The Crust

The Crust

35 ratings
The Crust - Laser Mission // starts with repair the Mobile Drilling Rig
By Darky
I felt like i have not seen a more end game type of guide so far, so i decided to describe what i have done so far.

First and so far, after the tutorial you are pretty free to explore, expand and proceed with any mission as you like besides one. On the moon surface your rover can discover a broken mobile drilling rig. At the moment where you repaired this Rig, you trigger the last mission of the Crust. Can be compared to Factorios Rocket start.
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Introduction
I felt like i have not seen a more end game type of guide so far, so i decided to describe what i have done so far.

First and so far, after the tutorial you are pretty free to explore, expand and proceed with any mission as you like besides one. On the moon surface your rover can discover a broken mobile drilling rig. Do not complete this mission before you are prepared.
Laser Quest - be prepared
At the moment when you repair this Rig, you trigger the last mission of the Crust. Can be compared to Factorios Rocket start.
This quest will require a high amount of everything to complete, the amounts have changed over the last patches - as of the time where i write this guide it is in total:

Concrete 3950
Titanium Plates 3765
Steel 3600
Silicon 2850
Components 1475
Microcircuits 128
Carbon Fibre 4955
Modular Frames 5450
Modular Terminals 3665
Nanotubes 4950
Duralumin Plates 4200
Control Units 147
Processors 350

So do not proceed to start this mission before having researched the mining rigs your self and utilized them to expand your base.
Multi-Regolith Refinerys
- You can build a very close setup with a spacing of 5 after unlocking underground belts.
- Build them as soon as you can this stops wasting at the start of the game spare ressources you alredy build the right setup for lategame.
- For the fist 10 Refinerys (what is enough to run threw the game) you can collect all outputs on single belts - so all iron on one belt, all silicon (you got it)
- Later you will fill them with on-moon-mining so you can either move them on the top level - or have them placed in an area where you can use the belt-lifts and the cargo dock (later more)

Smelters
- you can build smelters all next to each other for one type of ressource - so plan enough space
- on belt delivers north side that expands to the right for new smelters
- on belt south side best is backwards direction to bring the smelted ressources
- so you need space on the right of this setup to expand endlessly - and on the left side to have enough space for around 6 belts with one space left and right before start production.
- this can also be done later - but if you start with a good smelter setup, you can scale very quick - i did run 15 smelters in a row at the last mission per ressource (can be more, was just lazy and my pc got slow)

Production of anything
- as you see from the list of required ressources, you need to be able to scale your production as well
- plan to be able to have multiple factorys of the same type with the same production next to each other and try to have enough space for storage in between (5k items can be 10 large storage containers)

Storage
- decide where to store your items - you will have to bring the items with Conveyer Elevators to the top and close to your flight control center (as it has just 4 inputs
- i did not put all ressources on belts)
- also i did store my ressources underground close to the production
- and build a conveyor elevator to one large storage container on top at the end with t4 belts.
Energy
At the moment NRG wasnt to big of an issue, i put up 80 large batterys with solar panels and added 100 RTGs to have constant NRG.
Mobile Mining
- research the mining efficiency upgrades 1 and 2 before starting, else you need a lot more slag storage then you want to have.
- Place your Cargo Dock in a position where you need it for your multi regolith refinerys. (the belts need high level, so you do not want them to be to long)
- Mine Rare Minerals first - you will have enough pretty soon.
- I found 2 Mobile Drilling Rigs more then enough
- Scan with the Rover the Moon surface
- Move your Rig to have a propper Mix of all ressources in your regolith and stop when you have a good mix (you will have 100k regolit to fast...
- Scan for Water and use a Ice Harvester - Elevator Conveyor - Ice Melter Setup on a Large Scale LLLLL Type Setup - the Long side of the L delivers Ice to the smelters attacked Wall on the Long side. The bottom of the L is the Ice Conveyor - so you can stack a lot of Water production - you will need it for Organics --> Carbon Fiber


