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Early game

A short route for the first session. Item and recipe names below link into the generated reference — if a step and a reference page disagree, trust the reference and update this guide.

Wake up and stay fed

  1. Search the starting shelter for tools, food, and storage.
  2. Eat early. Fruit and forage are usually nearby; use the MEG grab laser (default middle mouse) to pull them instead of climbing every tree.
  3. Keep hunger topped up while you learn the map. A well-fed character is much more forgiving during early mining.

See items for food names and descriptions.

Fire and first crafts

Open crafting with F3 (default). Useful early recipes:

  1. Gather wood and Grey Rock / flint-style stone from surface nodes and rubble.
  2. Craft a Firestarter, then a Campfire so you can cook and work at night.
  3. Craft Sticks and Wooden Board when you need building materials and tool handles.
  4. Place a Draft Furnace (projects menu, F4) when you are ready to smelt. Early metals unlock through Copper Ingot and Iron Ingot smelt recipes.

Mining loop

  1. Dig for coal and copper first; iron tends to sit deeper.
  2. Smelt ingots in the draft furnace, then craft better tools — for example a Saw once copper is available.
  3. Expand storage and a small workshop near a safe respawn before long cave trips.

Browse recipes filtered by search for “Ingot”, “Pick”, or “Furnace” when you forget a name.

Grinding (later)

Once you have a material grinder, pack grind recipes turn crops and scrap into other materials (flour, nut butters, datapad salvage, and so on). Those entries live under recipes with process group grind, and link back to their input items.

Creatures

Not everything wants to kill you, but assume hostility until you know a species. Use the creature reference for names and codex text. Fight only with a weapon and an exit path.

Next steps

  • Unlock better furnaces (Blast Furnace, later induction) when the draft furnace is too slow.
  • Map landmarks (water, ruins, ore) relative to your base.
  • In co-op, agree on shared chests and who hosts before dumping valuables into the world.

This guide is hand-maintained. Regenerate the reference with scripts/wiki-build.ps1 after content changes; edit this file when the route should change.