The coordinates (longitude, latitude) that you establish for your base will determine what the terrain will look like. After you land and your crew exits the spacecraft, use the[Q] and [E] keys to pan around and determine if you have a flat area large enough for your base. If you do not think you have a big enough area, or if it looks like the base when constructed would be very convoluted, restart the game again with a different pair of coordinates.

Pick an area that is not too far from a mountain and your spacecraft and place your Airlock. The mountain side is where you will be placing your Mining facilities, so you do not want it too far from your Airlock. However, you will need it far enough away in order to eventually place a Landing Pad for Colonists, Trading, and Visitor spacecraft to land.

Keep the Airlock close, to either the left or the right of the spacecraft. The further your colonists have to travel to get their resources, the longer it will take to build the structures they need to survive. First your colonists are going to run out of oxygen, then water, and finally food. Having said that, you still want to take some time to scout out your surroundings and start developing a plan for how your colony will be laid out. You should also keep in mind that you are starting the game with the absolute bare minimum of colonists, so you cannot afford to lose any. If a colonist dies (which can happen due to an asteroid impact, or mine collapse, or some other such accident) and you drop below the number of colonists that you started with, then exit the game and start over.

You will be given three (3) Workers, two (2) Biologists, one (1) Engineer, one (1) Medic, one (1) Carrier robot, and one (1) Construction robot to start, with a limited number of resources. It is important not to waste resources initially, particularly Steel and Bio-Plastic.

At this point it does not really matter whether you start by placing a large Power Storage facility, a large Solar Panel, large Windmill, or medium Water Extractor facility, because you will need all of them. You will need to complete the large Solar Panel first before you can build the large Windmill. Only one of them should be connected to your airlock. Place them between that nearby mountain and the Airlock. Only use one connection to each of the structures because each connection costs one (1) Steel resource and you want to conserve as much resources as possible.

You should also recycle your Spacecraft by this point, to make retrieving the components needed faster.

After the Airlock, large Solar Panel, large Windmill, large Power Storage, and medium Water facilities are placed, add the medium Oxygen facility (30 people) and connect it to your Airlock.

After your medium Oxygen facility the next structure should be a medium Canteen facility. The medium Canteen should include one (1) Table, one (1) Drinking Fountain, one (1) Video Screen or Plant, and one (1) Meal Maker. The Table, Drinking Fountain, and Meal Makers are necessary for your survival, and the Video Screen/Plant is necessary for the happiness of your colonists. If your colonists are not happy, then it will effect the frequency you get future Colonists, Traders, and Visitors.

There are two “dead-end” structures in the game – the Dorm and Sick Bay. By “dead-end” I mean they can only make one connection. So be careful where you place them. Try to arrange them so that they are near a mountain or some other area where you cannot build any further.

In a medium Dorm place two (2) Bunks. In a small Sick Bay place one (1) Medical Cabinet and one (1) Bed. You should be aware that each Bed can accommodate two colonists. Therefore, two (2) Bunks, with four (4) total beds, can accommodate up to eight (8) colonists. One medium Dorm can accommodate up to six (6) Bunks, or twenty-four (24) colonists in total. A large Dorm can accommodate up to nine (9) Bunks, or thirty-six (36) colonists in total. If you have more colonists than you have Bunks for them to sleep, their morale begins to suffer. You will also notice them beginning to sleep in the corridors and other rooms.

Build a large Bio-Dome and connect it to your medium Canteen. In the large Bio-Dome build two (2) Vegetables, one (1) Starchy Vegetables, and one (1) Medicinal Pad. The type does not matter, however, with only two (2) Biologists initially, you will not be able to properly maintain more than four items in your large Bio-Dome. You will need one (1) Biologist for every two (2) components in your Bio-Dome.

Your next structures should be one (1) Mine, and a medium Processing Plant. Try to connect the medium Processing Plant as close to the Airlock as possible to reduce the amount of time it takes your Colonists to bring resources from the Mine. Also, if possible make a connection from your medium Processing Plant to your large Bio-Dome to make it easier to transport the Starch to your Bio-Plastic Processor. In your medium Processing Planet build one (1) Metal Processor and one (1) Bio-Plastic Processor. With only three workers initially you will need one (1) operating the Mine, one (1) operating the Metal Processor, and one (1) operating the Bio-Plastic Processor.

