Planet Crafter Day by Day - getting started

I'll walk you through the "best" way to start the game, describing what to do until you reach a point where you have the right equipment to give you freedom to play as you please without much danger of dying in the wastelands.

Intro

Hi I'm Dave. This guide is just a basic starter walkthrough, just enough to get you started QUICKLY AND EFFICIENTLY and get you up to a point where you can effectively survive and explore by yourself.

This is written for version 1.002, up to date as of 19 April, 2024. This is the full release version of the game so the story is complete, the mechanics are complete, etc. but they might still make a few updates with new content later.


Also, I'm planning to write a novel inspired by this game, though I will take enough "artistic liberty" to make it an original work rather than just a retelling of the same story. I might never finish it, might never publish it if I do, but it sounds like a fun way to kill some time until I find a real job again. I'm SO TIRED of being unemployed.

Other Resources (map)

If you want a decent map of the planet, click here. I did not make this map, so if you like it please congratulate that author not me. This map shows the various regions, blue and gold chest locations, and shipwreck/other locations. The map is INCOMPLETE, but since this guide only takes you through the basics in the very beginning of the game, the map is "good enough" for my purposes. Later on, you'll want a better map though, unless you like to explore on your own.

Day Zero - the story so far

You are a convicted criminal. You cut a deal with a mega-corporation though - if you successfully terraform this distant barren world, then you go free. If you fail, you die alone with no chance of rescue or resupply.

First you will choose the basic game options. This guide assumes this is your FIRST TIME playing, so I suggest that you run on "relaxing" or "standard" game mode this time. Relaxing slows down your food, oxygen, and water meter depletion so you don't die as quickly, and if you die you keep all your items when you respawn at your base. Standard has the normal stat decrease rate, but if you die you drop an item box with your stuff beside your corpse and then respawn back at base. Intense makes your stat bars decrease FASTER and if you die then everything in your inventory gets deleted before you respawn. Hardcore DELETES THE SAVE FILE when you die. Then you should pick the "standard start" location. It's well centered between all the major mineral resources that you'll need as you progress through the game, whereas the other locations will each be harder in terms of finding all the minerals you need in the beginning of the game, but a bit easier for later in the game. You can name your save-game, and if you so choose you can customize some of the options before you start. Once you create your game, choose it on the list of save files and load it.

Then your pod will drop to the planet's surface. You land in a dried up old lake bed. You have a basic space suit on, a basic crafting station in your pod, and a tiny box for storing your items. Open the box and see what's inside. Not much. Open up your crafting station and see what blueprints you have. Again, not much. But you'll unlock more blueprints and build new storage in new bases as you get deeper into the game. Now before you step out the door I want to take a few minutes and describe what this game is all about...

You have three parameters that you need to watch; if any of them drops to zero then you will die. Your HUNGER (or HEALTH) is the top meter. Refill it by eating space food or vegetables, or later you'll unlock some actual cooking recipes to make real food. It will decay slowly over time. Your THIRST (or WATER) is the middle bar. It drops over time, quite a bit faster than the food bar does. Refill it by drinking bottled water. For now, you can make water by melting ice that you find outside.
Later on, you'll unlock a blueprint for a filtered straw that will let you drink from lakes and rivers, too. The bottom bar is for your OXYGEN. It drops pretty quickly over time, but only if you are outdoors. If you are inside a SEALED ROOM that you have built, the room will provide oxygen for you. Or you can consume an O2 Canister to refill the bar if you're far from your base. You can make these using Cobalt. A good rule of thumb is to always carry one piece of food, two oxygen canisters, and two bottles of water with you when you are outside your base. And have some extras stored at your base.

This world is EMPTY, nothing lives here. There are no space pirates or alien beasts to worry about. Other than time, there are just two things that can hurt you. If you fall from a high place you take damage. And every so often there will be a meteor storm - these will aim at your current location, and if you get hit by a meteor you take damage. Later on, it will rain and fill up lakes and rivers... you can even swim underwater with no problem because your suit is already air-tight. But you will still need to eat, drink, and breathe... and avoid falling off a cliff or getting smashed by a meteor.

Aside from basic survival, you do actually have a job to do here. To that end, there are a few other parameters regarding the planet that you will be working with. The goal is to increase the "terraformation index" or "T.I." number. This number is a mathematical combination of four other parameters. At first you'll only have three to work with: air pressure, temperature, and atmospheric oxygen level. Later you will unlock a fourth one: biomass. As you bring each parameter up to a certain level, you unlock access to new blueprints for tools and equipment. You will also notice the face of the planet changing as your T.I. reaches certain levels. Remember that your job is to raise all of these parameters high enough that the planet becomes suitable for human colonization. At least I assume we're human in this game... could be wrong about that. Ultimately, your corporate overlords want to build a space truck-stop with a gift shop, a diner, and a motel here since it's on a popular interstellar trade route.

So basically, you are expected to run around the planet doing some exploration. As you go, pick up minerals and bring them back to your base; then use them to build tools, equipment, and entire buildings that will allow your terraforming efforts to progress more smoothly over time. Later on, you'll get blueprints to build mining machines (ore extractors) that will dig up the ore for you, leaving you free to explore more of the world, decorate your home base, or do whatever else you want to do. You are all alone out there... nobody is watching... LOL.

And as you explore, you'll find hidden areas where there may be clues about why this planet is so strange, why your corporate overlords want it done so badly, and basically what the story is around here.

Day 0.5 - Welcome to the Suck

Now that we have the basics out of the way... click the "email" icon on the terminal next to the pod door. This is how the story is told in this game - via emails and digital notes. Then step outside your little pod. Notice as soon as you go outside your O2 meter starts to drop. Go back inside to refill it before you suffocate and die. Take a quick look at your surroundings. You are in an old lake bed. This will be a problem later because once your T.I. reaches "rain" and "lakes" level, it will fill up with water. ANY ROOM THAT IS UNDERWATER WILL NOT REFILL YOUR OXYGEN, and YOU CANNOT BUILD ANYTHING NEW UNDERWATER. So your little pod will only be your home base for a little while, before long you'll have to move out.

Stand with your back to the pod door. straight ahead, up a hill, is a crashed ship. To the right of that is an iceberg that blocks a cave entrance. Later, that cave will be your source for mining Osmium. The other end of the cave leads to a valley full of sulfur, too. But not until you raise the temperature high enough to melt the ice in front of the cave. So just remember it's there for later, don't try to go up there yet. And at this point I want to warn you about those crashed ships. You can enter the ships, search them and haul out quite a lot of loot. BUT NOT YET. You will want to build yourself a flashlight, a bigger backpack, and a lot of O2 canisters before you dive into any crashed ships. This is extra important because most of the ships will have SEEDS and other items just lying on the ground inside; items that you won't find anywhere else very often. Some are in chests or lockers and those are no problem; but some are just sitting out in the open. Those items will VANISH if you wait too long to pick them up... but the timer doesn't start until you get close to the ship. So you want to be able to grab those loose items and bring them home on your first (or maybe second) trip into the ship. Hence the need for a bigger backpack. And the power is out inside the ship, you'll be blind without a flashlight. And it takes a long time to explore down there, so you'll want a bigger oxygen tank, too. Not just more refill canisters - you want bigger tanks. You'll be able to craft some later. That particular ship will also require a special item to restart its nuclear core so that you can release the security lock on a couple of the doors inside. So at the start of the game, only about half of the ship is accessible. At the base of the rocky wall to your left (approximately where I've circled it on the screenshot below) is the first gold chest that you'll find. There's another one on top of the shipwreck. I won't tell you where any more gold chests are, since half the fun of this game is exploring to find things like that on your own.

To the right of that you'll notice a gently sloping hill. On top is a flat plain. That is a great place to build your first "home base" because it's centrally located between all the good mineral deposits, and it's high enough that it won't flood when you reach the rainy stage of T.I. So keep that location in mind, we'll be heading there VERY soon. Once you get there, the base you build can be TEMPORARY if you so choose, you could always build another BETTER base elsewhere. But it's also a pretty good spot for a permanent base. That's a decision for later though, for now just know that you'll be heading up there soon.

