Just like most strategy games, Surviving Mars has a sizable learning curve for its players to get used to. During the course of the game, players will be stuck on Mars as they attempt to settle the planet and keep their colonists from dying in this hostile environment. Preventing a colony from completing failing though is by no means an easy feat for players to accomplish.

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The biggest difficulty for players to overcome is the fact that Surviving Mars has a large number of moving parts, and even its in-depth tutorial is incapable of covering everything that is going on. In order to succeed players must manage all of these different mechanics, and also develop some specific strategies for their colony depending on where they are located or what is currently happening. Beginner players for sure though are going to need all of the help that they can get, so this guide shows players some tips for keeping their colonies alive.

Surviving Mars: Tips For Keeping A Colony Alive

surviving mars cover art

Play Tutorial and Avoid Easy Start

Even players who have a lot of experience with similar strategy titles should not skip the tutorial before jumping into a real game. This tutorial shows the player everything from the basics of how to set up a colony on Mars to more complicated mechanics like managing the happiness and health of colonists. Those who just jump right in without checking out the tutorial first will more than likely find themselves incredibly lost. Players should also avoid using the Easy Start mechanic as this basically just randomizes everything about the start, which in all actuality can make things much more difficult. Things are much easier in the long run if the player hand selects everything about where they will start out.

Explore The Area Before Setting Up Shop

Another great thing for the player to remember before landing their very first rocket on Mars is that they aren't locked into the area that the game chooses for them. After selecting the main region that they want to start out in the game will then randomly select a spot within this for the rocket to land in. The player can actually survey the region and then select where they would rather the rocket land instead. There are times where the first starting spot won't have easy access to any resource deposits, so by manipulating this the player can gather some more important resources early on in the game.

Look Out For Hazards

Probably the biggest threat to survival on Mars is all of the different hazards that threaten to wipe out all of the colonists who decided to live there. There are several environmental hazards that the player needs to have an eye out for or risk losing their entire colony before they have even truly begun playing. Sand Storms, for example, will almost completely block out the sun in the area and shut down several different buildings. The biggest issue though is that solar panels will find it more difficult to create power. Meteor Strikes on the other hand occur fairly regularly and can destroy buildings if they come in contact with them. With these hazards, the player will just need to prepare themselves for their arrival and hope that they survive.

Surviving Mars Farms and Buildings

Important Buildings Should Be Separated

This ties back into the issues with hazards in the game because if a meteor hits an area it can wipe out an entire group of buildings if the player isn't careful. This can be a huge issue if this area contained all of the buildings that generate power or water for the player's colony, and then the entire supply chain gets shut down at once. To avoid a huge problem like this the player should instead keep their important buildings separate from each other to avoid everything going down simultaneously. Doing so ensures that there is always a backup and the player won't lose everything at once. to a single hazard.

Keep Buildings Fully Staffed

A great tip for keeping things as efficient as possible is to make sure that all of the buildings are at full capacity before constructing more. Trying to add more resource-producing buildings to the colony when others are at half capacity just means that the new building won't have anyone to work it. Before adding new buildings the player should take a look at their colony to determine why they aren't operating at full capacity. Maybe the planet needs more colonists on it or maybe the buildings themselves need more specialize workers to fill their positions. Either way, the player should solve these issues before adding new buildings.

Avoid Connecting Far Away Bases Together

As the player expands their influence across Mars they will need to construct several different bases in order to acquire more resources and keep their colonists satisfied. The issue with this though is that it can be a little frustrating to move away from a current base to start up a new one all over again, so many players may try to cut down on their work and just generate extra resources and connect their old base to the new one using pipes and cables. Doing so is a recipe for disaster though because inevitably these constructions will break down and the new base will be cut off from these important resources. Avoid this hassle and just create new buildings to add resources to the new base.

Surviving Mars Farm Watering

Gear Gameplay Style to Sponsor and Commander Profile

A really important thing for players to do is gear their playstyle to the sponsor and commander profile that they chose at the beginning of the game. The thing to keep in mind with sponsors is that depending on which one the player chooses the difficulty of the game will change radically. For example, the International Mars Mission group will make things much easier on the player because they won't have to worry about colonists becoming homesick, and fuel will rarely be an issue. Working with a group like Russia will make things vastly more difficult. Commander profiles however affect the kinds of technology that the player starts with and is proficient with. Players should make these decisions based on what they wish to focus on.

Increase Funding To Help Expand

One of the biggest barriers to expanding the Mars base considerably is the amount of money that the player currently has in their bank. Money can be used to purchase buildings to help the player keep their colony alive for a longer period of time. Players can actually earn cash from their sponsor by doing some special things in the game. There are actually two different technologies that the player can research repeatedly if they want to earn money quickly and easily. These are the Martian Patents and Martian Copyrights technologies, which will both grant the player more money from their sponsor. Additionally, if the player finds that they have a surplus of rare items they can actually export them back home to their sponsor to earn some cash as well.

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Surviving Mars can be played on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC.