowing in a ravine, and your wind turbine is on top of a hill, you will have to move it into the wind. It is fine if it is in a wide open space though. Wind never blows up high in the sky, away from the ground. Even if it is on a mountain.

[Yoshifan360]

can the large platform B in mid stage interchangeable with large platform A?

[TutoredSpider12]

The planet names aren't right

[Vagabond]

Outdated but really good guide, you should make an updated version with new planets!

[crab.king274]

Well, I expected everyone past mid stage to say, "I got this". So I didn't go into "every button you press" detail as much.

[Endbyte]

its a good guide but could use some more detail

[Tobinator3]

Great guide!! A little hard to understand but ones you play it, you can understand what he is talking about.