This guide is a WIP, images of the various resources and potentially some additional info such as which blocks to scrap for materials will come soon. Attempts will also be made to keep it current with any updates to the game.


I'll redo the math and update things sometime within the next day or two probably.

Press "Tab" to open the menu (TODO: Check what button this is on controller)

Your first objective is to place your Tech Yard, but before that lets first do something the game really should've told you about beforehand:

Click this button to open the "Objectives" menu

There are four categories of objectives
-Certification: These unlock things and explain mechanics
-Base: These help guide you through setting up your base
-Resources: These are exclusively for getting extra money to unlock more "Licenses"
-Security: These are simply rewards for defeating other techs

Now that you're aware of that let's get back on topic

Just plop it down, drive into the hologram, and press "E" to claim.

Our first material is "Hematite", this is more commonly known as "Iron Ore". It looks like this

When mining this ore (and many others) there is almost always one "Big" chunk and several "Small" ones. For the small ones just point your resource laser at it and gold Left Click until it shatters.

For big ones however you want to laser on their "Seam", every resource that's larger than those tiny chunks will have a seam, here's what it looks like when you shoot it

so just tap the fire button on different spots until you find the seam, it's almost always somewhere perpendicular to the longest side of the object, here's a little illustration:

Cutting larger chunks up before destroying them will help optimize your resource output. More information on how the material health and yield stats work will be later in the guide, for now just ignore them as there's no way to really optimize them outside of cutting on the seam

So our objective is to gather 10 Iron right? We're not going to do that, we're going to gather enough to do the entire rest of the tutorial in one go. So gather 72 instead.
Oh and if you get lost the compass "halo" on your vehicle has a blue section that points to your claimed tech yard.

Now we gather Carbon, which is most readily available from trees, these have TWO (or more, often more) seams you can cut, as shown in this hastily edited image

So gather about 60 Carbon (more never hurts, we use it primarily to fuel the generator), now we need to gather all the other stuff we'll need later.

We need 75 Copper, which can be obtained from Cuprite on mountains/hills and looks like this:

We need 27 Aluminum, which can be obtained from Bauxite in flat areas and looks like this:

Now for the worst one, we need 21 Silicon which can be obtained from Boulders on the beach (each one will only drop like 2-3 though) or from Quartz (which gives way more), quartz can be found by looking around for an area with BLUE mushroom trees and driving around over there. Don't worry you can drive over shallow water without any difficulty, only thing to worry about is enemy techs might be wandering around that area.

Ok one more but this one is quick, we need Chlorine which can be found on the beach as a shiny blue rock buried in the sand called "Halite". We only need 1 Chlorine.

You can drop any Debris you pick up if you need space.

Total: 72 iron, 60 carbon, 75 Copper, 27 Aluminum, 1 Chlorine

All done? Good job, that will save so much headache later, drive back to your tech yard. Our next objective is to craft Di-Platforms, lets make 3

Craft a Ramp as well (it's right next to the platforms)

Now a Workbench and a Generator (We're crafting literally everything in this menu but the Tech Yard). Plop them down, make sure they're all connected to each other (this is what the platforms are for)

(Don't worry about powering up the workbench yet, it'd just waste power)
Next we need a Supply Fabricator, interact with the workbench by pressing E on it while in "Build Mode" (a.k.a. "the inventory menu") and Click the Supply Fabricator

Now just plop one carbon into the generator and it'll craft your fabricator.

Next up plop down the fabricator and click "Light Ammo" 5 times, throw some extra carbon into the generator (I think you'll only need 2 more) and wait for it to finish.

Now we need a Refinery, that's going to be back in the Workbench, you know the drill, click it and drop in another carbon to the generator if you need to. Plop down the refinery.

We need to make 5 refined aluminum. Just click the icon for it 5 times and it will insert the necessary 15 aluminum. Once that's done claim them and click the "Refined Copper" icon 5 times.

Now for the part that has caused a lot of negative reviews. We need to craft a Small Cargo Block. The objectives menu will explain the steps you need to take to do this but it's easy to miss one if you aren't careful. We're going to do the steps like this:

1. Park in the hologram of your tech yard and open your objectives menu.
2. Claim the reward from "Collect Refined Copper", you might as well claim all the others you've done in here too while you have it open.
3. Open the Refinery and make 15 MORE Refined Copper (you should have 20) and 9 Refined Iron
4. Open the Workbench and craft the Block Fabricator
5. Take the Workbench and Supply Fabricator off of your base and set them aside
6. Plop down the block Fabricator and craft the Cargo Block. Probably add it to your tech as well.
7. Park in the tech yard hologram again, claim the "Receive A Small Cargo Block" objective to get the battery license
8. Craft the small battery

And with that, you're finally done with the intro quests! Next up is destroying 3 enemy techs but that's not really in the scope of this guide. Just aim your laser at their cockpit and shoot them until they stop existing, you'll do fine.

Bill of materials:
3 Di Platforms - 9 Iron, 18 Carbon
1 Ramp - 3 Iron, 6 Carbon
1 Workbench - 6 Iron, 6 Carbon
1 Generator - 6 Iron
1 Supply Fabricator - 9 Iron, 6 Carbon
1 Refinery - 12 Iron, 9 Copper, 12 Aluminum
20 Refined Copper - 60 Copper
9 Refined Iron - 27 Iron
5 Refined Aluminum - 15 Aluminum
1 Block Fabricator - 9 Refined Iron, 15 Refined Copper, 21 Silicon
1 Small Battery - 6 Aluminum, 6 Copper, 1 Chlorine
1 Small Cargo - 5 Refined Aluminum, 5 Refined Copper
Generator Fuel - 24 carbon (just an estimate to make sure you have extra)
Total: 72 iron, 36 carbon, 27 Aluminum, 75 Copper, 1 Chlorine