Keep turning right. There is a cave at the bottom of the little hill where it meets the rock wall... with a dead guy in there. You'll find his story (and others) written in emails, ship's logs, and journals as you explore the shipwrecks and underground vaults all over the world. This particular cave is HIDDEN behind some debris that blends in with the rock wall. You'll need to equip your Deconstruct Chip and look for the spot where the "Deconstruct" icon pops up, then deconstruct the debris to get into the cave. As you find more of the story elements like journals and emails, pay attention to the DATES each one was written, if you care about putting the planet's history in chronological order.

Keep turning right. In the distance there is a pathway leading to a canyon full of tall spiky rocks and some large cargo containers. That's a LONG walk from here though, so we won't be going there until much later.

Open the settings menu and check the controls now. You can rebind your controls to either the keyboard or the gamepad, and you can use both at once. The in-game menus and pop-up windows will show you what the buttons do, and they will CHANGE depending on if you're using gamepad or keyboard. For an example, open your backpack menu and look at the bottom right corner. It will tell you which buttons will select an item, which will eat/use an item, etc.. Take note:
O2 canisters and water bottles refill the meter COMPLETELY so don't waste them by using them when the meter is still half full. Food restores a set number of HP as listed in the item description, and it seems like your max HP is about 100 or so. Different types of food will restore different amounts of HP.

Now you have your bearings, walk on out and start picking up some of the minerals that you find sticking out of the ground. These never vanish, but they also never respawn after you collect them. Only way to get more is to wait for a meteor storm to drop some from outer space, or build an ore extractor to dig for more. But you'll find more than enough of them if you keep going farther and farther from your pod. For the first few days you want to focus on finding enough to get your bigger backpack, bigger O2 tank, some water bottles and O2 capsules, your basic tools, a couple of habitat rooms and a door. You don't need to grab EVERY mineral that you see!! Plan ahead to make things easier for yourself.

Once you leave your pod, you'll see minerals all over the ground nearby. Cobalt is a big BLUE crystal. Magnesium is a cluster of BLACK crystals. Iron is a grey/black shiny LUMP. Titanium is a tan lumpy SPHERE (only half of it will be showing above the ground). Silicon is a black LUMP that looks like melted plastic. There are also some blue chests that contain loot. And GOLD chests that contain BETTER loot. Chests can be deconstructed using your tool once they're empty. Blue ones give you one iron. Gold ones give you a super alloy and an aluminum. Chests will have better loot if you leave them there until your T.I. progresses further. But you should grab the ones in this little lake bed NOW because you'll need some seeds and things before long, and chests are the "best" place to find that stuff. In fact, if you turn left out your door until you hit the rock wall, then turn right and follow the wall a bit, you'll find your first GOLD CHEST half-buried in the sand. And on the way there, you'll probably see a BLUE CHEST, too.

As you run around out there, you'll notice your oxygen doesn't last long. Feel free to build some temporary "tents" (just a habitat room with a door on one wall) so you can duck inside to refill your oxygen when you need to. But you can't build if it's overlapping the terrain or if there is a piece of ore or something else in the way.

Day One - Craft Basic Tools

First thing: get that Construction Chip built at your craft station. Requires 2 silicon and 2 magnesium. then the Deconstruction Chip for another silicon and one magnesium. Then the Torch (Flashlight) for one silicon and 2 magnesium.
Total required: 4 silicon + 5 magnesium.
While you're doing this, you also need 2 ice to make 2 water bottles, and 4 cobalt to make 2 O2 canisters.
Once your tools are built, you can equip them from your inventory menu. Next you want to build a bigger O2 tank and a bigger backpack. This will require 3 iron, 2 cobalt, and 1 magnesium for both. This will be the final thing you do while "living" in your drop pod. You need to equip BOTH the backpack and the O2 tank into a "gear" slot and you only have four of those slots. So for now, unequip your Torch Chip since you really won't need it until you go spelunking down in the shipwrecks later in the game. You can even go ahead and store the torch in your blue storage chest for now if it's clogging up your backpack.

Next step: open your Build Menu and look at the blueprints you have. These are structures you can build and place them on the planet; you cannot equip or carry them in your backpack. There are a few things you should focus on NOW, before you run out of food and water. Remember the hill I told you about that I said is a good place for your first real base? That's where we want to go now. But if you stay out for too long, go too far from the pod, you will run out of air and water and you will die. It's a bit of a long hike up to the hill. So before you leave the pod you MUST make sure that you're carrying enough minerals with you to build the first room (or two) of your base as soon as you get there, before your oxygen runs out. Also bring some ice and enough materials to build a crafting station - that way you can melt the ice into a water bottle as soon as you get your first indoor room constructed. So you will need these things:
Living Compartment + Door: 3 Iron, 2 Titanium, 1 SIlicon
Crafting Station T2: 1 Iron + 1 Silicon
Two more water bottles: 2 Ice
Two more O2 canisters: 4 Cobalt
Two storage chests: 2 Iron
Total: 6 Iron, 2 Titanium, 2 Silicon, 2 Ice, 4 Cobalt

Be sure to build your room on TOP of the hill or propped up on a tower of metal foundations, not on the sloping side of the hill or in the bottom of the lake bed. Then build a door and place it into a wall of your room. If you built your room a bit too high, build stairs attached to the bottom of the door so you can reach it. Notice how there is a little "chain" icon that pops up when the object you're trying to build is snapped in place with the object that's already there. Then go inside and build the crafting station in one corner of the room. It's small... but it's home. We'll be adding onto this as we go. And remember, this is only your FIRST base. You can build it as your permanent home... or you can think of it as a temporary outpost if you find someplace more interesting where you want your house to be later on. But either way, you'll be here for a while so might as well make it fully functional.

Open up the new crafting station and you'll notice it has a NEW BLUEPRINT: the Exoskeleton. this will give you more gear slots on your tool-belt. Let's go ahead and build it now, then equip it. Anytime you get a new blueprint from now on, it will appear in THIS crafting station but NOT in the one in your drop pod. From now on, anytime you make a higher tier piece of gear (backpack T2, etc.) you will need to UNEQUIP your current one in order to equip the second one - you can only have one of each type of tool or gear equipped. Also, the higher tier items require the lower tier version as an ingredient. So you will need to spend your T1 backpack in order to build a T2 backpack later. But for now... let's do that new exoskeleton for 1 titanium + 1 silicon + 1 magnesium. You'll also want to build a desk for 2 Iron, since in a little while we'll be building some computer terminals that look better on a desk than on the floor. Feel free to run back outside and get more minerals.

Go back to your drop pod and retrieve anything in your storage chest. Then switch to your DECONSTRUCT CHIP (using RB) and remove the chest to gain 1 iron. Carry all that stuff back to your NEW base on the hill and put it in storage there for now. Anything in storage will never rot or decay and it will be safe if you exit the game and come back later. It's just easier to store random things that you find, in case you need them later, instead of dropping everything on the ground when your backpack gets full.

While doing all of that stuff, you may have noticed the game was giving you "Low Power" warnings. So far it's fine, we haven't built anything that requires a power source (except the lights in your habitat room - once the sun goes down it'll get DARK in there). But our next project will be to build a small power farm. After that, we'll start building equipment to begin the process of terraforming the planet. But that's a job for tomorrow. Just make sure you have enough O2 canisters (2 cobalt each) and water bottles (1 ice each) to get you through another day or two, and make sure you brought your space food and lirma seeds out of the pod up to your new base.

Also, just general advice... when you're exploring and you find a chest, be sure you EMPTY it out even if you have to come back for a second trip. Then deconstruct it. This does two things: gives you some extra minerals to use, and removes the chest so you don't come back to it later thinking it is still full. Just easier for keeping things organized that way.

Day Two - Power Network

The crafting station is the only thing that will work without an external power source. So before we build anything else, we need POWER. Right now you have two options available to you - wind turbines and solar panels (solar will be unlocked pretty soon). The wind turbines are CHEAP but wow they are terrible at generating power. The solar panels you currently have available are also pretty bad, but better than wind power. You'll unlock more power generators later, so for now we just have to work with what we've got. This game has no power cables, it's all "wireless power" that covers the entire planet. So you can build your power network WHEREVER YOU WANT and it will power ALL your machines no matter how far away they are.
For now, because you still have a tiny backpack and a tiny oxygen tank, I recommend you build your first power network pretty close to your little base. And remember - STAY UP HERE ON THE PLAINS, DO NOT BUILD DOWN THE HILL IN THE OLD LAKE BED because it will flood later, and nothing will work if it is underwater. Let's start out simple, with a bunch of wind turbines. Then we'll want to build all three of the basic computer monitors back at base. The big one goes on the wall, the little ones go on the desk. It's also a good idea to build a lamp outside your base, so you can see the door better at night or during a sandstorm, so let's build one of those, too.
Wind Turbines, build 8 to get you started - 1 iron each.
Basic computer terminals, one of each - 3 iron, 3 silicon, 1 magnesium, 1 cobalt
Outside Lamp - 1 Iron, 1 Magnesium

If you click on the power screen, at this point you should be drawing a total of roughly 2 power, with somewhere around 8 power leftover. From now on, keep an eye on your power. If you build too many machines the power goes out and ALL of them stop working. So you'll have to build more power generators every so often. This computer terminal lets you keep track of how close to a low-power shutdown you are.

The other small terminal is the blueprints monitor. This is where you'll come to unlock more blueprints. As your T.I. stats get higher, you'll hit some unlocks automatically. For others, you'll need to bring data chips here and decode them to get the blueprints - these have nothing to do with your T.I. they're like "hidden secret easter egg" sort of things, but they will make your game a lot easier if you find them all quickly.

The big screen that mounts to the wall shows you how far your terraforming has progressed so far. You can see your air temperature, air pressure, and atmospheric oxygen levels on here, as well as your T.I. number. You will build a fleet of machines to increase these, and now that we have some POWER to use, we can start on that process. In your construction menu, read each building's description to see which stats it will raise. Most of them will raise one stat by a lot, then a second stat by a little bit. But the first ones that you have available are very basic, only do one stat each. Heaters raise the temperature as soon as they're built. Drills release gases from underground pockets that will increase the atmospheric pressure as soon as they're built. Oxygen can be raised by using vegetubes, but a vegetube needs to have a flower seed installed. The different kinds of seeds each give a different bonus to oxygen production. Some give an extra 25%. Some give an extra 500%. So read the seeds' item descriptions before you decide which one to use.

Go ahead and start building some of those terraforming machines now. Some of them (drills) need to be placed outdoors on level ground. Some need to be placed on a PLATFORM such as indoors, on a roof, or on top of an iron scaffolding block. For now, you'll want as many vegetubes as you can find seeds for them. Your next MAJOR goal is to unlock blueprints for the Food Grower - BEFORE you run out of space food packets. And that blueprint requires 12.00 ppt of Oxygen progression. So get to it! You should have found a Seed Lirma in your drop pod's storage. Flower seeds all look something like this - some kind of plant inside a glass jar. These are the ONLY ones that work in vegetubes. Tree seeds (unlocked MUCH later) won't work, neither will food veggie seeds which come in little foil bags. Also make five of the drills immediately so you can unlock a bigger O2 tank, allowing you to explore farther from home before you need an O2 canister.
Vegetube (build one for each flower seed that you find, up to six) - Iron + Ice + Magnesium (1 each)
Drills (5 or 6) - Titanium + Iron (1 each)
Oxygen Tank T2 - T1 oxygen tank + 1 Silicon + 1 Cobalt + 1 Titanium + 2 Magnesium
Backpack T2 - T1 backpack + 1 Iron + 1 Silicon + 1 Titanium

We don't have any Iridium yet (unless you got lucky RNG in some chests) so we can't build any heaters... but those are coming soon.

Take a moment to check your power use. If you're getting close to the limit, build a few more wind turbines. But I think you should be fine for now if you built 8 of them already. This is also a good time to add a second room onto your base. You could put more doors on it if you really want to, or the glass walls that you'll unlock in about five minutes, but for now I like to stick to the basic version in order to conserve materials until I have access to the ore extractor machines. Notice when you build a SECOND room, there is a "chain" icon if you place it beside, above, or below a room that is already built. This shows that the new room will connect by a hallway to the old room so there will not be a solid wall between them. If you don't see that "chain-link" icon, then your new room will just be a regular square block and you'll have to put a door on it in order to get in and out. Also, if you stack rooms vertically you'll need to build a LADDER in the LOWER room in order to move between them. But you don't have the blueprint for the ladder yet. So for now, just add a basic second room onto one side of your first one. Then you might need to rearrange some furniture to make space to walk through the hallway.
Spare Room - 2 iron + 1 titanium

Now that we have a T2 backpack and a T2 oxygen tank, we can walk farther from home. Which is good, because you've probably grabbed ALL the iron and silicon that were within T1 walking distance from your new base. Our next target is Iridium, which isn't TOO far away but we're not going to reach it on a single O2 tank even at T2 tank size. So now's a good time to tell you how to build a basic outpost to recover your oxygen and water levels while you travel. You'll need the following:
1 habitat room - 2 iron + 1 titanium
1 door - 1 iron + 1 silicon
1 T1 craft station - 1 iron + 1 silicon

When you're running around and you get close to empty on your water and oxygen, build a room with a crafting station inside. Make sure you have enough ice and cobalt to fill your tanks. Then when you leave, you have the option to leave the room there for next time you come this way, or deconstruct it and carry the parts with you as a portable refill station.

Anyway... we can't build any heaters without iridium. If you stand on top of the little hill by your new base, looking down at your drop pod... turn right, you'll see a rocky cliff wall. Keep turning right until you see the sand falling down in front of it. That way leads to the iridium cave, but if you're very lucky you might also find a few pieces elsewhere in blue and gold chests; iridium is the RED crystals. Once you unlock the ore extractor, that cave is where you will build them to mine for iridium, but that's for later. For now we need MORE SEEDS to build MORE VEGETUBES, don't worry too much about heaters yet.

Day 3 - First Shipwreck

If you look BEHIND your new base, in the distance you should notice a small crashed ship next to a cliff face. To the left of that is a bigger shipwreck that's farther out in the desert. To the left of that you'll see some rivers of sand falling down from the top of a rocky cliff, marking the iridium cavern. Behind those cliffs near that first little shipwreck is the area known as "the labyrinth" - a series of canyons littered with super alloy nuggets and aluminum and other minerals just lying out in the open... but it can be confusing to find your way in there. And it's difficult to get in there until later when you have bigger oxygen tank and the jetpack. So for now, our next destination will be the shipwreck in front of the labyrinth wall. Why? Because WE NEED MORE FLOWER SEEDS. We need the seeds to install into more vegetubes to make more oxygen, so we can unlock the blueprint for the Food Grower before you run out of space food packets and starve to death. So, here's what we're going to do...

Build as many vegetubes as you have flower seeds. If you build six, that should be enough. You can even build all six first and come back to activate them after you get seeds, but remember all your machines start using power as soon as you build them, even if they're not loaded or not currently doing anything. So watch your power usage. T1 vegetubes have to be built indoors - which is why I had you build that second room a few minutes ago. We only need six of them for now because by the time you will have seven seeds you'll probably unlock the T2 vegetubes which are SO MUCH BETTER than T1, so building extra T1 tubes would be a waste of time and minerals.

Our next stop will be that little shipwreck. Before you go, load up on a few things so you can build a small outpost outside the ship's cockpit (on the right side, as viewed from your base) which is where you'll enter the wreck.
1 habitat room + 1 door: 3 Iron, 1 Titanium, 1 Silicon
2 storage chests: 2 iron
T1 crafting station: 1 iron, 1 silicon
2 Windmills (to run the lights and the crafting station): 2 iron
Outdoor Light (to illuminate the habitat door during sandstorms): 1 iron, 1 magnesium
Total minerals needed: 9 iron, 1 titanium, 1 magnesium, 2 silicon
Stash an extra oxygen canister, an extra water bottle, and an extra food in the outpost
Make sure your torch and deconstruct tools are both equipped on your toolbelt
also bring 2 oxygen canisters, 2 bottles of water, and 1 or 2 space food with you before you enter the ship since you'll be in there for a little while.

