Your Workbench and You!

Your work bench is going to be where the magic happens! 

Not literal magic. Just some fancy gizmos to help you along.

So in the workbench tab you will have a bunch of items shadowed out initially. You need to collect parts to build them. You can see what parts you have and what parts you can build from the junk you collect by clicking on the parts tab in the top right from the workshop menu.

In the parts tab you will only see parts that you have an immediate need for. Those will be blacked out unless you can build them. Parts you own will appear normally, without any flair and whatnot. If you collect a part you don’t have an immediate need for, it will appear normally as well.

I suggest getting the padded jacket as soon as possible. This increases your maximum health significantly. I went hard at upgrading that jacket and now wander around, yoinking the trinkets and blasting whatever is in my way with impunity.

Once you are able to build a parts locator, you’ll see a locate mode in the top left of the workshop menu. Locate mode has you click on an item you want to build or upgrade and then it will show you the way to maps that have those parts on the star map! It will be a pip very similar to your action item guide, except it will be green!

Speaking of the star map…

The Star Map and how to cruise in style!

Ok, so the star map has a lot of information in it. Its got a lot going on man. It is a busy CEO and it doesn’t have time for you anymore. 

Lets start with you. You are located in the S.T.E.V. and your little feller is driving it around in circles and stuff at whatever location you are currently at.

You can only move forward. If you observe all the little ships on the star map, they are connected by a lattice. You can move up and down on the lattice and forward! But not backwards. Moving backwards is illegal! It is immoral! It is the WRONG WAY! 

So you can’t. You just won’t.

On this lattice you will see little ladders. Those represent a change in “depth” on the star map. The deeper down you go, the tougher the enemies will be, but also more rewarding. You start in depth one, and can go down to five. If you go down a depth, you can always go back up. So don’t stress out too much.

Whenever you travel, you will consume one fuel and one food and one day will pass. I have no idea what happens if you run out of fuel or food. It is safe to assume its something bad. Eating food also heals you for a small amount of your health. You can also rest on the star map to consume just one food and regain your smidgen of health. 

Now select a ship, any ship! And observe on the right hand side of the screen! It is giving you a great deal of information in regards to what you will expect on board the ship! This is critical to your success. It will tell you the type of loot you can expect, such as ammo, food, fuel and such. Then it will describe to you a special feature if the ship has one! These special features include a gene therapy center if the ship is a brig, or a surgery theater if the ship is a medical ship! Then it will go on to describe to you enemies you can expect! This bit is super important in your plan. Also note that it will not typically describe ship security features, such as turrets, sec bots (or war bots), cameras and the like. It will tell you the name of the enemy, a picture of the enemy and about how many enemies of those types you can expect. Not an exact amount like five or six, but using a descriptor such as “Few” or “Shedloads” and such. THEN just below that you will see map modifiers. Green modifiers are favorable to your survival, red modifiers are bad. Green modifiers can include things like all security being subverted, which is super nice because it turns all the cameras and turrets and such into your pals! Red modifiers include things like extra hazards, or power going out all the time. That one is a real pain in the ♥♥♥ as it will have you constantly legging it back to the generator room to restore power.

There are several different types of ships and locations. I will go over a few of the ones you will want to keep an eye out for and why!

Brigs! Brigs are yellow ships. They got that gene therapy homie! Gene therapy lets you remove a negative trait or add a new trait or replace a trait! This station will have three levers, you can only pull one, so pay attention to what you are doing when you select one!

Medical Ships! These are red! They have surgery centers and typically one or two marts nearby as well. The surgery center is always located in a glass enclosed room (sub room? a room inside the room…) and sometimes the glass on one side is broken. Or both sides maybe. Doesn’t matter, that is not where the magic happens! Nononono! Always go through the door! It will rid you of radiation, oil status and such. This can happen a limitless number of times, so don’t worry about over doing it. Inside the little room is a surgery machine. Just stroll on up and get health! You can do an authorization (more on that later.) to increase your maximum health for that mission. It is not permanent, but if you finish the map with more health than your base max, you will have full health for your next little endeavor.

Lux Ships! These are purple and just have a load of loot in them. Also typically good for food as they have a dining hall! 

Krell Marts! You can buy and sell on these stations. If you go in with the trait known felon, the security machines will try to kill you. These stations also have one food and one fuel. So if you go to one, go inside and collect those at least.

Now there are sometimes nodes on the lattice that are not ships. They can be nuc bombs which hurt you, or fuel, or food, or ammo, or resources, or just plain empty. Keep an eye out for them. Oh and there is the guy that will eat all your food and give you a random part. Not worth it really.

Lets talk about the floatys in space. They hover over the nodes and move around and ♥♥♥ You’ve got two kinds you want to avoid unless you have torpedoes, which let you kill them. There are pirates and whales. Pirates give you resources when you kill them. Otherwise they will follow you onto the ship you want to dock and try to kill you. Whales give you food when you kill them. I think they will eat your ship if you don’t. I don’t know for sure. I always grab torpedo stashes when I know they are on a map. Then you got these big squids. They won’t hurt you. But they eat a location and make it an empty node. Not always a terrible thing. Then there are the floating DNA things. Try to avoid these really. I’ve probably just had bad luck with them, but they have so far replaced my good traits with bad traits. It randomly takes one of your traits and makes it something else. I’ve gotten lucky two times with them. Every other time… Well, I currently am a heavy breather and suck oxygen down fast as ♥♥♥. Its a bummer. Really forces me to just run everywhere. I need to find a brig.

Once you have found a suitable location! IT IS TIME FOR BOARDING ACTIONS!