The Crust 1.0 is finally here, and if you’re starting your first lunar colony, the opening hours can feel a little overwhelming. You have power problems, damaged facilities, drones to manage, resources to mine, research to complete, and eventually contracts that can help turn your struggling moon base into a profitable operation.
In this beginner walkthrough, we’ll go through the early game step by step, following the important systems introduced during the tutorial. You’ll learn how to restore power, set up mining, automate resource production, manage research, avoid wasting resources, and prepare your base for expansion.
The early game in The Crust 1.0 is all about building a stable foundation. You don’t need a perfect factory layout immediately. Instead, focus on keeping your power running, your drones working, and your production lines moving.
The Crust 1.0 Beginner Guide – Base Building, Resources
When starting a new game, you can select different difficulty options before beginning your lunar operation.
The walkthrough starts with a randomized seed and a more challenging difficulty option. If you’re completely new to The Crust, however, there’s nothing wrong with choosing an easier difficulty while learning the game’s systems.
The important thing is understanding how the game’s different mechanics connect together. Power supports your buildings, drones gather resources, refineries process materials, research unlocks new technology, and production eventually allows you to complete contracts and earn money.
Once you’re comfortable with those systems, expanding becomes much easier.
Restore Power With Solar Panels and Batteries
One of your first major objectives is restoring your base’s electricity supply.
At the beginning, you’ll need to build:
- 10 Solar Panels
- 6 Batteries
Solar panels generate electricity while the sun is available, while batteries store energy so your base can continue operating when there is no sunlight.
Try to leave some space when placing your buildings. Your starting layout doesn’t need to be perfect, but giving yourself room for expansion will save you trouble later.
After placing the Solar Panels and Batteries, connect them to your electrical network.
You can hold Shift while placing utility poles and connections to make building longer chains easier.
Once everything is connected properly, your base should have electricity again.
Build the Charging Station
After restoring your power supply, build the required charging station.
Place it somewhere that makes sense for your current base layout, preferably without blocking space you may need for future production buildings.
The early tutorial will guide you through these objectives, so continue following the required tasks until you’re instructed to reconnect the underground level.
Connect Power to the Underground Base
The next important step is getting underground and restoring electricity to the damaged facilities below the surface.
Connect the elevator and electrical poles using wires.
Once power reaches the underground level, you can begin working with your production facilities and preparing your drones for mining operations.
This is where The Crust starts opening up and becoming more of a proper factory-building game.
Convert Drones Into Mining Drones
Your next objective involves reconfiguring drones.
Use the Drone Configuration Module and convert five drones into mining drones.
This is important because your mining drones will gather resources directly from underground veins and excavation areas.
You can later reconfigure drones again if your priorities change, so don’t worry too much about permanently committing every drone to one role.
During the early game, you’ll mainly want drones working on:
- Iron
- Silicon
- Regolith
Try to keep your drones productive instead of letting them sit idle.
Mine Iron and Silicon
The tutorial gives you access to iron and silicon veins.
Enter excavation mode and assign your mining drones to gather resources from these deposits.
Iron and silicon are essential early-game materials because you’ll need them for production and future construction.
At this stage, you may need to manually manage resource delivery and processing. Later, you’ll unlock better automation through extractors, conveyors, and additional production buildings.
For now, the goal is simply getting your basic resource flow running.
Mine Regolith for Smart Concrete
Regolith is essentially lunar soil, and you’ll need plenty of it during the early game.
You can excavate underground walls and areas to collect regolith. Mining drones can gather it, while available drones can transport the material to your production facilities.
Regolith can be processed into Smart Concrete, which becomes useful for construction.
Don’t put every drone on one resource. A balanced early setup works better.
For example, you can keep:
- One drone mining Silicon
- One drone mining Iron
- The remaining drones gathering Regolith
You can adjust this depending on what your base currently needs.
Start Researching New Technology
Research is one of the most important systems in The Crust.
The research tree is divided into three main categories:
- Fundamental
- Engineering
- Social
Different technologies require different types of research points.
