Welcome to Waste Of Space! This is an open world massive multiplayer sandbox game, where the whole universe is your sandbox! The possibilities are endless, from building battleships on ocean worlds to constructing Dyson spheres around stars harvesting energy.
However, you must first learn the basics first before diving deep into it. You will notice that when spawning in for the first time, you'll find yourself on an alien world with trees and oceans, not too dissimilar to Earth.
This is what's called an Earth-like planet. New players spawn on Earth-like planets to be given a chance to progress through the game.
Basic Controls / Tools / GUI
On the bottom of your screen, you are given 3 tools to play with:
- The Fist tool: a basic offense tool. It is able to damage other players, and break parts such as glass. You are able to block with
[F], which will negate any damage dealt to you by other players using fists. - The Pickaxe tool: used to harvest natural resources from your surroundings.
- The Hammer tool: used to drag, resize, surface, connect, paint, and configure certain parts and objects. It is a core component of the game's building system. Holding
[CTRL]while dragging will cause the placed object not to weld (stick) to any touching surfaces.
If you require help with any of these tools, consider visiting their respective pages on the wiki (click their names above).
On the left of your screen, you will notice a side menu which contains five buttons. Their keybindings, among other settings, may be changed in the options menu located on the top left of your screen. Listed in order from top to bottom, the buttons are:
- Help
[X]- Serves as a reference for your gameplay, and gives you information on parts and tutorials for specific tasks, similar to the pages on this wiki. Remember: This wiki goes much more in-depth on many parts and subjects, so it is wise to consult both! - Lock
[C]- Allows you to interact with the locking system. In it, you will be able to manage locking and unlocking parts, as well as lock groups. Lock groups specify who, and in what way may interact with your locked parts. To select a lock group, simply click on it (it will become highlighted in yellow around its edges). If you have just started, it is advisable to create one. You can do this by pressing theNew Groupbutton. You should now see a new group with 3 tabs: "You", "Friends", and "Everyone". Go into each one of these tabs and adjust the permissions as you see fit (toggle the checkboxes by clicking on them). Ensure that you give yourself all of the permissions, and everyone else none of them. To lock parts, either use theNearby Lock/Unlockoption to lock/unlock all nearby parts, or click a specific part to toggle its lock status. Parts are locked with the selected lock group. If you hover over a part and it's name is blue-coloured (or red-coloured , for other's parts), that means it's locked. - Craft
[V]- Used to craft items in this game. It has search and filter (by category) functionality, which will allow you to find what you are looking for quicker. After selecting an item, its recipe and a brief description will be displayed, along with a visual preview. If you have the necessary ingredients, you will be able to craft the selected item. You may also use the/ccommand in chat to craft items (example:/c Boiler)
- Trash
[B]- Irreversibly destroys unlocked parts after clicking on them. - Model Loader
[N]- Loads in models from the compiled output. To use it, paste in the model builder's output, or a website containing it (Github Gist, Ghostbin, etc.). For further information on the model loader, please consult the Model Builder page's tutorial.
Building a base
Your first objective after spawning in should be to build a base as you'll need a steady supply of resources to be able to escape a starter planet.
Starters do not have all the resources necessary for long-term progression and are full of other players who may grief or steal from you. They should be left as soon as possible. Do not get too attached to the base you will build; it is only temporary.
Picking the right spot
To begin setting up your starter base, you'll first need to find a suitable spot for it. If possible, it should have the following:
- All necessary resources nearby (Iron, copper, mountains, and coal). [See their respective articles if you want to know how they look like]
- No neighbors. This will prevent conflicts over resources or space.
- Clear and flat terrain. This will make building your base much easier.
With this in mind, try exploring around where you spawned in to find such a spot. If you are unable to find one, either try resetting to spawn in a more desirable location or explore further away from your spawn point. Try searching for 5-10 minutes. If you are unable to find a suitable spot within this time frame you may either continue searching, or you can compromise on a decent enough spot. If you are determined to find the perfect spot but have already fully explored your starter planet, you should go back to the menu (type /lobby in chat), after which you can try joining a different starter planet.
