Starmancer – Beginners Guide (Tips and Tricks)

Guide to Newbies

All credit goes to Duncan MacHaggis!

Colonists

After naming yourself and your station, one of the first things you will do is grow and harvest a colonist.

• You will have unlimited refreshes for your first 3 colonists. I would look carefully at them and their attributes before choosing them.
  You want charismatic! Each colonist or ego has different personality types – either A, B, or C. each of them like or dislike other personality types which can lead to murder sprees. If they are Charismatic, not only does everyone like them, but they like everyone else.
• Look at their Loves, Hates, and Refuses. Make sure the first one at least won’t refuse mining, building, or researching.
• After researching Employment, you can turn off jobs that you don’t want them to do or that they hate. You can also prioritize the order of the jobs by dragging them up or down. Those at the top will be prioritized first.

Research

One thing to note, you won’t be able to research a lot of things until your Colonists start leveling up.

• The first thing you should research is Reclamation Probe (which actually researches Employment first).
  This will let you send out a probe that will get you free resources such as seeds, food, DNA, Upgrade Modules, things to sell for Zipher, and more.
• Start working your way to Cryptominer next. You might need to research a few other things along the way, but this will start getting you a constant flow of money. I will have more about these under Zipher.
• After this it is kind of up to you. Once you get enough money though, get large batteries, as you will benefit from them.
• You will also want to get crops and the kitchen stuff before long, as your colonists will start to complain about eating the same thing over and over again.
• Try to get some form of entertainment, such as Jukebox.

Zipher (or Money)

The game will have you build a trading pod pretty near the beginning. This can get you some cash, but it probably won’t be your main form of income, at least for long.

• Selling stuff at your Trading Pod can be useful at the beginning though (I sell my biowaste, at least until I get a toilet up and running. That way it isn’t sitting on the floor.).
• Mining planets and asteroids (with enough skill) can yield things such as Gold Pots or Pendants. In my last start I even got a legendary item that sold for 16,000 Zipher in the first system.
• Your Reclamation Probe can get you all sorts of things to sell for decent money. Some of these are the same things you can find mining, such as Gold Pots. These will be sold at your core instead of the trading pod.
• The Cryptominer will probably be your best source of income. You can afford your first one by selling all of your medkits if you wish. Put the Cryptominers outside. (You will need to place these on normal floors though, not external platforms.) They can use a lot of power, so you may want to get Perpetual Motion as your first upgrade on this thing. It will make things much easier at the beginning.
• The Dreamcatcher can also bring you in some passive money, though it really isn’t as good as the Cryptominers. Still, I usually build at least one and surround it with bunkbeds.

Other Thoughts

This section is a bit of a mess and I hope to clean it up eventually.

• I tend to stay away from Oxygen Recyclers. They are supposed to help get oxygen to areas, but they seem to suffocate my colonists instead.
• Either don’t put machines in the same room as your core or move them as soon as you are able. You don’t want a fire in that room.
• Vents should be put on outside walls and closed immediately. Only open in case of fires.
• Machines can be put outside to reduce noise, but you will need an airlock leading out and they will need to be placed on normal floors, not external platforms.
• Only Airlocks seem to really successfully block noise from going into other rooms.
• Speaking of doors, Airlocks are slow, but block all noise and atmosphere. Powered doors and faster, but only block atmosphere (and I think noise) when closed. Don’t build them until you have a good power reserve. Manual doors let everything through, though are slower than powered doors. I use them, though in most cases it might just be easier to delete a wall than use a manual door.
• When life gives you bread, some of your colonists will opt to eat poop instead. I don’t know why.
• If your colonists start to get unhappy, or in the yellow, monitor them closely. You will want to return them to the source at the core and then regrow them (at least at the early stages). If they get into the red, good luck.
• Don’t be afraid to recycle your colonists and regrow them. They may lose their levels and some skills, but it is usually better than the alternative.
• Refrigerators are almost needed to keep crops from spoiling, but they are either bugged or need some work. They fill up quickly with seeds, which can’t be used if they are in there.