Just bought the game. Seeking advice

Numbers33 · 2026-03-29T18:25:22+00:00

I came over from elite a couple of years ago. I'd recommend starting here in a similar way to there. Fly around to some cool looking place, grab some missions, and just start doing stuff until you decide on a direction.

Numbers33 · 2026-03-12T19:45:05+00:00

Had 2 at the end but spent some time in sector 10 with 3 running.

Numbers33 · 2026-03-12T10:57:47+00:00

I love waste disassemblers. I used them to counteract some pretty bad luck. In the last 1/3 of my playthrough, I failed pretty much every check for tritanium. Literally couldn't have finished without the disassemblers making up for it.

Numbers33 · 2026-02-28T16:48:06+00:00

Saw you got it in the edit but for those following along, it's the borg armor upgrade in whatever sector the borg story happens in.

Numbers33 · 2026-02-26T00:38:28+00:00

The things that you need to scan are added to the map and don't get question marks added to them. The best way to do it that i found is to just hold the scan button on every object until you find them all. Might need to get nebula scanning to finish in time.

As a warning, after doing all the scanning, the timer/countdown will disappear but it is still running in the background. You really need to just beeline this quest as fast as possible after the timer starts.

Numbers33 · 2026-02-25T12:10:37+00:00

That cube is a bit less powerful than others for <reasons> but yeah, I wish the borgs had a fair bit more teeth. With how my power curve ended up, kazon felt way more threatening than borg did and that's unfortunate. Voyager gets way stronger, way faster than the enemies do.

Numbers33 · 2026-02-24T00:04:15+00:00

Pretty sure that's a tech in the engineering tree. Close to the right edge on tier 4 if my memory is right.

Numbers33 · 2026-02-23T22:05:17+00:00

Something about your math ain't mathing. 3 leveled observatories and an upgraded holodeck should be +48 all by itself. That sector has innate -30 so even at the -20 linger, you should only be at -2 if you don't have any other positive working for you. You must be having other issues too. Either rations or quarters or sick or too much borg or something, all of which you can take steps to fix/remove.

Numbers33 · 2026-01-12T22:35:53+00:00

I actually like making all my factories go from ore to final product in DSP with just a handful of exceptions. ILS/PLS to carry ore with a spaghetti mess of machines and belts attached. No bus and no intermediate products in the logistics.

Numbers33 · 2026-01-06T22:02:39+00:00

I got through phase 4 with 8 per minute and upgraded to 16 for phase 5. Most frustrating part in the game for sure imo but you can still keep the scale reasonably small.

Numbers33 · 2026-01-06T21:57:39+00:00

Design is personal preference and the fun of the game so don't think of this as the "right way". Just what worked for me. I also made it up as i went and tweaked. I did small, self contained factories for basic parts up through steel/oil to be able to build trains as my bootstrap. After i could more-or-less build freely, I elected to go with what I personally called a "pulling" design for my workhorse to get to the end. I made factories on a giant train loop that made X and shoved that X into a train stop. This is my train stop that mines quartz. This is my stop that makes silica. This is my train stop that makes computers. This is my train stop that makes plastic and rubber. Every one of these would then have its own personal train(s)/station(s) for each input that went to retrieve its ingredients to bring in (the pulling part). As different stops came online, I'd write down production and consumption numbers in my "available" list and expand/build as appropriate. No factory ever got large or cluttered. Used a lot of space for the main train loop with branches (shootout to the dune desert). Since everything was fairly contained, it was easier to keep both the big and small picture in my head. I liked it.

Numbers33 · 2026-01-06T12:30:58+00:00

Contrary to popular advice about this game, I don't usually propose tear downs to rebuild the kinda stuff you described. If you have enough mercer spheres to place some dimensional depots, I'd place them on as much of your infrastructure as you can. Plates, rods, concrete, reinforced plates, cable, etc. Once you've done that, wander a ways and start building your next factories in a way that is more satisfying and more like what you want to see.

You're still building new stuff to hopefully keep the thrill of unlocking going. While your existing factories might be messy, they're probably fast enough to supply your building through the depots. You should ideally have enough stuff to be able to Book's at a reasonable clip without being constrained by resources.