You’ll notice that your available research income can be viewed through the interface. Hovering over the research indicators lets you see where your research points are coming from.
A very important beginner tip is to avoid wasting research.
If you’re generating a particular type of research but nothing is currently using it, those points can go to waste. Queue up technologies that use your available research types whenever possible.
You can queue multiple research projects and later rearrange their priorities.
Research the Regolith Extractor
Manual drone mining is useful at the beginning, but automation should become your priority.
Research the Regolith Extractor and build extractors on your resource veins.
Extractors automate mining and allow you to reduce the number of drones manually assigned to resource gathering.
When placing an extractor, remember that it requires electricity.
Connect it to your power network using utility poles and cables.
Once your extractors are working, you can remove drones that were manually assigned to mine those resources and use them elsewhere.
Build Regolith Refineries
After getting your extractors running, research and build the necessary Regolith Refineries.
You’ll eventually want separate production for resources such as:
- Iron
- Silicon
The refinery has different inputs and outputs, so pay attention when configuring what each building is supposed to process.
The early production layout doesn’t need to be optimized.
At this point, your goal is simply to establish a reliable production chain.
You can rebuild and improve everything later.
Watch Out for Full Production Storage
One of the most important things to watch for is the Production Full warning.
If a building’s internal storage becomes full, production stops.
For example, if a refinery has reached its storage capacity and has nowhere to send its output, it will eventually stop producing.
This means you’re wasting potential production time.
The solution is simple: build storage.
Set up storage buildings for important resources such as:
- Silicon
- Iron
- Regolith
- Other materials you begin producing
When building storage, make sure you actually select which resource the storage should contain. It isn’t always automatically configured.
A proper storage system keeps your production buildings running and allows you to stockpile materials for future construction.
Use Conveyor Belts to Automate Delivery
Conveyor belts are an important step toward automation.
Instead of relying entirely on drones to move resources between buildings, conveyors can create a direct production chain.
Research conveyor technology when possible and start experimenting with basic layouts.
You can place conveyors using planning mode and then choose Build All to construct the planned setup.
Building costs money, so keep an eye on your available credits.
You don’t need complicated conveyor designs immediately. A simple connection between production buildings is enough to get started.
Later, you can redesign your entire factory into something much more efficient.
Always Keep an Eye on Research Points
The Crust gives you different types of research points, and it’s easy to accidentally waste them.
The best habit is regularly checking whether you’re generating research that isn’t currently being used.
If you see research points being wasted, look through the appropriate technology tree and queue something useful.
You can also rearrange your research queue to prioritize technologies you need immediately.
For example, early useful technologies include things related to:
- Extractors
- Refineries
- Conveyors
- Component production
- Automatic repair
- Landing platforms
- Contracts
- Drone upgrades
You won’t be able to research everything immediately, so focus on technology that solves your current problems.
Scan Carefully for New Resources
Eventually, you’ll need resources such as titanium.
To find them, use the Ore Detector and scan underground areas.
However, scanning consumes energy.
The farther away you scan, the more energy the scan requires.
For example, scanning a nearby area can cost significantly less energy than scanning far away from your current base.
The best beginner strategy is to start small.
Look for useful deposits close to your existing infrastructure instead of immediately scanning huge areas of the map.
This reduces both energy costs and the time your drones need to reach the excavation area.
Avoid Scanning During the Night
This is an especially important power-management tip.
Solar panels only generate energy when sunlight is available.
During the night, your base depends on stored battery power.
Scanning can consume a significant amount of electricity, so avoid wasting energy on expensive scans during the night whenever possible.
Instead, use the daytime to generate and store power.
Then make sure your batteries have enough capacity to keep your essential buildings running through the night.
Build More Batteries When Expanding
As your base grows, your energy requirements increase.
More factories, extractors, scanners, and production buildings all consume electricity.
Even if your starting battery setup seems sufficient, it may quickly become inadequate after expanding your production.
Always keep an eye on:
- Current energy storage
- Power consumption
- Remaining battery capacity
- When sunlight will return
You can check how long your stored energy is expected to last.
