It takes a lot of equipment to maintain a giant mobile base on an exoplanet that’s hostile to human life. InThe Alters, you have to keep all of that gear in good working order by yourself (and yourself, and yourself, and yourself). When resources get tight, you may find that you have to go without some items to make sure that other, mission-critical materiel is always available.

The game offers a lot of different things to craft, and you need to be smart about what you build. Always start by making sure you have plenty of these essentials.

the workshop crafting screen in the alters, with the mining outpost highlighted.

Use Uphold Production to set your minimum stock to the quantities recommended below, and the game will automatically queue up crafting to make sure you stay at that level.

Mining Outposts

Mining Outposts are your main way of getting resources in the large quantities you’ll need to complete your mission. From drilling for Organics to fuel the Base to extracting Rapidium for transport back to Earth, you’ll need to deploy and operate these modular machines all over the map.

Mining Outposts aren’t very expensive, but theytake up a fair amount of space in storage, so you don’t want to have too many cluttering up your inventory. Have one at the ready so that you caneasily exploit any deep deposits that you find, then start work on another one while you search for the next.

the workshop crafting menu in the alters, with the drill cartridge highlighted.

you’re able to alsopack and redeploy Mining Outpostsinstead of crafting new ones, saving resources at the expense of time.

At the end of each Act, you’ll have the opportunity toautomatically retrieve as many Outposts and Pylons as you can fit in storage.Grab what you can, but don’t go building extra storage to take absolutely everything with you; the extra rooms will add mass to the Base, potentially causing you to need more fuel before you can leave, slowing your overall progress.

the workshop crafting screen in the alters, with pylon components highlighted.

Drill Cartridges

The Vertara Drill uses these disposable cartridges tomelt rocks blocking your pathwhile exploring, making them necessary to reach every part of the map. Like Mining Outposts, you don’t need to have many on hand at once; unlike Mining Outposts, youcan’t recycle them, so once you use one you shouldmove the replacement up the queueso that you aren’t stuck waiting around if you run into more boulders.

Raw Food

The Greenhouse lets you convert Organics into Raw Food, which you can thencraft into Cooked Meals in the Kitchen.As tempting as it might be to move the crew’s diet entirely to delicious, home-grown veggies, that’stoo expensive and resource-intensive to be viable.

Instead,keep a small stock of Raw Food on-handso that you can whip up a set of Cooked Meals for the crew on short notice.A few days of decent meals can do wonders for the Alters' moods; save it for when they’re feeling particularly gloomy or rebellious.

the workshop production queue in the alters, with suit batteries highlighted.

Food is consumedat the start of each day, so attempt to anticipate when the Alters' moods are getting sour and make the Cooked Meals before things get really ugly.

Pylon Components

Pylon Components are crafted inpacks of three, and different Pylon types require different amounts in order to build. If you need to construct additional Pylons, you can usually get away with just building the basic kind, whichonly cost one Component each.

Starting in Act 2, you may need to rely on the more expensiveTravel Pylons and Hub Pylons,which cost more. Having a minimum stock of 5 Components means you’ll always be able to build whichever type you need in a hurry, though you’ll need to replenish your stock afterward.

the workshop menu in the alters with the repair kit highlighted.

Like Mining Outposts, Pylonscan be retrieved and their Components returned to storage.If you disassemble an Outpost, it’s a good idea to grab any Pylons it was using as well so that they can be put to better use elsewhere.

Suit Batteries

All of Jan’s tools arepowered by his suit’s internal batterywhile he’s in the field. You can recharge the battery at Outposts and Travel Stations, but running back and forth wastes a lot of time. It’s much better to havespare batteries that you can swap outto refill on the go.

This is especially true once you get the Luminator midway through Act 1, which drains the battery faster than any other tool.

the kitchen menu in the alters, with much highlighted.

As the game’s challenges get more and more complex, you’ll find yourself using more and more of the suit’s power. You canresearch upgradesto enhance its overall capacity, but at the end of the day, the real solution is tocarry more batteries.Try carrying spare batteriesequal to the number of the Act you’re currently in, and you should be able to handle most situations without running dry too often.

Repair Kit

Even with constant maintenance by the Technician,something with break inside the Base eventually.It’s not a matter of if, but of when. If a module malfunctions, either you or an Alter will need to use a Repair Kit and several hours of work to fix it.

If you don’t have a Repair Kit on hand, you’ll need to craft one before anything can be done about the malfunction. Having at least two in storage at all times means that you’re able to always get straight to fixing things, and still have a spare in case something else breaks in the meantime (as is likely during crises like Magnetic Storms).

the workshop crafting menu in the alters, with the radiation filter highlighted.

Mush

Everybody in the Base needs to eat, even if it’s just flavorless nutrient paste. Mush is crafted in the Kitchen from your precious supply of Organics, and it’s a necessity for keeping the crew fed.

Eating Mush doesn’t affect anyone’s mood (positively or negatively), butmissing a meal altogether certainly does.Always haveat least two days' worth of food on handfor the entire crew; that way, there’s still an extra meal ready in case something goes wrong and cooking isn’t possible for a day.

Don’t forget that Jan Prime needs to eat, too, or he gets tired more easily.

Radiation Filters

Nothing in The Alters will cause your problems to cascade quite like letting the Base’s radiation shield fail. Going without a Radiation Filter puts you at risk ofgetting the crew sick, rooms malfunctioning and failing, and general chaos getting unleashed at a rate that might be too fast for you to fix.You should not, under any circumstances, let that happen.

As soon as the game lets you,turn on auto-replacement for depleted Radiation Filtersand never turn it off.

Under normal circumstances,one Radiation Filter lasts for 24 hours, but during a Magnetic Storm they burn out much faster. Having three in stock at all times means you haveone for today, one for tomorrow, and a backup just in case.

During Radiation Storms, always check your stock of Radiation Shields before going to bed at the end of the day. If there isn’t at least one in storage to swap out overnight,stay up late to craft one, even if it means becoming Exhausted.