Choosing Your First Credit Path
After First Contact, credits become the fuel for expansion. You have four early approaches, and each teaches a different skill. Manual Biology is open immediately. Harvesting and Contracts appear after you repair the Pressure Sensor. Automated Biology becomes practical after your starter Oxygen Generator reaches 1 ppt oxygen and unlocks Auto Feeders.
Manual Biology: easiest first payout
Section titled “Manual Biology: easiest first payout”Your 2,500 starting credits cover a Solar Generator, Battery, and Oxygen Generator, with credits left for starter reagents. Use the Biology workbench buttons to collect a specimen, analyze it, load its revealed reagents, extract the sample, and deliver it. No code is required. This makes the workflow easy to learn, but the repeated actions become slow after the first few orders.
Harvesting: first machine automation
Section titled “Harvesting: first machine automation”A basic Harvester script can sweep the grid, collect what is present, store it, and sell from Inventory. It must account for heat and the one held-item slot, but it does not need pathfinding or an optimized route to work. This is the most direct first automation project for players who like visible machine behavior.
Contracts: contained programming puzzles
Section titled “Contracts: contained programming puzzles”Contracts are not production machines. They read data, compute an answer, and transmit it to Earth. They involve little machine API state and failed answers are safe to retry, but their loops, collections, and abstract reasoning may feel easier or harder than Harvesting depending on the player.
Automated Biology: advanced early project
Section titled “Automated Biology: advanced early project”After Auto Feeders unlock, Biology changes from one manual workbench flow into three cooperating machine scripts. The Bio Collector, Bio Lab, and Bio Exchange each own their actions. Reliable automation must coordinate order progress, reagent staging, item ports, completed output, and whatever specimen or reagent state remains after a script stops.
Choosing well
Section titled “Choosing well”Start with manual Biology if you want the simplest first payout. Choose Harvesting for visible automation or Contracts for a focused logic problem. Automate the full Biology chain when you want a more advanced multi-machine project. All four approaches remain valid ways to earn early credits.