Tips

This is a community-written page for anyone that has a game tip; jot them down here to help other users on the Astroneer Wiki.

Note. "attachment slot" refers to the top of a platform, vehicle, or a backpack slot. Avoid confusing this with power cables.

Interacting

• [PC] Press E or F while moving a small item to snap it directly into your Backpack or Terrain Tool if you have at least one open slot.
• [XBOX] While holding an item with XBONE_RT, press XBONE_X or XBONE_Y to snap it directly into your Backpack or Terrain Tool if you have an open slot.
• In printers, chemistry labs, or any device with a holographic blueprint shown for crafting items, if you have the required material for crafting in your Backpack, you may left-click (on PC) or XBONE_RT (on XBOX), while your cursor is over the holographic blueprint and it will automatically place the material into the slot.

Storage

• In your Backpack, you have 14 spaces for items. 8 directly on the back, 2 on the top shoulders, 3 on your tool, and 1 in the crafting/printer slot at the bottom. Storing the one item in the personal printer requires selecting to print an item using the appropriate material. For example, using Compound to craft tethers, while it is highlighted as the next item to be crafted you can store Compound in that area.
• When you die, all the items you had in your Backpack will stay in the Backpack and you'll have to retrieve them. If you had items in the Terrain Tool's slots, they'll be dropped alongside the backpack and you may need to dig a small hole on the ground to retrieve them. Take note that if you die a second time, your first body will despawn and drop all its items.
• You can manually drag Platforms (such as Extra Large Platform B) to transport multiple research items and resource items in one trip; or, use them for space-saving storage of resources in your base. Just print a platform in its packaged state, Right Click to carry to your destination, deploy the platform at your destination, attach any research and resource items, and click-drag the platform across the terrain from behind to in front of you, run beyond the platform and repeat the movement. It is not possible for your character to walk while carrying a deployed platform and so this method is best when you do not have space on your vehicle. Remember that attaching any power cables will anchor platforms and removing power cables will allow you to move it again.
• It is also possible to package your research items by using the Packager.

Resources

• You can use the Trade Platform to obtain many common Resources needed and continue producing them from Soil via the Soil Centrifuge.
• Resource production can be done via the Large Shredder and the Trade Platform. Collect Debris for the Large Shredder. Use the produced Scrap in the Trade Platform for needed/missing resources. You can use a Rover with a Winch to collect large items.
• Dragging back a large number of Scrap platforms to your base from underground should be done by dragging each platform up to the surface individually. Moving the platforms together is much slower because running back and forth small distances is much more time-wasting.
• Rather than using the soil centrifuge to directly produce Quartz, Ammonium, or Graphite, consider producing Clay with it, smelting the clay into Ceramic, crafting the Ceramic into Drill Mod 1, then using a shredder to produce a scrap for every two drill mods. Trading this Scrap will yield, on average, 1.5x as much Quartz, and 3x as much Graphite and Ammonium. In addition, this method allows one to convert Soil into other resources such as Laterite or Hematite.

Power

• By using a Small Battery, it is possible to recharge a vehicle along a Tether line. Batteries in a player's inventory can be charged via a Tether connection and will transfer their energy into a vehicle once they are put on an open slot in the vehicle's inventory.
• Putting small/medium solar panels/windmills in the attachment slots on your base/vehicles can provide energy instead of using the Organic with the small/medium generator. (Small batteries can also be used on Backpack/Terrain Tool for power.) The Small Generator, Small Wind Turbine, and Small Solar Panel can be crafted though your Backpack, while the larger items are crafted from the Small Printer.
• Remember to try and create lots of Solar Panels, Wind Turbines, and Batteries for your Power grid. The more power you have in your grid, the faster that modules such as the printer will work.

Organizing

• DO NOT put single items or Tier-2 (paired slot) equipment in slots designed for Tier-3 and Tier-4 equipment. You should not have empty Tier-3 or Tier-4 connection slots. These should be filled with many Large Storage or some manufacturing tool. One of these: Large Storage, Smelting Furnace, Research Chamber, Large Printer, Trade Platform, Atmospheric Condenser, Soil Centrifuge, Chemistry Lab, Large Shredder. Or maybe a Large Rover Seat or Crane. The Large Storage requires 3 Ceramic so go find and smelt Clay. The Tier-4 Extra Large Storage is not recommended.
• Build lots of Medium Storage. Fill your Large Storage with them. Built at Small Printer with 2 Resin. You will need 100 to 200 Resin for these.
• Attachment quick reference:
  1. Tier-2 requires a pair of attachment slots joined by a red line.
  2. Tier-3 requires four attachment slots joined with red lines, in the shape of a capital letter H.
  3. Tier-4 is TWO Tier-3 attachments joined by an additional red line (example: T-T).