If while searching you find an abandoned base (make sure it is actually abandoned), you may use it to gain a low-risk jump start by stealing from its bins. If you really wish to steal from it, and if you want to grief it: is up to you to decide. These abandoned bases are also often favourably positioned. You may also steal from an active base, though beware that this poses a significant risk as you may be killed and anything you've built may be destroyed in retaliation.
Alternatively, for a more peaceful approach, you may partner up with someone building an existing base. Note that doing this with random strangers may, of course, be a bit risky. If you have a closer friend, inviting them to Waste of Space to help you may also be a viable option.
TIP: Although not strictly necessary, crafting some NightVisionGoggles can considerably help you as it gets incredibly dark at night. To craft them, mine for a piece of ruby and flint from a mountain. Then, mine two pieces of sand from the nearest shore. You can then use the flint to smelt the sand into glass (drop it on the sand). You should also mine for a piece of iron and a piece of copper (which you'll then craft into a wire). All that's left to do is to then bring all of the materials you've collected together and craft yourself some NightVisionGoggles.
Gathering basic resources and moving your spawn
Once you've decided on a location, find the closest iron node to you and go to it. Equip your pickaxe tool and mine 8 pieces of iron. Then, craft the following using the crafting (V) menu:
- 1 SpawnPoint
- 2 Bins
If you haven't done so already, you should now open the locking (C) menu and create a lock group (see the previous heading if you require help doing this).
Immediately after creating (and selecting) your new lock group, lock the SpawnPoint. Then, place it roughly where you expect the center of your base to be. This ensures you spawn back at your base even if you die or leave the game. Lock the two bins as well.
REMEMBER: If you are not using something for crafting, lock it. This ensures that others can't tamper with your builds and that you don't accidentally use them for crafting.
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).
Mine some more iron (place your cursor right above the bin so the iron falls into it). If any falls to the sides while mining, drag it onto the bin while holding [CTRL], then give it a slight push. You'll need at least 18 more pieces of iron (Note: this assumes you'll be crafting the minimal possible amounts of everything). If you can spare the time, getting a bit more than required can prove useful.
Once you've mined enough iron drag both of your bins to a nearby copper node and repeat what you did with the iron node. Getting at least 15 pieces of copper should ensure that you have enough for both crafting and wiring no matter the terrain. Note you'll need to use the empty bin as the now filled iron bin won't accept anything but said resource (iron).
Once you've gathered enough copper, go to a mountain and mine it until sulfur appears (long yellowish stick-like resource), then drag it over to your bins.
Power Generation
As gathering resources by hand is too slow and tedious, it needs to be automated. For this, power is required. As such, its generation is the next thing you'll want to set up.
Craft an extractor and place it onto a coal node, making sure it is oriented correctly (front side (black dot) facing away from the wall). You should also craft:
- 1 Bin
- 1 PowerCell.
- At least 2 BurnerGenerators
Once you've crafted these parts, resize the bin to its maximum size (10×10×10) and place it onto the front of the extractor. Connect the BurnerGenerators to the bin, either by placing them directly onto it or by using chutes. Finally, connect the PowerCell with the Extractor and the BurnerGenerators, either by physical contact and or by using wires.
To start the generator, mine a piece of coal using your pickaxe and drop it into the bin. (Place it onto the bin while holding CTRL. If it's not going in try giving it a small push by walking over it back and forth.)
If everything was done correctly, you should see the extractor and BurnerGenerators emitting smoke. The coal was used by the burner generators to produce power, which was then stored in the power cell. The power cell in turn provided the extractor with power so it may mine more coal, continuing the cycle. Below is a flowchart of this process:
An important thing to note: to simplify everything, the diagram above cuts out intermediary bins and PowerCells. In the actual game, though, they are required. Power must first be stored in a PowerCell to be used, and Coal must first be stored in a bin to be accessible to parts that consume it (e.g. BurnerGenerators).
Otherwise, if it's not working, check if everything is connected then try to start the generator again.
