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Getting Started
When you first get started in Astroneer you’ll first choose your starting character. This has no material effect on gameplay, just choose the Astroneer that feels right for you
Landing
After choosing your character, you’ll land on a mysterious planet, filled with resources and organisms that make up the core gameplay of Astroneer. But you won’t be able to survive long without completing a few objectives.
Once you land, your transportation pod will convert itself into a habitat, and your research core will deploy and attach itself to your habitat. These two structures will serve as the foundation of your base.
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Staying Alive
You’re no good to the space fleet dead. That mean’s you should always be paying attention to your oxygen levels. Your backpack has a big light blue oxygen meter showing you just how much air you have left to breathe. If you find yourself below 25% Oxygen, you’ll want to get back to your habitat so that you can refill your air and keep yourself alive.
You can save your progress any time by seeking shelter inside your habitat, this is also a good hiding space in case you see or hear any dangerous storms systems entering the area.
Call in supplies
Approach your research core and call in a supply drop of a Medium platform, and Medium Fabricator to get started building your base. Once your supply packages arrive, you can unpack them, and place them anywhere near your habitat, start with the large platform. Pay special attention not to place the platform too far away from your habitat. Once you’ve unpacked the platform, place the fabricator box on top of the platform, and then unpack the fabricator.
Note: You can recycle your initial supplies with fresh ones any time you want, but recycling will destroy the two existing modules and destroy any objects that may be on those platforms along with anything in the middle of construction.
Connect power
Most equipment in your base will need power to function. You can connect power lines from platforms to each other and your habitat by pulling the small red power handles located on the sides of each platform and connecting them to the red handled power outlets on your habitat. If your power wire is unable to reach your habitat, you can pick up the platform and move or rotate it so that it’s closer to your habitat.
You'll know when a platform is receiving power by a pulsing current traveling across the power ribbon.
Note: Platforms that have power lines connected cannot be picked up and moved. If you want to move a platform, you’ll have to disconnect it’s power lines first.
Exploring and Gathering
Once you’ve got your platform and fabricator set up, it’s time to head out and start exploring. Start journeying out from your habitat and looking for resource deposits. There are two different kinds of materials you’ll need to begin your work: Resin and Compound. Each of them can be found throughout the planet located in the soil. You can use your Terrain tool to gather up these resources.
You can gather a variety of resources with the Terrain Tool, so if you come across any cluster of objects, it's always a good idea to try to see if you can suck up its resources. Once you find a resource, take out your Terrain tool and begin gathering resources, and don’t be afraid to look deep. Some of the richest deposits on the planet are located deep under where you see the resources sprouting to the surface.
After gathering enough of a material to create a full unit of it, you’ll hear a small chime and notice the resource depositing itself in your inventory. This includes the 8 slots in the back of your backpack, 2 slots at the top of your backpack, and three slots on your terrain tool.
If all of the slots in your backpack and Terrain tool are full, resources will simply end up on the ground by you. Don’t stress out about things that end up on the ground, you can come back and pick them up later if you need. But it’s still a good idea not to litter in this new world just in case anything goes awry.
Resin
Resin looks like pale yellow cylindrical clusters and is a key ingredient in crafting new platforms and items related to generating power for your base, and tools for vehicles.
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Compound
Compound looks like pale grey bubble clusters and is a key ingredient in creating modules and exploration tools like research stations and tethers.
Research
Once you’ve made a couple of trips out from your base, and have gathered at least two units of Resin and Compound, head back to your base and let’s get some research going.
First, we'll build a new platform using 2x Resin deposits. Approach your fabricator and use it's control panel to select a platform, then flip the switch to begin printing yourself a fresh platform to use for a research station.
Note: When using fabricators or any machine that requires materials, you must either have the materials in your inventory, or you must place them on the platform itself. If you find yourself running low on backpack space, you can use platforms and storage modules as a way to stockpile resources without having them in your inventory.
Once you've crafted a platform, use the Fabricator again to print the Research Chamber, by toggling left or right on its control panel. Place and unpack your platform and Research Chamber and connect it to power.
With your Research Chamber powered up, it's time to start earning research data called Bytes. Bytes can be earned by placing items inside the Research Chamber and activating it. Different resources and objects you find will earn you different byte values, but it's best to explore the planet for larger, unknown objects and organisms for thousands of Bytes of research.
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Try exploring and finding a patch of color-tipped grass. Tall grass can be harvested for Organic resources, which is a natural fuel source that's plentiful and will grow back after a while. Once you have one unit of Organic resource, place it into the Research Chamber from your backpack and use the panel on the Research Chamber to begin harvesting Bytes of research from the Organic unit. The Organic unit isn't worth much, but it's enough to help you unlock some key technologies.
Unlock Technology
Once you've gathered some Bytes of research, open up your Backpacks research computer by holding down the Backpack button away from any base platforms.
Here you can browse all of the technologies there are to unlock through research. Take note of the readouts at the top of your computer that shows you how many Bytes of research you have, and how much research you're currently earning per minute.
The Technology Categories are:
- Wrench - Base building and land excitation technologies.
- Compass - Transportation and wayfinding technologies.
- Fire - Survival and energy management technologies.
- Erlenmeyer Flask - Resource extraction and processing technologies.
In the Fire tree, the very first item are Tethers. Tethers allow you to convert Compound into oxygen lines that you can place anywhere in the world. You can connect the lines to your base, and each other to expand how far you can explore and survive without running out of air.
Once you are in the Fire tree, select the Tethers and research them with the green button.
Now that you've researched tethers, you should take an expedition out to find more Compound. Once you have a few units of Compound, you can open your backpack, and use your personal printer to craft Tethers.
Note: Tethers can be placed as close together as you want, but if a tether is too far away from your base, or another tether, it won't light up and receive the critical flow of oxygen necessary to keep you alive
Your Adventure is Just Beginning
Travel back to your base and begin placing a network of Tethers outward so you can discover new objects and organisms and bring back samples to harvest Bytes of research and explore everything this world has to offer. You'll find caves to spelunk, mountains to climb, and toxic lifeforms ready to defend themselves from the likes of an alien like you!
Good luck on your journey interloper, make the fleet proud!
Up Next: Astroneer Guide
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In This Guide
Astroneer
System Era Softworks
Related Guides
OverviewGetting Started