Storage Comparison:

1. Medium Storage - Tier-2 attachment. Carries 8 small items. Recommended to mass-produce.
2. Medium Storage Silo - Mid-game Tier-2 attachment. Can hold 24 small items.
3. Large Storage - Tier-3 attachment. Provides 4 Tier-2 attachment slots. 4 Medium Storage will provide storage for 32 small items. It takes 3 pieces of Ceramic to make, nicely coinciding with how much Clay you can get out of one full Canister.
4. Large Storage Silo A - Mid-game Tier-3 attachment. Provides 8 Tier-2 attachment slots. 8 Medium Storages will give you 64 small slots. It costs 5000 Bytes, but once unlocked, getting Aluminum Alloy is relatively easy, should you want to mass-produce these.
5. Large Storage Silo B - Late-game Tier-3 attachment. Provides 12 Tier-2 attachment slots. 12 Medium Storage will give you a whopping 96 small slots. If paired with 12 Medium Storage Silos, the capacity triples to 288 items.
6. Extra Large Storage - One of the only items in the game that requires/occupies a Tier-4 slot with 8 connectors. These are only useful for inefficient and expensive, but easy to navigate storage, a vanity project, or some completionist goals.

Recommended Manufacturing Platforms:

1. Large Platform B
   • One Tier-3 slot
   • Two Tier-2 slots
2. Large T-Platform
   • Two Tier-3 slots, effectively the same as Large Platform B, but able to hold two Large Modules at the same time.
3. Extra Large Platform A - Octagonal shaped platform with the largest attachment slot.
   • One Tier-4 slot
4. Extra Large Platform C - Shaped like an oversized Large Platform B, but every slot is one Tier higher.
   • One Tier-4 slot
   • Two Tier-3 slots

Mobilizing

• Your Vehicles can be attached together to form road trains. Click the power cable on one vehicle and connect it to another vehicle's cable slot. However, the speed and efficiency of the vehicle will lower depending on how many vehicles you have attached.
• Equip an Extra Large Shredder with you in a train, instead of hauling each salvage item back to base. (You can also put unwanted items like canisters, modules and platforms in the Shredder.) For additional supplies one can fill canisters (via the Drills on the rover as long as empty canisters are attached or via empty canisters on the backpack with the extraction tool) with Soil while removing salvage from the ground, and use the soil centrifuge for additional resource production.
• Do not operate the Large Rover at a core due to gravity design. A Medium Rover will perform better.
• Be aware that using rovers in cave systems is extremely difficult, because of the uneven terrain and stalagmites everywhere. If a smooth, clean road is built to descend and ascend on, rover usage can speed up work considerably.

Off-World Travel

• If you plan to settle down other planets with the Small Shuttle, these are the items to take with you: 1x Medium Storage in the side of the shuttle. Put the following on it: 1x packaged Medium Platform B, a Beacon, 1x packaged Medium Solar Panel, 1x packaged Medium Wind Turbine, 1x packaged Medium Printer, 1x Resin 2x Compound, 1x Aluminum. In your backpack: 7x Resin, 1x Small Canister, 1x Compound, 1x Small Solar Panel, 1x Small Wind Turbine, 1x packaged Tractor, 1x Packaged Trailer and 1x Packaged Oxygenator. Deploy your Medium Platform B and place the Medium Printer on top of it. Print a Large Platform B, 2 Large Platform As, a Soil Centrifuge, a Tether bundle and another Small Canister. Place the Soil Centrifuge, Medium Solar Panel and Medium Wind Turbine on the Large Platform B and you have a starting base. Put your Beacon near the base and Oxygenator on the Small Shuttle and you are ready to go. With the Small Canisters and Soil Centrifuge, you can create all of the needed resources to build out your base, just dig up some Soil. (The Large Platform As are for any other large modules such as a Smelting Furnace or Research Chamber. Once the Medium Solar Panel and Medium Wind Turbine have been set up, deploy the tractor and trailer, put the Medium Storage on the trailer and put the Small Wind Turbine and Small Solar Panel on it.)