You may need to make two trips to get all those materials from inside the shipwreck to the outpost, and you'll need to make around 3 trips to bring all the loot back to base after. Turn your flashlight on, and try not to get lost in there. Loot is RANDOMIZED inside shipwrecks and in chests, so you never know what you'll find in there. It isn't even generated until you approach the ship. But once you approach, anything that's lying out in the open - on the floor or on top of a desk, not in a chest - will VANISH in less than 20 minutes. So before you get close, be sure you're ready to explore the whole thing.

Go on in, with a mostly-empty backpack (except food, water, and oxygen refills). Grab everything that isn't bolted down. Some wrecks have broken steel beams blocking hallways, use your deconstruct tool to remove them (they will give you some iron, too). Big chests have all kinds of loot inside. Tiny chests usually have data chips. Bring those back to the blueprints screen at your base, where you can trade them in for secret blueprints. Those blueprints are awarded randomly, so you might get them in a different order if you start a new game later and try again. Some wrecks (not this one, but the BIG ones) also have a fusion generator inside... these are LATE-GAME things - you need to make a fusion energy crystal, insert it into the generator, and then a few doors will unlock so you can access new areas of the shipwreck later in the game. If your backpack gets full or you start running out of oxygen or water... go back to your outpost and put your loot in the chests there. Then go back into the wreck for another sweep until you have ALL the loot out of it. Remember you can also deconstruct empty chests to gain an iron ore, which can be used to rebuild the chest back at the outpost if you run out of storage space.

Once you're done in the ship, start making trips to haul all that loot back to your main base. Start with the seeds, any iridium and aluminum or other "strange" minerals, then prioritize food/O2/water next. Hopefully you found a few more seeds in there. Both flower seeds AND veggie seeds. Load all the flower seeds into vegetubes to get your atmospheric oxygen up until you unlock food grower blueprints. Then build TWO food growers in your base. Open it up and put veggie seeds in both. After a while the seeds will grow, then you click on the VEGGIE PLANT NOT THE MACHINE to harvest your veggies. You can eat ALL the veggies. Beans refill the most health, and are not used in any research later. The squash, eggplant, and mushrooms will all be used in your biolab later in the game. And there will be cooking recipes later, too... I haven't unlocked them yet myself so I don't know which veggies will make the best meals in your kitchen for late-game. You'll be stuck with raw veggies for a pretty long time. So whenever possible, eat your beans and save the other veggies for science later on.

We now have ways to refill two of your three survival needs: food by growing veggies, and oxygen by building a habitat room with a door. We still need to worry about water... and you might have noticed it's a pain in the neck hunting for ice to make water all the time. So our next MAJOR target is to unlock the atmospheric water collector blueprint. Build one of those and it generates water slowly over time - no ice required. We also want to unlock the blueprints for the Ore Extractor, which we'll need in order to avoid running out of minerals - they dig into the ground and produce resources over time. On the way to getting those, we'll unlock a bunch of other new things, too.

Day 4 - Iridium and Heaters

Stand outside the little shipwreck, looking across the open field to your base. To your right is the iridium cave, where you'll find a bunch of iridium sitting on the ground (along with a few pieces of aluminum and super alloy). To your left is a field of grey sands, with sharp metallic rocks sticking high up out of the ground. That is the aluminum field. You'll find a bunch of aluminum sitting on top of the ground over there. From now until the mid-game, pretty much everything you build (in T2 and T3) will require aluminum and/or iridium. Good thing we picked a site for our base where both of those places are so close!

By now you've probably experienced your first meteor shower. Big rocks fall from the sky, aimed in your general direction. The ground shakes, the wind howls, the dust kicks up... it's very scary. The rocks break apart on impact, and mixed in with basic useless stone you'll find a few minerals. Pick them up quickly if you want them though, because they will vanish after a few minutes. Try not to get hit by a meteor - it really hurts, you could die from it if you're not careful. To avoid the meteors, go indoors. Either in a habitat room, or in a cave, or into a shipwreck - anything with a roof will protect you. Your buildings will not be damaged by the meteors. But if you're feeling frisky, you can stay outside. This gives you a chance to run around and collect a bunch of free minerals as long as you can avoid getting flattened by a meteor strike. Certain meteors even have a little bit of aluminum in them.

Head towards the rock wall where the sand is constantly falling down. Notice how the sand here has a reddish color? It's full of iridium. You need some. You also need all the aluminum you can find. So run around the cave behind the falling sand, explore the whole thing. At the top of the cave is a giant ice block that prevents you from using the tunnel, which leads out to the sulfur fields. It's fine, when your global temperature rises high enough, the ice will melt. I like to setup an outpost near the ice block. Later, this is where you'll be mining for iridium. And using the path behind the ice is the fastest route to collect iridium, sulfur, and osmium. So it's a convenient place to put a little workshop.

Anyway... grab ALL the iridium and aluminum off the ground here. Use it to build some T1 heaters. These have to be built indoors, so attach a second room to your iridium outpost building, and fill the whole room with heaters. Remember these are here, we'll come back to dismantle them and reuse the parts later. But for now we need the heat more than the parts.

By the time you get your T1 heaters built, you've probably unlocked some better drills and vegetubes. So go tear down the old T1 stuff you built earlier, and replace it with the upgraded versions. Just bear in mind the bigger equipment will need MORE POWER!!!!! So you'll want more silicon to blast out a bunch more T1 solar panels. You can even build some T2 solar panels if you want to, but they require aluminum which is VERY RARE right now.

Speaking of aluminum (or aluminium if you're European), from your main base by the old lake bed, if you're looking out over the lake bed turn LEFT. There is an area over there that has grey sand and a bunch of spiky shiny silver rocks sticking out of the ground. That's the aluminum field, if you put an Ore Extractor on the grey sand it will mine for Aluminum. But that comes later. For now, there are a few chests out there that may have more seeds and fabric for you to grab, there is a small crashed shuttle you can explore that has four storage chests in the back end of it (and some equipment that you can come back later to dismantle once you have the T2 Deconstructor Chip), and there will be a bunch of aluminum nuggets sitting around on the ground. Grab all the aluminum you can find!! Sadly it doesn't respawn, so use it wisely.

So at this point you should have T2 (maybe even T3) drills x 6. A dozen or so T1 heaters. And T2 (maybe even T3) vegetubes x 6. If you're lucky, you've also found some GOLDEN SEEDS to put into the vegetubes. If you were less lucky, just use whatever seeds you have. (Flower seeds, that is.) Then at your main base you should also have a Crafter, some Storage, and as soon as you have the blueprint for them you need to build FOUR food growers and load them with vegetable seeds; and at least one Atmospheric Water Collector, which will produce water every few minutes. Once you get the blueprint for it unlocked, also build the Advanced Crafting Station. This lets you build Super Alloy nuggets, Iridium Rods, Uranium Rods, Rocket Engines, T4 Backpack & O2 Tank, and the JETPACK!!! And then of course build up your solar and wind power until you have roughly DOUBLE as much power as you need.

For personal equipment on your toolbelt, you should have (or be working towards) the following:
Backpack T3, O2 Tank T3, Exoskeleton T2, Constructor Chip, Deconstructor Chip, Torch Chip, Compass Chip, Mining Speed T3 Chip, and if you've found enough fabric and unlocked blueprints for them also get the T2 Agility Boots. And you should be working towards getting the T4 backpack and T4 O2 tank next. Once you have the T4 pack and tank, try to build two rocket engines and turn them into a jetpack.

Day 5 - Uranium, and Rockets

Well, you've got a decent start on improving the oxygen, air pressure, and temperature on this barren rock. By now it's probably started to rain, and you MIGHT even see some of the lakes and rivers starting to fill up. But before long you'll hit a level where your machines just aren't doing enough on their own. You'll need to seed the atmosphere by shooting ROCKETS into orbit, which then release plant spores or cause meteor showers with iridium/uranium meteors. There are even rockets that launch satellites that will map the planet's surface for you. But in order to make rockets, you'll need a lot of iridium and uranium to build rocket engines. So let's go find some uranium now. Bear in mind there is only ONE PLACE to get uranium (other than meteors and chests you'll find in shipwrecks) and it's pretty far from your current main base, and the chunks of uranium on the surface won't respawn so eventually you'll need to build some ore extractors in the uranium cave.

