Most of the game is Astroneer you will surely spend some time mining, as some of the rarest materials are most commonly found underground. You need a smelter to turn raw ore into metal for more complex components, but it's not that easy to get. Here are some tips:
- After you have built the fuel condenser and trading platform, sell the hydrazine fuel for any items that will make mining easier.
- You don't have to dig straight down like in Minecraft. It is very common in Astroneer to find natural caves that will be more stable.
- Make sure you have a supply of oxygen to avoid suffocation.
Also, take a battery with you and make sure your base is generating enough power. The extraction of resources quickly depletes the main energy scale.
- Do not hunt directly under your feet. If you fall underground, your connection to the base will be cut, and you will die in loneliness and darkness.
- In the caves, you will find copper ore, aluminum ore and titanium ore. These elements are used for more complex structures, such as the transport bay, but first you need to make metal rods from them in the smelting furnace.
