Ostranauts Beginner Guide

Years are your only currency here

Every choice consumes years between age 18 and the forced cutoff. Work on Skills is the most predictable spend: EVA Suits speeds suit work in the boneyard, Spaceship Engineering and Mechanical Engineering shorten installs and repairs on your loan ship, and Spaceship Piloting makes the first OKLG undock less terrifying.

Seek Adventure is a gamble. Events like Rare Salvage, Shady Deal, or Occupational Hazard can drop cash, contacts, or a better tool — or saddle you with enemies and traits you did not plan for. One or two adventure rolls are fine; chaining five without skills leaves you old and untrained.

Traits to keep vs cut

Default negatives like Feeble, Fragile, and Micro-g Hypovolemic hurt EVA tolerance and combat. Remove what you can afford. Charismatic helps later crew negotiation; Clumsy hurts every physical task aboard a cramped hull.

You do not need a perfect build for cycle one. You need: at least one engineering skill, EVA Suits if possible, a charged Pressure/EVA suit in your starting kit, and enough leftover years that you are not Old Age before launch.

The loan ship is intentional

Most paths end on a starter hull with roughly $100,000 of debt owed to OKLG financiers. That number is not a bug — it is the clock. Your first week is not about building a dream freighter; it is about making end-of-shift mortgage smaller than boneyard income. Ship upgrades come after solvency, not before.

Learn the station layout once

OKLG packs docking arms, kiosks, and security into one navigable ring. Pin where you sell Scrap (low-value/damaged goods), where the Licensed Salvage kiosk buys high-value parts (permit required), and where you refill EVA oxygen and ship consumables. You will walk these routes every cycle; muscle memory saves real time.

Your PDA is the second HUD

The Renbao Portal PDA tracks contacts, crew orders, photos, and ship to-dos. Install PwrViz or DmgViz cartridges when you can afford them — AR overlays for power routing and hull damage beat guessing behind walls. On day one, at minimum use the PDA to confirm which rooms lost pressure overnight.

Do not skip the tutorial prompts

1.0 ships with improved onboarding, but the sim still assumes you read tooltips on mooring, RCS, and airlock cycling. If a prompt mentions clearance or alignment, finish it at OKLG before you drift into traffic. A docking collision on day one can cost more than a salvage run pays.

Pay mortgage before you splurge

First profits go to mortgage, then O₂ and tools, then hull patches. Buying a fancy thruster while mortgage compounds is how captains lose ships on cycle three. Open the ledger after every sale and pay down principal when kiosks leave you with a surplus — even small principal payments reduce tomorrow's bleed.

One cycle, one goal

Early game plans should fit one wake-sleep loop: strip one derelict, sell everything, pay mortgage, sleep. Side quests, gig boards, and Ceres hops can wait until you are not one bad day from repossession. The money guide covers gigs and trading once salvage is routine.

When to buy a salvage permit

The yellow Licensed Salvage kiosk pays more for intact modules — transponders, RCS intakes, fusion parts — but expects a 24-hour permit (~$5,000). Buy the permit on the same cycle you plan to sell high-value loot, not the day before a empty run. Illegal salvage without paperwork can trigger fines if station security stops you; details live on the salvage guide.

Cycle the airlock deliberately

Inner door closed → depressurize → outer open → work → outer closed → pressurize → inner open. Skipping a step vents your ship or traps you outside. On loan ships with tiny habs, one mistake can empty the only breathable room.

EVA Suits skill is real money

If you invested creation years in EVA Suits, cutting and hauling run faster — same O₂ tank lasts longer. Without it, plan shorter trips: one room stripped beats half a hull explored. You can train more in-game, but early cycles reward efficiency over ambition.

Watch heat and micrometeors

Suit temperature and ship life support interact. Cold derelicts drain suit heat; sun-facing hulls cook you. Rotate back to the airlock before the suit warning spikes. For hab management after EVA, see life support.

Priority strip list (first three runs)

Tier 1 — grab first: intact RCS intakes, heaters, pumps, small thruster assemblies, working tools, and EVA gear left aboard. They sell well relative to mass and fit through standard airlocks.

Tier 2 — if time allows: navigation consoles, batteries, undamaged floor/wall tiles you can install on your loan ship. Floor panels under walls add HP without new fabrication — useful for patching micrometeor hits.

Tier 3 — skip early: fusion reactor cores, full transponder/IFF assemblies, and multi-tile hull sections until you own a permit, a tow brace, and enough O₂ budget for long strips. Those are mid-game payslips — see the dedicated salvage guide.

Tools match tile type

Crowbar pops loose panels; hacksaw and angle grinder cut structure; power drill speeds fasteners. If a tile resists, check whether you need a different tool or Spaceship Engineering skill — forcing the wrong interaction wastes minutes you do not have in vacuum.

Leave when green bars turn yellow

Set a hard exit at 50% O₂ or one spare tank remaining, whichever comes first. Derelicts are infinite; your first captain is not. Pack loot toward the airlock as you go so you never sprint back empty-handed.

Docking is a minigame, not a cutscene

Match relative velocity, align with the mooring point, and request clearance on the nav console. RCS taps beat long burns — loan tugs are heavy and sloppy. If you bounce off OKLG, repair before sleeping; leaks compound costs with atmosphere loss.

Sort before you sell

Split scrap from licensed goods in your cargo hold. Dumping a valuable RCS intake at the scrap kiosk because you were tired is the classic cycle-one tax. With a permit active, sell high-value pieces first — they fund mortgage and O₂ for the next week.

Reinvest in the ship that earns

After mortgage, buy battery buffer, patch breaches, and route power through a fuse box before cosmetic tiles. Brownouts disable doors mid-EVA. When you are ready to wire fusion properly, move to the reactor guide; when you salvage a whole hull, read transponder before undocking.

The one habit that fixes most rows

Before every undock, say out loud: mortgage due, O₂ full, tool packed, return fuel reserved. Four checks beat ten hours of rerolling character creation.

When salvage feels safe, your next read is the full salvage guide — boneyard routes, permit timing, and high-value module tables.