Make sure you have enough materials with you to build TWO "tent outposts" on the way there. Each outpost should be at least one habitat room with a door (3 Iron, 2 Titanium, 1 Silicon) and it should have a storage cabinet (3 iron), a T2 crafting station (1 Iron, 1 Silicon), a food grower preferably loaded with BEANS seeds (1 Iron, 1 Water Bottle, 1 Aluminum), and an atmospheric water collector (1 each: Iron, Silicon, Magnesium, Cobalt, Aluminum, Super Alloy) if you can afford to build one. It should also have a lamp (1 iron, 1 magnesium) outside the door. Now that you have that T4 oxygen tank you can spread your outposts out a little farther than you could on day 1. So you'll want some source of food and water at each outpost since the water meter will drop almost as fast as your O2 meter now. If you can't afford to put a water collector at each outpost, it's fine at least store a bunch of ice there to make water if you need it later. Bear in mind that the food grower uses 15 power, and the water collector uses 11. So you might also want to build 27 power at the outpost. That's equivalent to 5 T1 solar panels or 2 T2 solar panels.

Once you get to the uranium cave, you'll want to build a more permanent mini-base. It will be similar to the outposts you built along the way, but it should also contain an Advanced Crafter so you can turn the uranium ore into uranium rods, so you can conserve backpack space and bring more uranium home per trip. It also lets you build Super Alloy if you need to, which compresses one each of the Iron, Magnesium, Silicon, Titanium, Aluminum, and Cobalt into a single super alloy nugget. This may not seem like much use to you now, but after you get your ore extractors going they'll pull up a lot of "garbage" minerals along with the uranium. At that point you can start bringing aluminum over here to make some super alloy. But you don't need to do that right now.

You should also build a similar mini-base at the aluminum field. And another at the iridium cavern. Once you unlock your ore extractor blueprints you'll need to spend considerable time at each of those locations. It might help you avoid getting hopelessly lost if you build a BEACON at each mini-base that you plan on returning to pretty often. And at your main base. Beacons require 1 Titanium, 1 Silicon, and 1 Aluminum. (Are you starting to see yet how Aluminum will be your limiting resource for the early portion of the game, before you can build ore extractors?)

Again, to clarify, we'll be using TWO types of outposts from now on.

Tent Outpost

A room with a door, a T2 crafter, some storage, maybe an atmospheric water collector, a food grower (beans), a lamp outside the door, and five T1 solar panels.

Mini-base

A larger room (or multiple small rooms) with a door, a T2 crafter, some storage, an atmospheric water collector, a food grower (beans) or two, a beacon, an Advanced Crafting Station, a Recycler, a Map Screen & Unlock Screen placed on a table, more storage, even more storage LOL, a lamp outside the door, and MORE POWER - maybe a T1 nuclear reactor, or 11 T1 solar panels, or 4 T2 solar panels.

So now you're probably wondering "where exactly is the uranium cave?" Am I right? Let me give you some directions, now that you have the COMPASS chip equipped. From the shuttle wreck in the aluminum field, go EAST. Up a slight hill. There will be a rock wall to your north and another to your south, go between them. When the rock wall to your south (right) ends and you see a giant white ring on your left, turn right. There will be a crashed satellite just around the corner. Feel free to drop down and explore that while you're here. Keep heading south a little farther, and there will be a point where you'll want to drop down off of a dark brown cliff into a sandy alcove. Just a little way ahead, on your left, is a cave in the rock wall that looks like it has a soft green glow when you get close enough. That's your uranium. It is the closest place where you're guaranteed to find uranium. Build your mini-base just outside the cave. Then head in and take whatever isn't bolted to the floor. You can also leave a T1 Uranium Generator here for now.

As you exit the cave, a bit to the right and almost directly across from the cave entrance is a "shortcut path" that leads back near the aluminum fields. I'd suggest throwing a beacon on the aluminum field side of it so you can find it again later.

Also, if you're feeling extra ambitious, you can trick out your mini-base here now. These next steps are, of course, optional. And you might not have enough materials to do it all right now so you can always come back later to finish this...

• Instead of building a regular living space, build a big one. Then add a door (obviously). Build an atmospheric water collector outside, along with an outdoor lamp or two. Inside, build a desk with a map screen, a T2 crafter, an advanced crafting station, a recycler, a food grower (with bean seed) and some storage. You won't come back here until you unlock the blueprints for T2 Ore Extractors, but you can at least prepare for it now.
  
• When you get back to your home base, head into the Iridium cavern and do the same thing to your mini-base there.
  
• And once you reach the Super Alloy cave, and the Osmium Cave that lets you mine for osmium, and the Sulfur Fields, too... build the same sort of expanded mining camp there.

Remember that the Advanced Crafting Station, Recycler, Water Collector, and Ore Extractors (which you will build a bit later) require a lot of power, compared to most of the other things you've build so far. So you might need to update your power generation systems to make it all work.
Remember you have BEACONS, too.
The way beacons work: you build it, it can be vertical or horizontally stuck to a wall. There are TWO buttons on the beacon. The bottom one that looks like a ring, lets you change the COLOR of the beacon. This changes the color on the little light on top, as well as the color of the indicator on your compass. The top button that looks like "..." lets you rename the beacon. The name and distance from you will then be shown on your compass from now on. They're nice to help you find places that you might not want to lose track of.

Now that we have some uranium and a bit of iridium, we can (and should) build a rocket platform. I like to keep it near my base for easy access, but feel free to put it wherever you think a rocket launch pad would look nice. Just bear in mind it eats a LOT of power, and you only need ONE. About half of a T1 nuclear reactor should be enough to power a rocket platform.
Rocket Platform - 3 Super Alloy + 3 Iron + 3 Titanium
T1 Nuclear Reactor - 2 Bottled Water + 3 Super Alloy + 1 Uranium Rod

Day 6 - The Labyrinth, and Super Alloy, and Osmium

Now that you have a jetpack, a decent-sized backpack, and a good oxygen tank, you may be ready for THE LABYRINTH. It's loaded with super alloy and aluminum and a few other goodies (like hidden golden chests and an abandoned station you can loot). Not to mention its close proximity to some osmium. If you head back to that first shipwreck you explored near your main base, look north. That rocky wall is the outside of the labyrinth and there are several ways in. I recommend walking around the west (left) side to the back though. You'll need to setup a few "outpost tents" along the way to refill your oxygen and water but by now I'm sure you're used to that. Also make a mental note of the giant shipwreck in the desert. We'll head there in a little while, but not yet.

Since you're walking right past the big shipwreck, and you know where the iridium cavern is already, if you stand SOUTH of the rectangular bridge on the ship (the part that has a big antenna sticking up) - without getting close to it of course - and walk south towards the iridium cavern, you'll find (behind a big rust-colored rock) a secret hatch entry that leads underground. You'll want to head down there while you're out this way. If not now, then soon, because some of it becomes a pain to get to once the lakes start to form. Groundwater seeps in at that point and it just gets wet and messy. So, we might as well do it now. We'll continue to the labyrinth right after this.

As you continue around the outer wall of the labyrinth, the first alleyway you see in the rock is a decoy. There are a few minerals you can grab there, but it doesn't lead anywhere important. In this screenshot, the giant shipwreck in the desert is west of my location, to the right.

The entrance you REALLY want to the labyrinth is a series of ramps leading down to the ground level and catwalks (both metal and natural stone) criss-crossing above. This is how you reach the gold chest and the abandoned station. Some of the loot in the station is "technical debris" like computers, which you'll need to come back for later after you have the T2 Destructor Chip.
But for now, go have fun in the labyrinth and the station. Remember why you're here though; you want:
1. SEEDS
2. ALUMINUM
3. SUPER ALLOY
4. IRIDIUM or URANIUM or SULFUR or OSMIUM
5. Fabric, maybe. And space food packets, maybe.
Everything else is kind of like "meh" right now so if you can't carry everything you can build a storage chest or two and leave it here until next time you come out this way.

