Hello, this is my first guide, I will be providing information for getting through the first level and establishing what you should be working on as you die many, many times.

The main hub you will be using has a pet store that requires site specific eggs to buy a pet, a furniture shop for your ship, a repair station for refilling tools/weapons that have limited uses.
The main shop has claw and gotcha machines whose tokens are found during missions or rewards from completed contracts. The main store has all your current run related gear and initially you start with only the flamingo melee weapon on the ship. Across the way is the turn in for the contract, green button submits material from the box, which you push e to drop junk into, and a red button to terminate the current contract. Feel free to explore and board the ship once your ready to start your first mission. At first Orcoon is the only planet that is unlocked with one of two locations available.

When you arrive, you should take a flamingo weapon with you. The yellow suit recharge station is always on the ship, and more are spread throughout the map. There's an onsite store where you can pay for a gear shipment, a repair station for tools, and a medical bay for multiplayer revives once you buy a medical generator from the shop, which needs to be bought again for future visits, unfortunately as of 5/7/24, it will not revive solo players. There are two main entrances for the first area under the water straight ahead, and one somewhat to the left. Beware of two aggressive types of fish that will attack you if you get too close. There are level 3 buildings that you can't access yet that are spread across the map randomly. Under the water there can be some loot that can be risky to get to if you are not paying attention.

Outside of the facility, there are mushrooms or edible herbs that require a knife, dig spots that require scanning to find and a shovel to dig, or ore deposits that require a pickaxe. On your first run you won't have the capability of scavenging any of this material. There is canisters under the water in random spots, just look out for hostile fish and keep your stamina maxed out in case you got to escape. On the surface, there are crablike creatures, the small ones you can backpedal and kill without taking damage, the large ones I would avoid entirely for now. At night there can be stalkers in random places, not hard to avoid. Also mines can be anywhere, they are large and make a beeping noise, but if you are sprinting and not paying attention you can detonate them without hearing the sound.

You set the pace of exploration, so feel free to take your time and learn the mechanics of the game. Its better to fail a few times and get familiar with each enemy then to start to get invested and get killed by a situation that gets out of control. Every room has a door that autocloses after a short time, and if you need to close one quickly you will have to look at the wall to activate it.

The monsters you will run into the most will be loot mimics, crawlers and hatchlings. Rarer are claustropede, greed, pew pew and the doppleganger. Hatchlings start as eggs, and once you are close enough they burst out, if you are quick you can kill it before it can attack. Crawlers are quick, but if you backpedal and swing, you can hit it before it hits you once, and if your quick, you can hit it 2 more times without taking a second hit, they usually hit for 15 I believe. Loot mimics are dangerous, once you trigger them, unless you run straight away and don't stop they will continue to attack, listen for their growl, if they stop growling they stopped chasing you. One can end your run, but you can scan them and if the access crate is misspelled in any way, then you can go around it or turn back. Until you get a shrink ray you can't take their body, so there's no point in wasting the time to fight them. Greed just steals stuff from you, if you see one I would just hold some loot out so you can keep your weapon to kill them, because if he gets your weapon you'll have to run all the way back to the ship. PewPew is a walking jukebox that if aggravated or kept company for too long will blow you up, even through walls(I shot one across the room with a rifle, closed the door ran down the hall it still killed me). Claustropedes are like giant mosquitos, you can kill it while its attacking you. The doppleganger is worth a lot if killed, but with 100 health and a flamingo weapon, you will die most of the time. There are also slimes, they can't be killed so keep your distance, if you get the oxygen blob and he gets to you, you have to return to the charging station or ship I believe or you will run out of oxygen and die. Don't forget to scan enemies for their info back on the ship.

Every level has a passcode for the next level in a crate, remember the 3 alphanumeric code and return to the ship with the loot. If you find your hotbar full you can drop all your items at the entrance elevator, and any valuable 2 handed loot. Its better to get the code, then return to the ship for the first time with a full inventory and a 2 handed item. On the ship computer, you can go to the acs menu, but you can just type from the starting screen, "lvl 1 " and whatever the code is at the end no parenthesis. When you return to the elevator grab whatever else you couldn't carry and head to the yellow door to go up the elevator. Once you go through the first hallway, which sometimes has a enemy, drop whatever you are carrying in the teleporter room, you will need to find the generator somewhere on the next floor.

