Beginner's guide to One Lonely Outpost

First of all, this is a WIP. There might be plot spoilers, though I am going to cover them up.

I am new to the game myself, and I am slowly going through the motions. However, the lack of basic info and guides ticks me off, so I decided to compile whatever little knowledge I have for other beginners to use.

Feel free to comment with your own tips or info I'm missing, and I'll update what I can.

Information based on the version from 13th of December 2024.

(English is not my first language - feel free to point out mistakes)

Starting tips and tricks

Seasons

The game basically has 4 seasons. The 5th season is only at the start, before you terraform the planet. You won't be experiencing it more than once.

Your crops are seasonal, which means they need to be planted in appropriate seasons or else they won't grow.

Each season lasts 24 days. Each week is 8 days. On the 8th day most shops are closed (think of it as a Sunday, no one is working). You can, however, order from shops 'online'. More about that later.

• Pre-season (only at the start)
  
• Vernal (spring)
  
• Radiant (summer)
  
• Autumnal (fall)
  
• Boreal (winter)

Don't rush

At the start, let the tutorial guide you. Don't rush to mine everything at once. Wait for the mission to pop up that tells you to mine and look for artifacts to earn omnistars.

Once you build a forge, don't melt all your ore - you'll need some raw materials for quests.

Ore in the overworld is a FINITE resource. Some nodes pop up from time to time, but not nearly enough for your needs. So don't use up all of it until you unlock the mines.

Making money

You earn a weekly wage from your corporate overlords, however, it's chump change. You make your money by selling crops, collectibles and crafted items.

Once a season you get a community quest which brings in a bit more money, makes colonists happy and may result in other perks (like getting and item or a recipe)

How do I buy things?

You will use terminal in your spaceship to order supplies and they will arrive on the next day. Your computer is broken, but Aaron, the first colonist, will fix it for you.

You can buy items from colonists who run shops, OR you can order them directly from your relationships menu. It's convinient when shops are closed on the last day of the week. Items bought from relationships menu arrive on the next day.

How do I sell things?

You need to unlock community box (happens as you progress through plot/time).

Do dust piles respawn?

They pop back up randomly over time, mostly seem to spawn during windy days.

What do I do with artifacts?

Artifact like datalogs, fossils and rusted scrap can be found in dust piles. You can read the datalogs for the plot/lore purposes. Currently I haven't discovered any other use of those items, so I stashed them in a chest.

Surveying the land

On new maps you will have a side quest of discovering survey points (usually up to 3). Finding those points and interacting with them will uncover map details for you (you can look up what colonists and resources there are).

In crystal forest you will be stuck on 1/3 survey points until you unlock town hall and access upgrades there.

Terraforming stages

As you progress with plot you will find a way to terraform the planet. Here are the stages:

• Breathable atmosphere (you no longer need a helmet)
  
• Raised temperature (ice melts, fresh water lakes, rain and start of plant life)
  
• Fauna (insects, fish, land animals)

Known bugs

No, keymapping changes don't stick around. They reset every time you close the game.

Walk/run setting also doesn't save. You need to toggle run each time you start the game (left shift).

Haven't had thunderstorms yet, but there are reports of them being horribly bugged and destroying structures. If you get a thunderstorm basically back up your save and go to sleep without going outside.

Colonists

Colonists show up gradually as you progress through the game - either by doing quests or just as time passes. They each have likes and dislikes (which I am slowly discovering) and failing to fullfill community quests (one per season, it seems, unless things will change later) will result in them starving and being unhappy with you. (apparently, haven't tested this yet).

You know the drill. Talk to them every day, do their quests, pick right dialogue options and gift them stuff they like to increase relationships (and romance). Giving gifts on birthday boosts relationship (and gets you an achievement).

There is one special colonist I won't mention here because it's a huge spoiler for plot.

Here are the colonists.

QWERTY

Your faithful robo-cat who has a certain limited amount of storage you can access by talking to it. Later in game the storage gets a slight upgrade (plot-related event).

ROMANCE: No. It's your robot cat. How would that even work? (You know what, don't answer that)

WHERE TO FIND: Always running around behind you.

