The Alters: Tips and tricks
Out beginner's guide for The Alters will help you understand the survival mechanics and other main gameplay objectives. Hints from our guide include managing your base and created alters, exploring the planet, avoiding threats or managing your free time.
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How to survive on an alien planet in The Alters? Our starting tips can help you in preparing for this challenging adventure. The tips cover various topics such as the base and its supplies, creating alters and giving them commands, exploring the surface of the planet, or avoiding radiation and other potential threats.
- Manage your available time wisely
- Make sure you have a constant supply of raw materials and important consumables
- Do not wait with creating more alters
- Explore each map carefully
- Use the free fast travel
- Do not underestimate radiation and protect yourself from it
- Repeat the day in case of serious problems
- Build a refinery, laboratory, bedroom, and infirmary
- Use the Uphold Production option
Manage your available time wisely
- In The Alters, time flows quite quickly and you can easily waste it (along with some of the supplies you have). The main character should be busy exploring the area and building new structures - new base rooms and mining outposts on the surface of the planet. In the evening hours, meet with the alters, and then go to rest to have the strength the next day.
- Your alters should have some regular activities during the day, e.g. working in a research laboratory or at a mining outpost. Try to assign them tasks related to their specialization (e.g. refiner working in a refinery), and also send them to urgent duties (e.g. shortage of food supplies).
You can find more advice on time management on the pages Day schedule and Can you stop the passage of time?.
Make sure you have a constant supply of raw materials and important consumables
- You should always keep an eye on the state of your supplies. Some consumables are very important - radiation filters will provide protection against radiation, mush is a basic source of food, and repair kits will help you deal with sudden malfunctions.
- We advise to establish Mining Outposts for all main resources as soon as possible and use them (as Jan or one of his alters) when the stock level of a given material is low. Do not rely solely on shallow deposits, as they can quickly become depleted.
We described the process of finding deep deposits and setting up the first Mining Outpost on the page How to use the scanner?.
Do not wait with creating more alters
- The first two alters that you will unlock in the main storyline are Technician and Scientist - you can't miss them. You can send the Technician to various jobs - he doesn't have to focus only on the base. However, the Scientist should not leave the laboratory, because there will always be some new technology to develop.
- Create more alters if you have free slots. Every pair of hands will be useful - subsequent alters can help you with extracting various resources, creating objects in the workshop or producing food. This will allow the main character to focus on more important things.
On the Best alters page, you will find our recommended alters you should get first.
Explore each map carefully
- The Alters highly rewards exploration, but only the main character can go outside. Pay attention to the hologram map - it can show unexplored areas, as well as mark various kinds of obstacles and discovered deposits.
- You should pay extra attention to locating all the deep deposits in a given location, then construct Mining Outposts and start mining. Don't forget about the collectibles and alternative paths, thanks to which you can, for example, go around barricades or dangerous anomalies.
On the page How to use a drill? you can learn more about one of the types of obstacles.
Use the free fast travel
- Every Mining Outpost offers fast travel as one of the available features. Remember that fast travel costs nothing. Moreover, using fast travel does not speed up time so you can travel much faster to more distant places on the planet in this way.
- If necessary, you can also set up travel pylons, but the game will allow you to use them only after connecting them to the base.
We discussed the fast travel mechanics in more detail on the page How to unlock fast travel?.
Do not underestimate radiation and protect yourself from it
- Radiation is one of the more serious threats you need to watch out for during the game. Monitor Jan's radiation and if necessary, return to the base to start the process of gradually getting rid of its effects.
- It is also very important to make sure that your base is protected from radiation. Radiation filters do this by default. They are used every subsequent day, but throughout the game you will also unlock other variants. You should always have a supply of filters in the base, especially in case of a magnetic storm, which will temporarily increase the level of radiation on the planet.
We have compiled and described all the radiation-related risks on the page How to avoid radiation?.
Repeat the day in case of serious problems
- A day in the game may not always go according to your expectations. One of the problems Jan or one of his alters could suffer could be receiving a high dose of radiation or injuries. You can also unnecessarily waste time on activities that ultimately turned out not to be crucial, or miss preparations for some important event.
- If necessary, load the save done at the beginning of the day to do things differently and avoid the same problems or better prepare for potential troubles. You can also choose saves from previous days and thus repeat a larger portion of the game. In the saves window, you can browse and read information about, among others, the current day, the state of the base, tasks or alters present in the base.
To understand how the saves work read the page How to save the game?.
Build a refinery, laboratory, bedroom, and infirmary
The game teaches you about building rooms, and you will construct, among other things, a workshop and a kitchen. You have to take built the next ones yourself and the most important of them are:
- Research Laboratory - you need it to start work on technologies; Jan Scientist must work in it.
- Refinery - it will allow you to process extracted enriched metals to obtain metals and organics. This is the perfect job for Jan Refiner.
- Dormitory - your alters initially have nowhere to sleep. This room will solve one of their basic needs. In the later stages of the campaign, it is also worth building, e.g. a Social Room for spending time together.
- Infirmary - it is essential for treating wounds that Jan and his alters may suffer. Additionally, it is an excellent place to get rid of the effects of radiation more quickly.
The use of the research laboratory has been discussed in more detail on the page How to unlock research?.
Use the Uphold Production option
- You will learn about this mechanic a bit later, but it's worth using it from the very beginning of the game. In the production windows, you can set the minimum stock of a given raw material or item. After exceeding it, the game will automatically add the next items to the production queue.
- This mechanic can reduce the risk that you will forget about something and suddenly find yourself in a situation where you lack, e.g. filters or food. Remember, however, that the production itself does not happen automatically - Jan or one of the alters must reach the related place.
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