When you're done in the labyrinth, exit the way you came in, see the screenshot above. Then turn right (East) and head towards the cliff wall. Nestled in a corner, you'll find a cave entrance. If you're still in the early part of the game, there will be ice blocking the main cavern but you can still reach a small part of it. Come back later and the ice will melt, but the cave will end up flooded. You CANNOT build any ore extractors in here, but you will find a bunch of osmium and sulfur sitting on the ground that you can just pick up with your little handheld drill tool. And you need that osmium RIGHT THE HECK NOW. So this will be your next destination. Make sure you build a "tent" outside the cave entrance, and start with a mostly-empty backpack. You should have the blueprints for T1 ore extractors by now, and those require Osmium for you to build them. The osmium and sulfur in this cave will never respawn, so this is a one-time-only source of those. Use them wisely.
If you turn left as you exit the cave from the same place you entered, and follow this side of the canyon wall for a little while, (Careful not to fall into the Grand Canyon on the other side though!!) you should reach an area where you can get up onto a rocky platform to the right, which is the edge of the labyrinth again, there's more super alloy up there. Then the path leads back to the aluminum fields.

Now, depending how much heat you've pumped into the atmosphere so far, the cave might be blocked by glaciers. Don't worry, just keep building heaters and eventually the ice will melt. For now you can get more osmium and sulfur if you drop down (gently) into the grand canyon on the other side of this cliff, and find the cave entrance on the other side. The ice there melts faster than this ice does, so you can reach most of the osmium in there from that side even if this side is still blocked. Notice if you get close to the ice your sensors will tell you how hot it needs to be in order to melt. Check your current temperature back at base on one of your computer screens and compare it to this, that will give you an idea of how long you'll have to keep heating the planet.
For those who are not familiar with the METRIC SYSTEM, here is what the measurements mean.
1 unit (meter, or gram, or Kelvin) = 10 deci-units = 100 centi-units = 1000 milli-units = 1000000 micro-units = 1000000000 nano-units = 1000000000000 pico-units = 1000000000000000 femto-units.
This funny symbol that looks like "u" had a baby with "m" means "micro." So if your global temperature is at 5 nK then you need 1000 times that much to melt this ice.

Extra fun science fact: 0 K is called "absolute zero" because it is the LOWEST temperature possible in our universe. From 14.15 K to 20.27 K, hydrogen will be a liquid instead of a gas. Below 14.15 K, hydrogen will FREEZE. EVERYTHING ELSE in the known universe will also be frozen below 20 K... except for Helium. Helium CANNOT FREEZE, even at absolute zero temperature, unless you keep it below 1 K and then pressurize it to at least 25 atm at the same time. How crazy is that? And in this game, you're heating the planet up maybe as high as the MILLI-KELVIN (mK) range, which 1 mK = 0.001 K. Think about that.

Also, if you're in the grand canyon standing in front of the osmium tunnel, turn around and cross the canyon. There's another cave over there with iridium. And if you head north to the end of the canyon, there's a small crashed ship you can explore. But you don't have to do all that right now if you have other plans.

Okay now we'll go build some ore extractors!! The T1 version can go on "regular sand" and it will dig up the basic minerals (iron, magnesium, silicon, cobalt, and titanium). It can go on the grey sands and it will mostly dig up aluminum. Or it can go on the red sands and it will mostly dig up iridium. It CANNOT dig up osmium, sulfur, uranium, or super alloy. You need the T2 ore extractor for those ones. Ore extractors are HUNGRY FOR POWER, so you'll also need to upgrade your power supply now. You should have some uranium now... try building a few nuclear generators. Just don't use all your uranium because we need some for rockets next. If you run out of osmium there is one more cave we can try but it is also blocked by ice. It's the cave on top of the hill near that big shipwreck west from where your drop pod crashed in the old lake bed. Go check it out, if that ice is melted already then you can grab more osmium, meaning you can build more ore extractors.

For now, you want to balance your POWER with your EXTRACTORS and ROCKETS. Until you get T2 ore extractors it will be a delicate balance. So let's head back to base and I'll help you through that before I leave you to it.

Day 7 - T1 Ore Extractors, Osmium, and Super Alloy

When you get back to base, build a Rocket Platform immediately. Then update your power system to keep all your machines running. It's built! You can fire off rockets if you climb the ladder all the way to the top of the platform and use the computer there to build a rocket, then hit the red button to launch it. But right now we're not interested in rockets just yet. We just had to get the platform built.

Now go to the Iridium Cavern. Built TWO T1 ore extractors.

Head to the Aluminum Field. Build TWO T1 ore extractors.

Back at the Iridium Cavern, open the chest on the ore extractor and take whatever you find inside. It will find iridium sometimes, but also some other minerals. What I like to do is build two extractors side by side so they link up, then put a grid framework behind each one, and build a storage locker on each grid foundation. Then I can dump my useless minerals in there until I'm ready to come back for them. Also, build an advanced crafting station in the room nearby; you can haul aluminum over here and use it to turn all those "garbage minerals" into super alloy. The screenshot below shows the ore extractor's menu screen. It works like a chest that spawns minerals every so often. NOTE: I am using a MOD in my game that makes identical items stack in all chests, my backpack, and ore extractors. Just to make it a bit easier to get through the game without too much running back and forth to carry eight pieces of ore across the whole planet LOL. Your screen won't have items stacked.

Now head to the back of the iridium cavern, the southwest side. There should be an exit (if enough ice has melted) that leads into a sandy zone with yellow gas. This is the Sulfur Field. Your T1 extractor can't mine for sulfur, you need a T2... but if you run southeast across the field you'll find another little cavern on the other side. That leads into an OSMIUM CAVERN, where later you'll use T2 ore extractors to mine for osmium. Right now (if enough ice has melted) you can run around in there and collect a bit of osmium off the ground. The other end of this cave leads to the giant shipwreck on the hill overlooking that lake bed where you crash landed.

Back at the iridium cavern, exit out the northern side, towards that giant shipwreck in the sand dunes. Turn left at the exit and hug the rock wall for a while heading west. Eventually you'll see what appears to be "natural architecture" pillars in front of a cave entrance. If you turn around with your back to the rock wall, you'll be looking straight at the front of the big shipwreck. When you get a T2 ore extractor blueprint, you can come back here and mine for super alloy!! For now, go in and clear it out. Take all the super alloy off of the ground. Make a mental note of the big, sealed door in here, too.
Also, remember to build a little mining camp outside similar to what you did at the aluminum and iridium and uranium sites. If you keep exploring to the west, you'll find a wrecked satellite and then a nice little river valley.
And here's another view of the super alloy cave & a path to the sulfur fields, seen from the nose of the big shipwreck.

One more stop we want to make before we get around to rockets. Start from the Aluminum Fields, and head south. You'll go past some big shipping containers full of loot. You'll also go past the entrance to the narrow path that leads to the uranium mine. When you hit a rock wall blocking your path, you could turn right and head through some big spiky rocks back to the old lake bed (which is by now probably an actual lake). But instead, find the cave in the rock wall that is full of osmium. You can build T2 Ore Extractors here later.
The other side of the cave is another desert area. If you explore there thoroughly you'll find a group of abandoned buildings, including a hatch door that leads to an underground shelter where you'll find more information about the history of this planet.

Once you have some osmium & super alloy in hand, head back to the ore extractors in the aluminum field and take their aluminum home with you. Then head to the iridium cavern and grab the iridium from them, turn it into iridium rods.

Back at home base, build two more T1 ore extractors nearby. These will mine for the standard minerals. It's good to have a steady supply of them coming in. Just stick them in storage, or turn them into super alloy, unless you need some for a specific project. Then double check your power supply. Make sure you're generating enough power to run everything that you've built so far, plus a little bit extra. BE CAREFUL - never use your last two pieces of uranium because you can't get any more unless you launch a uranium rocket!! And now... the moment you've all been waiting for... we get to launch some rockets!!

Day 8 - ROCKETS!!