SHOP: No

Birthday	4 / Boreal
Likes	Human / ? / ?
Dislikes	? / ? / ?
Hates	Food

AARON

An electrical engineer. The first colonist to join you on Calypso. Also known as 'that cyborg guy'. He clearly talks to much about his family.
(Yes, I am still romancing him. Dude has robo arms.)

ROMANCE: Yes.

WHERE TO FIND: Usually during the week in his spaceship/shop in Seaside Nexus.

SHOP: Yes (open 9:30-17:00, closed on Homeday)

Birthday	12 / Vernal
Likes	? / ? / ?
Dislikes	Soup / ? / ?
Hates	? / ? / ?

JIM-BOB

A mechanical engineer. His parents apparently couldn't agree on one name.
Acts as a general store - you can buy useful things from him, such as sprinklers, water pumps, some seeds, recipes and various odds and ends.

ROMANCE: No.

WHERE TO FIND: Usually during the week in his spaceship/shop in Seaside Nexus. When he's not at shop counter he can be found upstairs.

SHOP: Yes (open 10:00-17:00, closed on Homeday)

Birthday	21 / Radiant
Likes	Organic / Plant / Savory
Dislikes	Sour / ? / ?
Hates	? / ? / ?

ELISHA

A mechanic / insect specialist. Gets dragged around the cosmos with Jim-Bob and arrives together with her dad. Lowkey annoying but that's just how kids are.

ROMANCE: No. (She's a child, get out)

WHERE TO FIND: Usually during the week either in her spaceship in Seaside Nexus (ground floor and upstairs) or running around the intersection in Nereid Canyon.

SHOP: Yes. Only through relationship screen. She sells bugs.

Birthday	1 / Radiant
Likes	Alien / Bug / ?
Dislikes	? / ? / ?
Hates	? / ? / ?

DUYI

Geologist/Metallurgist (and possibly a ninja, from the way he disappeared before devs fixed the bug). He will unlock the mines for you. Sells ores in his shop.
(Not gonna lie, I end up calling him DIY or DUI most of the time)

ROMANCE: No.

WHERE TO FIND: Usually during the week in his spaceship/shop in Innana Falls.

SHOP: Yes (open 8:00-13:00 and 15:00-17:00, closed on Homeday)

Birthday	18 / Vernal
Likes	Human / ? / ?
Dislikes	? / ? / ?
Hates	? / ? / ?

CUCKOO CHUCK

The resident crazy guy who just shows up one day like a racoon going through your trash. I have no idea how he got on the planet.

ROMANCE: No. (WHY would you want to???)

WHERE TO FIND: Usually during the week he hangs out on the beach in Seaside Nexus.

SHOP: No

Birthday	5 / Autumnal
Likes	? / ? / ?
Dislikes	? / ? / ?
Hates	? / ? / ?

EVE

Xenoarcheologist dispatched to research aliens.
(Yes, I do call her 'Discount Liara')

ROMANCE: Yes.

WHERE TO FIND: Usually during the week in her spaceship in Nereid Canyon.

SHOP: No

Birthday	17 / Autumnal
Likes	? / ? / ?
Dislikes	? / ? / ?
Hates	? / ? / ?

LINNY

Fisherwoman who shows up once you unlock aquatic life. She sells 'piranha drone' blueprint for fishing.
(Is it just me or she is imposible to catch up to when she walks?)

ROMANCE: Yes.

WHERE TO FIND: Usually during the week in her spaceship/shop in Innana Falls.

SHOP: No

Birthday	10 / Radiant
Likes	? / ? / ?
Dislikes	? / ? / ?
Hates	? / ? / ?

DIRK

Vet/biology expert who arrives once you reach 'land animals' stage of terraforming. Tattoos and accent make him edgy, I guess.

ROMANCE: Yes.

WHERE TO FIND: Usually during the week in his spaceship in Innana Falls.

SHOP: No

Birthday	8 / Boreal
Likes	Alien / ? / ?
Dislikes	Plant / ? / ?
Hates	? / ? / ?

SALLY

Psychiatrist and first responder. Don't know much about her yet.

ROMANCE: Yes.

WHERE TO FIND: Usually during the week in her spaceship in Seaside Nexus.

SHOP: No

Birthday	3 / Vernal
Likes	? / ? / ?
Dislikes	? / ? / ?
Hates	? / ? / ?

