I am entranced by running this game in full - figuring out and optimizing the strategy to get to 5 TTi has been a blast. As far as I can tell, you can't shortcut the 5 TTi requirement so you just have to slog through, building machines, unlocking new machines, building more machines.

I bound the unstuck key to my RMB. It's right frigging there, and it makes moving around the map a lot easier - but it doesn't invalidate the core gameplay loop. Yes, you can access some areas early, but the contents of every container are based on your terraforming stage so the gains aren't huge. And once you have the jetpack you can find lots of ways to break the map and get out of bounds anyways. I'm sure we can have a conversation about using unstuck.

There are four acts to the run.

ACT ONE - 0 to 345 kTi

Most of this is basically the first steps run, with a few minor changes. I think it's worth getting boots out of the first wreck, so I also need exoskeleton, and getting the mining chip on top is easy. Using unstuck there ist a 500% flower from the first hill wreck, and I can slip through the wall to the iridium mines gold chest, getting a bit of a head start.

Unlocking vegetube 3s (30k oxygen) takes longer than the vegetube 3s need to run, even aiming for 345 kTi. I've played around with not upgrading all of my vegetubes from 2 to 3. Particularily I've tried running to the canyons and set up about 2000% of flowers there in veget 2s, and never upgrading them - it seems to work better for my purposes

Once I have veget 2s up and running, there's have a little extra time. I like to build up solar power here, since a lot is needed for the rocket platform. Once veget 3s unlock, I upgraded most of mine and ran out to the Dunes wreck.

The Dunes wreck has a lot to offer. Notably, 3 rocket engines and lirma seeds. From looting it I get resources to build 3 grass spreaders (for biomass to build the biolab later, and to help push to 345kTi). Also, I get a crafter 3, jetpack 1, and backpack 4. I like to drop a heater early sometimes as well but its not necessary. While looting, the vegetube 3s (and grass spreaders) push me up to unlocking rockets.

ACT TWO - 345 kTi to 50 MTi

With rockets, it becomes much more efficient to switch to heat or pressure rather than oxygen. Because the total production is machines times rockets it's much better to focus hard on one rather than the other. I think heat is the better focus here, since at 41 M heat you unlock the drill 4, so heat can get you more pressure - however, pressure can be much easier to build up.

I don't know if there's a better place to build your main base than on the plateau. It's fairly central for exploration, and close to both the sulfur and super alloy mines. And there are plentiful resources right nearby.

I like to launch at least one of each rocket early, to help unlock some critical blueprints. I need a little heat to start, to unlock drill 3. Then I build a bit of pressure - 1 rocket and 2-4 machines - so I can get nuclear power 3, since heat is so energy hungry.

It took me too many runs before I realized that there are 13 iridium rods at the meteor crater. Collecting those makes scaling heat soooo easy. Get nuclear power, build heaters, launch rockets. I need a fair helping of super samples, but there are plenty of those at the canyons. I aim for about 25 k heat /second, but that is imprecise.

Along side this, at some point, I add food growers for eggplants - around 3-6. They take a loooong time to grow, and are necessary to start algae, which I'll need. Once they're grown, I drop some algae t1s with scavenged bioplastic (I don't need to make any of that - there are some guaranteed spawns of bioplastic in the dunes wreck, and the sulfur fields/sand falls). Also I get myself some extra gear - exoskeleton 2, backpack 5, otank 4, compass, torch (1 and often 2) and if I have the bp jetpack 2 and boots 3. The biolab unlocks at some point and gives access to explosive powder, which helps for nuclear power 2 and some other things.

50 MTi is a really important level to hit. At 5 MTi oxygen fuses start to spawn in containers, and at 50 MTi heat and pressure fuses also start to spawn. Any container opened after that has a chance at having very valuable fuses - and any container opened before that loses that chance. So I like to restrict exploration until 50 MTi.

I'm divided on whether it's worth heading out to the arches wreck. There are four heater 3s that can be rebuilt in a shack out there, which is helpful, but it is a long way to go. It does give you a chance to hit up a lot of valuable boxes, including 2 golds.

ACT THREE - 50 MTi to 32 GTi

Once lakes happen (50 MTi) get exploring! Runs can die here if you don't find the right fuses, so I pray to rng gods. On the other hand, I don't think you need more than one each of oxygen, heat, pressure early.

Drill 4s unlock at 41 M heat, so i try to get super alloys and osmium from the 'sand falls' area to build 3-4 of them. They'll help power through to 650 MTi, when oxygen rockets finally unlock. I launch a couple extra pressure rockets too. 4 drill 4s, one fuse, and four rockets will make 600MTi in under half an hour.

There's only so much exploration to do. Safes, with all their goodies, need to be prioritized - unstuck lets you phase around and get into them without the fusion cell. There are two nearby - in the first wreck and the dunes wreck. It probably would have been better for me to hit them up earlier than I did. The next safe is in the Gate to the east. I find thats a good area to explore, with lots of other crates to check, prioritizing fuses, uranium rods, fertilizer, and any super alloys you can get.

I like to get going with Biodome 2s at this point. They're needed for tree bark for oxygen rockets later, but their base production is huge. Algae + Water gets bacteria samples, so those are among the most important things to manufacture. I think atmospheric collectors are more efficient to build than lake collectors. I aim for about 3 Algae 2s and 10+ water collectors.

The other advantage of exploration is that I find a lot of the fertilizer I need for the biodomes - I want 5 biodome 2s, so 10 fertilizer total. I'm mixed on whether to try to make my own fertilizer or to find it exploring.

Once you hit 650 MTi, you can start making oxygen. Fuses x Rockets x Biodome 2s. Balancing getting all three, and exploring, and getting materials, can be tricky. You will need:

Plenty of Sulfur - for explosives, for machine optimizers and other things, and for mutagens. I find getting about 4 extractor 1s on the sulfur area to be necessary

Lots of Super Alloys - for rockets, and many other things. Extractor 2s are very power hungry, and need super alloy rods, but they're worth building in the SA cave when you can. Once you have what you need from pressure, though, you can disassemble your drill 4s for their valuable super alloys. Sometimes I get lucky with a super alloy asteroid strike - harvest quickly, they only stick around for a couple of minutes after landing.

Uranium Rods - power and machine optimizers. When I got the heat rockets going, a ton of uranium got dropped, but it vanishes I think an hour after spawning? It's worth taking some time to collect what I can.

Rocket Engines - there have a very good drop rate once Ti gets high enough. But having extra iridium rods and uranium ore around to make more later is a good idea.

Methane - one or two gas extractors will get you all you need for mutagens

Once oxygen gets going, it'll hit 63M and I'll unlock heater 4s. I need to build 3-4 along with however many fuses I have. Combined with the rockets from earlier. this is needed to unlock fusion power (750 M heat) and machine optimizers 2 (1.85 G heat).

There's two other key areas to explore to during this section. The Red Trees area in the NE has guaranteed 4 ruberu seeds, as well as a bunch of other boxes with whatever they drop. They'll be need when trees are unlocked. And once heat is up, building a bunch of fusion generators will finally settle the power situation - and unlock a bunch of uranium rods for more machine optimizers. This requires a trip to the crystal caves. It's worth also getting 1 blazar and solar quartz for later.

Once Oxygen hits 6 GTi tree spreader t2s are unlocked. They aren't actually a huge step up from the biodome 2s, but they upgrade very easily to tree spreader t3s. Tree spreaders have the advantage of not needing much in the way of resources. The only things I need to get are Zeolite, and there is a ton above the iridium caves, and fertilizer t2s. At high Ti fertilizer 2 drops at a pretty good rate, so I often find all that I need while exploring. I've tended to swap my food growers over to squash at some point, as well, just in case I don't find as much as I need.

Tree seeds aren't really an issue - four Ruberus from red trees area, and a couple other tree seeds have guaranteed spawns. I still tend to get a dna manipulator. There's a hidden recipe that is unlocked by default, gold seed + mutagen + tree bark gets a 450% pleom seed in 4 minutes. The value of the seeds matter much since fuses stack additively with the fuses rather than multiplicatively, but still, those 1200% ruberus are valuable.

ACT FOUR - 32 GTi to END

There are a bunch of blueprints that get unlocked at around the same time here. Obviously, tree spreader t3s are my end goal, as the best machines for producing a resource. It only takes a single fertilizer 2 to upgrade tree 2s to 3s.

Another key upgrade is the trade rocket - which seems to arrive semi-randomly between 1 and about 100 GTi. This is hugely important. Once it arrives, build it (requiring an SA rod and 3 electronics). The first rocket launched, I can buy a decent number of oxygen fuses from all the terra tokens from safes. More notably, I can sell every single non-oxygen fuse I've found. It takes 10 minutes for each rocket plus a little time for the landing animation. So, when the first rocket returns I get 5 or 6 fuses - and enough tokens to immediately launch again ordering a further 10-20.

Once that first rocket returns, machine optimizers 1 no longer cut it, so I need obsidian, which is a long way away. But, obsidian also allows teleporters to be built. So a quick flight down to the SE of the map, drop a first teleporter, fly back, and teleporter up in base. Now I can zip back and forth and get all the obsidian I need - and, when I have some downtime, loot all the stuff available in the volcano.

All during this I'm launching oxygen rockets. I keep harvesting algae and water and shooting up rockets. And increase the count of tree spreaders to 8 - more isn't worth much since it isn't affected by your now 20-30 fuses.

When I run out of rocket engines to launch, exploration is back on the menu. This part is very un-optimized, since I've only reached it a handful of times and really it depends on conditions. At this point the main things I want from exploration is rocket engines, mutagens, and bacteria samples, to launch more rockets. Getting more teleporters helps jump back and forth from base quickly - and I definitely want to get one at my miners in the super alloy cave.

When 5 TTi is getting close, winning the game becomes the goal. From the volcano TP, I can get the mushroom river and unlock what I need there, then go to the SA cave and open that door. Make sure I have enough resources for the extraction platform and the large explosive device, then pray.

At 5 TTI the extraction platform unlocks. Then, at... some point.... the large explosive device unlocks. Sometimes immediately, but I've sat there for 20 minutes and it hasn't. Trying to figure that out.

Anyways, that's how I've been doing it. Appreciate any thoughts and suggestions.

"I'm sure we can have a conversation about using unstuck."

Ultimately it is in the game and the devs have made it as broken as it is, we will not rule against it, but if people do not wish to use it we could have separate boards for No Skips like we have for Creative - but given the length of the full game run, I doubt many would want to not take advantage of the Skips.

Really interesting write-up, especially the use of heat/pressure earlier, as I was expecting just mainlining oxygen to be the strategy. But it makes sense that some other blueprints can be useful.

Also interesting in going tall on 8 spreaders with multiple optimisers - I did not even think of that interaction, but it makes perfect sense to tunnel on that number, and hopefully get plenty of the 1200% trees - I know you say it does not multiply with fuses, but it all gets multiplied by the rockets.

Hopefully we can figure out what actually triggers the Large Explosive Device. Or we can retime the run to finish earlier if it remains inconsistent.