Surviving Mars - Space Capitalism achievment

I decided to create this short guide, because the Space Captalism achievment was the most difficult to reach for me and I had failed to find any reasonable text regarding this matter on the Internet. I hope it will help at least a little to other players, who decide to go for this achievment.

1. Goal of the achievment

Please note, that the goal is NOT to "have 100 000 M funding at Sol 100", but to "produce 100 000 M funding before Sol 100".

That makes a huge difference - I unlocked the achievment at Sol 98 with 78 000 M funding while there was no way to accumulate another 22 000 M in the last two Sols. I was surprised getting it, because I thought the achievment had been lost already.

2. Commander profile

To get so much funding it is obvious you need to export huge amount of rare metals. Blue Sun Corporation, which is required for the achievment, makes it easier for you with their Deep Metal Extraction tech. To find some deep metals you need Deep scanning technology to deep scan sectors on the map. That's the reason I chose Astrogeologist as a Commander.

3. Game rules

You can find more rules, that will help you to get the achievment, I played with the following set:
Prefab Colony - speeds up your progress in early game with prefab Basic dome and several useful buildings, such as 2 Moisture vaporators, 6 Stirling generators and more.
More applicants - you need a LOT of geologists and this is a way to get some of them.
No disasters - I have failed the achievment before because of long cold waves slowing me down. I'm sure better players than me can omit this rule and get the achievment nevertheless, but this makes life much more comfortable without doubt.

4. Map

(KINDLY SEE THE COMMENTS, THIS MAP IS DIFFERENT NOW)
I played on 5S131E map. There are more than 4000 units of Rare metal in two deposits at C1 coordinates and I reccomend to build your base near these two. There is no water though, so you have to rely on Moisture vaporators until you get to the nearest water deposit at D4. At coordinates E2 there is the nearest large deep water deposit.


I played without disasters, which means you will probably want to choose your own map if you don't want to turn them off. This guide shows you principles, which you can use on any map with usable Rare metal deposits.

5. The game

According to my pre-game calculations, if you manage to have 5 Rare metals extractors in Sol 30 fully manned with specialists, you are fine and you can just wait. But you won't have these... :-)

The trick is, you do not need to focus on self-sustainability of your colony. With funding you get by exporting Rare metals you can buy literally everything. I wasn't aware of point 1 of this guide, so I have used the money sparingly and have imported only Electronics and Machine parts, which require too many colonists to produce on your own. But when you know, you can use all the money you earn, you don't need to invest too heavily into research, because you can outsource all the time. You could even import food. You can buy as many rockets as you need and buy prefabs from Earth without hesitation.

Short summary of my game:
I tried to build as many Rare metals extractors as possible, ending with 6 fully manned around Sol 60. A bit later I built a Medium dome specialized at Tourism and connected it with Services dome nearby. I haven't used Corporate offices, because they need too much staff. Food was from Outside Ranches, after researching Deep water extraction tech, even water wasn't problem anymore. Power was from Solars supplemented with Stirlings imported from the Earth. (Don't bother with the solars - you can use all your money, so just import Stirlings an be happy.)

This is my colony on Sol 101.

I think this is basically it. You will have much easier time than me, if you don't forget the point 1. of this guide. And maybe you'd want to turn the Mystery off - I thought the Phillosopher's stone would help me, but it was more a nuisance with the Dust devils and hidden squares on the map.

So, good luck, have fun, fellow colonists. :-)

[king_muskrat]

{LINK REMOVED}My colony on sol 90. This is Fiscal Profits challenge.

[cap-boulanger]

I did mine playing at 5N119W... there's a similar cluster of rares in the upper center area, and pretty much one or two of everything else close by (except research).

[Shiriki]

Indeed the map still works. I started in F2 ad built my way to A3, where there is another 2.5k rare metals. That is enough to get the achievement, sadly it is not nearly as convenient as having all the required rare metals in one spot.
Also, get yourself an explorer asap and analyze the anomaly in F2. That get's you a vista that should help catapult you out of the founders stage in no time.

[Slaviaro MacClee]

@Shiriki
I'm playing the map now and it really is different. I'll try to find some time to update this guide, thank you very much for your comment.

For now the new sweetspot on this map is at E2 (98k water, 17k accesible immeadiately; 2200 rare metals; 1500 concrete) with F2 next to it (2300 metals, 10k water) with enough surface metals to build and maintain a base. I'll try to re-write the guide in near future, but E2 sector on the new map actually solves everything for early to mid game purposes.

[Shiriki]

Seems like the map changed. The topography for me looks similar, although not identical, but the resource distribution is completely different.

[Slaviaro MacClee]

@Oni Puppy

I'm really happy the guide helped you a little (and so it serves its purpose).

Outside ranch is a building from Project Laika DLC. Sorry I haven't mentioned it, I bought the game as a complete set with all the DLCs.

[Oni Puppy]

I finally got this achievement on Sol 71 of my third playthrough. I used this map for my second and third attempt, but I went to the wrong deposits the first time. For reference, C1 is to the bottom right of the revealed starting spot.

I only ran 2 extractors per the two sites. I turned off disasters for my winning playthrough. I used the increased production rule, as well as the risky chaos theory. This allowed me to get the space elevator out early and ship the rare metals out faster. I also got lucky and got the random event where command wants you to focus on generating resources, so I got to chose the option of revealing all amplification techs and reducing their research cost. I did utilize one corporate office and never brought in a tourist.

Thank you for your guide. The only other thing I want to mention about it is, I have no idea what an outside ranch is. I'm assuming that is what those small green spots on your pic are.