Complete Alien Encounter and Language Guide

A comprehensive guide to encountering aliens, including a complete breakdown of how to translate their language and start having 100% useful encounters in the minimum possible time.

Introduction and basics

Alien encounters in Out There are the main mechanic by which the player can gain new technology and Omega. However, communicating with aliens requires learning their language, usually a slow and painstaking process. With this guide, you can obtain perfect communication abilities within one or two alien encounters.

Let's start with the basics, for those new to the game.

When landing on a garden planet in Out There, the player is given the option to Encounter Alien Life (as long as they have not yet drilled on that planet). All aliens in the galaxy speak the same language, which has 30 words with no particular grammar. The words are randomly generated at the start of each playthrough, so the language must be learned anew every time.

The 30 words are:

Me
You
We
People
Want
Give
Life
Death
God
Love
Fear
Technology
Friend
Good
Evil
Judges/Architects
Star
Omega
Iron
Hydrogen
Helium
Thorium
Hafnium
Tungsten
Platinum
Gold
Carbon
Silicon
Copper
Cobalt

When encountering alien life, the possible scenarios are as follows:

1) The alien donates 1 unit of Omega to the player and then ends the encounter. It is recommended to have a free cargo slot (or a slot already containing Omega) before beginning an encounter, otherwise this will be wasted.

2) The alien will give a short speech followed by a question. The player will have the option to answer with approval or disapproval.

2a) If the player gives the correct answer, they will enter a trade dialogue in which the alien will ask them for 1 unit of a resource in exchange for Omega or technology (if the reward is Omega, it will also come with technology). The possible resources are Iron (Fe), Hydrogen (H), Helium (He), Thorium (Th), Hafnium (Hf), Tungsten (W), Platinum (Pt), Gold (Au), Carbon (C), Silicon (Si), Copper (C) and Cobalt (Co). Giving the correct resource will result in the promised reward and learning 2 random words (plus the word for the resource if not already known). Giving the wrong resource will result in learning 1 random word. Either way, a thank-you speech will be given and the encounter will end.

After giving a correct answer, it is also possible to cancel the conversation. In this case, the player can begin a new encounter as if nothing had happened. This can be used to cycle through encounters until the alien asks for a resource that the player has (with a new speech and question each time).

2b) If the player gives the wrong answer, they will receive a rejection message and learn 1 random word. The encounter will end.

How to use this guide

The key to linguistic success in Out There is to realise that alien encounters are not freeform; they use a limited number of fixed scripts. You don't have to know every word to understand what is being said - you simply need to know which script is in play this time. Once you identify the script, you can easily deduce many new words even without formally learning them.

Here is an example.

You initiate an encounter. The alien says

AMVCLA GAISALCB LKANLK URTAAN MK-MEFK
URTAAN BIRRBR MK-MEFK EPLGXA
MK-MEFK ANGLAR FINDEP?

The first step is to look at the alien's portrait to see their race. In this case, the race is GAISALCB.

So the script now reads

AMVCLA <race> LKANLK URTAAN MK-MEFK
URTAAN BIRRBR MK-MEFK EPLGXA
MK-MEFK ANGLAR FINDEP?

Next we look in the speech section of the guide for a script that fits: that is, it has two lines of 5 and 4 length respectively. Since there are only 10 speech scripts, this is very quick, and we find the following:

[people] <race> [want] [life] [you]
[life] [give] [you] [we]

We now know the words for "people", "want", "life", "you", "give" and "we". I usually note them down in a spreadsheet, against a column containing the 30 possible words (see previous section).

Finally, look at the question in the last line. This is harder, because there are multiple questions which look identical when you don't know the words. Note that the questions are independent from the speeches - any combination is possible.

We now know that MK-MEFK means "you". That narrows the possible scripts to two:

[you] [want] [life]?
Approve

and

[you] [love] [judges/architects]?
Disapprove

Since you now know the words for "want" and "life", you know it is not the first, so you can note down the words for "love" and "judges/architects" and click Disapprove. There will be occasions early on when you can't figure out the question, in which case guess and then try to figure out what it was afterwards based on the outcome.

Next the alien will request trade. The trade script is always fixed:

[me] [people] <race>
[me] [people] [good]
[me] [want] <resource>
[me] [give] <reward>

You now know the words for "me", "people", "good", "want" and "give" if you did not get them from the previous step.

There are twelve possibilities for "resource": Iron (Fe), Hydrogen (H), Helium (He), Thorium (Th), Hafnium (Hf), Tungsten (W), Platinum (Pt), Gold (Au), Carbon (C), Silicon (Si), Copper (Cu) and Cobalt (Co). Several speech/question scripts contain "iron", so you may get it from there, but otherwise you will have to guess. If you succeed, you now know a resource word. Otherwise, note down that this word does not correspond to the resource you guessed.

The two possibilities for "reward" are "Omega" and "technology".

Whether you succeed or not, you will get the gratitude script, which is also always fixed.

[me] [people] <race>
[me] [people] [good]
[me] [love] [you]

Note down the word for "love" if you do not already have it.

Finally, no matter the outcome, you will receive one or more words as a reward. Note down the fact that you know them, so that if you encounter unknown words you can't deduce from context (e.g. during a random event), you can try to figure them out by process of elimination.

Fixed scripts

Omega donation script (when the alien gives you Omega and then runs away):

[me] [people] <race>
[people] <race> [fear] [god]
[people] <race> [fear] [you]
[you] [god]
[people] <race> [give] [omega]

Trade script (after you correctly answer a question):

[me] [people] <race>
[me] [people] [good]
[me] [want] <resource>
[me] [give] <reward>

Resources are Iron (Fe), Hydrogen (H), Helium (He), Thorium (Th), Hafnium (Hf), Tungsten (W), Platinum (Pt), Gold (Au), Carbon (C), Silicon (Si), Copper (Cu) and Cobalt (Co).
Rewards are Omega and technology.

Gratitude script (after you give any resource):

[me] [people] <race>
[me] [people] [good]
[me] [love] [you]

Speech scripts

These are arranged by number of lines, then by number of words in the first line.

[we] [people] <race>
[we] [give] [love] [you]

<race> [love] [fear] [you]
[we] <race>

[we] [people] <race> [good]
<race> [love] [star] [love] [life]

[people] <race> [want] [life] [you]
[life] [give] [you] [we]

[people] <race> [friend] [star] [iron]
[we] [friend] [you]

[star] [give] [life] [we] [people] <race>
[star] [give] [life] [you]

[people] <race> [friend] [technology]
[we] <race>
[people] [death] [evil] [judges/architects] [evil]

[we] <race> [fear] [people] [death]
[we] <race> [love] [life] [love]
[we] [love] [fear] [you]

[we] [fear] [judges/architects]
[we] [fear] [god] [death]
[we] [people] <race>

<race> [want] [life]
<race> [want] [love]
<race> [technology]
[we] <race>

Question scripts (with correct answers)

[you] [friend]?
Approve

[you] [want] [life]?
Approve

[you] [love] [judges/architects]?
Disapprove

[you] [want] [friend] <race>?
Approve

[you] [love] [evil] <race>?
Disapprove

[you] [love] [people] <race>?
Approve

[you] [friend] [people] [death]?
Disapprove

[you] [evil] [you] [death]?
Disapprove

[you] [star] [iron] [good]?
Approve

[you] [want] [death] <race>?
Disapprove

Rejection scripts (when giving the wrong answer)

[you] [give] [fear] [me]

[me] [fear] [fear] [you]

[you] [friend] [death]
<race> [fear] [you]

[you] [want] [evil]
[fear] [fear]

[you] [give] [death]
[you] [give] [fear]

[you] [want] [death] [friend] <race> ([friend] unconfirmed)

[you] [friend] [death] [friend] [evil]
[me] [people] [fear]

Special event scripts

"It's a cube. Floating in space."

[star] [iron] [technology]
Select "Touch it" to receive a piece of technology and a word.

(The encounter with the collapsing ship and the amoeba)

<race> [give] [death] [me] [you] [give] [death] <race>
Respond affirmatively to receive a piece of technology and a word.

A space station I explored not unlike the start of my adventure, but it seems to have shut down a long time ago...

First circuit: [technology]
Second circuit: [???]
Third circuit: [star] [iron]
The alien words you get afterwards (or at least after the third circuit) are [people] [death], and [god] [people] [death]

There's a tiny moon here orbiting a small planet.

[???] [life]
Put in iron -> learn 1 word

[RAPIstelija]

Fair enough

[Velorien]

I haven't. To be honest, I think I'm done with the game, so unless somebody contributes the information, I'm not going to trawl through lots of playthroughs to find it.

[RAPIstelija]

Have you looked into the lines with word emissary? I believe this has been added not a long ago

[Velorien]

It's a roguelike, so it's natural to play through painfully many times, during which process the list came together naturally. All I had to do was keep an Excel document open and add a new line whenever I came across a new word. This guide is merely me deciding to share the result.

[I, Claudius #StandWithRussia]

How did you ever manage to make this great guide? Please tell me you didn't actually trial-and-error responses until you'd discovered every word.

[RAPIstelija]

Learned a word for EMISSARY (alien which you can pick up and take to it's homeplanet). Will update later if there are some lines where this is included.

[Velorien]

They're randomised with every run. That's kind of the point of the guide.

[Ace Voltran]

seinin = god
maurhf = fear

[Neight]

Thank you so much for this guide!

[galliers]

TO ALL , if people want some help to play a game then theres nothing wrong with that, remember ITS ONLY A GAME. if you dont want to be judged then dont judge others, its starts with you. so dont worry be happy now ; }