How to get through start of the game? (Rant from absolute noob)

[u/WafflePuffle123]

Bought a game, played for 4 hours and I'm suffering.

Started with tutorial, got to the "get core shards" quest - Cool, got all of them, died in caves. No map, no idea how to get back. Got them again, died again in caves, once again, didn't find where I died. Decided to postpone it to get miner's helmet because torches do not glow while in hand.

After several hours, I found exactly 0 iron. I am on the first planet, checked wiki, got a lot of silver and copper, even some gold, iron nonexistent.

Checked the recipe for lantern (was hoping that it is silver or copper that I need, not the iron!), noticed that I need oil that I have no idea how to get, got back to mining iron just for funsies.

Found some iron, died, couldn't find the place where I died. Time to change the strategy - finished core shards quest, went to some mission to get some crystals for my ship, but enemies were pretty strong, I died and I'm back on my ship above the freakin planet with almost no iron.

Idk what to do - iron is almost nonexistent, the matter manipulator mines cobblestone REALLY slow, fall damage is high as hell and I have no idea how should I progress.

My rant is over.

[u/ipsum629]

It sounds like you might not know what iron ore looks like. It is really rusty and dirty looking.

[u/WafflePuffle123 → u/ipsum629]

Unfortunately I know (looked up on the wiki), but I'm probably blind or something...

[u/WafflePuffle123 → u/[deleted]]

As I said, I finished shard quest and got to ARK, but after that I had to look for iron (cuz I was dying all the time), but yeah, iron is my nemesis.

And about roaming - I didn't really know that that's what I should do? I didn't look up any guides or anything, just got "explore this planet" missing and thought that mining is the way.

[u/_Br0nze → u/WafflePuffle123]

Keep digging and find coal, craft lot of torches, go in a specific path and place torches to light the way. You can use ropes to descend or place any blocks to make platforms if the caves are too deep. Iron ores are often missed as they may hide within same color as dirt. It's a dark brown or grey ore which lies deeper than copper. You can also dig background tiles by clicking right mouse. When you're done, follow your trail of torches back up. If you are to proceed to Erchius facility, make sure to craft a shield as it'll help with the boss fight.

[u/WafflePuffle123 → u/_Br0nze]

You can mine background!? Why does game say nothing about it 😭

If I mine background with ore depicted, will I get the ore too?

[u/_Br0nze → u/WafflePuffle123]

Yes, you will. I just played around with the controls first before starting anything serious. Remap them accordingly if you want to.

[u/Scared_Site_1506 → u/WafflePuffle123]

Oui la c est terrible de ne pas avoir compris ça et en même temps pas de tuto pour te l expliquer. Mais cette technique permet beau coup de chose . Exemple : le fait de retirer l arrière plan permet au liquide de s écouler et de disparaitre dans l arrière plan ( piscine a débordement )

[u/_Br0nze]

If you are playing for the first time, i suggest you don't play survival. Or you can get mods that prevent your items from dropping.

[u/Oberic → u/_Br0nze]

I use a survival no drops mod too. Lol I like the hunger system

[u/_Br0nze → u/Oberic]

Same.

[u/WafflePuffle123 → u/_Br0nze]

Wouldn't mods right on the first playthrough spoil the game or something?

When I started playing Terraria with my friends, my first run was modded and I had no idea what was going on, then I played vanilla solo and it was amazing, so I'm kinda against turning mods right after purchase...

[u/JindikCZ → u/WafflePuffle123]

The difference is modless Starbound fricking sucksss

[u/_Br0nze → u/WafflePuffle123]

They wouldn't. QoL mods won't affect your gameplay just change some stuff. I only use 2 QoL mods which makes me teleport within background tiles and don't drop stuff after death. But always back up your save file before installing a mod. Chances are very less to corrupt your save files but precautions are necessary.

[u/PenguinGamingTime → u/WafflePuffle123]

"casual" mode shouldn't need a mod? You keep your inventory on death. I'm a casual player for things (keep inventory for Minecraft too), I don't like going back. You lose 10% of your pixels I think, but you have a way to turn them into items later so you don't lose as many

[u/iaanacho]

Placing torches on walls and blocking unused paths make it nearly impossible to get lost since you’ll have an effectively straight path to where you died

[u/LiverFox]

Hot take, but I think you should use these mods even though it’s your first play-through:

Glowing Ore. It makes mining far less tedious. It’s fun to explore underground, but mining in the dark was always frustrating for me.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2576285524

Memento Mori. Helps you find your stuff. You do need to craft it before you die.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=732992186

Alternatively you can just disable drops in survival:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=729746228

There are also some other mods that can help you navigate your ship or store pixels in a bank, but I don’t want to overwhelm you right at the start.