This area is being worked on actively but does contain at least basic info on the location of each material type. This will be in the order you see them in the Refinery

Ore: Hematite
Location: Forest and Plains
Appearance: Black rocks with copper-colored veins

Ore: Cuprite
Location: Hills and Mountains
Appearance: Gray rocks with dark green patches

Ore: Bauxite
Location: Forest and Plains
Appearance: Beige and Orange colored mass, almost clay-like

Ore: Quartz and Boulders
Location: Blue Forest and Snow (Quartz), Beaches and Swamp (Boulder)
Appearance: White crystalline structures (Quartz), Large Gray Boulders (Boulder)

Ore: Quartz
Location: Blue Forest and Snow
Appearance: White crystalline structures
Note: This is a secondary product, the Fragmenter is going to be significantly better for obtaining this than just harvesting directly.

Ore: Any plant matter
Location: Everywhere
Appearance: Varies

Ore: Hostile Plants in the Forest area
Location: Forest
Appearance: See "Hazards", you're looking for Bumpers and Spitters

Ore: Halite
Location: Buried in the beach areas or near Zappy Trees (see "Hazards")
Appearance: Blue cubic rocks

Ore: Halite
Location: Buried in the beach areas or near Zappy Trees (see "Hazards")
Appearance: Blue cubic rocks

Ore: Hostile Plants and Mines found in the Swamp
Location: Swamp
Appearance: See "Hazards", you're looking for Spread Spitters, Mini Bumpers, Rust Flowers, and Mines

Ore: Tantalite
Location: Swamp, often near Spread Spitters
Appearance: Slate rock with clay-like deposits on the edges

Ore: Tantalite
Location: Swamp, often near Spread Spitters
Appearance: Slate rock with clay-like deposits on the edges
NOTE: This can ONLY be obtained by putting Tantalite into the Fragmenter, using the regular harvesting laser to break it will not drop Niobium

Ore: Hostile Plants in the Snowy Area
Location: Snowy Area
Appearance: See "Hazards", you're looking for Sneaky Bumpers and Sniper Spitters

Ore: Wolframite
Location: Snowy Area
Appearance: Black rocks with yellowish crystals embedded in them, often guarded by Sniper Spitters

Ore: Wolframite
Location: Snowy Area
Appearance: Black rocks with yellowish crystals embedded in them, often guarded by Sniper Spitters
NOTE: This can ONLY be obtained by putting Wolframite into the Fragmenter, using the regular harvesting laser to break it will not drop Titanium

There are currently three biomes in the game; we'll call them Forest, Swamp, and Snow.

The categories of resources are:
Ores - Any material readily found therein
Secondary Ore Resources - Any material only obtainable using the Fragmenter
Uncommon Ores - Other resources that can be found in multiple biomes but require unique conditions
Hazards - Any hazardous plants or other threats
Plant Material - A material that will drop when destroying any destructible hazard.

Ores: Iron (Hematite), Copper (Cuprite), Aluminum (Bauxite)
Secondary Ore Resources: None
Uncommon Ores: Quartz (Blue Mushroom Area only), Halite (Beach and near Zappy Trees only), Boulders (Beach only)
Hazards: Spitters, Bumpers, and Zappy Trees
Plant material: Lithium

Ores: Tantalum (Tantelite)
Secondary Ore Resources: Niobium (from Tantalite)
Uncommon Ores: None
Hazards: Spread Spitters, Mini Bumpers, Rust Flowers, and Mines
Plant material: Phosphorus

Ores: Tungsten (Wolframite)
Secondary Ore Resources: Titanium (Wolframite)
Uncommon Ores: Quartz (On hills)
Hazards: Sniper Spitters and Sneaky Bumpers
Plant material: Strontium

These plants are the most common hazard in the early game. Danger Rating: Very Low

When collided with or shot they will inflate like an airbag and launch anyone nearby, this can be a good way to toss a chasing enemy away.

They CAN be destroyed (it took 28 shots from the M18-VINDUR with no damage bonuses) and will drop a few Carbon and some Lithium

These plants spit projectiles at you that do a surprising amount of damage. Danger Rating: Average

They shoot you when you're within range (similar range to the basic resource laser) and will also shoot enemy techs as well, this is why you'll often see parts that have fallen off of other techs near them.

They CAN be destroyed with any weapons fairly easily, it just takes a few moments. Similar to bumpers they will drop Carbon and Lithium.

These trees will kill you extremely quickly with lightning. Danger Rating: Highest

A lightning rod can protect you as long as you're holding down the button for it (which will drain your battery quickly). If you are trying to get the Halite it guards you need to be fast

They MIGHT BE able to be destroyed but I couldn't manage it

These are functionally identical to bumpers, just smaller and they drop Phosphorus instead of Lithium.

These little bombs are deadly but very easily avoided or disposed of. Danger Rating: Low

They spawn in clusters all over the Swamplands. Don't run over them, you'll have a bad time.

They are easily destroyed by any contact or projectile and will drop Iron and Phosphorus

These plants will cause a shockwave when you get close that causes you to rapidly gain stats of the "Rust" effect (more info in the "Environmental Hazards" section at the end.

They CAN be destroyed but will explode. They drop Phosphorus and Iron.

These are like other bumpers, but they're very sneaky and hide in the snow.

Oh and they drop Strontium instead of Lithium, which is real cool.

These are similar to regular Spitters but they fire faster and have longer range.

I assume they also drop Strontium but haven't killed any yet.

Getting too hot will make batteries more prone to exploding and can also start to damage you
Getting too cold will make your guns turn slower and can also start to damage you

Water is extremely slow to drive through, consider making a bridge

Rust makes your tech more vulnerable to damage and stops flatbeds from working.