Surviving a Brutal Start occurs in stages, which are defined by your priorities. The five stages of survival are:
This guide will provide the player with a list of priorities for each planet to most efficiently reach stage 5, along with video tutorials and the unedited corresponding attempt. I will also assume that you are playing on Stationeer difficulty, and thus require a habitat for eating and drinking.

Stage one consists of the first mining expedition, the construction of essential crafting and smelting equipment, and finally the pressurization of a habitat for eating and drinking. There is minimal room for error and little time to spare.

Once the immediate hazards of the environment are put aside, and we can eat, drink, and breathe through our supplies, it becomes a matter of efficiently handling and even growing our supplies.

With canisters able to be filled and potatoes growing steady, it becomes very apparent how tedious mining is. Thus, our priorities shift to the sensor lenses and heavy mining drill, and all that requires some upgrades to our crafting systems.

Any small mistake can still destroy the whole station, so its time to automate critical systems. After this stage is complete, the base should run fine on its own for days at a time. If you want to learn how to program basic machinery, check out this other guide I wrote.

You have conquered the environment. Now you may now make it your ♥♥♥♥♥ and bend physical systems to your mortal will. This stage is represents the freeform endgame of Stationeers. I often begin stage 5 by constructing deep miners to automate mining.
This guide will definitively cover stages one through three for every planet, with suggestions for stage four.

With no immediate danger, a brutal start on the moon is best spent speedrunning sensor lenses as soon as you exit the "Oh ♥♥♥♥" stage.

https://youtu.be/sJ0NmLrpqhk

https://youtu.be/_rOUBmfvyUE

• Mine 3 stacks of iron, 2 stacks of copper, some gold, some silicon, some oxite, and some volatiles. This will be roughly the same across all planets. On the moon, you can spend the whole first day mining.
  
• Construct a foundation using iron frames from the starting crate. Be sure to align the base properly to maximize solar production. I use an elevated platform that allows the solar panels to have maximal access to the sun.
  
• Build a furnace as soon as possible, and use it to smelt the rest of your ores. This will help preserve power. You can also use flares as a light source at night to avoid using your flashlight.
  
• Use smelted ores to create an electronics printer and a pipe bender.
  
• Set up vertical solar tracking using logic chips to generate all the power you'll need.
  
• Wall off the habitat, finish the airlock, and use the sun to melt some oxite inside the greenhouse. Then, you can add an active vent and a canister filler to fill your air tank with gas from the habitat. Don't forget eat, drink, and add a nitrogen filter to your suit.
  
• Use the next day to mine for steel, gold, and copper. With steel, you can build a battery, more solar panels, and make steel frames, which are cheaper overall.
• Spend the next few days mining up a stockpile of all the basic alloys. Use this to upgrade the tool printer and make a heavy mining drill.
  
• In the intervening nights, use your extra iron, copper, and gold to finish the greenhouse. On the moon, the sun itself works well enough as a growlight and a heater, so your only concern is crushing up water to put into some hydroponics trays.
  
• Use those same alloys to make an advanced furnace, and then use it to produce the superalloy inconel. 5g of inconel are needed to produce sensor lenses.
  
• With all the basic alloys, a superalloy, and a finished greenhouse, stage two and three are done at the same time on the moon. Now onto stage four.
  
• By now, your greenhouse is probably getting pretty hot from solar heating. Cooling your moon base should be your next priority. An active vent, one-way valve, passive vent, and some pipe radiators work very well.
  
• Filling our canisters will be easier and more effective with proper ice crushing and filtration, as will smelting with the furnace.
  
• With four solar panels, there is more than enough power to run the arc furnace outside of its comfort zone. Thus, a minimalist automatic arc furnace works great on the moon and is a great programming exercise.
  

While the atmospheric pollutants and storms can be a little annoying to deal with, there is a limitless supply of oxygen, nitrogen, and carbon dioxide in the Martian atmosphere.

https://youtu.be/My4VSqZ0w3c

https://youtu.be/JHIn9tcbtW8

• Mine iron, copper, gold, silicon, oxite, and volatiles.
  
• Make a furnace to smelt ores without using power.
  
• Use the smelted ores to make an electronics printer and a pipe bender.
  
• Use the electronics printer for solar tracking. This time, we want horizontal tracking, since the sun takes a low angle across the sky.
  
• Wall off the habitat, finish the airlock, and melt some oxite inside.
  
• Use an active vent as an air canister filler, just like before.
  
• Use steel for a battery and more solar panels.
  
• Build an ice crusher for water and finish the greenhouse.
  
• Get alloys and make the sensor lenses.
  
• A storm will come on day 8, so keep your supplies in lockers and your solar panels protected by iron windows.
  
• Upgrading to dual-axis solar tracking should be done sooner than later.
  
• Solar energy is intense on Mars, though not quite as intense as the moon. Still, cooling the greenhouse is an important priority.
  
• You can skip setting up an ice crusher for oxygen and go to atmospheric filtration if you like. Leftover carbon dioxide and nitrogen can be used to pressurize your growing base while pollutants will condense out, leaving an excellent coolant. Here is an example.
  

As an icy moon of Jupiter, Europa provides the first truly dangerous environment that must be kept at bay. The cold atmosphere will sap power from your batteries, and the sun is much less intense here, rendering solar panels less effective.

https://youtu.be/dFkX9LZlXX4?si=lVGiC0yxEEdauxOn

https://youtu.be/U7HOI2TMhkQ

• Mine lots of iron, some copper, some gold, a bit of silicon, and fuel ices.
  
• Wall off the crafting area and burst a pipe to pull the room down to a vacuum.
  
• Craft a furnace and smelt some ores.
  
• Craft the electronics printer and make some wind turbines.
  
• Later, you can use the furnace to heat some air and use that to fill your canister using a vent. If you have walled off a greenhouse already you can use the heated air in there as well.
  
• Make steel and a battery.
  
• Finish the greenhouse.
  
• The sun is not too weak to grow plants without a growlight, but your potatoes will grow very slowly.
  
• Just Like on Mars, a storm is coming on day 8, so get your solar panels behind windows.
  
• sensor lenses :)
  
• It's best to start saving hot gasses from your furnace in an insulated tank as soon as possible. That way, you can easily use pipe radiators to heat the atmosphere anywhere on Europa to expand your base.
  

Mimas, like the Moon, has no atmosphere to get in your way. However, there is no water ice, and the sun is very faint. As a result, everything is significantly harder, and fuel becomes a very early priority.

[COMING SOON]

https://youtu.be/VuRhijOqvx8

• Mine iron, gold, copper, silicon, and fuel ices.
  
• Build the hydraulic pipe bender and a furnace.
  
• Use the furnace to smelt as much of your ore as possible.
  
• Though dim, the sun can still melt oxite for our habitat.
  
• Use an active vent to fill your air canister for now.
  
• Smelt steel and make a battery.
  
• Get two ice crushers, an optional filtration unit, and a gas mixer to make fuel
  
• Attach a canister holder to the fuel network to run the generator while you plumb the furnace to use fuel from a pump.
  
• Leave space for an H2 Combustor to make water.
  
• Expand your base, add cooling, and a gas fuel generator to produce large amounts of power
  
• TIP: leave the other generator outside and hooked into the battery to kickstart power production if you run out of power and can't cycle your airlock.
  
• sensor lenses :o
  
• Right now, running all this equipment manually is very stressful. Ice can freeze in the water line if we don't open the condensation valve in time, or it can burst if we forget to turn the combuster off. The base can get very hot and very cold from the generator and the cooling system, and we have to make fuel. But all of this is very easy to automate, so alloys and automation become the next focus on Mimas.
  
• To see my script that I use, go here.
  
• To learn about how it works, go here.

Vulcan is the first of two hot planets. Variable temperatures mean that night isn't so bad while the lava illuminates ores, so we want to hide out during the day and mine at night.

[COMING SOON]

https://youtu.be/y0BnfyLCxp8

• Mine lots of iron, some copper, gold, and silicon.
  
• Wall off a space for crafting, and burst a pipe to pull a vacuum.
  
• Make the hydraulic pipe bender, an extra waste canister, the electronics printer, and a furnace.
  
• Manually adjust the solar panel 2 or three times throughout the day.
  
• Try to remain indoors as much as possible until night. The cool temperatures at night are enough for your suits AC system to handle, so your waste tank won't fill up with hot gas. Use the night to mine more ores.
  
• Smelting is very easy on Vulcan, so we'll prioritize getting basic alloys early to for IC solar tracking. Alternatively, you could focus on wind turbines and forgo automation for now. However, the cooling system that I will suggest using greatly benefits from automation as well.
  
• Set up the oxygen tank so that it can be cooled with an ac unit, dispensed into the greenhouse, used to absorb waste, and used to fill your air canister.
  
• For the AC Unit, feed it cool 127C air at night and heat that air to 140+ with your air tank hooked up the waste of the AC Unit. This will cool the air in the tank. Here is a script you can use.
  
• To slow oxygen consumption, a single-block greenhouse should be constructed as soon as possible with the provided water canister. After 12 potato planets, you will begin producing net oxygen, so its best to grow them as fast as possible.
  
• Since the air tank is holding most of the CO2 waste alongside the O2, the greenhouse will need to be frequently cycled with the air vent to replenish the CO2.
  
• Water supplies will dry up fast, so get trading as soon as possible next. The best strategy on Vulcan is to sell alloys to Build Inc and then to buy hot steam from a gas trader.
  
• Sensor lenses are not essential on Vulcan, so I did not even bother attaining them in the video. The surface of Vulcan is very shallow, so its not useful to see far down; it is also cracked, revealing ore beneath the surface without you having to mine; the ore generation is also very dense, so there is plenty to mine.
  