Your initial starting base might look something like this:

At this point you should have reached “self-sufficiency” and should start construction of a Landing Pad. It is going to take your workers a little while to manufacture the five (5) Steel you will need for the Landing Pad. Since you will not be needing any Bio-Plastic for the Landing Pad, you should start preparing for more colonists by expanding on what you have already started.

• Add two (2) more Bunks in the Dorm – cost: 2 Bio-Plastic;
  
• Add another (1) Medical Cabinet and three (3) Beds to the Sick Bay – cost: 4 Bio-Plastic;
  
• Add another (1) Table, one (1) Drinking Fountain, one (1) Video Screen/Plant, and one (1) Meal Maker to your Canteen – cost: 5 Bio-Plastic.
  
• Add another (1) Metal Processor and one (1) Bioplastic Processor to your Processing Plant – cost: 1 Steel, 1 Bio-Plastic; and
  
• Add four (4) Vegetables and four (4) Starchy Vegetables – cost: 8 Bio-Plastic.

When the Landing Pad has been completed, start building your second Mine. You will also need a minimum of six (6) Biologist, and six (6) Worker colonists. It is also recommended that you have a minimum of three (3) Engineers and three (3) Medics. Overall, you want to stop recruiting colonists when you reach between 18 and 22 colonists because you will not have the oxygen to support more than 30. You will not need any Guards at this point, so don't waste your time recruiting them yet.

You may be tempted to sell Medical Supplies, Spares, or some other component, but you should hold off. At least until after you have built your Lab and your Factory. First you will need to build a very large Storage dome, a large Power Storage facility, a large Solar Panel, large Windmill, a medium Water Extractor facility, a small Lab facility, a medium Control Center, and a small Factory. Once you created all of these structures you will be in a much better position to trade. You will not need Guards or consoles in the Control Center in order to turn on or off the Yellow or Red Alerts.

You want to keep your power and water levels one step ahead of your structure upgrades. Before adding two or three new structures, consider first their power and water requirements and build those first.

After you build a very large Storage dome and expand your power generation and power storage abilities, your next major structure should be the Control Center. Blizzards and sand storms can injure colonists, which uses up a Medical Supply and takes them off their job while they are injured.

Always signal a Yellow Alert when there are sandstorms, blizzards, or solar flares. It causes everyone outside to drop what they are doing and come back indoors, and causes the Medics to stay near their Sick Bays. Trader ships will not leave during a sandstorm, blizzard, or solar flare so you can continue trading with them after the storm is over.

Red Alerts signifies that there is an intruder in the base and all the colonists actively attempt to kill the intruders. This is where having armed Guards comes in handy. Even if they are not Guards or armed, the colonists will still pummel the intruders until they are goo. The intruders are always armed, so if your colonists are just beating on them you may loose a few colonists. Medics are also standing by their Sick Bays during a Red Alert, just as a Yellow Alert.

You should build a small Lab with two (2) Workbenches and three (3) Tissue Synthesizers after the Control Center. The last two facilities during your first upgrade should be a small Factory and small Robotics Facility. You will want to build that small Factory before your Spares run out.

Your upgraded base might look like this:

This is where you will need to upgrade your power generation and storage capabilities again. Then consider adding a second small Production facility connected to both the Bio-Dome and Storage structure. Change the first Production facility to produce only Steel, and the new Production facility to produce four (4) Bio-Plastic components.

The next upgrade stage of your base will now require another medium Oxygen Generator, additional Dorm, Sick Bay, Canteen, and Bio-Dome. You will then be able to accommodate a maximum of 60 colonists. However, if you wish to include visitors, or gain prestige by providing medical treatments, it is recommended that you keep the number to a maximum of between 45 and 48 colonists.

It is also during this second upgrade you should consider adding both a Satellite Dish, Telescope, and Laser, plus the appropriate consoles in the Control Center. When you build your Starport, it will open up the opportunity to invite Visitors for extra cash. While it is a nice source of income, you should have armed guards in place before building one. Intruders can arrive as either visitors or colonists. If they arrive as visitors you can tell because the visitor ship always takes off again right away after dropping them off. Normal visitor ships wait for the visitor to return before leaving. All visitors appear in purple, whether they are intruders or not.

