How to have the best place in outer space
Spacebase Startopia is a brilliant game, but like anything worth getting invested in, it takes time to learn. Well, worry not, lazy learners, because I’ve got some quick tips to get you up and running faster than you can say “Commander, another visitor has died.”
1. Clean, clean, clean (and clean some more!)
Keeping your space station spick and span is the single most important thing you can do to keep your guests happy. If you let the garbage build up on the ground, you’ll get vermin and then you’ll get disease and then you’ll get annoyed when your resort is taken over by the pesky little bugs.
Keep things clean by getting at least a couple of Recycling rooms built, as well as garbage bots. A good rule of thumb is four garbage bots per bulkhead section. They might not look great, but you can hide them away with some nice decorations.
Garbage bots will be filled by your Fuzzy worker bots and then they’ll automatically empty in the Recycling place when they’re full.
Don’t forget that you are the single best cleaner in space. Press and hold X (or A on Xbox) and you’ll be hoovering up everything on the ground. Once you’ve cleared the crap off the decks, head to the Recycling units and drop your rubbish off to be recycled for precious Energy. Don’t forget to build more cleaner bots, too! This brings me to…
2. Build Fuzzy robot workers, lots of them!
Everything that needs to be built, repaired or moved around need a pair of Fuzzy robot hands. You start off with a modest amount of robot workers but you can expand the workforce, but first, you’ll need a Factory.
Once you’ve unlocked a factory, you can start producing Fuzzy CRATES, among other things. You’ll need a few key resources first, mind you, like Plastic and Circuit boards, so make sure you’ve got the required resources to build your bots. My tip is to build at least a couple of factories – one to produce resources like Circuit Boards and Plastic, and another to produce your Fuzzys and other CRATES.
But how do you use CRATES in Spacebase Startopia? Good question, and one I asked myself for a long time.
Once you have produced a Fuzzy CRATE (or any crate, for that matter) hold it in your inventory (bottom of the screen) and then deploy it. Once the CRATE is on the ground, press the square button and then the cross button and voila, you’ll have opened your crate. If you’ve deployed a Fuzzy, you can press the square button on the Fuzzy to bring up their information and set them to specific tasks. Make sure you have a decent cleaning squad, especially once you’ve expanded your base to allow hundreds of guests.
3. Research
Research is essential to levelling up your rooms and units. Without researching and levelling up your rooms and units, you’ll fall behind in the late game stages. Unlock your Research Lab as soon as possible and make sure you’ve got a Cargo Hold full of CRATES for each room and your Fuzzys. So long as there is stock in the Cargo Hold, you’ll be able to research automatically as CRATES teleport from the Cargo Hold to the Research Lab (and the Factory, too.)
The first thing you will want to upgrade is your Fuzzy workers. Get these levelled up and you’ll have a supreme squad of speedy workers keeping the decks clean of clutter and building new rooms at record speed.
4. Clean air is good air
What makes aliens sick in Spacebase Startopia? Bad air and filth, but we’ve already covered filth in entry #1, so we’ll sort out your minging air here in #4.
Atmosphere Filters clean up the dirty air – and the air can get really, really bad in Spacebase Startopia. Put at least a couple of these in each bulkhead section, especially where you have Factories and Recycling taking place. Also, consider potting some plants around to increase the nice air and to please guests with some nice nature. All you need to do is pop up to the Bio Deck, snip a couple of plants, and then plant them in pots around your resort. Simple but effective.
5. Clean up Toxic Waste!
Toxic Waste is an unfortunate by-product that makes aliens sick, so it’s in your best interest to get rid of it, and safely. It’s not like regular garbage that can be thrown in the Recycling Station – if you do that, you’ll break your Recycling Station and piss your employees off.
Instead, you need to make it safe before you can throw it in the Recycling Station. To do this, you need a Factory and energy to spend. It’s as simple as having the Toxic Waste stored in your Cargo Hold and then selecting “Safe Toxic Waste” in the Factory build options. The Factory will warp over your Toxic Waste and then turn it into CRATES that can be safely discarded in the Recycling Centre. If you don’t do this, you’ll end up with glowing aliens, which look cool but have a tendency to die all over your resort. Not the look anybody is going for. At least not in space…
6. Look after your employees
Fuzzy robot workers may be the backbone of your operation, cleaning, building, and repairing, but your employees are just as important, because, without them, you don’t have staff to run your attractions or facilities.
When you see an employee glowing yellow, select them and chances are that you’ll be able to promote them. Promotions increase staff dedication, meaning they’ll be less likely to jump ship when things are going bad.
And there are your six tips – free of charge, I might add – to help you get going in Spacebase Startopia. If you haven’t already read our review, go ahead and give it a read or watch the video down below.
