Despite being a Day One player, with several hundred hours on the game (and all expeditions) I never attempted a Permadeath run.

My first day one “clear” was on hard difficulty and, depite the game being very basic at the time, it was challenging and never unfair. I almost always played normal during the years.

I have to confess that the harder difficulty settings of Permadeath is a lot more fun. I don’t mind about the fear of losing the save (I died 7 jumps from the core because I fell down a cliff) both all the balance setting that Permadeath implies. It was about the fact that despite a normal game, the event density (and their variety) is higher even if the difficulty is not so much challenging.

Being chased if you have valuables in the ship is fun, encountering lots of bounties is fun (you can never be sure they will evade or come after you), there’s more variety in fauna attitude towards the player and so on. Having the system patrol ships or the freighter fleets doing something useful is fun. Almost every jump lets you have an event. I completely forgot, for example, that pirates may attempt ground raids. It was so rare in normal difficulty that I was suprised to have 3 raids in a very short game (about 15 jumps, including a black hole hop that brought me at about 4K LY from the core).

The only mildly frustrating element is the material scarcity and the inventory limits (but is mangeable if you know the game very well).

Maybe the only part that is unfair is the starting tutorial. It has the same dilated timing of the normal run but in PD you don’t have time to lose: usually the starting planet is just a deathtrap you struggle to survive due to resource scarcity or very harsh environment. When you regain player agency and can plan your next move carefully and choose the risks when going afterresources in the next planet, everything becomes fun again.

I’m the only one that was surprised by how the permadeath difficulty settings makes the game more enjoyable?

I’m on a primary mission named “Atlas Eternal”. I go to an Atlas and present it a wonder and it just points me to the next one. Pretty sure I’ve done more than 25 of them. It’s not hard (I stop at each high-level economy system station for upgrades) but does get repetitive.

Do they ever end?

I have survived over 500 hours in PermaDeath by rigidly adhering to a few standard rules. With the latest expedition many new players are coming to PD, and I think these standards will ease some frustrations.

1. Bugs. Many avoid PD for this reason alone. But I have never seen any bug that instantly kills. That isn’t what’s happening. Unless a bug pops up that stops you from opening the menu and reloading your last save, a death caused by a bug is partially your fault. Should be an easy choice to lose a little progress vs your whole save. The moment something bugs and you fall through the floor for example, pause, reload last save. Saved.

2. Don’t end your play session saving in a hazardous environment. Only end your play saving in a 100% safe place. Space Station is best.

3. NEVER leave your character unattended, no matter how safe your setting is. Even if you’re just going to the bathroom real quick. It is not worth the risk. Reloading your save takes less time than starting from the beginning. Nuff said.

4. Play with a wired interface if possible. If all you have is wireless, you need to stay on top of your charge. Set a reminder alarm. All it takes is one disconnect while near a predator or monstrosity, and it’s curtains for you.

5. Do not play while impaired in any way. One slip of judgement is unacceptably risky in space exploration.

6. Avoid planetary hostile threats at all costs until you have at least 3 S class exosuit shield upgrades, preferably 6.

7. Avoid extreme terrain environments and heights until you have an least 3 S class movement upgrades, preferably 6, and the jetpack recharge tech.

8. Avoid pirates until you have at least 3 S class starship shield upgrades and a stack of sodium nitrate or starshield batteries. You can call in a freighter or the anomaly to escape any scans.

9. Friends don’t let friends use plasma launchers and geology cannons in PermaDeath. This one is unfortunate, but until the self-harm it inflicts is nerfed, they’re far too dangerous. I’d rather spend a bit more time dealing with grouped targets, than risk death.

10. Whispering eggs have lured many travelers to their end with nought but the promise of a few measley nanites. Not worth it. The only time you should willingly engage the monstrosities is when a mission demands it, and even then DO NOT LEAVE THE ROOFTOP!

11. Never depart without checking your supplies. Oxygen, Ion Batteries, Sodium/Sodium Nitrate, Tritium, Condensed Carbon, Warp Cells, Launch Fuel, are all things you should never run out of.

12. If you’re not sure if something is lethal, assume it is. I should do more testing with a dummy profile to determine all lethal threats. I can’t find much info pertaining to what can kill you. I know lightning and meteors can hurt you, but how threatening they are I cant say for sure. That leads to the next rule.

13. STAY OUT OF EXTREME STORMS! If all you can manage is digging a hole and waiting it out, do it. Don’t attempt enduring them until your exosuit tech is fully upgraded. And don’t attempt it at all in extreme wind events, those twisters are particularly lethal even late game.

14. Rocket boots are dangerous! They can cause a lot of unintentional forward jetpack boosts. Best to upgrade jetpack tanks and exosuit shields before using them. You’ve been warned.

15. Be extremely cautious when using glitches. Especially aboard your freighter. Always weigh the rewards of a glitch against your entire save.

16. Do not engage sentinels without nearby cover. You need a fast escape in case something goes awry. Any building or base with rooms will do.

Those are all the tips that come to mind atm.

In PermaDeath you have to take things more seriously. Every decision could be life and death for your traveler. Immerse yourself and remember every choice can lose you everything. I think the game is most thrilling with those stakes and it really forces an immersive perspective. PermaDeath is the closest experience to what exploring the cosmos would be like for us. So I encourage people to try it. I realize its not for everyone, but once you get used to the risk, things will become a nice blend of relaxing beauty and thrilling danger.

Safe Travels.

A guy I met brings me to a base he has next to an S Class Start ship, and something on his base hit me with some heat laser shit and I started dying over and over and I lost all of my inventory lmao I’ve recently learned about how lots of players can have crazy stuff on them and there is a lesson about who to trust when going into their base, these guys make Indiana Jones trap type shit lol

I applaud the complexity of the base, the time and materials it must have taken to build it, and the assholery level required to want to do it in the first place.

I also enjoy the fact that you clearly wasted hours of your life building it, because it takes less time to get it out of my way than it does to punch in the glyphs to the portal you unsuccessfully tried to block… but then I guess “failure” is a defining feature for you, isn’t it.

Keep up the good work. Looking forward to encountering and removing the next one I see.