Crafting

Crafting is the process of taking Resources and turning them into useful objects.

In Astroneer, crafting is done by using your Backpack Printer or Printer Modules to make many objects of different sizes. The player begins a new game with a set of unlocked schematics for objects they can make, with additional schematics unlocked through the process of Research.

A new player may want to start experimenting with crafting new items, gaining the bytes to research more modules and discover what resources may be more valuable to obtain. It can take time to understand all of the resources and the broad uses they have, as well as time to find the resources and the best planets for them.

Backpack Equipment
Starting out a new game, the player will have a few items in the Backpack that will aid in exploration and construction of their first base. Tethers and Canisters are good items to focus on getting first, allowing further reach from the starting Shelter and allowing the player to construct soil bridges over gaps or down to a cave floor.

Small Solar Panels and Small Wind Turbines are good for producing power for small bases, before the player can create better power producing items.

Over time, the player will unlock more helpful items that could expand the reach of exploration, such as the Portable Oxygenator, or even items that can pack up modules to move to a new planet.

Base Building
After landing, the player's first priority should be to get some basic modules set up. Typically this includes a Research Chamber and, after obtaining enough bytes to unlock, a Smelting Furnace.

Exploring around the base is a good way to get enough Resin and Compound to start out. Crafting Tethers allows the player to move further from the base, or explore deep caves without worry of running out of oxygen.

Digging into the planet and exploring the deep caves for new resources is required to expand the base even more, allowing construction of better modules and even the player's first Small Shuttle. Once that is obtained, the player should focus on getting resources from other planets, with the use of a Solid-Fuel Thruster, to craft the modules needed for the best items. Along the way, players should be using any Research Samples they find, or bringing Research Items back to the Research Chamber.

Vehicles
Currently, there are a total of eight Vehicles which can be crafted to help with transport, exploration and expansion. The Tractor and Trailer are built with the Small Printer, Buggy and Medium Rover is built with the Medium Printer, and the Large Rover, Small Shuttle, Medium Shuttle and Large Shuttle are built with the Large Printer.

Smelting
Rather than making new objects, the Smelting Furnace takes raw Resources and produces refined resources, such as being smelted into.

Chemistry
The Chemistry Lab is capable of converting pairs of resources, with some requiring a gas, into composite resources, such as, and  to create.

Condensation
The Atmospheric Condenser is a module used to suck in the gases of the planet it is used on, which can then be used to help catalyze resources in the Chemistry Lab.