When out on an adventure sometimes you just get lost. That is often when the most fun happens in a game. At the very least I would end up taking steps in the end to ensure this kind of thing would happen less.

It was time to head up north through what felt like a desert. There was another shipwreck I wanted to check out. This one had quite a few interesting things to loot in it. Including some plant seeds, food, and fabric.

As I had before there was a small habitat set up outside of the wreck for me to recover oxygen in. I only placed down a couple of boxes to store items in since I was not planning to do a lot of looting in the area.

Some of these wrecks I'd end up exploring would end up being so huge I kind of needed a system to explore around them. Otherwise, it could become easy to get lost. I decided to just keep taking the first left turn I would see in any space I was exploring. At least till that was no longer an option.

While this wreck was not so massive I needed a system of how to go about exploring it. It sure made it easy. Thankfully this one was not so bad that I did not worry about getting lost. Naturally, I brought along one extra water, food, and oxygen tank just in case I encountered any issues in trying to find my way out to take shelter in the nearby habitat I had set up.

It’s funny looking back to what used to be my starter base. Down in what I thought was a valley at the time. It was such a humble start and one that would not last forever. It was the first decently flat piece of land I had found and never went far enough to find better.

It also became clear to me that at some point I'd have to relocate. Between all the rocks I had built the area was not as big as I'd need. However, the expansion elsewhere I wanted to do would require a lot of materials to carry it out.

For the time being, I expanded my base to a couple more rooms. Right down the middle of it, I put a bunch of storage containers. I would more than end up doubling the storage capacity of this place and would still feel it was never enough in a short amount of time.

The nice thing at least is each container can label it. This was not a feature I ended up taking advantage of during the early days. My storage system was small and fluid enough that I kind of preferred to not limit anything by putting a label on a storage container.

Anytime my starter base would feel cramped. I’d just keep adding to it. It felt like an almost never-ending task. At one point I was a bit overwhelmed by how ugly looking it was starting to become. I would just tell myself at some point I'd need to build a new base and then I'd put some focus on making it look nice. For now, it was all about just survival and anything that did not increase my survival rate was not mission critical.

Later on, I ended up unlocking an upgrade to the basic storage chests. The lockers on the left could hold a fair bit more. I also decided then it was time to try and tame the madness of my storage solution. It was time to start naming things like ice, iron, and cobalt.

More times than not I hated I felt like I had to be inside the base doing work. I wanted to be out exploring. Sure, anytime I was not building more machines to increase the rate I was terraforming the planet. The longer that process would take. I however have a bit of an exploration desire.

One thing I was not doing well enough and I'd soon find out the hard way was paying enough attention to where I was going on my exploration trips. I had thought I had enough landmarks around me to get back to where my base was. I never considered that the mountain terrain around me would end up blocking the landmarks I was using as navigation.

I ended up finding a few more wrecks around the place. It was perhaps a good thing by this point that I got used to finding the iron, titanium, and silicon needed to build myself a little habitat while on the go.

This ended up being a good thing to know as I ended up getting turned around, lost, and in a valley. I was no longer sure where my base was. There were also no landmarks that I could make out due to the cliff sides around me blocking everything. So, I just wandered around looting what I could.

I just ended up looting out of the wrecks I found anything I consider to be high value. From non-standard resources to food or water. It seemed like I was finding more than enough water to keep my exploration adventure going.

I even found a few data chips that I could turn in for new blueprints. These always made me a bit excited when I found one. As I had no clue what wonderful new thing, I'd be able to build. For a while now I was hoping to increase my power output or a higher tier of a machine, I was using to terraform the planet with.

In my travels, I ended up stumbling along this location. These striations poking out out of the sand were quite a sight to see. The harsh red backdrop and howling winds made this area feel quite evil. Like death was looking down on me I would begin to question a little bit if I'd ever find my way home again.

At one point I was considering just setting up a new base. The lands were becoming quite littered with my little habitats all around the place. They at least were like a beacon to trying to work out where I had or not been yet.

There were also a couple of close calls. More times than not I'd be a single iron short of putting up my habitat for shelter. The oxygen bar would have just run out and I'd see glaring back at me the last iron I needed. I’d dart toward that iron as if my life depended on it. After mining it I'd barely get up my habitat in time and get inside. I’d then allow myself to relax a little bit while waiting for my oxygen bar to be fully restored.

After far too much walking around, I could see the hill with the wreck on the top of it from the distance. I knew from there down into a valley would be my base. I ended up making a full-speed run for it barely having enough oxygen by the time I stepped foot into my base once again.

Final Thoughts

Not a moment too soon enough. As I got to see the terraforming change from blue key to rain had just occurred. The next stage was liquid water for the planet. Water would end up causing me quite some massive issues shortly. For now, I was just thrilled at the prospect of it.

I had also unlocked a blueprint to put up a beacon for where my current base is. There were even a couple of different colors to choose from if I needed to mark out any other locations. The beacon would ensure I always knew where my base was no matter where I'd end up on the planet. While there would still be moments that I'd be lost I could now always find my way home.

Information

Screenshots were taken and content was written by @Enjar about Planet Crafter.

Disclosure. A review copy of the game was received for free.