Slaaaaag
- you might struggle first with Slag in your base, but there is a partial solution
- smart concrete factorys can purge a lot of slag but requre Silicon
- you will need a lot of smart concrete for modular frames - mostly titanium plate will hold you back
- smart concrete can easily sold on the market in large amounts just to empty your base
- make use of splitters priority for slag first moving to smart factories before storing it
- create a large storage area for slag just in case... (100k+ units i mean)
Research
Early game
Engineering: Rolling Mill and Components Factory + Multireoglith Refinery (buy Cuircuits from the market)
Fundamental: Automatic Repair, Landing Platform, Medium Solar Panel, Large Battery
Social: Tender System, Online Market, Living Quarters, Ice Processing, Power Systems, Ice melter, Ventilation, Single Bed, Farming and Cooking, Oxygen Facilities, Medical Block (you need those for the quests) and the three Labs

Mid Game
Engineering: Rare Earth and Microcircuits + Modular Terminals + Assembler I & II, Conveyor and Underground Conveyor 2 or 3
Funamental: All 1st-3rd Row + Heavy Machinery, Vehicle Hangar, Rover Prospector (Start Scanning the Surface - Water is Rare), MDR Upgrade 1&2

End Game
Really what you like with the above setup you can go pretty far - optimized and upgrade your factorys. I start hard on the social tree as soon as i can get Ice from the surface to mass produce carbon fibre.
Tips
- Aluminium goes with Ice to produce Fuel and create a steady income of credits - here a conveyor elevator with storage and direct belt towards the flight controll deck helps a lot
- Have at least 3 Factorys for Circuits and Components running very soon
- mine rare minerals and have a bulk ressource storage connected to 2-3 refinerys very soon
- check high tech factory recipies and balance your production in endgame
9 Comments
Pootch 22 Aug @ 12:20pm 
Trigger Event is the last contract step of SCT Ltd: Strategic Planning: 185 Componentes, 130 Microcircuits, 65 Modular Frames. DO NOT complete this contract and you will haven infit time to prepare
FriendlyShark 31 Dec, 2024 @ 4:04pm 
Thanks @Pootch for the heads up, will try that next play through
Pootch 28 Dec, 2024 @ 8:41am 
Triger Event is the Charity Contract from STL (SLT?) if completed. So do not do this contract until fully prepared. Otherwise you will fail.
FriendlyShark 18 Dec, 2024 @ 5:47am 
UPDATE: On a different playthrough I managed to drag out all the previous missions as long as possible but soon as the repeater mission is completed 05.05.2089, I got the laser gun mission.
FriendlyShark 8 Dec, 2024 @ 7:19am 
Not sure if you've played the latest update, but the Laser mission now starts pretty much as soon as the drilling rig mission becomes available, not when you repair the rig, so you need to start prepping much much sooner.
Misakihime  [developer] 16 Oct, 2024 @ 7:20am 
Love your guide, we all needed it!
Thank you for your support

I need to warn you that this mission is going to be rebalanced soon >,>
Dracosh 11 Sep, 2024 @ 4:15am 
I stored all resources on the surface near flight control center, 40 big boxes, 2 per each resource. (It's not enough, tho), and i use single belt to FCC and then one belt that brings leftovers back to storage area, so when i need to get rid of big amount of resources, i'm taking few contracts with that resource and open storage. it will automatically fill all the contracts and after that i close the storage so all resources comes back. I really love this system, it's simple, it scalable, and it allows to use same method to sort resources from trucks, or send resources to Expedition center or light or heavy vehicles production, because you can use splitters to direct resource flow where you need that.
3108875353 10 Sep, 2024 @ 8:36pm 
有些建筑拆不掉啊
RinCat 8 Sep, 2024 @ 10:00am 
I hope the game gives a warning before that. I fixed the mobile drilling rig just after 1 year, and I do not have modular frames tech yet. And now I need to save Earth. :Vanillaex: