Building a proper base is essential, without one you'll quickly find that you lack resources and the necessary power output. Even if you plan on being a nomad later on, you'll still need a base to be able to build your ship.
Although this guide is aimed more at advanced players who have already found a planet, it is friendly to newcomers wanting to build their starterbase who have found the instructions in Getting Started too vague. As such the first few parts may be a little more hand-holdy than other articles.
Setting up[edit | hide all | hide | edit source]
To start, you must find a suitable spot for your base. It should have all necessary resources (Iron, copper, mountains, and what you'll use to generate power [eg. Coal) nearby. Having other resources nearby is a plus, but not required as you can later transport them using transporters once you have bootstrapped your base.
If possible, the area should also be fairly clear and flat as this will make building a base easier. This is not necessary however, mountain/hill bases are possible and may even be favorable at times.
ALWAYS thoroughly explore the planet you plan to build a base on. You should compile a list of possible locations, then go through each of their pros and cons until finally deciding on one. Remember that once you begin building your base you cannot easily move it.
Gathering resources[edit | hide | edit source]
(You can safely skip this if you brought resources with you, eg. if you just escaped from a starter with them.)
Once you have chosen a location, the next step is to find the closest iron and copper nodes to you. You should head to the iron node first, mine a few pieces of iron by equipping your harvest (pickaxe) tool, then clicking on the iron node. If done correctly, you should see pieces fall out. Get 8 pieces of iron and craft the following using the crafting (V) menu;
- 1 SpawnPoint
- 2 Bins
Immediately lock the SpawnPoint using the locking (C) menu and place it where you expect the center of your base to be. This will ensure you spawn back at your base if you die or leave the game. You should lock the bins as well; if you are not using something for crafting, lock it. This will ensure other players can not tamper with your builds.
Next, place one of the bins up against the iron node using your hammer tool and resize it (6×6×6 should be more than enough). Then, mine some more iron (place your cursor right above the bin so the iron falls into it). If you're setting up a starterbase, you'll need at least 14 pieces of iron, though more is advised.
You should then drag both of your bins to the nearby copper node and repeat the steps you did with the iron node, note you'll need to use the empty bin as the now filled iron bin will not accept anything but said resource. Once you've gathered the necessary copper, go to a mountain and mine it until sulfur appears (long yellowish stick-like resource), then drag it over to your bins. You may then proceed to the following section.
Setting up power[edit | hide | edit source]
You'll now want to set up power. For more advanced sources like reactors consult Power and electronics, this also assumes you brought the necessary resources to build them. If you just need to set up a basic coal setup though, this should suffice. Do note that a basic BurnerGenerator-based setup will only be enough for a starterbase or for bootstrapping a proper base (eg. you forgot to bring resources from your previous base and must start anew). Start by crafting the following IN ORDER with the resources you just gathered;
- 1 Extractor
- 1 Bin
- 5 Wires
- 2 BurnerGenerators
- 1 PowerCell
If you followed the previous section, this should leave you with 9 copper. More than enough for wiring. You'll now set up power generation.
Find a nearby coal node and bring all your newly crafted items to it, be careful not to bin anything as you should now have an empty iron bin! If this happens, you can always click it to take out the item.
Place your extractor on the coal node with the hole (front) side facing AWAY from it. If your nodes are close together, you should also be wary of the fact that extractors won't work if they are within 40 studs of another extractor OR on the same node as one (doesn't apply to mountains or the ground).
Resize your bin to 10×10×10 and place it on the extractor's front side. The bin won't fit perfectly but that's okay, as long as the bin is 10×10×10; it should work regardless of where you place it due to its size.
Attach the BurnerGenerators to the side of the bin (you could also attach them to chutes connected to the bin and place them elsewhere).
All that's left to now do is to place the PowerCell, resize it to 10×10×10, and wire it to the BurnerGenerators (if you played the Tutorial you should know how to do this, if not Power and electronics provides an explanation). You should now mine a piece of coal and drop it into the bin (drag tool while holding CTRL). You should see black smoke emanating from the extractor if you've done everything correctly. Another indication that you've done everything correctly is the PowerCell filling up with power. Don't forget to lock your parts! If you haven't been doing so already, you should make a habit out of doing so.
Getting Resources[edit | hide | edit source]
It's now time to get some basic resources, you should start with iron.
Find a nearby iron node and mine some iron from it, then craft the an extractor and a bin. Place the extractor on the iron node the same way you did with the coal extractor for your power setup; front side out, back side in.
You'll now need to configure the extractor by using your hammer tool's configure option. Set MaterialToExtract to Iron in this case.
All that's left to do now is to resize (10×10×10 for maximum storage capacity) and attach the bin, after which you must wire the extractor to your power source for it to work. Although a better storage solution would be nice, attaching and detaching bins will have to do for now.
