Building A Base

Building a proper base is essential, without one you'll quickly find that you lack resources and the necessary power output. Even if you plan on being a nomad later on, you'll still need a base to be able to build your ship.

Although this guide is aimed more at advanced players who have already found a planet, it is friendly to noobs wanting to build their starterbase who have found the instructions in Getting Started inadequate. As such the first few parts may be a little more hand-holdy than other articles.

Setting up
To start, you must find a suitable spot for your base. It should have necessary resources (Iron, copper, mountains, and what you'll use to generate power [eg. Coal] ) nearby. Having other resources nearby is a plus, but not required as you can later transport them using transporters.

If possible, the area should also be fairly clear and flat as it will make building a base easier. This is not necessary however, mountain/hill bases are possible and may even be favorable at times.

(Note you can skip most of this if you brought resources with you, eg. if you just escaped from a starter with them)

Gathering resources
Once you are satisfied with the location, the next step is to find the closest iron and copper nodes to you. You should head to the iron node first, mine a few pieces of iron by equipping your harvest (pickaxe) tool, then clicking on the iron node. If done correctly, you should see pieces fall out. Get 8 pieces of iron and craft the following using the crafting (V) menu;


 * 1 SpawnPoint
 * 2 Bins

Immediately lock the SpawnPoint using the locking (C) menu and place it where you expect the center of your base to be. This will ensure you spawn back at your base if you die or leave the game.

Next, place one of the bins up against the iron node using your hammer tool and resize it (6×6×6 should be more than enough). Then, mine some more iron (place your cursor right above the bin so the iron falls into it). If you're setting up a starterbase, you'll need at least 14 pieces of iron, though more is advised. You should then drag both of your bins to the nearby copper node and repeat the steps you did with the iron node, note youll need to use the empty bin as the now filled iron bin will not accept anything but said resource. Once youve gathered the necessary copper, go to a mountain and mine it until sulfur appears (long yellowish stick-like resource), then drag it over to your bins. You may then proceed to the following section.

Setting up power
You'll now want to set up power. For more advanced sources like reactors consult Power and electronics, this also assumes you brought the necessary resources to build them. If you just need to set up a basic coal setup though, this should suffice. Do note that a basic coal setup will only be enough for a starterbase or for bootstrapping a proper base (eg. you forgot to bring resources from your previous base and must start anew). Start by crafting the following IN ORDER with the resources you just gathered;


 * 1 Extractor
 * 1 Bin
 * 5 Wires
 * 2 BurnerGenerators
 * 1 PowerCell

If you followed the previous section, this should leave you with 9 copper. More than enough for wiring. You'll now set up power generation.

Find a nearby coal node and bring all your newly crafted items to it, be careful not to bin anything as you should now have an empty iron bin! If this happens, you can always click it to take out the item.

Place your extractor on the coal node with the hole (front) side facing  AWAY  from it. If your nodes are close together, you should also be wary of the fact that extractors won't work if they are within 40 studs of another extractor OR on the same node as one (doesn't apply to mountains or the ground).

Resize your bin to 10×10×10 and place it on the extractor's front side. The bin won't fit perfectly but that's okay, as long as the bin is 10×10×10; it should work regardless of where you place it due to it's size.

Attach the BurnerGenerators to the side of the bin (you could also attach them to chutes connected to the bin and place them elsewhere).

All that's left to now do is to place the PowerCell, resize it to 10×10×10, and wire it to the BurnerGenerators (if you played the Tutorial you should know how to do this, if not Power and electronics provides an explanation). You should now mine a piece of coal and drop it into the bin (drag tool while holding CTRL). You should see black smoke emanating from the extractor if you've done everything correctly. Another indication that you've done everything correctly is the PowerCell filling up with power. Don't forget to lock your parts! If you haven't been doing so already, you should really do it now.

Getting Resources
It's now time to get some basic resources, you should start with iron.

Find a nearby iron node and mine some iron from it, then craft the an extractor and a bin. Place the extractor on the iron node the same way you did with the coal extractor for your power setup; front side out, back side in.

You'll now need to configure the extractor by using your hammer tool's configure option. Set MaterialToExtract to Iron in this case.

All that's left to do now is to resize (10×10×10 for maximum storage capacity) and attach the bin, after which you must wire the extractor to your power source for it to work. Although a better storage solution would be nice, attaching and detaching bins will have to do for now.

You should now set up copper, after which you should craft 6 BurnerGenerators. Attach these to your power generation setup. Once this has been completed, set up the following resources;


 * Grass (can be mined from the ground or grown using hydroponics)
 * Stone (can be mined from mountains)
 * Sulfur (can be mined from mountains)
 * Silicon ( can be mined from mountains) 
 * Quartz (can be mined from mountains)
 * Glass  (smelted from sand) 

Other resources will be set up later, you only want the bare essentials for now. All that's left to do now is wait until you have a satisfactory amount of each resource. If you used this guide to build a starterbase, you should now proceed to Building A Ship. Otherwise, proceed to the next section. Do note that things will get less hand-holdy from here;

(TIP: If you're getting tired of how dark night is, you could mine for a piece of Ruby and Flint from a mountain. You can then use the flint to smelt sand (drop it on the sand) into glass which you are able to use to craft NightVisionGoggles.)

Expanding your base
After you've set up a basic base, your next goal should be to expand and optimize your resource production. To start though, you should probably sort out storage first as manually attaching and detaching bins each time they are filled is tedious.

Designing a centralized storage solution
The best way to make storage less annoying is to centralize all of it in a single place, then using filters to sort resources automatically. Another benefit of having centralized storage is easier automation later on.

You should start by finding a clearing and placing down an iron baseplate. You should then craft enough transporters to cover all your extractors/MiningLasers, one filter for each resource you are extracting, and a lot of bins  (and/or pipes/containers if you'll be doing liquids) . The next step is to then build a storage system; this will consist of chutes leading from a transporter to filters, which will sort items and place them into bins (placing bins into lines on chutes is a good approach). If you'd like to more easily distinguish what resources a line contains, a good approach is to paint it and its bins the colour of the resource. If you're colorblind or want absolute specificity, consider using signs as well.

Improving power generation
In this game, power is the capacity to do work. Without it your machines cannot operate. A larger base entails a better power generation method. If you already made a reactor setup in an earlier part of this article as you brought along some resources, you can safely ignore this.

1The reactor is a powerful (and dangerous!) method of generating power. However, its benefits outweigh the risks for a base as it has an incredible power output. A good reactor design will also be able to mitigate most of the risks. You should start by setting up water and uranium extraction (if not available on your planet you can try mining it from other planets in your solar system). You can get water by using pumps on a water source (make sure they're submerged), or by mining ice from mountains then melting it using melters. Consult Power and electronics for instructions on how to build one.

Another option of generating the necessary power to run a large base is deploying a massive solar array in a random region around a neutron star and using relays. Please do note however that other players may be able to leech (you could also try to do this yourself) off of it if they find the relay ID, and having your power generation separated from your base may be either advantageous or disadvantageous depending on circumstance. Other less efficient methods of power generation are also available, though not recommended for a large base; as always, consult Power and electronics.

Resources; refinement and extraction
Resources such as grass are nearly useless on their own. However, they can be crafted into useful resources such as rubber. Doing this by hand would be incredibly tedious though, this is why assemblers exist.

Assuming you have a centralized storage solution, an automated assembly setup should pretty straightforward. Connect the necessary resources to a powered and configured assembler. An efficient setup is to have raw resource chutes on the outside, and crafted resource chutes on the inside leading back to filtering.

(Certain resources like stone or sand can also be refined into other resources using different machines (eg. pulverizer). These shouldn't require much explanation, look at the pages of the respective machines to figure out how they work.)

Resource extraction can be optimized by using MiningLasers instead of extractors; they are 1.5x faster and can be used on the same node. Be wary of the heat they produce, though. You'll need some resources to craft these however, some of which (assuming you've been following the guide) you haven't set up yet. You should now set up all the resources you haven't already.

Finishing off
If you've completed everything up to this point, congrats 🎉! You have made a base which should last a while. With solid foundations, this should give you a lot of room to expand. Build anything you can imagine! For most players, this should be more than enough; however, some may wish to hold the base for an extended time (eg. faction capital) or feel they need protection. If this describes you, proceed to the next section.

Defending your base
If you wish to live in a single location for an extended period of time, automated defenses are incredibly important. Without them, your base would easily be raided and destroyed. There are several ways to protect your base from unwanted visitors, even when you are not online.

Offense
There are many types of explosives that can blow up spaceships and destroy bases. There are a few, ranging from an Explosive to an entire Warhead.

Explosive

The Explosive is.. well, an explosive weapon. It can explode things within a small radius of it, and can be activated by either burning it, or triggering it. It's sometimes used in spaceships for torpedo-like weapons, plus some other things.

EnergyBombs

EnergyBombs are a more powerful explosive than the Explosive. When triggered, it'll make a powerful explosion that can damage things near it.

Warheads

Warheads are an extremely effective way to destroy an entire base and more! Unfortunately, they're very expensive, and mostly, powerful griefers use these to bomb bases. As later mentioned, EnergyShields will completely negate the explosion, but not the radiation that comes after.

Projectiles

There are some different types of projectile weapons, like a Gun or EnergyGun.

Gun

The Gun is a projectile weapon that requires a bin filled with iron to operate. When triggered, it fires a harmful bullet that has the appearance of a yellow, neon cylinder. It's very effective in space and is used by most people.

EnergyGun

The EnergyGun is like the Gun, but (as implied in the name) uses energy to fire its bullets. The power, damage, and fire rate all depend on its size, meaning that a bigger size weapon would have more power, but less fire rate than a smaller one

(WIP)

Laser

A Laser isn't really a projectile weapon, but it can still damage and burn objects (+ players!) with a very far range. When powered, it'll shoot a long, red beam.

BurstLaser

The BurstLaser is like a laser, but it's a projectile weapon. When powered and triggered, it'll shoot 5 bursts of lasers that each take up 100 energy. (500 energy in total) It does a good amount of damage.

Cannon

The Cannon is a weapon that shoots different types of projectiles depending on what you put in a bin attached to it. If you put Iron, it fires a big, powerful cannonball. If you put Copper, you'll get multiple small cannonballs. To activate it, just trigger or click it.

ImpulseCannon

Want to be blasted out a cannon? The ImpulseCannon is the closest thing you'll get to this. When powered, it sends a pretty much harmless burst of air powerful enough to send people flying into the sky. Just, please be careful of the fall damage.

PlasmaCannon

This PlasmaCannon is a cannon that uses Plasma. (or Helium!) When powered and loaded with 1 Plasma or 50 Helium from a Container. After being triggered, it will shoot an explosive bullet that can damage things. (i'm not sure if this is a projectile weapon or an explosive)

Railgun

The Railgun is a kinetic weapon. When powered and loaded with Rails from a Bin, it will have to charge up, using energy in the process. After it charges up, it sends a very powerful rail that can pierce a wall if destroyed. Every 10 studs, the damage of the rail increases. Also, it's a very expensive crafting recipe. -->

EnergyShields
EnergyShields are a great way of defending your base against energy-based weapons and warheads. An active EnergyShield will block incoming projectiles and warhead explosions, preventing damage to your parts. A good EnergyShield setup will make your base nearly alien-proof as they only use energy-based weapons. However, explosives, blades, cannons or guns which can be used by players will not be blocked. These pair nicely with other defensive and offensive strategies.

Physical defenses
Physical defenses encompass everything from walls to building your base deep in the mountains, making it harder to hit. These are effective against all types of weapons, but must be repaired. They're a good addition to your base, but will require constant maintenance.

StasisFields
StasisFields are a good way of protecting your base from most if not all would-be griefers on foot. Remember that players can still spawn even if their ship is destroyed (or teleport in) and wreak havoc on your base.

Securing your resources
It is important to not give griefers access to your resources. If resources from your bins are able to be used, a griefer could easily craft and detonate explosives. This can be done by setting  on all your bins to false if you are not online. This can be done automatically by hooking them up to a microcontroller which checks if you are online (you could use a LifeSensor or gyros for this).

Another option is setting up physical defenses around your bins. This will prevent griefers from getting close enough to be able to craft from them.

Inhospitable conditions and inconspicuous coordinates
Having your base on an inhospitable planet is a good way to ward off any griefers. The hotter; the better. Cold temperatures are fine too, but hot planets will generally work better as they'll set any unprepared griefer's ship on fire. Along with temperature, look for an unbreathable atmosphere, this will make sure anyone without an AirSupply quickly suffocates; this, along with temperature, will make griefing on foot downright impossible. If you want to take this to the extreme, you could have a base in a gas giant which gets its power by leeching off of relays, coming out every once in a while to mine resources with a ship. Another option is to just have a space base located at some random coordinates.

You also generally shouldn't build a base in (or around) neutron or black hole systems, or ones with a beacon. Griefers tend to fully explore those types of systems. If possible, avoid ones with an EarthLike planet as well, as they may become a starter system at some point. Remember; the best defense is not being found in the first place.