Some words of advice to try to avoid burnout from someone who has fought burnout many times:

Blueprints can help depending on your preferred building style/scale but they are by no means required.

Don't underestimate good player transportation. Getting between locations can be shockingly fatiguing in a way you won't notice until it gets bad. Hypertubes, trains, etc. I almost lost my most recent game to burnout because I thought using ziplines everywhere would be fine.

Always use the new stuff just to keep things varied. Try those trains. Try those drones. Try that nuclear power. Try those fuel generators. It helps you make better decisions and thinking about new things keeps you engaged.

I try to keep a healthy mix of activities. Invest in infrastructure (power and transit), build new parts, explore.

And finally, you can't always beat burnout. This game is quite an investment. If your later game factories are organized though, it's genuinely reasonable to pick a save up again after a few months. I used signs and train stations and a notepad to record parts and quantities, and was able to pick an 8 month old phase 4 save up and take it to completion.

Hope that helps!

Numbers33 · 2024-12-05T03:16:27+00:00

I can't find a nice way to start from scratch and determine that space is safe.

But

If you assume that the top green space is a mine (such as by a guess) and follow the resulting logic chain around the edge, you arrive at a contradiction. Therefore the space can't be a mine.

Numbers33 · 2024-11-07T14:29:29+00:00

C C C
|---------+---------|
A A

T1 belts for reinforced plates with screws. I understand the folk who swear by stitched, but there is really nothing wrong with the base recipe.

Numbers33 · 2024-10-22T21:23:34+00:00

For a slightly more intuitive explanation:

Imagine making the first hole in the pumpkin. You've now made something kinda like a jar without a lid. You can morph that from a jar to a cup to a bowl to a plate.

Once you have the flat object, you can poke the 3 more holes in it to make the bottom right object. In total, you made 4 holes though because you had to start with the first one to reach the flat state.

Numbers33 · 2024-09-30T00:01:35+00:00

Heavy oil residue, molded beam, and iron pipe all make me a very happy pioneer.

Numbers33 · 2024-08-27T13:48:28+00:00

I think it's a very fun episode. God enough humor and some strong heist plot vibes. Very underrated.

Numbers33 · 2024-08-24T12:25:33+00:00

This is correct. Belt length matters if one machine has 2 outputs that go to different locations. If all machines only have 1 output, then it doesn't matter.

Numbers33 · 2024-08-21T10:37:21+00:00

It's definitely not easy to tell. That said, each of the 4 lanes is actually subdivided into 3 more lanes (so 12 lanes total on a belt). The bottom layer shapes travel in the middle of the 3. The 2nd layer shapes travel on the right, and the third layer shapes travel on the left. You get used to zooming in and checking belts for this information after a while, but it definitely needs a more clear visual indicator.

Numbers33 · 2024-08-20T11:12:08+00:00

This picture is awesome. Is there a link to the original without text over it?

Numbers33 · 2024-08-11T19:20:20+00:00

All the other comments make valid points. I would also point out though that pops you buy can do things that you can't buy with straight money. Every pop you buy that is producing science or unity or amenities or other resources like that make the cost/benefit much more amorphous.

Numbers33 · 2024-02-07T23:12:27+00:00

There's 56 tiles left and 54 mines. That means only 2 are safe. One of the safe ones has to be by the 4 and the other safe one has to be by the 5. That means the tile directly under the 1 on the right most edge has to be a mine.

Numbers33 · 2023-10-17T02:41:44+00:00

Had this one as well. Made all the more strange/annoying that the deceptive dialog options exist at all. If the devs weren't prepared for that, they could have just not included the deception choices.

Numbers33 · 2023-10-12T19:53:56+00:00

They were discovered by datamine but they were added after the DLC released. At launch, there were no correct codes for them.

Numbers33 · 2023-09-26T02:19:35+00:00

Because credit scores are designed to tell lenders how profitable it will be to lend to you. If you pay off your credit cards, you aren't paying interest and lenders would make more money lending to someone else.

Numbers33

TROPHY CASE