A Survivor's Guide to Star Ores Inc. (And All Its Clunky Secrets)

This game is a clunky, addictive, German-engineered mess. I love it.

So, you've bought a derelict asteroid. It's full of boulders, weird invasive mold, and the ghosts of a previous, smarter mining operation that took all their good equipment. Your job is to clear it, mine it, and build a factory to get rich, all while uncovering the mystery of why they left (which you can learn more about in "The Book" DLC).

It sounds simple. It is not simple.

This game has a ton of hidden mechanics, weird design choices, and outright traps that will make you want to pull your hair out. I've already been through that pain, so listen up. Here's how you survive.

The How-To: Not Going Insane in Your Asteroid

Your Laser and Your Brain (Stat Points)

First, your laser. You don't need to hold the mouse button down to mine. Aim at a rock, click once, and it'll auto-fire until the thing is gone. When you're blasting the big boulders, watch for holes that flash with a red circle. Hitting those is a critical hit that does extra damage.

Your vacuum has two modes: "all" and "single." "Single" is for snagging one specific ore without hoovering up the entire room.

Now, the most important part: stats. When you level up, you'll get points. DO NOT waste them on "Eager Learner" or "Luck." They are, and I say this with love, completely fucking useless. You get plenty of XP, and drills make "Luck" irrelevant.

You need to pour every point you get into three stats: Increased Signal Strength (get it to +8), Laser Efficiency (get it to +3), and D64 Capacity (get it to +2). Trust me.

The Confusing-as-Hell Network

This broke my brain for an hour. The logistical network is how you automate everything. Here's the secret:

• The ROUND antenna is the TRANSMITTER.

• The RECTANGULAR antenna is the RECEIVER.

You must always start the connection at a round transmitter and end it at a rectangular receiver. Lines can pass through stairs and over most decorations, but they're blocked by walls, doors, and other machines.

Oh, and you can't connect to the back of an antenna, so you may have to rotate a machine to get it to link up.

Factory Machines (Drills, Smelters, Forges)

This is your bread and butter. Each new drill, smelter, or forge you build costs more than the last one.

Drills:

• They must be placed on an ore deposit, but it can be a dead one.

• You'll need the "Deep Drill" upgrade to mine those dead nodes.

• Drills have NO RECEIVER antenna. You can't send anything to a drill.

• Drills run automatically and can't be turned off... unless you connect their output to a network that's full. If a drill is connected to a smelter that's full of ore, the drill will sense this and stop working, saving you from a floor full of items.

Smelters (Melt-o-Tron) & Forges:

• Your life will be miserable until you get two specific upgrades on every single machine.

• 1. Auto-Eject. This stops you from having to run around manually pulling the finished ingot out.

• 2. Automated Production. This stops you from having to charge the damn solar panel every time it wants to make one item.

• Get these two upgrades, in this order, always.

• Pro-Tip: Don't just make cores. Your customers will still want raw ores and basic ingots even after you're an industrial god. Keep a variety in stock to get the cash bonus for filling a full order.

Storage and You

Storage cabinets are key. They earn TP when an item is automatically deposited, which you can use to upgrade their inventory size.

You can connect a storage cabinet to your network to act as a buffer. For example, a cabinet between your smelters and your core forge will soak up extra ingots, then feed them to the forge when it's ready.

BE WARNED: If you connect a storage cabinet directly to your main shop storage, it will instantly empty its entire contents into the shop. This can be useful, or it can be a logistical nightmare.

The Great Robot Fiasco (Erfi Bots)

You'll eventually find broken robots called "Erfi" (it's a German thing, don't ask). You repair them, and each new one costs more than the last. They can haul ore, sell stuff in your shop, or attack debris.

Here is the most important tip in this entire guide: DO NOT ASSIGN BOTS TO FEED YOUR MACHINES.

I am begging you. Their aim is terrible. As the dev guide hilariously points out (and I can confirm), they get stuck in a nightmare loop, throwing ore at the back of the machine, missing, picking up the same ore, throwing it again, and doing a stupid "YAY!" dance, all while your factory starves. It's called the "Erfi Toss Bug," and it's maddening.

Bot Management:

• Their upgrade trees are per-job. If you max out a bot's "Debris" skill tree and then change its job to "Collect," its skill tree resets.

• One bot in your shop is fine at the start. Once you hit ingots, assign a second one. Two is enough for most of the game.

• Bots, in their infinite wisdom, will refuse to feed any machine that's connected to the network, which is honestly a blessing.

A Final Tip for 100% Maniacs

The game has a story "ending" where you clear a final biomass ball by feeding it 20 cores.

Before you do that, make sure you've built all the statues and found all five crew logs. If you beat the game first, you're locked out of the achievements for them. The last two statues cost millions, so I wussed out and finished the game. But if you're a completionist, you've been warned.

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