Crops

Crops need to - obviously - be watered, by using your spray tool (key: C). You refill your water tank first by mining ice crystals, and later on directly from lakes (by using enter key).

Later on during the game they might gets pests, which you will blow away with your gust tool (you'll get a free upgrade for it automatically). Pests look like tiny white dots swirling around the plant (see screenshot below).

When you plant a new crop for the first time, every grow stage of the plant will have a question mark above it. Interact with plant to earn omnistars and learn more about it.


You till the land with matter manipulator (key: Z), and erase tilling by gust tool (key: V). Just be careful because gust blower affects a certain area and it can blow and pick up seeds you planted (or you can use it to recover seeds if you planted them in a wrong spot).

You will unlock water pumps and sprinklers pretty fast, and sprinklers water area in a really... weird pattern, so I reccomend getting into habit of plating your seeds in a way that fits the shape.


To use sprinkers, they need to be in range of water pump. For water pump to work it needs to be in range of water source and have source of electricity (solar panel). You can extend the range of water pump by placing another pump in it's range - essentially connecting them in one long pipeline.

How do I get seeds?

You will recieve some first seeds as part of plot. Later you can buy them from online catalogue on your terminal and some from Jim-Bob.

What about alien seeds?

Those can be found by blowing away dust piles. As far as I can tell, harvesting an alient plant you've grown gives you back one seed upon harvest. Later on, when you achieve planetary plant growth, harvestable flowers will bloom in different sections of the planet.

Any special seeds?

Five seeds can only be achieved through gene splicing. See the 'gene splicing' section for more info.

I forgot which crop I planted...

You can look up your omninac encyclopedia, each plant has 'stages' button where you can see how they look like in different growth stages.

Can I grow plants out of season?

Only in an incubator.

Plant list (part 1)

(This section below is a WIP)

~*~*~ ALL-YEAR PLANTS ~*~*~

Name	Image	Seed price	Days to grow	Number of crops	Sell price	How to get
Carrot		25	5	2-4	12	Bought
Potato		26	7	2-4	14	Bought
Bok choy		28	9	1-3	26	Bought
Haygrass		40	5	?	?	Bought
Calypso thistle		X	5	1	5	Gathered (flower)
Astrom blush		X	5	1	5	Gathered (flower)
Crystal tears		X	5	5-6	?	Gathered (flower)
Crystalcactus		X	5	3	?	Gathered (flower, Crystal Forest only)
Crystalline thorn		X	5	1	20	Gathered (flower)
Jewelfruit		X	11	1	30	Gust tool (crop)
Milkroot		X	15	2-4	4	Gust tool (crop)
Noah nut		X	11	3-5	9	Gust tool (crop)

~*~*~MULTIPLE SEASONS PLANTS ~*~*~

Name	Image	Seasons	Seed price	Days to grow	Number of crops	Sell price	How to get
Taro		Vernal, Radiant, Autumnal	80	5	2-3	34	Bought
Wheat		Vernal, Radiant	80	13	?	25	Bought
Moon flower		Vernal, Autumnal, Boreal	x	5	?	10	Gathered (flower)
Nova pop		Pre-season, Autumnal, Boreal	x	5	3-12	2	Gust tool (crop)

~*~*~ VERNAL (SPRING) PLANTS ~*~*~

Name	Image	Seed price	Days to grow	Number of crops	Sell price	How to get
Garlic		34	9	?	34	Bought
Green tea		34	15	10-15	?	Bought
Raspberry		65	11	20-30	5	Bought
Rice		40	17	3-5	30	Bought
Soybean		75	9	15-20	8	Bought

~*~*~ RADIANT (SUMMER) PLANTS ~*~*~

Name	Image	Seed price	Days to grow	Number of crops	Sell price	How to get
Bell pepper		25	5	2-5	10	Bought
Chili pepper		25	5	2-9	9	Bought
Coffee bean		20	5	4-8	2	Bought
Corn		150	8	3-5	55	Bought
Mint		40	5	8-10	4	Bought
Purple grape		30	5	3-5	10	Bought
Sunflower		30	5	3-5	10	Bought
Tomato		45	5	3-6	9	Bought
Watermelon		90	5	1	120	Bought

