Hardcore Mode Survival Tips

Greetings, be you an intrepid explorer of space, an interplanetary miner, a soon to be renown hunter, or just an average traveler to the stars, I welcome you to space. I'm sure by now you've heard that space is vast and covering this fact would be redundant and pointless. Having gone this much into its size is probably already a waste of time, but what people don't tell you about space is that it is also a really dangerous place. Filled to the brim with hardships, monsters, and aholes who will also want to kill you. This guide will help you on your travels and survival throughout the cosmos on hardcore mode.

Mining

Mining
The most frequently done activity in Starbound is mining, it's a laborious process of love and environmental destruction.

Light
Torches are the most obvious source of light, they provide a small region of illumination that pierces through rock to reveal deposits. There is a more efficient way of generating light at layers where there is not a rock background. By simply removing the background with right mouse button, you can generate a sphere of light just as useful as torches and less resource heavy. Note, this does not work at lower depths or at night.

Strip Mining
This goes hand in hand with planet jumping mentioned later, while digging deep mines can yield some impressive veins of minerals, it is also time consuming. Instead a faster and more efficient way of gather resources is to simply walk across the planet's surface and mine any deposits you find. These deposits are typically in material that breaks faster than materials at lower depths.

Dangers of Cave Mining
Exploring caves can and have yield me great deposits, they've also yielded me a great deal of strife when a monster killed me. It is important to remember that in caves you do not have the maneuvering room you do on the surface and this can and on occasion will get you killed.
A useful way to not be caught by surprise is to move the camera by holding control. The camera will recenter on your mouse pointer and provided there is light you can see what is further down. Zooming out in the menu is also effective, but a route I never used.

Thus I would note that if you are exploring caves be careful if you are on a planet whose inhabitants give you difficulty in the wide open. If you wish to escape the cave do to low health or patience, simple tunnel out the background and provided it isn't rocks you should be able to teleport out. If it is a rock background you cannot.

Tool Maintanence
If your pickax or drill is wearing down you will need to repair it.
1) Go to inventory
2) Pick up Mineral (I recommend bronze as it is both abundant and gets the job done pretty well)
3) Right click with mineral on tool, repeat until health bar refills.

Exploration

Exploration
Exploration is the name is the name of the game and there is much to see out in this vast universe.

Planet Hopping
As previously mentioned, planet hopping is the most efficient way of getting resources, it is also a more enjoyable way to play the game. It's simple, you just hop from planet to planet harvest the minerals, deal with the enemies, ransack if you desire, and then move on to the next planet. You can accrue pixel and resources fast.

Know when to pull out
While being kind of a cliche duh advice, it is never the less a good point. Know when you've got enough on a trip. It is an easy habit to get into, pressing a bit further forward and the bam you're dead.

Have Spare Supplies On Your Ship
Even if you are the most careful person in the world, have some extra supplies on your ship in case you die. This includes bandages, spare armor, and extra weapons. This way if you do die, you have the available resources to retrieve your gear at the ready.

Your Stuff Doesn't Delete
Speaking of dying if you feel the need to rage quit or just need a breather from the game after a particularly annoying death then do so. The game does not remove items that have been dropped from death while the game is off. I've personally confirmed this.

Your stuff also doesn't delete as it lies on the ground, so there is no rush to get it back and you can afford to take your time instead of rushing.

General TIps
• Never Bring Ingots with you.
• Build a small platform where you land, it helps mark the planet and let's you know where the drop point is.
• Always have bandages with you.

Settlements
Settlements can be divided into two categories. Villages/abandoned buildings and hostile bases. Villages you can safely traverse but always remember to lower your weapon as the village guards do not like it if you have your weapons drawn and will begin to follow you. In villages you can find merchants who can sell you cloths, weapons, and food along with blueprints.

Hostile Bases on the other hand are generally staffed be the most meanest, jerkiest npcs you'll find and will attack you on sight, for no other reason than cause they can. Be wary as you tackle these places as on occasions they can be staffed by more powerful enemies.

Survival

Survival
We all have needs, we need to eat, we need resources, and we need to be loved. Here we will help you with all of them except that last one.

Gardening
Gardening is an essential way to maintain a good food supply. To start with you right click with the hoe to till the soil and plant the seed. So far as I can tell plants will grow anywhere provided the soil is tilled.

Hunting
It is strongly recommend that you upgrade to higher tier bows as you progress and hunting is best done on your homeworld for meat. If you want harden shells which drop more frequently when an enemy is killed by a bow you have to hunt on Tier 2 or beta sector planets.

Cooking
Cooking is a simple way to make alien meet edible at camp fires and turn stuff like wheat into bread at cooking tables. It's a good idea to stock up on extra provisions of food, to be taken out at later times to cook, but some plants can be immediately consumed for your pleasure.

Trees
An efficient way to ensure you have plenty of wood is to plant trees side by side. It won't look pretty, but it's an efficient way to ensure a nice supply of wood.

Fiber Trees
Fiber trees as I've dubbed them are by far one of the most valuable thing to come across during your explorations. With these trees you can avoid having to clip vines for bandages as you can generate fiber en mess from these trees. Fiber trees can be found in the Alpha sector.

[Meruen]

did you remember 2 say don't die(tl;dr)

[Kevin7557]

Yes this guide is vastly outdated and was based on an earlier build. I left it up because some of the mechanics still apply. Thank you for the sudden interest in the guide though.

[The_Best_Bacca_Z]

SPOILER: This is outdated. Notice the L/R hotbar.

[GamingAddictions]

"Your Stuff Doesn't Delete
Speaking of dying if you feel the need to rage quit or just need a breather from the game after a particularly annoying death then do so. The game does not remove items that have been dropped from death while the game is off. I've personally confirmed this." But this is a hardcore guide, death is death, 1 life.

[Skrumage]

Dude, nice job. This is a pretty cool guide. I'm glad I read it.
PS: I also didn't know about the fiber-trees, I usually use fluffalos.

[greedygrinner.gif]

Thank you so much! Everyone needs to see this, even if they think they are experienced enough. I seriously didn't know about the so-called "fibre-trees", or that death materials stayed when off the game and never despawned!