Unofficial starting guide

This little guide is done by James on the TouchArcade forums.

We thank James and TouchArcade for their work.

The original thread can be read here : http://forums.toucharcade.com/showthread.php?t=220379&page=27

So far I have enjoyed this game quite a bit! Though the idea of a space roguelike where I get to explore plants with a wide range of randomized events and a high-stakes risk vs. reward system appeals to me.

As some mentioned, I can see how encountering star-after-star with systems composed of similar elements (gas giants, mineral rich planets, breathable planets, and a sun) could seem repetitive at the surface, but there seem to be enough really interesting surprises, not to mention variance based on ships, technology, and resources available, that it would take quite a few plays for the game to become repetitive. And more seems to happen as you progress.

I was able to clear the game (to what looks like one of multiple endings) on my first mission and I've made good progress into my second, and looking back I can see a few people have been repeatedly frustrated early on, so I thought I'd share some early tips based on my own experience. Bear in mind that perhaps I've been rather lucky—I expect plenty of luck has been involved—so these really are just some subjective observations which might help a few out.

I am going to avoid discussing specific events, the ending I encountered (which was actually preceded by a choice), but some might consider elements of this advice to be spoilers, so please skip over this post if that is a concern.

- Your first ship is crap. It gobbles up resources and is relatively dangerous to use. My first impression is that a good starting objective is to skip from galaxy to galaxy, gathering only the resources needed to survive, in search of a better ship.

- Get iron from mineral rich planets, fuel from gas giants (watch out—there is a cost in hull strength to visit them, and I've encountered up to -20), and oxygen from planets with breathable atmospheres and supply stations. You can also mine some oxygen from, IIRC, planets with breathable atmospheres.

- I have only encountered a few ships. Two with relatively good storage and average stats and one with excellent stats and low storage. My early impression is that storage space is essential for progressing in the game. You need it to build some special technology you come across which will reduce resource requirements (mitigating risks of having no access to resources for a period of time), improve travel distance (early impression is that planets seemed to become more sparse as I progressed and I noticed a few concerns about this—though this won't help if you run into that early on), and provide other benefits. It is also important for keeping resources both to repair/replace broken equipment as well as as maintain survival levels (fuel, hull). The risk, here, is that you need to think ahead more. As the two ships I encountered had average stats, more resources were consumed in travel (see below).

- Plan ahead to maintain survival levels (hull, fuel, oxygen). How good are the relevant stats on your ship? If your ship has a below-average atmosphere level oxygen can become a serious issue. If it starts to dip and you see no source for more, start traveling more and exploring less in search of a way to replenish it. Keep a backup supply of iron and prioritize collecting more if you run out (especially if your ship has lower durability). When repairing your hull, split off some iron first as it is a staple for many repairs. For fuel, go to the relevant gas giant and refuel upon arrival. Probe for more fuel (not so deep as to get more than you can collect, relative to a ship technology which impacts harvest). Use more. It frequently makes sense to probe again as long as you have some iron. The cost of probing, outside a break, is fuel which you will replace. If, on the other hand, your ship has great stats but low storage, you probably need to scavenge as you go along—you can't store healthy reserves.

- On managing new equipment. It bears repeating that discovering and installing new technology can be important—it helps to mitigate some of the randomness in the game to a point so it can become more manageable, improving your odds of progressing in the game. With a small amount of storage space gathering resources to build and installing this equipment is very risky. On the ships I chose to use, which had more storage space, I still had limited ability to gather resources to install these helpful systems. As these ships also had average stats, I needed to maintain resources for survival, so I found I frequently dropped common/uncommon resources which I did not need to build something new or to repair existing equipment (I would, of course, hold on to it until a greater survival-related priority came along). Instead, I foraged for what I needed—including uncommon resources—only when I had the technology available to build and install. I have not encountered anything described as 'rare' other than, perhaps, Omega.

- When you encounter a new ship, have a look at its equipment. Do you want to replace your current ship with this ship? Leave some non-essential supplies and see the end of this paragraph. Do you want to keep your current ship? Look at the new ship's equipment. Is it lacking something essential for basic use like a drill? Give it whatever is needed to survive an emergency and build that equipment, which usually means some iron. Ready? Now you can explore other planets in the system using the ship you intend to leave behind. Collect valuable resources and, if you have some iron to use, don't be afraid to break your drill at the end to get more resources (or more uncommon resources). Return to the sip you want to keep when you are finished. Use survival resources as appropriate (if you're keeping your previous ship) and scrap equipment on the ship you wish to abandon. Place worthwhile resources on the ship you are keeping and continue.

- On some planets (seems to be the breathable ones in particular) you have the option to visit alien life. So far I have always done this. While you won't be able to translate much of the language, it seems you can translate some particularly useful words which, when combined with grammar, might give a hint as to what 'approve' or 'disapprove' might result in. So far, though, each time I've encountered that choice the alien life form has 'wanted' something from my inventory. Whatever I give it seems to be uninspiring and I continue. On a few occasions I have encountered an alien which has, it seems, feared me, and left what looks like a valuable resource behind: Omega. Omega can be used to repair any piece of equipment, or perhaps for some other hinted purpose. It looks like a very valuable thing to have around.

- With random events, I've stopped to consider just how dangerous the event sounds to be. When it sounds like I'm going to get myself killed, I focus on survival. Some events seem to describe a risk vs. reward scenario. What are your ship levels? It might be worth the risk as, on a few occasions, it has been through these encounters that I have picked up valuable new technologies (or resources which may not have been so valuable). Also, keep your levels higher, when possible, than what is needed to travel. That random event which drops your hull might finish you off if you weren't prepared—or you might have to avoid potentially rewarding risk out of fear in dropping something already at a dangerous level. If you encounter a particularly special event, you may want to toss this advice out the window.

- Also, relative to random events, don't worry about keeping your levels topped out except in cases before mining more of the resources you will use. Some random events restore these levels.

- To harvest resources from a sun you need special equipment. Similarly, I'm not sure what blackholes do. I only encountered them a fair distance into my journey and didn't want to risk doing something which seemed so dangerous.

In addition to the foregoing:

(A) entering a dangerous environment to get gas can cause hull damage up to 40 points- to the starter ship. So you need at least 50 hull points to be absolutely safe.

(B) entering a breathable planet, most often found around yellow dwarf stars, will cause 10 hull points of damage to the starter ship. So you may want to avoid alien contact if you can't repair- also you will never find iron deposits or fuel on alien worlds with life- oddly enough.

(C) You can transfer all your cargo except equipment to another vessel- this was not immediately apparent. You should also salvage all the equipment to get minerals if there is room. Most importantly you should have at least iron and silicon when you transfer since the new ship usually has missing eqpt- no telescope, drill, probe.

(D) black holes- you need the worm hole generator to use them- in my experience they rarely have anything besides the black hole present, so generally avoid.

(E) suns- you can mine only if you have the ultra probe

That's all I have right now. It's a fun little game. I managed to finish it after around 5 hours of attempts. There seem to be three possible endings- I think I did the easiest one. Live long and prosper folks!

With regard to placing equipment modules- you MUST place the improvement next to the base eqpt. The bonus efficiency is so much better than not placing the improvement next to the base. Tau stasis will boost your range so far when next to the space folder, you will be amazed, well I was anyway. Why the tutorial does not teach this is a huge oversight

whoa! I had no idea placing equipment next to each other provides bonuses. so I might need to dismantle one thing and rebuild it in another slot for instance to accomplish this. interesting. wonder how much other little stuff like this I don't know.