After going up the elevator and into the teleporter room, you have two routes to go. The map is roughly like a figure 8 with deadend rooms all around the edges. The teleporter generator can be found randomly throughout the level, but most of the time its in the giant crab pen. Any of the prior levels enemies can be present, along with the giant crab and possibly small crabs in the same area. Any time you get full backtrack to the teleporter room and dump your items. There is one trick to this area that I offer and thats dealing with the giant crab. You can sneak around and loot without him attacking you, but whats easier is if you master it, you can aggro him at a door, kite him into a room and close the door behind you, which will allow you to explore the sand room with ease. I think there is a chance of not finding the teleporter generator, but I feel like I find it everytime. There are doors in the back that lead outside, but they are mostly a waste of time. Once you have the level two code, return to the ship and type lvl 2 plus the code, it will unlock the red door area by the beginning elevator.

There are multiple entrances, but coming the elevator route will bring you to the charging station and the teleporter room. This area has two major daytime dangers and odds are you will be exploring here at night if you stay. There are lasers in random states, either one above that you can crouch under, a double which is a deadend effectively, and a lower laser you can jump. I would highly suggest avoiding the ground lasers because its easy to mess up a jump and die. The constant danger is there is no oxygen in this area, so you will have to occasionally return for oxygen. This area is quite elaborate in its layout, so it can be easy to get lost and realize you're suffocating too late. Now it'll be up to you to learn your limits, what you are capable of, and deciding if you are staying the night. At night, all the lasers will turn off, but nightwalkers will spawn. They are death starting out, you might be able to take one hit and escape. You can navigate the level at night and sneak around them in the long hallways, but if they are in a closed room, forget it. Ultimately if you have to go outside and come in one of the other entrances. If you can manage to find the code, go back to the ship and type in the lvl 3 code and you are mostly in the clear. Once you establish a rhythm, you should be able to get to lvl 2 and find the code during the night so you can spend the 2nd day looting all the lvl 3 rooms outside.

For your first time through without gear, there is no shame in getting the first two floors and calling it quits if you get to this area before nightfall. You can always visit 3 days in a row, loot two floors each day and have 6 floors of loot by the time you return for the contract end.

All the level 3 rooms are outside, with some being under the water. Watch your oxygen, look out for predatory fish and the one crab that's usually on the right side of the map. These rooms can have the most valuable loot or be completely empty. Odds are you will find 2 handed canisters or a pet egg that you can sell or turn into the vendor for pet progression. If you made it this far you should have a fairly good idea on how to manage a majority of the monsters, and with the money you earn you can buy plenty of gear to handle this map easier or buy new locations.

Items that fit into your hotbar are easy to transport and stack on the shelves inside the ship once you head back to orbit. I can tell you that most of the time the corpses are not worth the time and distance to return them. Unless they are the doppleganger or a mimic, i wouldn't sweat the hatchling or crawler corpses at first. Beware of the sketchy items, the dark matter ones limit vision, the ones that mention exploding I believe will instant kill you if you put them down and pick them back up on the planet everytime. When you are on the planet, throw all your items on the ship floor, but they can glitch if they stay on the floor between planets.

When it comes time to turning in loot for the contract, a few cautionary things. Currently as of 5/7/24, do not turn in items in between days because they will not count and disappear. When you are turning in items it can help to turn in the lowest value items and the largest ones first, and only turn in what is required, you can turn all of it in, but i don't think it scales much past the requirement with the reward. Completion of days gets you suit levels, and less deaths means overall higher suit level and bonuses. Saving loot for the next contract completion means one less chance to die in case you fall short of the loot goal. Hit the green button to turn items in, and red when you are done. After a moment you will get a floating happy meal box with your rewards for the shop.

The boombox currently is pretty sweet, you can turn it on and drop it indefinitely for healing and pick it back up. The pulse rifle is tempting especially being able to break hatchling eggs without a fight, or killing anything at a distance without being touched. Knife is an easy upgrade from the flamingo, and you can collect herbs with it. Shrink ray and big daddy has limited ammo and costs money to recharge. Do not buy medical generator if playing solo, it will not revive you.

It can be very easy to get into a deathloop, lose all your suit progress/gear/loot. Have patience take it slow, and theres no shame in leaving on the ship, its better to survive than die 100% of the time. Good luck, remember to have fun.