The does and the don'ts of Starbound

I've noticed a lot of people complaining about difficulty, lack of ores etc. I've been playing a while and have full steel armour, so I figured I might make a list of things you should and should not do in Starbound!

Does:

-Chop down a couple of trees and mine some stone. Get those stone tools ASAP!

-Steal everything from the NPC villages, they won't mind helping you on your.. quest?

-Fuel your spaceship with unprocessed wood, coal is a big bother to mine and is better left for torches and steel. Note: It's a good idea to keep some spare wood in you spaceship locker!

-Try to stick to planets/moons max one danger level above your Armour lvl, things get real dangerous real quick otherwise.

-Spawn the first boss inside a village, let the village guard take care of the minions, they need the training anyhow.

-Always keep some unprocessed wood and coal on you, those torches always run out when you need them.

-Always keep food and/or a campfire + hunting bow on you, because you get hungry...

-If you find a village: buy food, it's cheap and a lot easier/quicker than hunting or farming.

-Block bullets with a shield (Note: depending on the enemy lvl they might penetrate your shield, you'll take less damage than an unblocked hit though.) Double note: One handed weapons are great with shields, but they swing vertically rather that horizontally.)

-Save bombs and molotovs for the boss, they speed up the fight.

-Farming is easier than hunting, all you need is an hoe, some seeds(you should have some in your ship locker) and you will quickly have a nice farm! Note: for those wishing to make bread: you need copper bars for the kitchen counter, around 2-4 if memory serves me). (thanks; Connor McNew )

-Keep bandages on you at all times, they're real lifesavers!(crafted from 4xplant fibre, after the Dec.5 patch rather than fabric)

Don'ts:

-Don't stay on a planet or moon if you can't find much ore, there are always other planets to strip-mine! (I've heard moon's are a better source for ores. Moons can be cold though so go prepared, no need for oxygen though, because technobabble.)

-Don't be so hasty with spawning the first boss, he/she/it is a monster!

-Don't be reckless, loosing pixels suck!

-Don't go to snow planets unless you're prepared for the cold.

-Don't limit yourself to one planet, your space ship is, and should be your base of operations. (Unless RP demands otherwise!)

-Don't nonchalantly walk up to NPC you are not CERTAIN (<- keyword) are friendly, always be prepared for a fight!

-Don't harvest your farm with a tool, the E button is used to pick ripe fruits and veggies.

-If you're in serious danger and are on the surface, don't be afraid to port out. Your Spaceship is a place of sanctuary, use it! It costs you nothing. (thanks Marksman2183)

-Don't make farm planets(unless you do it for cosmetic reasons) plants only grow as long as you are on the planet, so having a "farm planet" isn't very useful. Keep your farm in your space ship, as the plants will always grow! (thanks AsgarZigel)

-Don't EVER (And I mean EVER) keep important items in your shiplocker while in a multiplayer party. For some reason, Chucklefish thought it would be a good idea for people to stroll up to your shiplocker and take your stuff. (thanks RedDire)

Tips:

-If you're very deep underground and have to return to the surface, don't die or try to climb up. Just hit ESC and click on Save and Exit. When you get into the game again you will spawn in your ship and no danger of losing pixels. (thanks vampiryus)

-You can wall in Monsters/bosses, though this is considered a bit cheety. (1st boss will break blocks though so beware!)

Any corrections/additions to the does/don'ts is appreciated!

 

Thanks!

 

No problem

 

I can confirm the snow planets part. Thankfully made made sure I had both fuel and a level appropriate moon. To escape to.

 

Farming is actually an incredibly easy way to get food.

Around the area that you beam down to at the start of a new planet, take a second to hoe whatever dirt is around and plant whatever seeds you have.

Every vegetable/fruit/etc you find as you explore can be easily picked up by highlighting the wild food and pressing 'e'
It will then drop the food and 1-2 seeds.
Use the seeds you were given at the beginning of the game. As long as you harvest and immediately replant those seeds, you will always always have food. Large farms do not need anything to be maintained other than the initial planting and hoeing.

Seeds seem to grow incredibly fast, as well. I've played the game for only a day and have almost too much food, and it wont be going away any time soon. It's impossible to die of hunger this way, especially since food items stack so you can constantly harvest as many food bits as you could ever need. It's an infinite resource.

 

I'm going to add that to the lists of does.

 

I seem to be only getting seeds from plants I plant, is this a bug?

 

Are you using a pickaxe to pick them? Because you're supposed to press E on them when they are ripe.(though you don't always get fruit/veggies, sometimes you just get plant fiber)

 

I've pressed E and just killed them and gotten a seed. I'll try again.

 

If you're in serious danger and are on the surface, don't be afraid to port out. Your Spaceship is a place of sanctuary, use it! It costs you nothing.

 

Added to the list of Don'ts, seen as it's don't be afraid to port out.

 

Note that plants only grow as long as you are on the planet, so having a "farm planet" isn't very useful.
Since your always counts as being part of the current though, you can easily enough make a small space-farm with some dirt and always harvest when you die / beam back up.

Also if you farm wheat, hamburgers (2 bread, 1 raw meat) give a nice health regeneration buff similar to the red stim-packs, pretty useful in fights. Not sure if everyone has that recipe or just humans, but there is probably an equivalent for the other races.

 

Not every race starts with the hamburger recipe. Adding the farm planet to the list of don'ts

 

This is quite handy and informative, thanks!

 

No problem, it's a big and scary universe out there so be careful!

 

Don't have to tell me twice, especially with all them monsters lurking about

 

Oooh I don't have the hamburger recipe, but my starter planet is totally inhabited by friendly glitches with farms lol <score. Ofc, I spawned in a poison flower biome so everything was death and no wood.

 

Any tips on what depth and planet level has the most gold. I have defeated the first boss and gathered materials from mostly surfaces of planets. Yes I could figure this out on my own but I am going to be lazy and ask you if you have any pointers in the matter.

 

Honestly when it comes to ore it seems like more of a luck thing. From what I've understood though:

Higher danger lvl = Higher Tier ore and more of it. (Though this isn't always the case)

Moons are a better source for ores than planets. (Also not always the case)

The best way really to mine is spelunk on one planet, if it looks poor, jump to the next one.

Beyond that I can tell you that the B sector (because of the higher danger lvl) is a decent place for silver and gold.

 

lol when you said silver and gold it made me think of the old christmas song. Thanks for the tip I guess there is no real magic bullet for this, I have to be patient and wish for luck, but the moon tip sounds good. Thank you for the information.