Stationeers: Tips and Tricks: a Beginner’s Guide
1. Pipe and cable placement
- pipes can cross cables at 90 deg
- Pipes and cables can occupy the same voxel as long as their ends don’t intersect.
- Existing pipes and cables can be “upgraded” with more outlets (i.e., a straight into at-junction) as long as the appropriate tool is in the off-hand.
2. Get used to the Ground Penetrating Radar
Visible resources on the ground account for about 20% of the average size of resource pockets. I keep one hand on the tablet and cycle GRP and drill in the other hand.
3. Wall lights render far
They make for good beacons when trying to find your base in the dark as long as one is on an exterior wall with no obstacles in your LOS.
4. Area Power Controller serves two purposes
Emergency battery backup for the downstream circuit and reducing the amount of clutter when you start to make circuits. Upstream circuits will not see downstream and vice versa. Transformers are low-tech APCs for this purpose.
5. A belt does not have to be in the belt slot to be opened
You just don’t get to enjoy the hotkey. A mining belt must be in the belt slot, however, to mine straight into it.
6. Portable light on your back makes life a lot easier
Aside from broader light, it effectively doubles your suit battery, not having to use your headlamp.
7. Keep an APC in your first airlock in case you lose power during a cycle
Popping in a drill battery beats waiting until sunrise or losing atmo.
8. Ice and oxide can share an ice crusher
…with a single N2 filtration unit. Filters decay based on their namesake’s volume, so filtering the minority out will prolong the time between swaps.
9. Pumps and mixers will blow a line if left alone
Use a backpressure valve (~50MPa) to loop pump output to input. Tanks are low-tech time buyers for mixers.
Mid-game can use pipe sensors and logic read/writer/compare/select simple circuits.
10. Solid fuel generators need a battery and a heavy cable not to waste coal
The output is 20 kW, and (currently) will just ground 15 of it if you squeeze it through a regular cable. Furthermore, if you don’t have a demand of 5kw, it will ground any surplus. Small and regular battery chargers have capped inputs of 1kW and 2kW, respectively.
1 battery and 1 heavy cable will basically solve this – batteries only discharge current demand and have no input cap.
Bonus!: “Stationeers” difficulty setting also requires you to unlock and open your helmet to ingest
You get about 3-4 opens in hazardous atmo before your lungs need a pill to restore. A great way to set up a safe space early on is to make a 2×2 dark room, gas it with the oxy tank, and start growing mushrooms. By the time you are back due to thirst or hunger, the temperature will not have gone hay-wire enough that you can’t make manual adjustments. Just don’t forget to turn off heaters or coolers before you leave!
“i” to open and close once the helmet is unlocked.