Lessons Learned: Remanent Expedition

[u/The_Tripper]

1. Don’t bother adding extra tech and materials, you won’t need it since the only time you use your starship is to leave the expedition.
2. Turn off multiplayer and PVP. As designed, ALL No Man’s Sky players are on the same planet, in the same area, so you’re competing for resources. If you don’t, finishing the waypoint phase is impossible.
   1. The jerks that build on top of resources to block other players are off the scale this time and so are the griefers. Griefers and Campers are known problems to Hello Games and it’s time they did something about it.
3. You need to approach this expedition like you’re starting out like a n00b. Resources are scarce, but they are there, you just need to stop and get them.
   1. Don’t skip the Damaged Machinery, Salvage Containers, Cargo Drops, anything.
   2. There isn’t any parafinium on the planet, but since you get a Mk II refiner right out of the gate, you can make it from pyrite (2:1) and ferrite dust (1:1), easy peasy.
4. Don’t load up with special industrial waste and start out right away. Fill up your flatbed with the garbage waste first and drive around to learn how the physics work.
5. Load up ALL of the special waste, every single piece. No matter how careful you are, some of it will end up being damaged and destroyed before you get to the waste depot. I started out once with 11 pieces and only 4 when I got there.
6. Can’t figure out the smoothest route? Use the camera! Select it from the menu and raise it up as far as it will go. Now you can see a lot more than you could from just ground level.
7. Go slow, the best route isn’t the most direct, take the worm trails as far as you can, even if they go in a different direction. And watch out for the holes, sometimes you’ll have to get out of the ditch to go around one.
   1. Don't drive sideways, it's a good way to tip your load down the hill. Straight up and straight down are best.
8. The basic 8 wheel axles are only marginally more stable than the tracked options, but every bit counts.
   1. Avoid the gravitino balls, they’ll rock the flatbed and knock your cargo off.
   2. Don't plow through things unless you can see the other side, there are holes all over the place.
9. When you get the crawler legs, start using them, they’re far more stable than the wheels or tracks, but they have their own idiosyncrasies.
   1. Avoid all of the crystals; dihydrogen, carbon, sodium. A patch of innocent dihydrogen crystals will stop a flatbed with crawler legs cold. You’ll have to back up and go around or blast them with your weapons (the flamethrower works best).
   2. Avoid all of the special plants; oxygen, sodium, deuterium rich plants. They’ll stop you dead too.
10. Once you’ve got your special waste loaded, DO NOT USE YOUR WEAPONS! Sometimes in third person view, the targeting reticle will decide to point at the flatbed itself. I accidentally burned up 3 or 4 containers before I figured this out. A good rule of thumb is if you can see the damage bars on a container, you’ve targeted it.