At the advanced crafting station, build some rocket engines. Start with six of them. Take those over to the rocket launch pad, build a grid foundation next to the stairs leading up to it and put a couple of storage lockers on it. Dump the rocket engines in storage for now. Go back to your main storage and grab the following materials, then also dump them into the storage locker near the rocket launch pad. We're going to rapid-fire launch these first few so we're just getting everything ready first.

Now let me explain how the rockets work. You use the computer screen at the top of the launch pad to build a certain type of rocket. Then you hit the red button on the panel to launch it. It takes a moment for it to fully lift off. DO NOT build another rocket until the current one is actually in orbit!! Weird things, possibly dangerous things, could happen if you do.
See? I tried to build a rocket while there was METEOR DEBRIS cluttering the launch pad, and THIS happened. LOL. You will still get the full effect of the rocket as if it flew the right direction, but this is just ridiculous. Since it takes a while for meteor debris to vanish, the best way to handle this situation is dismantle the launch pad, go find another big, clear patch of ground, rebuild it over there, and then you can safely (and correctly) launch another rocket.

Here are the different rockets that are probably available to you right now:

Name	Purpose	Ingredients
Asteroid Attraction Rocket	uranium meteor shower + heat growth rate x10	rocket engine, 3 cobalt, 2 super alloy
Magnetic Field Protection Rocket	iridium meteor shower + pressure growth rate x10	rocket engine, 3 silica, 2 super alloy
T1 GPS Satellite	activates the map screens	rocket engine, Compass Chip, 2 super alloy
T2 GPS Satellite	improvements to the map screen	rocket engine, 2 compass chip, 3 super alloy
Mapping Information Rocket	shows points of interest on map screens	rocket engine, compass chip, 2 osmium, super alloy rod

So what you want to do, with your limited amount of uranium and osmium, is launch these rockets, in this specific order...

1. T1 Map Satellite (now you can build a Map Screen anywhere and use it to view a regional map)
   
2. T2 Map Satellite (map screen has better resolution and zoom)
   
3. Asteroid Attraction Rocket
   
4. Asteroid Attraction Rocket
   
5. Magnetic Field Protection Rocket
   
6. Asteroid Attraction Rocket
   
7. Magnetic Field Protection Rocket
   
8. Magnetic Field Protection Rocket

Remember a rocket engine requires 2 uranium ore to build. So until you can build a T2 Ore Extractor in the Uranium Cave, if you ever start running low on uranium you should save your last 2 uranium for a rocket engine, then build the Asteroid Attraction rocket to get more uranium FROM OUTER SPACE. In fact, I'd say save your last FOUR pieces of uranium because sometimes you just have terrible luck and the uranium meteor might land in a spot where you can't reach it. If you have nothing else you can dismantle to get the uranium parts back, then your game is basically over if you ever totally run out of uranium... you'll have to wait (perhaps WEEKS) until the game randomly sends a uranium meteor shower down. So I always keep a small stash of uranium ore in a cabinet right next to my advanced crafting station, and I NEVER use that uranium for anything except rocket engines, and I ALWAYS replace it immediately after I use it.

If you build a rocket that causes a meteor shower, be quick about picking up the results. In about five minutes the broken rocks will vanish. Another 2 minutes and the ore from the asteroid will also vanish.

Later, you'll get rockets that spread plant spores and such. After firing one of those, go run around the world and look for plants that bloom to give you special seeds!! But that comes later... not a lot later though.

Also, now that you have regular access to iridium and aluminum (and you can make your own super alloy if you need some) you should build MORE MACHINES to terraform the planet. Get some grass spreaders going for more oxygen. Build more T3 drills and T3 heaters for pressure and heat, too.

Day 9 - basic biochemistry

Before we get into biochemistry and botany, now is a good time for you to go run around the world and find a spot that looks cozy for you to build a permanent home for yourself. That site will be the hub for all of your crafting, rocketry, storage, etc. for the rest of the game. Of course, you are also VERY MUCH allowed to build 100 smaller outpost bases instead of one big central factory/depot location. Whatever you like, do that. But the reason why I suggest you get stabilized somewhere is because we're about to build some pretty big buildings, and then we'll start planting flowers and trees in a little while. And it's kind of a pain in the butt to tear it all down and rebuild it somewhere new later. So I say pick a spot now and then you won't have to move it again... unless you want to.

Got a good spot picked out? Got your old base converted into the new one? Or are you leaving the old base intact and just starting fresh elsewhere? Or are you happy with your original spot near the lake?

Build some Grass Spreaders. They require a lirma seed for each one (to build it, not in its inventory) but they produce a lot of oxygen and a little bit of biomass. You can group them together on your front lawn, or spread them around all over the world... but it's better to have them close together for now in case you want to deconstruct them later to get those lirma seeds back.
Wait for the TI to go up enough that you unlock blueprints for the biolab and the biodome. I like to build 2 biodomes and 1 biolab. Because the biodomes give you a decent amount of oxygen (plus they just look cool). And because I'm a little bit of a madman MWAHAHAHahahahahahHAHAHAA I build a small tower on my base, the top of it being a biolab. Then I attach a biodome on each side so it looks like a great big...
Anyway, moving on...

Build some more Food Growers. I'd say about 16 total if you have the parts for them all. You want four of each veggie seed growing (beans, squash, mushroom, and eggplant) since we're going to use the produce to make BIOCHEMISTRY items like a mad scientist next. (You might need to add a few more T2 solar panels or another T1 nuclear reactor to keep your power stable after this.) As you can see here, I like to put my veggies in my biolab because it just looks cool. Then I build some storage near the biolab door to store them in.

Your next goal is to make some of these; this will require you to make use of your new biolab facility:
Bioplastic - silicon + water bottle + 2 mushrooms
Algae Generator - super alloy + magnesium + eggplant + bottled water + bioplastic
Bacteria Sample - 3 algae + 3 bottled water
Explosive Powder - 2 sulfur + iridium
Fertilizer - 3 algae + 2 eggplant + sulfur
T2 Biodome - 2 fertilizer + 2 bacteria samples + sulfur + super alloy
T2 Algae Grower -

You'll want to build about 4 of the algae generators. Maybe even 5. They MUST go in open water, like in a lake or wide/deep river. If you put them too close to shore, you'll lose about half of the algae that should grow, which defeats the point of them. Then you'll need to swim underwater and grab the long tendrils of algae that grow down into the water around the machine. So you'll need a few bioplastic for this; I hope you have a few mushroom seeds!
The explosive powder is used in the T2 nuclear reactors, as well as a few other things later. Just make a few and start stockpiling it for now.
The Fertilizer is used in the T2 Biodome, as well as some other agricultural stuff later.
The bacteria sample is used for several fun things later on, as well as the T2 biodome.
The T2 biodome makes tree bark, which can then be used to make tree seeds later. It also generates A WHOLE LOT of oxygen, and a decent amount of plants for biomass. It does take a whopping amount of power though. I like to start by building 2 of these.
Once you have about 8 fertilizer and 8 bioplastic saved up, go ahead and tear down your T1 algae growers and replace them with the T2 version. These make more algae, more oxygen, and more plants for biomass. They also use about twice as much power as the T1 version though. Remember you get the resources back when you dismantle those T1's, which makes the actual price of building the T2 seem a little cheaper.
I think pretty soon you'll also unlock a blueprint for a Lake Water Collector. This does exactly what it says on the box: put it in a lake and it filters the lake water to make some bottled water for you to drink. These are totally optional since you already have the atmospheric water collector, but they seem to collect water faster. So maybe build a few near your biochemistry lab & vegetable farm since a lot of the recipes for that stuff requires bottled water.

Here are a couple of screenshots from the algae grower (T1) so you know what to expect. The farmable algae only grows underwater, so if there is dirt or rocks in the way it won't grow or it will but you won't be able to reach it. You must put it someplace that you can swim underneath to harvest it.


Later, you'll unlock flower spreaders that make flowers grow in a small radius (these need flower seeds installed, similar to the vegetubes except the plants are outdoors now). And then you'll get tree spreaders that are similar but they will require TREE seeds that you can collect in shipwrecks or make them yourself using bark and a special DNA machine that you'll unlock later in the game. You'll even get a new rocket that causes special moss and flowers to grow around the world. When you launch one, go explore to find those new flowers - they have SPECIAL SEEDS you can harvest.

