Here are 8 beginner tips to keep your terraformation going
New players of The Planet Crafter may find the early game a harrowing experience. Survival is somewhat terrifying as it is, being on an airless planet with no liquid water. But to make matters more complex, you’ve got the enormous task of single-handedly terraforming an entire planet by yourself. No pressure.
To help you get those terraformation juices flowing, we’ve compiled a list of 8 beginner tips and strategies we’ve discovered along our beginner’s journey through the early stages of The Planet Crafter. Many of these beginner tips are still relevant even in the later game, so building good habits now can only mean good things for future success.
1. Always keep extra food, water, and oxygen with you
At the start of the game, your oxygen capacity is pitiful. You won’t get very far without running out of air, forcing you to run back to your drop pod. This will seriously cripple your ability to explore and collect enough resources to do much of anything. You need to establish a means of getting machines built so that your terraformation index can start building. What’s worse, if you play in any mode other than relaxing, you’ll die and lose at least part of your inventory when you run out of oxygen, health, or water. You must prevent this at every cost.
Craft a handful of extra oxygen canisters and a few water bottles, and carry a few food packets to replenish your survival needs so you can go on more extended explorations. Water bottles require only one piece of ice to craft, and oxygen canisters require two cobalt each. Food will be a tough item to acquire since you can only find food packets in chests in the early game. This rarity makes it even more important to explore to find more food and materials.
2. Keep extra building materials in your inventory
Before you head out to explore, ensure that you have the building materials on your person to set up an oxygen shelter. Your oxygen meter drops much faster than health and thirst, so you will need to replenish oxygen the most often. This is why having the materials on hand (or a kit) for building an oxygen shelter is so beneficial. Oxygen shelters provide a reusable source of oxygen and let you save your oxygen canisters for emergencies.
Oxygen shelters will let you get a quick fill-up to your oxygen tank and give you a bit of a safety net to explore further. To refill your oxygen, you’ll need to build a Living Compartment and a Living Compartment Door. Here’s a list of the materials you’ll need.
Oxygen shelter kit
- Iron x 3
- Titanium x 2
- Silicone x 1
Remember to replenish the materials after you place an oxygen shelter so that you’ve got this kit ready for the next time you need it. Another great feature of using oxygen shelters rather than relying on oxygen canisters is that they will be there on your return trip at no extra cost!
3. Build and leave a trail of shelters
The more shelters you leave around the landscape, the more chances you have to refill oxygen and prevent asphyxiation. Placing many shelters along a traveled path can top off your oxygen level and preserve your oxygen canisters so that you can save them for emergencies.
These shelters could even include chests and crafting stations so that you can store supplies for later use or craft additional oxygen and water. You may also wish to store precious materials you’ve collected in these shelters if you suspect there’s a chance you may die on your journey to your intended destination.
During the Barren terraformation stage, when everything in the landscape looks the same, a trail of shelters can be an easily-recognizable sight and help with orientation if you aren’t familiar with the game’s terrain features.
4. Collect and craft as you explore
Your backpack is terribly small in the early game, so you cannot carry much of anything with you. However, you still need to craft machinery to get the Terraformation Index going. To stay productive while exploring, craft as you explore.
Collect just what you need to craft a specific item, place it, gather more materials, and repeat. Over time, these actions will add up, and you’ll notice that your terraformation index starts increasing faster. The faster your index builds, the more upgrades become available.
Keep repeating this practice while exploring until you reach your destination, need to head back for air, find the material you were looking for, etc. Every little bit helps over time and eventually adds up.
5. Create storage rooms to keep materials organized
Items of the same type do not stack in your inventory. Nor do they stack in storage containers. Creating storage rooms is your best bet for keeping things organized and somewhat streamlined. Both the storage lockers and the storage crates have nameplates to allow you to label them to aid you in finding whatever you are looking for.
Each living compartment can hold at least six storage lockers comfortably. Depending on how granular you like to keep your loot containers organized, you may want to create several rooms to allow each item its own locker.
6. Set up small storage bases
When out exploring spaceship wreckages, you will find more loot than you have the space to store it. Combat this atrocity by building a quick oxygen shelter outside the wreckage and setting up a few storage crates. This way, you can shuttle newly-found treasures into crates, refill your oxygen levels, and then head back into the wreckage for more exploring.
This technique also gives you peace of mind that if you die inside large wreckages, you’ll still have the loot you stored in the storage crates. This is useful in any difficulty setting.
7. Craft your upgrades ASAP
This tip may sound like a no-brainer, but it couldn’t be more important. As soon as upgrades to your gear become available, craft them as soon as you can!
Increasing your backpack size will improve your resource collection rate and allow you to do and collect more on your outings. Upgrading your oxygen tank means you’ll be able to be out and about longer and further without having to stop for an air refill. Upgrading your exoskeleton will allow more useful modifications to make your entire gameplay more manageable and enjoyable.
8. Create farm or operation bases in areas you spend more time
If you find yourself spending a considerable amount of time in a location farming, you may consider setting up a farming base. This base can be a simple, small structure with storage and crafting stations to help you store and process materials.
When starting the game, your backpack is at its smallest; this means many trips to unload your inventory. Having a farm base can help you farm more in a shorter amount of time by cutting out the long runs back to your main base. The farm base also gives you a place of safety to refill oxygen and store additional food and water.
Wrapping up 8 beginner tips for The Planet Crafter
Getting started in The Planet Crafter is tough, even on subsequent play-throughs. Once you’ve got your survival groove going, take a look at some of our other guides to help you prepare for the lofty task ahead of terraformation.