Try to make sure your batteries can survive until your solar panels begin generating power again.
Power shortages can quickly interrupt your entire production chain.
Research Automatic Repair
Early in the game, damaged buildings may require manual attention.
Researching Automatic Repair makes managing your growing base much easier.
Once your colony expands, manually dealing with every damaged building becomes annoying and time-consuming.
Automatic repair is therefore a very useful early quality-of-life upgrade.
It’s worth researching once you have the required research points available.
Don’t Ignore Notifications
The notification system is extremely useful.
Warnings can tell you about problems such as:
- Idle mining drones
- Full production storage
- Missing resources
- Power shortages
- Damaged buildings
- Other production issues
A good rule is to deal with important notifications before increasing the game speed.
The Crust isn’t a game where you need to constantly play at maximum speed.
Take your time and make sure your base is working correctly.
Once everything is stable, you can speed things up.
Build Storage Before You Need It
Don’t wait until every production building is completely full before adding storage.
If you know you’re going to keep producing silicon, iron, or another important material, prepare storage in advance.
This prevents your factories from stopping while you’re busy doing something else.
Try to create a production system where materials always have somewhere to go.
This becomes even more important later when your factory becomes larger and you have many different production chains running simultaneously.
Build the Component Factory
After researching the Component Factory, you can begin producing more advanced materials.
The factory requires resources including:
- Steel
- Titanium
- Components
Pay attention to the direction of the building’s inputs when placing it.
You can rotate buildings and use the available controls to adjust their orientation.
For the early game, don’t worry about making your component factory layout perfect.
Just make sure the required resources can reach it.
Later, when you unlock more advanced logistics systems, you can rebuild the area into a cleaner and more efficient production setup.
Use Your Resource Tracking Interface
The Crust provides multiple ways to monitor your resources.
You can view your total resource amounts and also track whether a resource is:
- Increasing
- Remaining stable
- Decreasing
This is extremely useful when your base becomes larger.
If you notice a resource decreasing, you’ll know that your current production isn’t keeping up with demand.
You can then decide whether to:
- Mine more resources
- Build additional extractors
- Increase refinery production
- Add more storage
- Improve logistics
Regularly checking your resource trends can prevent major production problems before they become serious.
Understand Excavation Priority
When you mark multiple areas for excavation, your drones need to decide what to dig first.
By default, distance can affect excavation order, with drones working through areas based on priority and location.
However, you can manually set higher priority for a specific excavation area.
This is extremely useful when you know exactly where an important resource deposit is located.
Instead of waiting for drones to clear every nearby area first, assign high priority to the location you actually need.
The excavation interface also uses different visual indicators to help show priority.
Learning how to control excavation priorities saves a lot of time once your underground base becomes larger.
Research and Build the Rolling Mill
As your production requirements increase, you’ll eventually need the Rolling Mill.
This requires expanding your production chain and ensuring you have the necessary resources available.
Don’t be afraid to create a temporary setup.
The early factory layout is not permanent.
You will unlock better technology, improved logistics, and more efficient production options as you progress.
It’s completely normal to remove buildings later and rebuild them in a better configuration.
The important thing is leaving enough room around your facilities so you can expand or redesign without completely blocking yourself.
Don’t Be Afraid to Rebuild Your Base
This is probably one of the best pieces of advice for new players.
Your first factory layout will not be your final factory layout.
As you unlock:
- Better logistics
- Underground conveyors
- More research
- Advanced production buildings
- Improved power systems
- Better automation
You’ll discover much more efficient ways to organize your colony.
So don’t spend too much time trying to make your first setup perfect.
Build something that works.
Leave some extra space.
Learn the systems.
Then improve everything later.
Always Keep a Resource Buffer for Construction
One of the first problems you may encounter is running out of materials when you want to build something.
For example, you may be producing plenty of steel, but that does not necessarily mean your construction drones can access the steel when they need it. A resource can be sitting inside a factory or moving along a conveyor belt, but that does not always make it available for construction.
This is something you need to pay attention to when designing your production system.
In my example, steel was being produced and sent through the production chain, but it was not being stored somewhere useful for construction. Some of it was inside a Component Factory, while other resources were moving on conveyor belts.
The important thing to remember is that drones cannot simply take resources directly from every conveyor belt and use them for construction.
You can increase the priority of a building so drones focus on supplying and constructing it first, but there is another useful solution: create a storage buffer.
A storage buffer keeps a certain amount of important resources available for your drones. This means you can continue your normal production while still having materials ready for:
- Building new structures
- Repairing damaged buildings
- Emergency construction
- Other drone tasks
Steel is one of the best resources to keep in an early-game buffer because you use it constantly.
How the Storage Reserve Slider Works
Storage buildings have several useful options, and one of the most important is the reserve slider.
You can control how many resources must always remain inside the storage.
For example, if you set the reserve to 20 steel, the storage will keep those 20 units instead of sending everything through the conveyor output.
This is extremely useful for construction.
I recommend keeping a small reserve of important materials so your drones always have access to something when you need to build or repair.
The basic idea looks like this:
- Resources enter the storage
- Your production system takes the excess
- A minimum amount remains in storage
- Drones can use the stored resources for construction and repairs
You can also lock the storage output completely, but you usually do not want to do that permanently. Using the reserve slider gives you much better control.
For my early base, keeping around 20 steel available worked as a useful construction buffer.
You can use the same idea later for other important resources, including titanium.
Do Not Let Your Research Points Go to Waste
Research is another system you need to watch constantly.
When research is completed, choose another technology as soon as possible. If you keep producing research points without spending them, you can eventually waste them.
The game gives you warnings when this happens, so pay attention to the research indicator.
During the early game, useful technologies can include upgrades such as:
- Cargo drones
- Drone upgrades
- Medium Solar Panels
- Ice Smelters
- Recycling
- Extractor upgrades
- Refinery upgrades
- Landing platforms
You do not have to permanently commit to every research choice immediately.
You can change your priorities and adjust your research plans as your base develops.
For beginners, I recommend focusing on whatever solves your current problem.
If you are struggling with power, research better power technology.
If resources are moving too slowly, improve extraction or processing.
If you need better logistics, focus on drones and transportation.
Try to think about research as a solution to the problems your base is currently facing.
Running Out of Iron and Steel
Iron shortages can quickly create problems throughout your entire base.
If you do not have enough iron, you eventually run out of steel. Once steel production slows down, construction and other manufacturing can also stop.
When this happens, you have several options.
First, you can scan more of the surrounding area to find additional resource deposits.
You may already have discovered resources such as:
- Iron
- Silicon
- Titanium
- Water
But finding a few deposits is not always enough for long-term production.
You need to continue exploring and expanding your resource supply.
Scanning and Exposing Resource Nodes
There is an important difference between exposing a resource node and scanning it.
You may dig into an area and reveal a resource deposit, but you still need to understand the area properly before placing your extraction infrastructure.
Scanning helps you identify available resources and plan where to expand your production.
During the early game, keep scanning the surrounding area whenever you begin experiencing resource shortages.
Do not wait until your entire production chain stops.
If iron is becoming a bottleneck, start looking for more iron before your steel completely runs out.
The same applies to silicon, titanium, and other important materials.
Recycling Can Save Your Base
Recycling can become extremely useful when resources are limited.
During the early stages, you may not always have access to enough fresh materials to continue expanding normally.
Recycling gives you another way to recover useful resources and can help you survive shortages while you search for new deposits.
I recommend unlocking recycling when it fits into your research plan because it gives you more flexibility.
Early-game resource management is not always about producing more.
Sometimes the best solution is using what you already have more efficiently.
Using Drones to Collect Resources
Drones can manually collect resources, but they need somewhere to deliver those resources.
If drones collect iron and there is no valid storage or destination available, they cannot continue working efficiently.
This is where bulk resource storage becomes useful.
You can use storage as a buffer between your extraction system and your production system.
For example, your setup could look like this:
Extractor → Bulk Storage → Production
The extractor produces the resource.
The storage holds the resource and acts as a buffer.
Your factories or other buildings then receive materials from the storage.
This gives you much more flexibility and prevents your logistics system from becoming dependent on a single production line.
Drone Maintenance and Manual Resource Delivery
Many buildings have drone-related settings that allow you to control whether drones can deliver resources.
This is important because you do not always want drones supplying every building.
If a building already has a properly connected conveyor belt, using drones to deliver the same materials can waste drone time.
Your drones may spend their time flying resources to factories instead of:
- Constructing buildings
- Repairing structures
- Collecting resources
- Performing other important tasks
For buildings that are fully automated with conveyor belts, it is usually better to let the conveyor system handle the transportation.
You can toggle drone delivery on or off depending on your needs.
This gives you two different approaches:
Use Drones for Flexible Logistics
Drones are useful when:
- You are setting up a temporary production system
- A building is far away from your conveyors
- You are manually collecting resources
- You need construction materials delivered
- You need repairs
Use Conveyors for Permanent Production
Conveyors are better when:
- A building constantly needs resources
- You have a stable production line
- You want to reduce drone workload
- You want consistent automation
Once you connect a conveyor belt to a building’s input or output, the drone delivery settings can automatically change.
This is why automation becomes increasingly important as your base grows.
Do Not Waste Your Drones on Permanent Supply Routes
I noticed that drones can spend a huge amount of time supplying extractors and other production buildings manually.
This may work at the beginning, but it becomes inefficient as your base grows.
If you see several drones constantly flying to the same building, consider building a conveyor connection.
For example, if a silicon extractor constantly requires drones to collect its output, connect it to a conveyor belt instead.
Once the conveyor system takes over, your drones become available for other tasks.
This is one of the biggest improvements you can make to your base efficiency.
Think of it this way:
Drones are flexible. Conveyors are permanent.
Use drones where flexibility is important and conveyors where you have a stable production route.
How Power Generation Works
Power management becomes one of the biggest challenges during the early game.
Your solar panels generate electricity during the day, and your batteries store power for later use.
The basic system is:
Power Generation → Buildings → Batteries
The electricity generated by your solar panels is used by your base.
Any extra power can be stored in batteries.
You can check your power information by hovering over the power indicator.
The game shows information such as:
- Total power generation
- Maximum consumption
- Current power balance
- Battery storage
- Grid surplus
For example, if your base generates 330 power and your maximum consumption is 145, the remaining power can go toward charging your batteries.
This is why daytime production is so important.
You are not just powering your buildings. You are also preparing for the night.
Battery Storage Is Not the Only Thing That Matters
A common beginner mistake is only looking at how much energy your batteries can store.
Battery output capacity is equally important.
For example, imagine your base needs 145 power, but your batteries can only output 100 power.
Even if the batteries contain plenty of stored electricity, they cannot supply enough power to run your entire base.
This means you need to consider two things:
Total Energy Storage
How much electricity can your batteries hold?
This determines how long your base can survive without power generation.
Battery Output Capacity
How much electricity can your batteries provide at one time?
This determines whether your batteries can actually power all your buildings.
Your battery output capacity should be high enough to handle your maximum consumption.
If your base consumes more power than your batteries can output, you can experience an energy shortage even when your batteries are not empty.
Preparing for the Night
Solar power creates another important problem: nighttime.
When the sun goes down, your solar panels stop generating electricity.
Your entire base depends on the energy stored during the day.
Before night arrives, check:
- How much power your base consumes
- How long your batteries will last
- How many days remain until daylight
- Whether your battery output can support your buildings
For example, if your batteries are estimated to last 5.6 days but dawn is still 7 days away, you have a problem.
You need to either:
- Build more batteries
- Reduce power consumption
- Improve power generation before night
- Adjust your production priorities
Another important lesson is timing.
Building batteries immediately before night may not help much because they have not had enough time to charge.
Try to expand your battery capacity early enough for your solar panels to fill the new batteries during the day.
Medium Solar Panels and Power Expansion
As your base grows, basic solar panels may eventually stop being enough.
Researching Medium Solar Panels gives you the ability to improve your power generation.
When you unlock better power technology, consider upgrading your existing power infrastructure instead of waiting for a complete energy crisis.
Your power requirements will continue increasing as you add:
- Extractors
- Refineries
- Smelting Furnaces
- Factories
- Logistics buildings
- New infrastructure
Power planning should always be slightly ahead of your current needs.
Do not build exactly enough electricity for your current base.
Leave some room for expansion.
How to Copy Buildings Quickly
You do not always need to open the building menu and manually find the same structure again.
You can copy an existing building using the copy shortcut and quickly place another version nearby.
This becomes extremely useful when expanding production.
For example, if one Smelting Furnace is working correctly but your input resource is starting to accumulate, you can copy that furnace and create another production line.
After copying the building, make sure you also:
- Connect the required conveyors
- Provide power
- Check the input and output
- Confirm that you have enough resources
Copying buildings saves time and makes expansion much easier.
Understanding Production Bottlenecks
A bottleneck happens when one part of your production chain cannot process resources fast enough.
You can identify bottlenecks by checking how quickly each building produces and consumes resources.
For example, a refinery may produce approximately 8.1 units of Silicon Oxide per minute.
A Smelting Furnace may consume 4 units per minute.
If you only have one furnace, you are consuming 4 while producing 8.1.
The extra resources slowly accumulate.
Eventually, the storage becomes full.
This tells you that your next processing stage is too slow.
In that situation, building another Smelting Furnace can help balance the production line.
You can use the same approach for every resource.
How to Calculate Production Ratios
You do not need complicated tools to understand your production.
You can manually compare the numbers shown by each building.
Check:
- How much the first building produces per minute.
- How much the next building consumes per minute.
- Compare the two numbers.
- Build additional processing capacity if resources accumulate.
For example:
Refinery: Produces 8.1 Silicon Oxide per minute.
Smelting Furnace: Consumes 4 Silicon Oxide per minute.
One furnace is not enough to process the entire output.
You will need additional processing eventually.
The same principle applies to Iron Oxide, Titanium Oxide, and other materials.
If you produce more than you consume, resources stockpile.
If you consume more than you produce, your factories eventually run out of materials.
Try to keep your production chain reasonably balanced.
Fixing Full Storage Problems
When you see messages such as:
- Production is full
- Not enough resources
- Storage is full
Stop and check the production chain.
The problem may not actually be the building showing the warning.
For example, a refinery may stop because its output storage is full.
The real problem is that the next factory is not consuming the output quickly enough.
This is why you should follow the entire chain.
Check:
Resource Extraction → Refining → Smelting → Manufacturing → Storage
Find the point where resources are accumulating.
That location is often your bottleneck.
Building More Smelting and Processing Capacity
When a refinery produces more materials than your current processing buildings can handle, expand the next stage of production.
For example, if Silicon Oxide is filling up:
- Check refinery production
- Check Smelting Furnace consumption
- Add another furnace if necessary
- Connect power and conveyors
- Monitor the system again
Do not immediately build multiple factories without checking the numbers.
Sometimes you only need one additional building.
Other times, you may need to improve extraction instead.
Try to identify whether the problem is:
- Too much production
- Not enough processing
- Not enough storage
- Poor logistics
- Insufficient power
Building More Extractors vs Upgrading Extractors
When you need more resources, you generally have two options.
You can build additional extractors.
Or you can upgrade your existing extractor.
For example, an upgrade may increase the mining cycle speed by 30%.
However, upgrades usually require credits.
Building another extractor requires different resources and infrastructure.
This creates an important decision.
Upgrade Existing Buildings When
- You have enough credits
- Space is limited
- You want to improve an established production line
- The resource node is valuable
Build More Buildings When
- You have enough resources
- You have available resource nodes
- You want to avoid spending credits
- You have enough CPU capacity
There is no single answer for every situation.
Sometimes building another extractor is cheaper.
Sometimes upgrading is more efficient.
You need to compare your current resources, money, available nodes, and infrastructure.
Understanding CPU Power
CPU Power works similarly to a capacity limit.
Buildings and drones use CPU Power, so you need to make sure you have enough available before expanding.
Think of it as a limit on how much infrastructure your base can support.
When deciding whether to build another extractor or other structure, check whether you have enough CPU Power.
A new building may require:
- CPU Power
- Construction materials
- Components
- Steel
- Microcircuits
- Energy
Unlike upgrades, constructing additional buildings may not require the same amount of credits.
This is another reason why building more can sometimes be the better option.
Check Your Monthly Financial Report
Your base does not only need resources and power.
You also need to pay attention to money.
The Monthly Report helps you see whether you are earning or spending credits.
During the early stages, you may notice that you are constantly spending money without generating much income.
This is normal while you are rebuilding and expanding, but eventually you need a reliable way to earn credits.
This becomes especially important when you begin dealing with contracts and upgrades.
Keep an eye on your finances before spending heavily on building upgrades.
Deconstructing Buildings
Do not be afraid to remove buildings.
You can deconstruct structures you no longer need and recover resources.
This is useful when:
- Your production layout needs to change
- You built something in the wrong place
- A building is no longer useful
- You need resources for another project
Your first base does not need to remain permanent.
As you unlock new technologies, you will probably redesign large parts of it anyway.
Do Not Worry About a Perfect Base Layout Early
Your available underground building area expands as you progress.
You eventually get more room and more technology.
Because of this, I would not spend too much time trying to create a perfect layout during the first few hours.
Your base will change.
You will unlock new buildings.
You will discover new production requirements.
You will probably redesign your conveyors and storage systems.
This is completely normal.
During my experience with the game, I repeatedly had to rethink and redesign my base after unlocking new technology.
The early game is about learning the systems.
Optimization can come later.
Keeping Titanium Available for Construction
Titanium creates the same problem as steel.
You may have titanium moving through your conveyor system, but your drones may need titanium stored somewhere accessible for construction.
The solution is again to create a storage reserve.
For example, you can configure your Titanium Storage to always keep around 20 units available.
This gives your drones a reliable supply for:
- Construction
- Repairs
- New production buildings
If the titanium is already moving along a conveyor belt, you can use drone logistics and storage settings to bring resources back into storage when necessary.
Make sure the storage allows drones to deliver resources.
Once resources are placed into the appropriate logistics system, drones can collect them and store them for later construction use.
Keep Important Materials Out of Conveyor-Only Storage
A conveyor system is excellent for production, but you should not allow every important resource to exist only on conveyors.
Keep buffers.
For critical materials, I recommend having dedicated storage with a reserve amount.
Good early-game buffer resources include:
- Steel
- Titanium
- Other frequently used construction materials
This prevents situations where your production system is technically producing everything you need, but your construction drones cannot access the materials.
The Hope 2 Emergency and Your First Major Choice
As you progress, you receive an emergency message involving the Hope 2 orbital station.
The station has suffered severe damage and faces a dangerous situation.
You are eventually presented with a major choice that affects how your base develops.
You can choose between helping accommodate the surviving crew or focusing on contracts and your industrial development.
This is one of the first important decisions in the game.
Option One: Accommodate the Hope 2 Crew
Choosing to help the crew gives you access to support and technology-related benefits.
You may also receive research advantages over time.
However, this path requires your base to support people.
You will need to prepare things such as:
- Living quarters
- Water
- Oxygen
- Food
- Accommodation
The crew can provide bonuses and help improve production, but managing a population adds additional complexity.
For a first playthrough, this route can be more difficult because you are already learning resource management, power, production, and logistics.
Option Two: Focus on Contracts
The other option focuses more on industrial progression and contracts.
You can receive credits and continue developing your base without immediately managing a population.
For beginners, I generally recommend starting with the contract-focused route.
It allows you to learn the core mechanics first:
- Resource production
- Logistics
- Manufacturing
- Power management
- Research
- Financial management
You can focus on building a stable industrial base before adding the additional responsibilities of supporting people.
The crew route can be interesting, but it introduces more systems that beginners need to manage.
Restoring Communication With the Repeater
After making progress with the story, you receive a mission involving a damaged communication repeater.
You need to restore communication capabilities on the Moon.
For this mission, you receive access to a Rover Scout.
The rover can leave your base and explore locations on the global map.
This introduces exploration outside your main base.
How to Use the Rover Scout
You can send the rover away from your base using the available controls.
You can also access the Global Map.
On the map, you can move around and select available locations.
When you find a destination, you can:
- Set an expedition
- Select the transport
- Choose to investigate
The rover then travels toward the selected location.
Exploration can reveal useful information and help you progress through missions.
You can also use keyboard controls to move around the map and switch between different views.
The game allows you to switch between the underground, surface, and map views using the available controls, including the Tab key.
Why Exploration Matters
Your base is not the only place where progression happens.
Exploration introduces missions, story events, technology, and important objectives.
The Rover Scout is an important tool because it allows you to investigate locations outside your base.
When you receive coordinates for an important location, send the appropriate expedition and investigate.
The early repeater mission is one of your first major examples of this system.
Building a Landing Platform
If you choose to progress through contracts and resource shipments, you eventually need to research and build a Landing Platform.
You can find it in the Logistics section.
I recommend building the Landing Platform relatively close to the elevator.
This makes transportation easier because resources need to move between your underground base and the surface.
A shorter logistics route generally means a cleaner and more efficient setup.
The basic idea is:
Underground Production → Elevator → Landing Platform
As your base develops, you may eventually want more than one Landing Platform.
Multiple platforms can help speed up logistics and future operations.
Contracts and Your Base Economy
Contracts become important because they give your base a way to generate income and interact with outside organizations.
You may receive payments in advance, but you still need to fulfill the contract requirements.
Do not forget about your active contracts.
If you accept payment and fail to begin fulfilling the contract, you can create problems for your company’s reputation and finances.
This is why your production planning eventually needs to include both:
- Resources required for your own base
- Resources required for contracts
Make sure you do not send every available resource away if your own production still depends on it.
Keep your construction and production buffers.
Managing Warnings and Pop-Ups
The game gives you several warning indicators.
Some warnings can be dismissed when you no longer need them.
However, you should not simply ignore every warning.
Certain indicators tell you about serious problems, including:
- Energy shortages
- Full production
- Missing resources
- Idle drones
- Wasted research points
If you see the warning that research points are being wasted, immediately check your research menu and select another technology.
Warnings are usually telling you where your attention is needed.
Learning how to quickly identify the cause of each warning will make the game much easier.
A Simple Early-Game Priority List
When you are not sure what to do next, I recommend following this general order.
First: Make Sure You Have Power
Check:
- Solar generation
- Maximum consumption
- Battery storage
- Battery output capacity
- Time remaining until daylight
Do not let your entire production system shut down because you ignored nighttime power requirements.
Second: Secure Important Resources
Scan for more resources when you begin experiencing shortages.
Keep an eye on:
- Iron
- Silicon
- Titanium
- Water
Do not wait until your production completely stops.
Third: Fix Production Bottlenecks
Check which resources are filling storage.
Compare production and consumption rates.
Build additional processing capacity when necessary.
Fourth: Improve Logistics
Use conveyors for permanent production routes.
Use drones for flexible tasks, construction, and situations where conveyor infrastructure is not practical.
Fifth: Keep Construction Buffers
Store important materials such as steel and titanium.
Set a reserve amount so drones always have resources available.
Sixth: Spend Your Research Points
Do not allow research points to accumulate and go to waste.
Always have useful research in progress.
Seventh: Watch Your Money
Check the Monthly Report.
Do not spend credits on upgrades without considering your income and future needs.