MUCH later, you'll start to unlock similar technologies for insects (butterflies and bees), fish, frogs, and even mammals!

Day 10 - mid-game

By now I hope you've realized that my chapter headings "Day X" don't really mean it's been that many days. LOL. I'm sure you've spent more than ten days to get this far.

Your next major goals are:

1. work on increasing your BIOMASS using grass and algae
   
2. work on increasing your PRESSURE and unlock the Ore Extractor T2
   (For the next while, until you unlock Pulsar Quartz, your progress will be limited largely by your supply of Osmium, Iridium, and Super Alloy. Meanwhile your electric power grid will be limited by your supply of Uranium. So try to balance these resources in particular.)
   
3. start mining for Osmium
   
4. start mining for Uranium
   
5. start mining for Sulfur, which is mainly used for biology projects
   
6. add T2 miners on Iridium and Aluminum mining sites
   
7. start mining for Iron just to make sure you always have a supply available
   (Just put an Ore Extractor (any tier) on any dirt that is NOT in a special resource zone and it will dig for iron, titanium, silicon, magnesium, and cobalt.)
   
8. increase your fleet of T4 heaters and drills
   
9. build several T2 biodomes for more oxygen (and tree bark)
   
10. MORE FLOWERS
    
11. MORE ALGAE
    
12. start growing trees
    
13. start collecting Zeolite, maybe put a T2 miner in the zerolite cave
    (if you start from the Sulfur Field, go into the nearby blue cave where your Osmium mine is. Turn right, there is a path over there leading to another cavern - keep going until you find a small pond inside the cave. This is the Zeolite Cave where your Ore Extractor (T2 required) will mine for Zeolite.)
    
14. switch over to FUSION energy generators
    
15. MORE ROCKETS
    
16. MORE TREES
    
17. MORE T4 HEATERS AND DRILLS
    
18. Build some Gas Extractors to start getting Methane, for more advanced biology projects
    
19. EVEN MORE ROCKETS

Seriously though, rockets!!!

Anyway... we've made it out of the early game!! I've shown you how to survive by making oxygen, water, and food. I've shown you how to gather minerals by hand and turn them into tools and buildings. I've shown you how to build mining machines to collect minerals for you. I've shown you how to build machines to terraform the planet. I've shown you how to manage your power grid. I've shown you how to grow your first little garden. I've shown you the first few locations where you can find some archeology and history of this barren rock. I've even shown you how to launch rockets and check your in-game emails.

The rest is up to you. Exploration is half the fun in this game, and now that you know the basics you can experiment and tweak your world in whatever way tickles your fancy. There is still much to discover, so I'll leave you to it.

Farewell, Convict GP-8971-L. I'm sure you'll make us all FILTHY STINKING RICH -- ahem, I meant proud. I'm sure you'll make us all proud by converting this barren rock into a lush paradise ripe for colonization. This is your friendly Izitial Prime sector Sentinel Corp account manager, signing off.

Day 1000000 - end game.

I haven't reached this point in the game yet. I just started playing the game for the first time since early access when they first added insects to the game. So there's a lot of late-game content that I just haven't seen yet, which I can't write about yet. I'm playing through the game again now, in "full release" version 1.0, but this is as far as I intend to go with this guide. I want to leave things for you to discover and explore for yourself, too.

But there are different endings you can get, depending on a choice you'll make near the end of the game. Luckily someone else has written a nice guide that will help you figure out how to unlock all three of the different endings for the game.
Find that guide by clicking here. If you want to unlock all three endings on a single playthrough, save your game before you reach that critical decision point. Then get one ending. Don't save your game again, just re-load it and pick the other choice this time.

Also, keep an eye out for more game updates because later this year they're going to release a MULTIPLAYER feature (co-op style) as well as a feature including MAMMALS added to the ecosystem. Won't that be fun!!

Map Coordinates

Now that we have some GPS rockets and a map screen, I guess I should tell you how the coordinate system works. You'll see your position at the bottom left of the screen...
LAT:HGT:LONG
The first number is your latitude. This works the way you'd expect, if you go north the number gets bigger. If you go south, the number gets smaller.
The second number is your height. Again, it works as expected. If you go up, it gets bigger. Go down, and it gets smaller.
The third number is your longitude. It works the OPPOSITE way from regular maps though. If you go west, it gets bigger. If you go east, it gets smaller.

What this means is the "coordinate origin" or "zero point" of the map is in the southeastern corner. I'm not suggesting you should go there... just stating a mathematical fact. In practical terms what this sort of means is you can think of it as if you are in the NORTHWESTERN hemisphere of the planet (similar to if you are standing in the United States on Earth). The equator is south of you, and you can imagine the longitude numbers all have a negative sign on them because you're west of the zero line (i.e. GMT on Earth is zero, so everything east of it is positive and everything west of it is negative; you're west of the GMT line here).

Secret Bonus Chapter: Zeolite, and Recycling

Once your PLANTS and BIOMASS reach a certain level, you'll start to see vines breaking through the soil all over the place. Look for these. They usually knock some ZEOLITE up from underground. Zeolite is a white crystal, used to make a few tools and the gas extractor that produces methane, as well as the DNA extractor that you need for making TREE SEEDS. And some other stuff.


These Zeolite roots DO NOT RESPAWN, so once you grab that chunk of zeolite it never grows back. BUT there is a certain cave (hint: it's accessible from the sulfur fields, and a small tunnel connects it to the osmium cave there) that has a TON of zeolite all over the ground. In that cave, you can mine for more (infinite supply) zeolite by building a T2 Ore Extractor mining machine. Then you just have to remember to come back and empty the mine's storage every once in a while to keep digging for more zeolite.

And remember: you can demolish buildings for a FULL REFUND of the materials. So if you built a T2 Nuclear Generator and find out later that you need that uranium back for another project, NO PROBLEM. Just tear the building down. That gives you the uranium rods back. Then you can put the uranium rods into a Recycler machine to turn it back into uranium ore nuggets. The recycler works on any manufactured item in your backpack: rocket engines, bacteria samples, super alloy, mineral rods, you can even turn an O2 canister back into cobalt.

[Mr. Moyer]

I haven't played this game in a few months, so I'm still not sure.

[Schmingit]

is there any new info about the explosives?

[Mr. Moyer]

Yeah then that is new from the most recent update. Which I haven't had a chance to play with yet.

[craig]

FYI Explosives must have just been added, because they do exist in the game. I've found two spots so far that specifically say "Must be removed by explosives" or something like that.

[Mr. Moyer]

For the debris at the uranium mine... try using your Deconstructor Tool. It's specifically designed to remove debris. I don't remember if there is any such debris in front of the cave entrance there or not. But basically any time you see debris switch to your deconstructor and it will break it down into iron ore for you. Advanced versions of the deconstructor tool will also break down the big computer servers.

[Mr. Moyer]

Been a while since I spent time with this game but from what I recall my own trading rocket can only take certain items up, and brings trading coins back. Then I can use the console to spend trading coins to purchase a few neat things which if I remember right will be delivered back to me next time I send up a trading rocket and it returns.

I haven't played ALL of the newer content yet. They might have added "trade with others" as a new feature at some point and I never noticed it or still need something else to unlock it.

[Mr. Moyer]

There are multiple uranium mines. There are no explosives. What you're seeing might be GLACIAL ICE, which will melt once you get your global temperature up. I've never gone out there while I still had ice so I'm not sure if there would be ice blocking the entrance or not.

[rionka]

hey, this is such a nice guide! i just reached the blue sky. i found this game through Evan and Katelyn gameplay and it's awesome. Thanks, i'm gonna study more now!

[Dragmora]

The uranium mine seems to be behind rubble that needs explosives.

[MarekDeMalek]

This guide is great, thank you. I've already played well into the mid game, but it was fun to read through.
Have you played to the point where you get the trading rocket? My daughter and I are both playing, however on her trading rocket, she has a button that allows her to trade with other terraformers. I don't have that button and I can't figure out why!
Its seriously messing with my OCD!!
Any ideas would be greatly appreciated!