• Cooling is always an issue on Vulcan. You should begin storing liquid pollutants from the night air as soon as possible to use as an at-will coolant.
  
• In this separation process, you may include filtration to separate the volatiles and carbon dioxide. The cool volatiles can be used to make fuel for an H2 combuster while the carbon dioxide can supply your greenhouse
  
• On that note, you should expand the greenhouse as soon as possible to create water without even needing to trade. For me, 96 plants easily produced net oxygen and 1.5L of water every day.

Venus is exceptionally difficult. There is no break at night like Vulcan, nor is there a hot peak for making steel. Plus, the air is inert, so you need to make fuel for the furnace. Most tediously, you should manually cycle your suits filtration to prolong the life of your waste canister during stage one.

[COMING SOON]

https://youtu.be/BBaTgUAHnGY

• It is necessary to cycle your filtration in order to fill your waste tank slower. To do this most efficiently, you should keep your inventory cursor on "Filtration" and use 'F' to cycle it whenever you receive an oxygen alert.
  
• Mine as usual, but collect extra iron. Also, be very careful! The wind can knock you into a rock, damaging your suit, and forcing you to restart the run. The mark one duct tape you are provided with is not fast enough to repair your suit before your lungs are critically damaged. The best advice I can offer is to keep your character's body close to whatever you are mining.
  
• As soon as you are done mining, set up a single block room to use for capturing your waste tank. This room will also be used for eating and drinking when the whole base is under vacuum. Make sure to burst a pipe to remove Venusian air.
  
• Once your first waste canister is emptied, you can focus on creating a vacuum room to protect yourself from the elements. It is important to use iron frames all around, since the pressure differential on Venus will destroy iron walls. This is why we needed to mine extra iron earlier.
  
• When your space is enclosed, start crafting an electronics printer while the room is brought down to a vacuum.
  
• Make one or two wind turbines to generate power all day and night. Don't forgot to make an external airlock before going outside to place them.
  
• After that, you'll need to craft a furnace and a hydraulic pipe bender. You might be running low on resources, but the sun should be rising, so its back to mining.
  
• Use your new furnace to easily smelt copper and gold. Additionally, you can use it to degas iron ore before throwing it in the arc furnace to prevent gas from ruining your perfect vacuum.
  
• Don't forgot to eat and drink as necessary in your single-block vent room.
  
• We want to get trading as soon as possible. Rather than focus on building on the infrastructure to manage your gasses and grow plants, its best to get trading right away, but we need steel. Pump a small amount of fuel from the welder into the furnace to achieve a higher temperature.
  
• As soon as possible, we also want to start cooling our hybrid O2/CO2 supply tank. The fastest way to do this on Venus is to continually throw ore or even already-smelted ingots into the furnace to use up the heat. Once the furnace temperature has fallen below 400k, you can use that gas in an AC unit like on Vulcan to cool our gas supply.
  
• To make mining less frustrating and dangerous, you can use explosives to mine.
  
• Once we can sell ores/ingots and buy gasses, stage one of Venus is finally over. At this point, you have a few choices for how to proceed. You can build out some sequential AC units to cool your waste (3-5 units are required). Regardless, you won't be comfortable for quite a while.
  
• I'd also recommend buying some invar as soon as you can in order to craft an arc welder. Gas as used by the regular welder is too precious to waste, and it will be gone soon enough anyway.
  
• Generally, I try to make an advanced furnace and craft some stellite and astroloy as soon as possible so I can make a hardsuit and further minimize the heat that enters my gas supply. To heat the gas in the furnace, you can use silver and lead ore for the trapped nitrous oxide, and then I buy decayed food from a trader and convert it to biomass, which contains a large amount of volatiles.

• On every planet except Vulcan, it is best to mine during the day before attaining sensor lenses. This is because your eyes need light to see. But on Vulcan, you will quickly overheat your oxygen supply if you're out all day.
  
• Keep it simple, stupid. Don't go big, go home. The more switches you have to flip the more likely it is that you will make a mistake.
  
• Learn how to manage your inventory with the keyboard shortcuts.
  
• Be careful with your welder. It release a lot of hot gas, which can send items flying, damage your lungs, or even burn through cables.
  
• Smelt as much as possible at once. Heat radiates and convects away from the furnace, but you want to use as much of that heat of possible for useful work. While navigating stage four, feel free to check out this furnace script that can reuse hot waste.
  
• On that note, plan each smelt process according. Smelt high pressure and especially high temperatures alloys first.
  
• Stay organized. Keep like items together in neat piles, and keep them safe from any winds on planets like Europa or Venus.
  
• Restart early. Don't get stuck on a bad attempt.
  
• Ignore friends and family. They will interfere with your gaming.
  
• Have a clear layout in mind for your base before starting.
  
• Have fun :)