Although basic, this simple generator should be enough for your starterbase. Periodically look at the PowerCell to see if power is stagnating or dropping. If this is ever the case, you can either add more BurnerGenerators (up to about 8 per attached extractor) or set up a second generator.
Later on, you will have access to better power generation methods such as SolarPanels, CombustionTurbines and SteamTurbines.
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A solar power generation setup
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A gasoline-based power generation setup
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A steam-based (boilers) power generation setup
Resource Extraction And Storage
As has already been mentioned, gathering resources manually would be far too slow (and tedious). You'll automate this by using extractors, just as you did for coal. This tutorial recommends that you start with iron as it's required for crafting more bins and extractors. It is also what this article will assume you are setting up first. The process for setting up the extraction of any other resource is identical, though.
To start, craft an extractor and a bin. Place the extractor onto the iron node the same way you did with the coal extractor for your coal generator: 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. (Note: it's important that it's capitalized)
All that's left to do now is to resize (10×10×10 for maximum storage capacity) and attach the bin (either directly or with chutes) to the iron extractor, after which you must connect the extractor to the PowerCell using wires for it to work. If you've done everything successfully, the iron extractor should be emitting black smoke! This means that it is powered. The only remaining step is to see if your iron bin is being filled. If something's not working, check if everything is connected and if your coal extractor is near your iron extractor. Extractors only work if they are at least 50 studs apart from other extractors.
You may notice that as time passes, the bin you attached to the extractor will begin to fill up. Once it is full, you'll have to manually detach it and attach a new one to the extractor. Although a better storage solution would be nice, and you can opt to later build it, this manual method should be enough for a starterbase.
This tutorial recommends that you now set up copper, as it is the second most frequently used resource. Follow the same procedure as what you did for the iron extractor. Once copper has been set up, and if you haven't done so already, maximize the power output of your coal generator by crafting and setting up enough BurnerGenerators to reach 8 in total (per extractor + bin). Apart from iron and copper, you'll also want to set up the extraction of all of these other resources:
- Silicon (can be mined from mountains)
- Quartz (can be mined from mountains)
- Flint, stone, and sulfur (can be mined from mountains)
- You should set these up on a single extractor as you won't need a lot of them. Once you've gathered a substantial amount (50 of each should be more than enough) of one resource, switch the extractor to mining another and then switch out the bins as well. After you've collected enough of each resource, switch the extractor to mining quartz as you'll be needing a lot if it (remember to switch out the bins as well).
- Remember to space out the extractors for these resources at least 50 studs apart from all other (powered) extractors.
You'll also need some sand and some grass. You don't need a lot of them and they can be obtained easily, (min. 25 sand/6 grass) so you can choose to mine them manually as to not waste power. These resources can be mined from the ground (grassy ground for grass, sandy ground/shores for sand).
As sand is mostly useless in its raw form, you'll need to smelt it into glass. You can do this by either:
- Using a kiln. Place the mined sand in a bin, and connect it to a kiln. You'll also need to provide the kiln with a source of power and an output bin.
- Smelting the sand manually. For this, you can either drop flint on it repeatedly (quite tedious) or place some sulfur/coal near the sand then ignite it by dropping flint on it.
And one last thing - you'll need some wood. Just mine some from a nearby tree. You only need three pieces.
Remember to periodically ensure that you have enough power for all of your machinery (ensure that it is not dropping), and to keep an eye out on your temperature bar. You may need to use coolers, as extractors generate heat (1.5 coolers per running extractor are required to keep the temperature from rising).
Your base may attract some unwanted attention at this point as it has valuable resources. Crafting yourself a weapon to defend it may be a good idea.
Where to go from here
Congratulations 🎉! You have just built your first base! You should be proud of yourself, give yourself a pat on the back!
Unfortunately, as has already been mentioned, starters are incredibly dangerous to live on due to griefers and furthermore don't have all the necessary resources to craft more advanced items in this game. To continue progressing, you'll need to reach out for the stars.
To escape the starter planet, you will need to build a spaceship. The help menu and Building A Ship will help you do this. Good luck!
