When you have landed on Sylva the first time, you'll exit and your habitat and landing pad will automatically spawn. Normally, you would then access the Mission Log by interacting with the interface on the front of the landing pad.This gets you started off playing the game by gifting you items to you that are currently still locked in your catalog. Each mission is easy to complete starting off the game.

Using the Mission Log, There are three different statuses of items in the log:

• Active - missions that are available to be completed.
  
• Completed - missions that are completed, once you've done what is required.
  
• Tracked - THIS IS IMPORTANT. You must first TRACK a mission before you can complete it. So UNLESS it is ACTIVE, it CANNOT BE COMPLETED. It must be tracked at the time you complete it.

You can TRACK on item by selecting it and then clicking the green button. Now at some point the missions become more difficult to complete either because you must collect more items, travel off planet, or go on searches and exploration missions to find things. But, to get you started off with a functioning base and let you explore safely, you should complete at least the first five missions. So, track and then complete the following missions to get your Sylva base into operation:

• Planetfall! - Completed just by landing on the surface and exiting your landing capsule. REWARD: an Oxygenator and a Small Printer. UNLOCKS Astroneering Bas(e)ics and Lights in the Distance (you don't need to do this one yet).
  
• Astroneering Bas(e)ics - Completed accessing the Mission Log (ML) and collecting the reward for Planetfall!. REWARD: Tethers x1 and 500 Catalog Bytes. UNLOCKS Breathing Space.
  
• Breathing Space - Completed by accessing the ML and collecting the reward for Astroneering Bas(e)ics. Just connect a tether to the oxygenator/habitat by pressing the T key (on keyboard) or the down arrow on the directional pad of your controller. You also gain 500 bytes to unlock items in your catalog. REWARD: Small Canister x1, and 500 more Bytes. UNLOCKS: Resourcing and Landfilling.
  
• Resourcing - Completed by placing your small canister into your backpack, then locating and collecting four (4) Resin, and (4) Compound.
  
• Landfilling - Completed by filling that canister in your backpack with soil. This happens as you use your terrain tool to collect resin and compound, or as you deform (dig) into the surface of the planet (soil).

If you haven't done it yet, read the first section before going here. You need to know the basics before you do these tasks. That said, if you're done reading section one, continue here.

Do these tasks until you have completed the first six (6) missions in the Mission Log. at that point, you should be able to explore freely and figure things out for yourself. Here's the list of tasks:


OPEN MISSION LOG. After you have exited the capsule, you'll immediately go to and open the Mission Log.

TRACK THE AVAILABLE MISSIONS. Make sure you click on the button for each mission, so it is TRACKED.

COMPLETE THESE IN ORDER. After you track a mission, complete it in the game, then immediately return to the Mission Log to track the next one. Don't do a bunch of stuff and then go into the mission log. You'll be waiting time, effort, and resources. If you have done any of the required mission tasks it before it is tracked, it will not unlock for you. You'll need to do it again to trigger the reward(s).

HERE ARE THE SIX MISSIONS TO COMPLETE:

• Planetfall!
  
• Astroneering Bas(e)ics
  
• Breathing Space
  
• Landfilling
  
• Resourcing
  
• Printing Up

THAT'S IT. Go to the next section to get your base operational, and allow you to explore, or complete additional missions as desired.

Do these tasks as fast as you can to get your base in operation. Do them in order so you are most efficient. Keep in mind that you will need to continuously go back to the Mission Log and TRACK the available missions as they are unlocked. After you complete each mission, be sure to return to the Mission Log and track and complete the next ones except (Lights in the Distance).

• 1. After exiting the capsule, open the Mission Log and TRACK Planetfall!, then collect your rewards, and immediately TRACK Astroneering Bas(e)ics in ML.
  
• 2. Expand and place the Oxygenator in the habitat. Leave the small printer there for now.
  
• 3. Open ML, collect reward for #2 (1 pack of 10 tethers). Track Breathing Space in ML.
  
• 4. Connect a tether to the habitat.
  
• 5. Open ML, collect reward for #4 (1 small canister). Track both Landfilling and Resouring in ML.
  
• 6. Put the canister in your backpack or on your terrain tool. Collect soil as you also collect 4 resin and 4 compound. Compound looks like white fluffy clouds in the ground and Resin looks like yellow macaroni globs.
  
• 7. Open ML, collect reward for #6. Track Printing Up.
  
• 8. Expand one of the Medium A Platforms.
  
• 9. Expand the small printer from #2, and place it on the medium platform.
  
• 10. Print the medium printer, with 2 of your collected compound using the small printer.
  
• 11. Expand the medium printer, put it in the two slot on the Medium A platform.
  
• 12. Open ML, collect reward for completing #10 and 11.
  
• 13. Expand the Large Platform B you received as the reward.
  
• 14. CONGRATULATIONS! You have now also unlocked Smelteringly Hot, Powerful Problems, For Science! and RE-Tooling missions. You can continue with these missions or go off on your own and do whatever you want.

If you're here, you want to know why I created this guide.

Well first of all, who am I? I am just one of the many fans, who spent countless hours in the Discord server, created originally by a fan in Germany, and then handed over to Joe Tirado, the communications guy at System Era. I stay involved in the Discord and the game from early access days through the launch of 1.0 and up to the present. I visited the System Era website, and watched all of their vlogs and read the bios. I've watched the NoClip documentary about System Era (R.I.P. Paul Pepera). Oh, and I've played over 3,000 hours of this game, 1600+ hours on Steam, and over 1500 hours on Xbox/Windows 10.

So this is my reason. Because I love this game! It is essentially your own world to do with it as you wish. You can dig up the entire planet if you really want to do that. You can create a city using soil collected and the leveling block can help you create vertical, horizontal and enclosed buildings. You can even paint your building using any color of soil you find in the game. You can explore the caves and even journey all the way down to the planet core. You can visit each planet in the system and create bases on one or more of them. Best of all, you can do this by yourself or with up to four friends. If you want to have as many as eight (8) friends in game, you'll need to setup or use a dedicated server.

So, how can you get to a point where you can start building your city, or explore farther from your base, or travel to other planets? You follow my quick guide. This is what you need to really open the options to you in game. You'll have a small and medium printer, tethers and the oxygenator to supply you oxygen via the tethers you connected to your habitat, or ship once you print one. You will have a large platform to print other machines to really expand your base, and start building and automating your base. You can create resource collection bases, or setup a recycling system and go find and recycle all of the debris on this and other planets. You can collect one of every single type of research that exists in the game. You can unlock everything in the catalog. You can do the special events as they are released.

Really there is so much to do in this game once you get an operational base and decide what to do next. Colonize planets, collect resources, explore everywhere, or build a massive automated city or resource factory. It is up to you to decide. Enjoy the game!