Plant list (part 2)

~*~*~ AUTUMNAL (FALL) PLANTS ~*~*~

Name	Image	Seed price	Days to grow	Number of crops	Sell price	How to get
Blueberry		15	5	5-10	2	Bought
Onion		60	5	1	70	Bought
Pinto bean		30	5	1-5	10	Bought
Pumpkin		100	5	1	140	Bought
Strawberry		35	5	4-10	5	Bought
Sugarcane		100	13	1-3	140	Bought

~*~*~ BOREAL (WINTER) PLANTS ~*~*~

Name	Image	Seed price	Days to grow	Number of crops	Sell price	How to get
Beetroot		50	7	?	?	Bought
Cabbage		40	9	1-3	80	Bought

Materials, ores and crafting

Bugs and fish

Animals

Cooking

Gene splicing

At some point in the game you will recieve blueprint for gene splicer.


To craft it you'll need:

• 15 steel ingot
  
• 2 basic circutry
  
• 3 peridot
  
• 5 alexandrite

You will, of course, need to provide electricity source (solar panel).

To be honest, for now mixing genes is a trial-and-error process. It seems you can combine anything that has DNA - plants, seeds, animal products, bugs, fish, etc.

Spliced plants can be grown only in incubator.

There are 5 unique crops you can get from splicer. Here are some possible combinations.

Eldritch Cactus Seed
Easiest way to do it is just throwing in single carrot seed pack into splicer.

Coco Cone Seed
Novapop seed + Tomato Seed
Novapop seed + Rice Seed

Giant Turnip Seed
Novapop Seed + Coco Cone Seed + Soybean Seed
Novapop Seed + Cabbage Seed
Milkroot Seed + Gravity Fruit Seed

Gravity Fruit Seed
Calypso Thistle Seed + Giant Turnip Seed
Calypso Thistle Seed + Gravity Fruit Seed
Giant Turnip Seed + Jewelfruit Seed
Giant Turnip Seed + Wheat


(credit to Lufreine from Discord for figuring out the combos)

[SakuraENJ]

Um Bluebottle you were really close. For the brain crop it's actually red cabbage, novapop, and green tea seeds. The green tea does look a lot like the mint so I can see the confusion.

Also another suggestion for new players is if you are having troubles picking up a fully grown crop, try using your upgraded gust tool on it. It might have bugs on it and is preventing you from doing that. I got really confused the first couple of times this happened because the bugs are sometimes hard to see so I didn't notice it, and the next day the crop dies if you don't pick it up. I hope that made sense.

Thank you for the guide Eskarine, it's been pretty helpful for me. :)

[rbarwick97]

Thank you!!!!!

[Pixelated Crustacean]

Do we know if we can sell secrets yet or still not? I noticed they are 2 star so was wondering if they will respawn if there's none currently in chest/inventory.

[Bluebottle]

i got a brain crop from combining mint, red cabbage and novapop seeds. i was trying to make a giant turnip and forgot i had mint in there lmao

[Charasan]

You can make all 5 variants of genetic plants by using a base of pinto bean seeds and cabbage seeds. Experiment with the 3rd one and you'll get all 5 easily.

[Spirit_OK]

The blueprints bought from online shops are just never delivered. Buy something physical from the same trader, they'll deliver it and the earlier blueprint altogether.

[Nataruma]

I ran into a bug where I tried to buy the piranha drone blueprints from Linny's remote shopping interface and it bugged out to where I didn't have it unlocked and it was no longer in her shop, so I had to restart my playthrough from scratch, you may wanna mention to beginners to purchase blueprints directly from the shops to start with.

[Stewen]

Thanks for the contribution mate. I'm also new to the game, and I don't know if this is known or not, but doing tests and sales calculations the most profitable (as far as I got, the last days of the first spring) are the torches that you can buy ‘online’.

The torches cost 50, and by selling the materials they drop when you destroy them, you can get between 200 and 500 (85.71% profitability approx). The only one that beats it in profitability is the Omni-Pot because it costs 10 to buy and by refining the materials it drops you can get up to 80 (87.5% approx), but the downside of that is the refinement time that takes a long time to be done.

I say this in case someone is short of money or wants to do everything quickly.

(Translated by translators)