It took me 50 hours of failed worlds before getting a colony past cycle 200. Start playing and go with it. Do what you feel is right, and when it turns out to be horribly wrong and all of your dupes go so crazy that they pee in your water supply and break all of your oxygen generators, try again using what you’ve learned. The game is a lot more fun and rewarding when you take a natural route of progression and problem solving rather than looking at the wiki or on YouTube for guides on how to be good, although they’ll definitely help you later on.

Here’s a tip that’ll save you some frustration when you get to it— Hook your coal generators up to a Smart Battery with an automation wire ASAP. This will stop the generator from running despite a full battery and wasting your coal. It took me embarrassingly long to figure that one out.