Unofficial mini FAQ

During the Beta, ozubkoj submitted this mini-faq.

The developers of the game won't tell if this faq is accurate or not regarding the game, but it could help you.

tips for the beta
by ozubkoj on Tue 21 Jan 2014 - 7:34

I know that there is more to come in the full game so I won't offer too many suggestions here yet, however I will say that this game has a lot of potential and so far the beta has been a nice into into the isolated universe of out there. That said, I've beaten the beta a few times and thought I'd offer up some tips based on my experience...

1/ don't explore every planet - it's tempting to orbit or land on every planet but don't. It's a waste of resources. Only visit a planet if you need it's resources, i.e. if you're low on fuel make a point to visit fuel planets. If you're low on minerals visit a mineral world. But don't go to every planet just cause

2/ fuel is your most important resource. Try to get at least 2 full squares of He (worth 4 fuel per resource). A third never hurts. If you have to take H that's fine, but get as much as you can (at least 3 squares if you only have H). Always use H first to power your engines since it frees up space in your cargo hold

3/ when you probe for fuel, don't stop after the first probe. It takes fuel and oxygen to orbit a planet so make it worth your while. Probing for fuel only uses fuel, so as long as for each time you probe you get the amount of fuel you spent plus a bit more, you made the right call. E.g. if you spend 5 fuel to probe and get at least 3 H (worth 6 fuel total) or 2 He (worth 8 fuel) you came out ahead. When your probes stop providing much more fuel then stop and move on.

4/ always keep some iron on hand (just a bit of Si is good too since probes need it). If your drill breaks and you have no iron you pretty much just lost the game (you can salvage parts but usually you will get stranded as a result). Only repair your ship if you really need to or if you have excess iron. When you heal your ship, if you only have 1 square of iron split it first and heal with half of it. Iron is needed to repair a lot of things and rebuild key tools like drills and probes when they break so you always want at least 1 full square around

5/ don't worry too much about oxygen. It gets used up slowly and landing on any garden planet instantly refills you to maximum. Many space stations will also refill your oxygen. If you have room have 1 square of oxygen around but if you need the space then get rid of it. It's easy to come by

I think with those basic tips you should have no problem beating the beta and so you'll have a chance to explore the galaxy, meet aliens, and even find some new ships or technology. If anyone else has any tips I'd love to hear them

this is very helpful, thanks so much for posting it!

If desperate for fuel you can use repeated 1km probes to clean out the dregs.

If you're having trouble finding cargo space to build new equipment, you can use an abandoned spacecraft as temporary storage. You can even use one spacecraft to gather resources in the system before switching craft (to take advantage of their independent fuel/oxygen/health levels).

I'm guessing you could use abandoned spacecraft for long-term storage too, though it wouldn't often be worthwhile returning any notable distance to collect things.

I like your thinking Sven but I agree the long term idea wouldn't really work

What's the point of cryonics? Is it to preserve oxygen? To me it seems with all the alien planets, is rather just have a stack of oxygen instead.

I don't know if the normal Cryonics does anything, but there's an alien tech that requires Cryonics as a prerequisite and apparently does allow you to use less oxygen. With space so limited it didn't seem worth two slots to me, though.

Stumpyjay wrote:I like your thinking Sven but I agree the long term idea wouldn't really work

It might work if you happen to find a ship at a black hole, AND you have a wormhole generator. Then you could return there from any other black hole.
I'm not sure that's worth 2 omega...

I seemed to be able to use the wormholes without any omega. Is that normal?

(When I didn't have any omega, I mean)

Another tip, trying to avoid spoilers: The Death Seed can be used to unblock blocked planets.

1) If you fuck up a negotiation with an alien settlement, you can hit the pause button and Quit to the title screen.  When you Continue the game, it will revert to the moment you entered the system and you can try Encounter Life again.  I know this is an exploit, but dammit I need Omega badly and each alien will talk to me only once.

2) Before mining a world or star, try to free up cargo space by converting resources to fuel, oxygen, or hull.  This way you will not be forced to discard some of the goodies your probe/drill retrieves.


3) Technologies that upgrade other tech work usually work better when they are placed adjacent to each other in your cargo space (I think).  For instance: you should put your Solar Sails right next to your Interplanetary Reactor.  Exceptions are upgrades to the telescope and hydrogen probe, which can be placed anywhere.

4) Get all the shield upgrades and the Ultraprobe so that you can harvest stars for fuel.  This is essential in the second half the game when most gas planets will become occupied by the enemy.

5) Fortune favors the bold.  When given the option to ignore or explore some strange random encounter, it is best to risk it.  They can yield tech and resources, and the penalties you can suffer are usually affordable.  Spoiler: if you come across a strange pulsating bubble in space, do not touch it. It is antimatter.

6) When transferring ships, the most important consideration is cargo space.  This makes the Sphere the best ship.

7) As mentioned earlier, if you come across a derelict ship in space, it can be used as a storage locker if you cargo bays are full.  This is generally not worth the effort with one exception (spoiler ahead): when the enemy attacks you, you will probably lose all your precious Omega, and the amount of Omega in the game is finite.  In the first half of the game you can use a derelict ship to stash away your Omega until your nasty encounter with the enemy.  Don't worry, nobody will take it.

9) Don't bother with the Drill add-on.  Your basic drill will do.  Don't bother installing the Ansible either, since almost all the star systems will be occupied anyway and it's not worth a cargo slot.

Mrjspeed wrote:What's the point of cryonics?  Is it to preserve oxygen?  To me it seems with all the alien planets, is rather just have a stack of oxygen instead.

There is a tech called Shared Cryonics that is supposed to upgrade your Ecosystem score and thus help you conserve oxygen.  It's bugged; it doesn't work.  A waste of two cargo slots.

Admin wrote:During the Beta, ozubkoj  submitted this mini-faq.
1/ don't explore every planet - it's tempting to orbit or land on every planet but don't. It's a waste of resources. Only visit a planet if you need it's resources, i.e. if you're low on fuel make a point to visit fuel planets. If you're low on minerals visit a mineral world. But don't go to every planet just cause

Rocky planets sometimes yield new technologies. If you get the Geo Scan tech you can check for Anomalies before landing.

People have mentioned using another ship for storage. How do you use two ships? As far as I see, you can't transfer your cargo from one ship to another. So it seems you'd have to make a choice between one ship or the other. Can someone explain? Thanks.

On the screen where you can switch ships, drag the cargo from one to the other.