Finding Your Base When Lost

astroneer lost

When you set up a base in Astroneer, you will focus all of your efforts building all the structures you need and storing all of the resources you have collected. Eventually, you will need to start exploring further when you run out of resin and compound. An adventure that can quite easily result in you getting lost.

When you are in the middle of nowhere, it is very easy to lose your bearings. The planet all looks the same and it is very easy to think you know where to go and end up getting incredibly lost. Times like these are always the ones where you end up finding all of the best supplies and have no space to carry more.

This guide will help anyone who is currently lost on a planet in Astroneer and give you some useful tips to help you avoid getting lost again in the future.

Finding Your Way Home When Lost

In the early days, your tether serves as more than a lifeline. It is a set of breadcrumbs to find the way back to where you came from. What happens when you have a vehicle? Finding your way back to your shelter when you get lost can be a difficult hurdle to get over. If you have driven out completely blind and have not followed any of the guidelines to avoid getting lost you will be in a bit of a jam.

If you are one of those who feel lost with no way home, here are some useful tips that you can use to hopefully find the way back to your settlement.

Check the Horizon For Your Settlement Marker

Your settlement will cast a large icon into the sky that can be seen from a considerable distance away. It can be blocked by things like trees, mountains and sometimes even clouds. When you are driving around trying to find your way, keep a look on the horizon in all directions. As you drive, you may drive past things that were blocking the visibility of this beacon icon and your way home will be right in front of you.

Climb Up Nearby Mountains

If you climb to the top of the nearest mountain, you should have a birdseye view of the surrounding area. If you are lucky, your settlements icon will be visible in the distance. If not, you will at least be able to see other higher points in the area or maybe even see your tether or natural formations that you remember from past journeys.

Search For Signs of Past Explorations

One of the best things to look for is giant pits in the ground that you dug in the past when digging up resin or other supplies. This means you are close enough to home. You made your way to this point before and got back home. Start driving in circles from here until you get back home.

Look For Gateway Chambers

Gateway chambers are easy to spot from a distance due to the smoke that is rising up from below. There are not many of these on the map. These gateway chambers can be used as a way to find your bearings, especially if you have already activated the chamber. Visiting a chamber may help you remember the last time you were here and you can use this to retrace your past steps.

gateway chamber to find your way
A gateway chamber can be seen in the distance. This can be a great way to orientate yourself and figure out where you are

Travel in A Spiral

If you travel in a straight line, you are either going to get closer to your base or end up driving in the complete opposite direction. If you drive around in a circle that keeps getting bigger, i.e. a spiral. You will avoid travelling in the wrong direction for too long. With some luck, you will come across a tether or spot the beacon from your settlement in the distance.

How To Avoid Getting Lost

The best way to deal with getting lost is to not get lost at all. The tips below are useful tips to follow to help you avoid getting lost and in the event that you do,. Will greatly reduce the difficulty and effort required to find your way home when you do.

Place Beacons

Your settlement will case a beacon into the sky automatically. If you have some spare Quartz you can construct a beacon. This device can be printed from your backpack printer and will cast a similar icon into the sky that your shelter does. Placing these at high points will make them nice and easy to find and avoid them ever getting obstructed.

beacons
Placing beacons on plactorms like this will allow you to see the icon from a distance to find the way home but also the structure will point which way is the correct way. You may even spot this from a distance to help even further

The best strategy for this is to place a beacon when the previous one is barely visible. This way if you ever get lost, you can follow them back to the source, which is your shelter.

Create Arrows On The Ground

This works great when combined with the beacon tip above. If you come across a beacon, you will see two on either side of the horizon, which is the correct way to go? Using your terrain tool to create an arrow on the ground will be the answer you need. Even if you do not have a beacon, placing random arrows on the ground pointing you to the next arrow, will allow you to the same thing without the cost of having to bring quartz with you.

Explore with Tethers First

It is easy to start exploring around mountains and go down into caves when you are on foot. If you construct lots of tethers and just start running in a straight line, you will have a web of tethers, stretching out across the planet. If you ever get lost, coming across one of the lines in your tether web will be a lifesaver.

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