So I downloaded this game on Saturday to try it out. See what all the fuss was about. Oh boy, I was not prepared for how much fun it is.
I started off in the middle of nowhere on a planet that seemed ok at first. As I’m coming to grips with the controls, and following the tutorial, learning to mine and gather resources … etc. I hear “Warning. Storm approaching”. Then my screen flashes that a “wall of fire” is happening, and I need to take shelter.
As far as I can tell, I’m not within 7 zip codes of one. As far as I can tell. I might be the only living soul on this burning rock. So I start running in a random direction while watching my environmental protection bar drop real fast.
Still fiddling with the camera I miss a trench the size of the grand canyon and fall. Thankfully, the Jumpjets allow me to land without breaking my kneecaps. Downside: No way in hell can I jump jet back up to the surface. Upside: My environmental protection is stabilizing.
As I’m stumbling in the dark getting farted on by poison sac plants, I find these things called “Humming Sac”s. They look like the face hugger eggs from Aliens. I was worried that I might have to go to the new character screen real soon, but figured “Eh. Let’s let it play out”. To my surprise, they had pearls in them. Me being the hoarder that I am (I’m the guy who ends up with 10,000 potions in my stockpiles due to not using them because “I might need it later”. There’s no later. The final boss and main quest were done months ago. Without a single potion being used.) I started gathering these. By the time I found my way out of that cave I had 25 of the darn things.
To my pleasant shock, the cave exit lead me to a “Minor settlement”. It was a shack that had two dudes in it, and a landing pad. I breathe a sigh of relief and run inside. Soon as I walk in, this console on the wall opens up and it looks like it has a gun in it. I check it out. Oooh, it’s a multitool with a gun. I feel bad for dumping my current one after I had just put in the upgrades from the tutorial, but let’s see how much this will cost. It has a big “B” next to its description. It has the advanced scanner that the big crystals kept telling me I need. Costs 3.3 MILLION. At this point, I was worried the game was going to be abysmally grindy. I feared that I may be uninstalling it sooner than expected, if my FIRST tool upgrade was 3.3 million.
Oh hey, they have a Galactic Market hub thingy. Maybe I can sell some of the stuff I’ve been collecting there. Oh, most sells for pennies. Well I’m definitely not making 3.3 million anytime this decade off of this. Then I see the pearls. 25 selling for over a quarter of a million. You ever seen old cartoons when the guy’s eyes shoot out of his skull? That basically happened to me.
So I spent the next X amount of hours (this will become very relevant) cave diving for pearls. Ran into these weird knowledge stones. Hey, they help me figure out what the other aliens are saying, nice. I figured I’d farm the 3.3 million get the multitool and call it a night. Eventually I did. I then got my tool. Naturally, I wanted to test it out. So off I went to test it. Oh hey, it has another mode, plus a rifle mode, and a shotgun one. Neat. Looks like I can mess with the terrain and mine ore veins. Awesome. Let’s try that.
Next, I followed the tutorial to base building. I figured since this one shack is the only sign of civilization I’ve seen, I might as well claim it as my base. Nice. Built the base. Built a teleporter and powered it. I don’t like this reactor powering it. Let’s use solar panels. Farmed some resources and built those along with a battery. Ok. Good point to stop now. Oh hey, it’s 8 AM. IT’S EIGHT A.M.!!!!!! That was day one. That was my first day in this game.
Day 2, I decided to finally check those burial sites, and discovered how much money can be made off of them. Especially those intact skeletons that are 2000+ years old. So I handed in my moral compass and started grave robbing right up until a very late hour in the night. By the time I want to bed the sun was closing to being up.
Day 3, I’ve been exploring a lot now. Have multiple “bases” on a few planets across 3 solar systems. Been doing missions, and have gotten so many words out of aliens and stones that I can understand most Vy’keen I run into. Started doing some main quest missions and a few others things on the side. Been farming more bones and underwater relics to try and get a new ship instead of my starting one. A couple of bad sales (didn’t realize I had to manually move my cargo, so I had to rebuy my ship to get the cargo out of it before I scrapped it for a pittance). I’ve gotten more comfortable now. Even had a few pirate fights under my belt (Those were rough at first because the controls are clunky. Until I discovered the S key basically auto pilots for me better than I can maneuver with a mouse and keyboard).
I’m system hopping having just finished some deliveries for the merchants guild, and as soon as I exit warp on my main system, I’m caught in the middle of a space battle. 6 pirates, and some traders. The traders hail me asking for help. I managed to kill the pirates, since they follow Hollywood rules and only attacked me in pairs. Photon cannon turns their shields to mush, missile launchers one-shot their hull. Nice one-two punch. Freighter captain hails me and tells me to come on board for my rewards.
“Neat!” I say to myself. Big ship like this, I hope he gives me something good. He gave me the WHOLE SHIP! Flabbergasted as I was, I expected (Upon checking the wiki this morning, I now realize this may have been, in fact, a mistake). So now I have a freighter with a frigate. I start getting acquainted with the layout. turn in some missions at the nearby station, and start moving things around in my inventories/storage/freighter to see the fastest way I can upgrade this one, or trade it in for good value and get a better one instead. I log out, and go to bed.
Thank you to anyone that read through this whole post, or even skimmed it. Seriously though, how do you guys stop playing this game. I’ve already spent 2 hours today looking up videos on how to turn the freighter into more money so I can trade it in for a better one.
Also, the wiki says that the freighter captain will off you the freighter if you have none. Does this mean if I sell my current one, I could get the next one for free too?
