Surviving the first storm

Power guide and how to survive the first storm.

Day 1 - get some minerals

Hello future Martians,

here is a short guide how to survive the first storm - once you get over this, things will become way more simple.

First days can be quite challenging - you have about 3 days to prepare for the first storm and you should not waste your resources (especially power).
You will start by gathering some metal as the tutorial will suggest you but do not get back to the metal facility until you have your rover trailer at least 80% full of minerals. You will probably be able to make 2 trips and build 2 battery packs and one power transformer. Build the batteries first if you do not have enough minerals, transformer can be build on day 2.

Once you have the materials for these, jump from the metal facility and re-organize your power setup.
The main problem is the metal facility which is permanently connected to the power grid and taking out 25+ KW every single hour which is really bad. Disconnect it - to keep things simple you can even pick up the cable for now

if you still have time, build a battery pack (near the other 2 close to the base) and the transformer between the base and the 3 battery packs. Go to bed as Day 2 is reserved to get your power setup in proper order. No need to power the base just yet, get some water and food from the rover and you will be good for now. Sleep until 7 am next day.

Day 2 - getting power setup properly

Day 2: 7:00 am

Today is the day when you get your power setup in order. Supposing you have the 2 batteries pack in place you will have now : 2 small solar power panels, 2 medium solar panels, 3 battery packs and 2 power converters (1 already there = FPC and 1 near the base = BPC).

BPC = base power converter
FPC = far power converter

To keep things simple and be fast you can go to the power converter and collect all cables from both sides. Now do the following setup:
1. all 4 solar panes are connected to the power converter (FPC)
2. set the output sockets 1,2,3 to 33% of total power
3. output from sockets 1,2,3 of FPC to the batteries

If you did not build yet the BPC, go and get some minerals. When you get back disconnect one of the medium solar panels and put another cable to the metal facility. This will give it 30 KW - just enough to process materials. If yo uneed to make one more trip for the day, disconnect the medium solar panel and link it to the FPC while you are away collecting minerals. Get minerals until 16:00 - 17:00 and get back to base.

4. connect the batteries to the BPC. Set each battery to 10 KW output (if you have 4) or 14 KW (if you have 3). This will give you about 40 KW input to BPC. Now connect the BPC to base and to the well. Give 30 KW to the base, 10 KW to the well (so it also runs during the night). If you are short on power, give only 5 KW to the well and it will only produce oxygen during the day.

5. get in the base and now it is time to start growing potatoes. Power off the hidroponic (it requires 1.3 -1.4 KW) and plant 4-8 potatoes.

6. you can also start the scrubber on a low power mode to produce some fresh air inside.
If all went well, at beginning of the evening you have 4 x 180 KW = 720 KW and you use 40 KW/h - this will get you covered for 18 hours. Go to sleep and in the morning you will still have some power left:

Day 3 - move the potatoes, prepare for the storm

Day 3 - 7:00 AM

In the morning you should have already some fresh air so you can fill in a tank of O2 - might be useful for later.
Time to check the potatoes and if they have moved from seedling to plants , stop the scrubber and power on the hidroponic and move them there.
Then you can get outside, fill also the suit with oxygen from the well and maybe take a ride with the rover to collect some more minerals. This is your last chance to get things in order before the sotrm comes. When that happens you need to have at least 4 battery packs fully loaded.

Before the storm comes, reduce the power output for the batteries to just enough to power on your base (to keep potatoes growing). Load your suit with oxygen, charge the suit from the rover and get inside. Cut all non essential power consumption, unlink the well from the BPC and set it to give 100% of the power to the base. With a 32 Kw power needed for the base and 720 Kw in the batteries you should be good for about 22 hours which is more than enough to survive the first storm.

When storm starts and potatoes are not yet grown, have a look for how long the power will last and wake up 2 hours before power runs out to collect the potatoes.

NOTE: it is very important that all battery packs are getting the same load and are providing the same amount of electricity so you can calculate exactly when power will run out. If one of the batteries gets depleted first (either because it was not loaded enough or is giving away more power then the others), when you wake up plants might already be withered.

Day 4 - after the storm

Day 4

It might be that the storm will not finish at 7:00 am when you usually go out. You already collected the potatoes and now you have something to eat.To make use of your time use the repair tool (key no. 2) and go through the station to repair the damage the storm has caused.

If you got unlucky and plants have withered, once the storm is gone you will have power back on and start growing potatoes again. You should still have some food packs available so you will survive.
Start the scrubber during the day as you can give a bit more power to the station.

If the rover needs power you can connect it for 2 hours to a medium panel. the 2 hours are gone, connect the panel back to FPC.

Later on you can have one extra medium panel (the one far away) connected to a battery pack and the battery pack set to output 26 KW. To this battery pack you can connect the metal processor (when needed) or the rover (to charge over night):

Once time passes and you might need more batteries and sola panels you can make another set of 1-4 panels -> power converter -> up to 4 battery packs -> second base power converter -> BPC :

Once the rover is charges you might also want to fill it with oxygen so you do not consume O2 from the suit - just take the rover to the well and connect it to the O2 pipe for 1-2 minutes and you're done.

I hope it helps, good luck on surviving on Mars !

[KOLDUN77]

I liked the game! someone give it to me please

[UberNerd]

you can also connect the O2 pipe from the well directly to the base so the O2 that the well produces will fill up the base

[redfox_77]

vey good info and thanks for advice will put into pratce