Be wary of communications (once your Satellite Dish is constructed) requesting aid. Yes, it will add to your prestige, but it will also tax your resources. Helping soldiers, for example, usually involves sacrificing a Medical Supply resource. If you have an abundance of resources, this is not a problem, but if you don't you will be depriving your colonists of the resources they need. This could cause a chain-reaction that brings down your entire colony.

Keep in mind that colonists will drop what they were doing and start loading the Trading Ships after you have made your deal. They will load the Trading Ship as quickly as possible, but the entire time the Trading Ship is being loaded, none of their normal work is being done – no vegetables are being tended, no Steel is being produced, no Ore is being collected, etc. Factor that in with your trade deals. Keep the number of trades frequent, but the amount of resources traded small, when possible.

One (1) Worker for every Metal or Bioplastic Processor in the Processing Facility, or Spares Workshop, Semiconductor Foundry, and Arms Workshop in the Factory, or the Bot Workshop in the Robotics Facility. A maximum of three (3) Workers and/or Driller Bots for every Mine.

One (1) Biologist for every two (2) Vegetables or Starch component in a Bio-Dome, or for every two (2) Tissue Synthesizers in a Lab. A full medium Bio-Dome only requires two (2) Biologists. A full large Bio-Dome requires six (6) Biologists. A full very large Bio-Dome requires eight (8) Biologists. A full massive Bio-Dome requires sixteen (16) Biologists. When looking to expand the number of colonists, always start by importing Biologists first. You want to be certain that you can generate the extra food you will need to feed the colonists that you bring on-board.

The number of Engineers should be around 15% of the total population. How quickly structures are constructed and/or repaired will depend on the number of Engineers and Construction bots you have. If you find that resources are piling up and structures are not being built fast enough, you need more Engineers.

With regard to Sick Bays, I try to keep three (3) Medic colonists per Sick Bay, with the understanding that at least one of them will probably be spending time in the Lab manufacturing Medical Supplies. Medical Supplies are a good resource to have in abundance. It is difficult to estimate the number of Sick Bays you will need, but a good rule of thumb is one Sick Bay for every Dorm, of equivalent size.

You should also add a Bar and Multi-Dome to improve both your colonists and visitors happiness. Before building your Spaceport and allowing visitors, I highly recommend having 10% of your colonists as armed Guards. You will not have to worry about intruders until after you build a Starport. If you have not built a Starport yet, don't waste resources importing Guards.

In the manufacturing section, allow for additional spare guns to be built, anywhere from 10 to 25 should be sufficient. Spare firearms are those not used by Guards and stored in the Armory or one of your Storage facilities, and may be used by any of the colonists. Guns are also handy when trading, with a value of 80 credits each.

The number of robots you have is entirely up to you. I like to keep around 20% the number of colonists. So if I have 50 colonists, I will have around 10 robots. The maximum number of Miner robots I will have depends on the number of Mines I have. No more than three (3) Miner Bots per Mine. I like to keep the same number of Constructor Bots as I have Engineer colonists. The rest I throw into Carrier Bots. Bots are much faster and more efficient than colonists.

When you build your Starport, try to arrange it so that there are at least two (three would be even better) Airlocks that connect to the Starport. It will make loading and unloading much faster. Preferably directly off a very large or massive Storage facility. Keep in mind that the time your colonists spending loading Trading spacecraft with resources, they are not doing their regular job. So you want to limit the amount of time they are away from their regular work to as little as possible.

This would also be a good time to start building your Sign, Pyramid, and Monolith to improve your prestige, but only when you are producing more than you need. When you start seeing Steel and Bio-Plastic showing up in your Storage facility, then it is time to start selling off resources to increase your cash. You will be spending a lot of cash to obtain the various technologies to upgrade your facilities. That is where the visitors come in handy. The higher your prestige, the more visitors show up and the more cash they spend.

You just have to remember to upgrade in phases. Power and water first, new structures second, and then filling in those structures third, then increase the population last. “Rinse and repeat.” Be careful when trading to not sell resources that will be needed in the future.

The colonists broken down by percentage: