First this is a starter guide - I'm going to be posting things I see that people might not notice on first look and slowly expanding it as I go.

1- Survival
Basic tools (starter)
Axe - used for trees -
Handy tool (hand laser) everything else - like everything from mining to building to shooting pirates this is your default tool. Can also cut trees but at a slower rate.
Hover Drone - deploy it hit Q to change his settings - it has a limited range it will search for materials from drop point.

Early game be on the look out for iron and silicia as you travel this will help expand a start base once you find a good location. Once you find a location that looks good run a circle around it look for iron / silicia / copper these are your primary construction. Carbon is also a good material to have near as it is used for power in the steam generator and later for steel production.

Once you have found a area with these materials check for any large or hostile animals as you don't want to be half into a construction and get eaten.

Resource respawn pretty quickly (have not timed it but under 20mins) so keep that in mind.

Once you get your basic materials near you and have found a starting point I'd recommend a 2x2 foundation. This allows for easy placement of your control center / a steam generator / and a recharge station. I recommend a ramp as well leaving 1 tile open infront of the recharge station so your bots can walk up and recharge easily from it. Add walls and ceiling to seal it in and a door (open door as not automated yet)

This will give you the absolute basics of a survival base. You can then expand out from here if you add a storage area you can deploy your harvester bot setting it to harvest iron / silicia / copper / carbon and it will then go out and harvest them bring them back and drop them off in the storage box.

I recommend getting some more power up and running and dropping some miners on the silicia and iron node as this is your primary wall and floors material.

Reminder - you can demolish a building with a full refund at any time by hitting E then clicking demolish - this let you make and move objects around as you expand your base. I highly recommend moving the generator and recharge station from the 2x2 room with the command center and replacing them with 2 batterys then locking the door. This will give the room some cover and no drones will need to enter or exit the area to refill making it a kind of safe room.

Your basic hover drones has several functions I'm going to focus on the commands you will most likely use in your first hour or two.

Follow. - the drone will follow you and help defend you if attacked. Which is really usefull as the drone will let you move around without worrying where it is.

Harvest - when you select harvest I recommend turning off all but Iron Silicia copper Carbon - as these are your primary resources early on - the others are great but not as needed till you set up a base.

Haul - Once you have mines / Steam generators you can set a drone to haul mode - at which point it will collect materials from these miners and drop it off in storage containers. It will take carbon or other fuels out of storage and reload generators and restock turrets.

Build - it uhh... builds.... basically you set it to build and it will fly around building the structures you lay down. I switch one of my bots to this when I am expanding the base so I can spend time working on design / function while it puts it togther then I simply swap it back to hauling.

You get 1 complete drone on start and parts for a 2nd. Once you have a miner up for each of the base materials (copper iron silicia) I would recommend setting bot 1 to harvest carbon - this will let it go and get fuel for your base - then set the second drone to haul at which point it will clear the mines for you as well as take the carbon and restock your generators. This partialy automates your production lines

Long range control - if you open your map and right click your drone you can access there menus and command them from a distance.

Range - in the drone screen under where you select different drone options in you will see a range screen. This defaults to 100 meters I personally like to keep them on a tighter leash so they don't wander off and die but you can lower or raise this up to 1000 meters for larger bases or farther away mines.

Note - when you die you will get a new drone and new ai core for your basic model drone.

I know your first instinct will be to build a small turret. Don't...

While small turrets are nice to have they will mow down anything they see thats not your drones which can make them waste allot of bullets.

Pirate raid 1 - really the only thing you need to do is activate your handy laser close the distance and shoot them with it. It really is that simple. Your shields will soak up the damage from the pirates guns and they do not have a ton of shields or health.

Following pirate raids will get tougher I highly recommend a pistol as the ammo is cheap to make it it packs a punch. It also is more accurate at range then the shotgun or smg.

Melee weapons are a bit under powered but they have a feature ranged weapons don't. They work while in the water. So if you see pirates swiming toward you grab your weapon and beat them before they get out. Warning animals also can attack in water and you can't use your handy laser to defend.

When you can afford lots of ammo (or have few to no animals near you) I recommend looking into building some small turrets to cover your base.

I also highly recommend looking into a set of armor from the equipment station as your primary defense line early on - is your - so longer you can fight heavier your early game defense is - the worker armor alone a cheap easy to make armor can really help your next fight.