The Crust: Beginner’s Guide and Essential Tips

by Fernando Diaz / Game Guides, Tips & Tricks / 16 Jul 2024

In The Crust, you’ll handle stuff and build stuff on the moon – both above and below ground. The tutorial gives you some basics, but it’s kind of messy, so this guide tries to make it easier for you.

When you kick off your sandbox game, you’ll get some credits, supplies, and research points. These help you set up your first base.

Getting Resources

Right after you start, drop a couple of cargo pods. These pods have lots of useful stuff that’ll help you get going. Just remember, this stuff won’t last forever.

Setting Up on the Surface

Putting Down Solar Panels and Batteries

At first glance, you’re worried about making and keeping power. Get going by putting up a few solar panels and batteries. A 3×2 setup of solar panels does the job for now. This gives you enough juice to start without using up all your stuff.

Resource Management

You might want to put up loads of solar panels since it looks like you have plenty of materials. But that’s not true. Watch out for your limited supplies like steel, smart concrete, and silicon. Don’t spend too much; just build what you need to begin with.

Wiring and Power Storage

Hook up your solar panels and batteries with the utility tools. It’s key to store extra power in batteries. This makes sure your base keeps working during the long nights on the moon.

Going Underground

Getting to the Lower Level

Press ‘Tab’ to go from the surface to the underground level. This is where you’ll do most of your mining work.

Changing Drones

Turn some of your bots into mining vehicles with a drone change module. This building needs some of your smart bricks so put it in a good spot. Also, set up a place to charge your drones to keep them running and ready to work.

Starting to Mine

Digging in The Crust is pretty simple. You kick things off by digging out a small spot to get your first batch of stuff. The most common thing you’ll run into is regolith, and figuring out how to deal with it is your first big job.

Setting Up Your Supply Chain

Getting the Basics Down

Up top, you need a few important buildings to start: sun panels, power banks, and a power pole. Down below, you want to put in a drone rebuilding spot and a place to juice up.

Hooking Everything Together

Use power poles and wires to make a grid that gives power. This makes sure all your buildings are linked up and have juice flowing to them. Just make sure you plan how you lay things out so you can add more stuff later.

Dealing with Resources

Making Use of Regolith

Regolith is everywhere and forms the foundation for lots of key materials. Get a regolith processing unit up and running to turn regolith into smart bricks. At first, you won’t be very good at it, but you’ll get better as you keep going.

Don’t Use Big Storage Units

Big storage units might look good, but they can trick newbies. These units eat up a ton of resources and you don’t need them right away. Instead, go for regular storage units. They’re cheaper and work fine when you’re just starting out.

Better Mining and Resource Handling

Ore Finder

Once you’ve got the basics set up, use the ore finder to spot important stuff like iron and titanium. This tool needs a lot of power so make sure you’ve stored enough energy before you start using it.

Smelting and Refining

Put up smelting furnaces to change oxides into metal bars. You can turn iron oxide into steel, for instance. Make sure these structures hook up to your power grid and supply network the right way.

Productive Supply Chains

Build good supply chains by putting buildings in smart spots and using conveyor belts to move stuff around. Keep mining and processing in balance to keep materials flowing.

Power Management

Growing Your Power Supply

As your base gets bigger, you’ll need more juice. Add more solar panels and batteries when you have to. Keep a close eye on how much power you’re using and making so you don’t run out of energy.

Handling Nighttime Power

Lunar nights last forever so you gotta have plenty of juice stored up. Make sure you’ve got enough power to keep your base going all night long.

Research and Upgrades

What to Study First

Start with the important stuff. Getting better at processing moon dirt and mining is key. Don’t bother with social stuff at first; you can worry about that later.

Keep Studying

Always be learning new tech. The game will let you know if you’re wasting research points so make sure you’ve got something lined up to study.

Smart Research Spending

Watch how fast you blow through your research points. Some tech might not be needed right away so focus on upgrades that’ll help your current setup.

Fernando Diaz

Fernando is doing what he always did, sharing his honest opinions about games whenever he can. The difference is now he is writing and not talking about it.
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