You should now set up copper, after which you should craft 8 BurnerGenerators. Attach these to your power generation setup. BurnerGenerator-based power generation setups require 8 BurnerGenerators per attached extractor to run at maximum efficiency.
Once this has been completed, set up the following resources;
- Grass (can be mined from the ground or grown using hydroponics)
- Stone (can be mined from mountains)
- Sulfur (can be mined from mountains)
- Silicon (can be mined from mountains)
- Quartz (can be mined from mountains)
- Glass (smelted from sand)
Other resources will be set up later, you only want the bare essentials for now. All that's left to do now is wait until you have a satisfactory amount of each resource. If you used this guide to build a starterbase, you should now proceed to Building A Ship. Otherwise, proceed to the next section. Do note that things will get less hand-holdy from here;
(TIP: If you're getting tired of how dark night is, you could mine for a piece of Ruby and Flint from a mountain. You can then use the flint to smelt sand (drop it on the sand) into glass which you are able to use to craft NightVisionGoggles.)
Expanding your base[edit | hide | edit source]
After you've set up a basic base, your next goal should be to expand and optimize your resource production. To start though, you should probably sort out storage first as manually attaching and detaching bins each time they are filled is tedious and won't scale well.
Designing a centralized storage solution[edit | hide | edit source]
The best way to make storage less annoying is to centralize all of it in a single place, then using filters to sort resources automatically. Another benefit of having centralized storage is easier automation later on. You shouldn't serve your storage, it should serve you.
You should start by finding a clearing and placing down an iron baseplate. You should then craft enough transporters to cover all your extractors/MiningLasers, one filter for each resource you are extracting, and a lot of bins (and/or pipes/containers if you'll be doing liquids). The next step is to then build a storage system; this will consist of chutes leading from a transporter to filters, which will sort items and place them into bins (placing bins into lines on chutes is a good approach). If you'd like to more easily distinguish what resources a line contains, a good approach is to paint it and its bins with the same colour as the resource they contain. If you're colourblind or require a less subjective approach, consider using signs as well.
Examples of storage systems[edit | hide | edit source]
- Examples of storage systems
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Improving power generation[edit | hide | edit source]
Power is the capacity to do work. Without it your machines cannot operate. A larger base entails a better power generation method. If you chose a more advanced setup in an earlier part of this article as you brought along some resources, you can safely ignore this.
The reactor is a powerful (and dangerous!) method of generating power. However, its benefits outweigh the risks for a base as it has an incredible power output. A good reactor design will also be able to mitigate most of the risks. You should start by setting up water and uranium extraction (if not available on your planet you can try mining it from other planets in your solar system). You can get water by using pumps on a water source (make sure they're submerged), or by mining ice from mountains then converting it into water using melters. Consult Power and electronics for instructions on how to build one.
Another option of generating the necessary power to run a large base is deploying a massive solar array in a random region around a neutron star and using relays. Please do note however that other players may be able to leech (you could also try to do this yourself) off of your relay if they find the relay ID, and having your power generation separated from your base may be either advantageous or disadvantageous depending on your circumstance. Other less efficient methods of power generation are also available, though generally not recommended for a large base; consult Power and electronics for more info.
Resources; refinement and extraction[edit | hide | edit source]
Resources such as grass are nearly useless on their own. However, they can be crafted into useful resources such as rubber. Doing this by hand would be incredibly tedious though, this is why assemblers exist.
Assuming you have a centralized storage solution, an automated assembly setup should pretty straightforward. Connect the necessary resources to a powered and configured assembler. An efficient setup is to have raw resource chutes on the outside, and crafted resource chutes on the inside leading back to filtering.
(Certain resources like stone or sand can also be refined into other resources using different machines (eg. pulverizer). These shouldn't require much explanation, look at the pages of the respective machines to figure out how they work.)
Resource extraction can be optimized by using MiningLasers instead of extractors; they are 1.5x faster and can be used on the same node. Be wary of the heat they produce, though. You'll need resources which (assuming you've been following the guide) you haven't set up yet to craft these, however. You should now set up extraction of all remaining resources. If any necessary resources are missing on your planet, you should try to search around your solar system for them. If this yields no results, you will unfortunately have to travel to another star system to mine them.
Finishing off[edit | hide | edit source]
If you've completed everything up to this point, congrats 🎉! You have made a base which should last a while. With solid foundations, this should give you a lot of room to expand. Build anything you can imagine! Although optional, it is recommended to proceed to Defending Yourself. This will teach you how to defend against possible attackers.
If you want to further your knowledge, a list of selected articles is maintained here. You can also try to search around the wiki or experiment with mechanics yourself.