This guide attempts to describe the steps to take to get a quick start in Dyson Sphere Program.
Currently, all new games will start you on a Mediterranean Planet, which are fairly "Earth-like" and have a good range of resources that can get you all the way up to mid-game without ever leaving the planet. This guide should work for all new game starts, unless and until they make it possible to change your starting system.
If you wish to follow along more precisely, this guide and its accompanying screenshots were written with the following World Generation settings:
- Seed: 00000000
- Systems: 64
- Resource Multiplier: Infinite
With these settings, you should start at a G-Type star named "Iota Sagittae"
Before We Start
Before we start, we'll go over a few tips.
Conserving Energy
In the early game, your mecha has very little in the way of energy storage and power generation. You also don't have access to the some of the better fuel sources that increase the power regeneration rate. For these reasons it is important to conserve energy as much as possible. In a fresh game, these things consume energy for your mecha:
- Movement -- 600 kW while moving. Alleviate by planning your path in advance to minimize distance
- Hovering -- variable, but in the 1-1.2 MW range while hovering over water. Alleviate by walking around water and being sure not to "idle" while hovering above any.
- Drones -- Each drone consumes 288 kW from your mecha while flying to/from a construction. Starting the game with 3 drones, this can get as high as 864 kW. Alleviate by minimizing the distance drones have to fly, and only building one thing at a time.
- Gathering -- when mining a vein manually, it consumes 640 kW. Alleviate by automating mining. This guide's approach requires no hand-gathering aside from 60 Logs for an Upgrade.
- Replicator -- Hand-crafting items, as well as smelting ingots by hand, consume 240 kW. Alleviate by automating everything you can, as early as possible.
- Researching -- Researching technologies using materials from your mecha's inventory means your mecha is doing the research and using 360 kW. Alleviate by setting Matrix Labs to do the research.
Without any fuel source at all, your mecha only generates 80 kW of power to recharge itself. Fuel sources change this amount by varying amounts. In this guide, we will aim to keep mecha energy consumption at a minimum, but if you find yourself getting low, you can either just hang back and let the 80kW recharge itself over time, or find some fuel. You will have 5 Hydrogen Fuel Rods at the start of the game, but using them this early is a bit of a waste. This guide recommends that you use nearby natural fuel sources in the early game, such as trees and plants, organic crystal, or Coal Ore if you are lucky enough to have some nearby.
Trees and Rocks
You have probably heard the adage "waste not, want not" -- or, do not let things go to waste simply because you do not want them. In DSP, every resource has a use, although you may not know the uses until you research a particular technology. Trees and Rocks that are scattered around are no exception to this rule.
When placing a Building, if a tree or rock is in the way when the drone places the building, then that tree or rock is simply deleted, and you do not get the resources from it. For this reason, it is advised that before placing any buildings, you should first manually remove any trees or stones that are near that location. This can grant you many different materials, most of which have early-game uses such as for a fuel source.
Of the resources that you can get in this manner, it's OK to use these for fuel, for now:
- Log - come from trees, usually 8-12 for each tree cut down. Decent early-game fuel source, but Be sure to keep 60 on hand until told otherwise
- Plant Fuel - come from trees, as well as small bush-like plants.
- Coal Ore - can sometimes come from rocks.
Try not to use Organic Crystal for fuel. You will find yourself wanting some later, since they are very tedious to make via recipe. If you feel that you must burn some, try to keep at least 120 of them set aside.
Note: The original draft of this guide was a bit too long and focused on a particular path. In the end, it did not work out when tried on random other seeds, and it was not the intent to pigeonhole the player to a specific seed. The guide will be re-written soon.