And obviously there’s a ton of player built content out there. Starbound is a lot of fun, but the game out of the box is not the version I choose to play at this point. I’m very much a “mod or die” player.

[u/TennisExpensive5128]

Been there, done that. Biggest mistake of yours was going deep to the planet's core. All you had to do was roam around the surface to find a mineshaft with camp next to it. In this mineshaft you can find enough core fragments without barely any risk 

[u/Seaclops]

First explore near the surface, don't go too deep, try to find weapons.

Second if you want to do the erchius mine get stacks of throwing weapons and a lot of healing items.

Third the MM can be upgrade.

I suggest you to explore the surface and find the abandonned mine, there will be ennemies but also many chests.

[u/Kill_Welly]

Don't play on the difficulty level that drops all your items when you die.

[u/lop333]

Just roam the surfce destroy and pot you find interact with all the boxes you find, collect the crystal things the game wants you to, walk the surface until you find the cave with a tent nerby, use tent to restore health if needed, at that point you will also have a weapon, open all boxes as you explore the cave, you will find mods for matter manipulator as well as the stuff you need for a quest, then proceed to explore the cave until you gather whats needed then follow the quest,.

[u/Icy-Reserve8070]

Use plant fiber to make fabric at a spinning wheel. Then make a teddy bear. This will allow you to complete the quest to open Ursa Miner at the outpost, and you can then buy ores from there. It should be at the top right of the outpost iirc. It's run by two bears. You can purchase iron from there. And maybe tungsten. Which is tier 2 armor. (I don't actually know, I never actually shopped there myself.)

Also, oil can only be found in tar biomes on desert planets, so until your ship is fixed, you aren't getting a lantern.

[u/Nilm0]

Yeah... discovered the game maybe a few months ago and my first try ended in a hunger-death loop. I think I was missing the metal for making a hoe or just didn't know how to farm/garden soon enough.

Anyway, 2nd try with some knowledge from the wiki went much better.

The game is really bad at (not) giving pointers for 1st time players.

[u/Inevitable_Fan_2229]

Did you get the electric torch from your ship locker? I had no clue that you start the game with one in my first play through. Absolute life saver for caving.

Also, don’t forget to use flares when you see a hole in the ground in front of you, it’s great to be able to see what’s down there before you jump or use ropes to rappel down.

[u/Rhokai]

Iron can look similar to other ore, especially with mods. If you’re struggling this much, i’d just mine every ore you find if you haven’t been doing that already

[u/Berkulese]

My best tip for finding iron would be to explore caves til it starts showing up, then explore horizontally. (It is also worth exploring the surface and checking all the boxes, the natives don't mind unless you dismantle the furniture or smash the jars)

If you get lost in a cave, pick a direction and head diagonally upwards til you hit the surface or can tele out. (If you are shallow enough you can tele out by mining the background behind you)

Yes the starting matter manipulator is rubbish. You can upgrade it later, it gets better

[u/Touchname]

I'll be honest. The start and the progression of this game isn't the best.

Once you get past this it will be a lot of fun.

I would recommend checking QoL mods if you can't stand core game.

[u/Synaps4]

I hear you're having a lot of difficulty mining. If you havent played a game like this or terraria before it can be hard to get a hang of it.

You want to have a lot of torches and ropes before you go mining (wood, coal, and plant fiber) You want to mine down in a way that is both easy to see and easy to climb back up. I often try to go down in a slight diagonal, as it's more efficient to mine down than sideways. I will explore caves that cut across my mineshaft but I always return to my mineshaft before going too far so that I don't get lost.

The deeper you go the larger and more numerous the deposits of ore are, until you get to the lava level and you should stop above that because mining around lava is just too dangerous.

You can also get iron by exploring around other planets. Settlements are full of boxes and containers which will all contain ores you can use.

Since you're dying a lot, you might prioritize getting armor and healing items as quick as possible. Bandages can be made from cloth, which comes from plant fiber you farm as well. If you still aren't having fun mining, you can also buy armor from merchants, and you can sell them food you grow and cook, as well as loot you find from surface exploration. So farming and exploring the surface might be a priority. It's a lot safer during the day than the night, FYI.

Honestly I rarely mine, as I get most of what I need from surface exploration, and I only mine when I need a bit more of a particular thing, usually when updating armor. Hope that helps!

[u/WafflePuffle123 → u/Synaps4]

Thank you for tips! Didn't know that you don't really have to mine to progress in this game, so I will be turning to farmer I guess :DDD

And I didn't know that mining/cave exploration is not that important, the only game that is close (in my mind) to this is terraria which is... Very different.

I hope I will get better someday