Astroneer - survive, explore and build in a low-poly galaxy

Not quite, explore your planet more and you will fine some things, and on each planet as well. It’s not explained at all but it’s not hard to figure out either and leads to a ‘project’ on each planet as well as your home. So I would say that’s the goal, and it’s also what starts unlocking the other suits and emotes. Don’t be too discouraged by the lack of options in your research tree.

So unlike modded minecraft or other games this is all about depth vs breadth. The parts look simple and in fact are simple, but the combinations with each other can be surprising. I too was disappointed at first, but actually acquiring the later research now and playing with it it’s pretty cool. Especially the rover progression. Storage still kinda sucks, but it’s better than you probably think. It requires at least iron and research though before it starts getting appreciable better. For the early part I just dig a small hole for each large pile I end up with.

This is probably the number one skill that you need to acquire to stay sane in this game, and it’s pretty tricky to learn. Once you do you can whip out ramps and surfaces pretty quickly. The first thing to know is your ctrl key so you can extend what ever surface you are currently hovering over in all directions. This will raise or lower the surrounding area till it’s all flat. However without the Alignment mod it will not be flat as in a 90 degree angle to the ground so you will always have tilted ramps until you get that mod. You can mitigate it a bit with practice but really you want that mod. It’s kinda buggy though and freaks out when first loading the game or a save sometimes. You have to take it off and put it back on sometimes.

Yeah, I won’t be using the alignment mod. When I have it attached, I can’t sweep my mouse while digging (with no modifier keys).

That sounds… odd. I certainly can, it would be useless if you couldn’t sweep around. The bug I was referring to causes it to freak out, projecting dirt piles straight up and down perpendicular to me. I suspect it’s a case of the game thinking a modifier key is being held down when it isn’t, probably because of an alt-tab issue.

I have had this same bug. I just can’t use the flattener tool if I want to dig on anything other than the ground.

So I’m at the point where I’ve solved two planets so far, and honestly just having a ball with this.

@Gendal is right in that learning the flatten (ctrl key) tool is one of the most important skills for delving deep in the planets. Once you get good at it, you can make a pretty fun surf and slide to wherever you need to go underground =) I’m at the point now where I’ve completed all my research and am working on planetary puzzles, and I’m still having a hoot.

Without too much spoilery, here are some things I missed on my first play through that you may find interesting:

First: plant the seeds you find underground! They lead to research pods. The pods will usually explode improperly due to a bug, but if you do something like the picture, you can get a lot of research that way. Also, there are different biomes the deeper you go in the planet. I don’t remember that from 2016 and it was a pleasant surprise!

The only real bug that is driving me crazy is the bug where when you climb into your rover, you may or may not be able to control it. Then you have to jump out, jump in, jump out, jump in until you regain control. Argh!

One thing I miss from even the .9 version is the storms. I haven’t seen a single storm yet. Maybe they were removed? That is a shame because the game could use a bit more adversity.

Anyways if anyone wants to plan a get together online for multiplayer I would be totally in! At least we could quickly knock out some achievements =) (Although I hear the multiplayer is still laggy? not sure about version 1.04 yet)

Do the nature of the puzzles change from planet to planet, and do you get anything for solving all of them on a planet? I don’t need spoilers, just a simple ‘yes’ will suffice. I did one on the starting planet, and one more on one of the moons, and I get what they do- does that change?

Yes you get something for solving them all on a planet but the nature of solving them is the same. There is a reason to solve all the planets, but I don’t know what happens when you do.

Actually, yes and no. For each planet you need to:
Solve one on the surface and solve the “big” one below… (trying not to be too spoilery)
You do not need to solve all the puzzles on the surface.

When you have done what you need to do on each planet you get color and suit unlocks, an achievement, and progress towards the ending.

I thought you did before you could access the “big” one. If not, cool, but I thought it was locked out until all the nodes on the surface were solved.

Nope, I can confirm! I thought the same thing =) But I’ve done 3 now, and you only need one surface.

Just found my first surface “anomaly” on the starting planet. Actually spotted it from space and did my best to track more or less where it was on the way down.

So I’m 3 planets down, 4 to go. Here’s my base so far. I don’t think this is spoilery… but I have a bit of everything there. Incidently, I saw this storage solution in someone else’s screenshot and I use it for the mainstay stuff like compound and resin. See the four holes on the right of my storage stuff? Yep! Just dig a lil hole and drop your stuff in there. storage on the cheap! =)

I should probably do something like that. My base is a mess.
Are there any techs you think are not worth getting?
I think the small shredder should be skipped because there isn’t much you can use it for.
I also think the upgraded thruster, the one that takes fule is a waste. You can shred the used solid fuel thruster and get more than enough scrap to get your amonia back plus a little extra.

I’m sure in certain situations all of them are usable in some form or another, but the techs I found least worthwhile were:

Medium Rover.

  • Never even built one. By the time I had it unlocked, I had a ton of research so just unlocked the big one.
  • Medium Scrapper = waste you are spot on there. You have to grind like 30 things to get one stack of scrap =)
  • Crane - I’m not sure what kind of time this is supposed to save, but… it doesn’t. Still fun to play with, but don’t get too exited about it =)
  • Dynamite - Never used it once. I may blow one up just to see it happen?

Techs I wish I had used more:

  • tractor = You can get this much earlier then I did in my game, and it is very useful! Aluminum is abundant underground, so don’t wait to start digging a mine. You can also put a drill bit on front of your tractor and turn it into a burrower
  • Oxygenator can be put on a Rover, and you can then tether from that!
  • You start the game knowing how to make disposable oxygen, and all it costs is one resin. Life saving! don’t forget about this one =)
  • If you plan on going through the whole game, you will probably need about 8 RTGs, so plan ahead.
  • Also the soil extractor thing is a god send. It only takes a couple minutes to fill up like 8 canisters and then you can get piles of Resin and compound. I’ve been slowly excavating an entire mountain for soil.

I actually reorganized my base last night OCD HO!

Rovers don’t supply their own oxygen? I know the tractor does.

What are you using for power? The problem for me is that it seems to be night time a lot and the wind is very unreliable. I can’t find lithium to make batteries. I went to one planet that is purple and windy and lists lithium as a primary resource. I have been all over it, and I can’t find any. I found lots of titanium and gobs of graphite, but no lithium. It also doesn’t help that this planet doesn’t have caves.

So, Lithium is indeed the key to your power woes. Batteries are what you need to get through the night usually. I had both wind and solar power, but they are inconsistent as you have found. I found lots of Lithium on the moon Novus. It is right on the surface so easy to grab. I think its mostly on hills and mountains. For a great resource on up to date resource info, check out this google doc:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/u/2/d/1u6iJx0fjLm5dH93aWBTLxvQ8N97H58k_pyIGquLJl6k/htmlview#

I am now using RTGs for power, which fixes everything, but before that I was using about 6 medium batteries. That may have been overkill, but I was running 3 research stations at the time.

As for vehicles and oxygen they do indeed supply you with oxygen, but they won’t tether. In order to tether you need the oxygenator. So at that point you can use the rover as a mini mobile base station.

The tractors tethers with oyxgen. So I guess you are saying the advanced vehicles do not.

I’d swear mine doesn’t.

It can’t be tethered to with tethers, but it provides local oxygen. You need an oxygenator to make your own

@Jason_McMaster said it better then I did =) You can walk around and get oxygen from a vehicle, but you can extend with tethers to go walkabout =)