Hello Survivors!
Wow, Dead in Antares was ALREADY released one month ago! (well, teeeechnically it's not exactly one month since the release with February being only 28 days, but let's not focus too much about the details).
With 80% positive reviews on Steam and a 84% metacritic score, we're so happy people love Dead in Antares so much!!
You have been sending us lots of very valuable feedback, in terms of balancing, QoL, and more! We've already released a few updates that have not only fixed the bugs, and also balanced the game and added a few QoL! We intend to keep doing that for the moment :)
And now, we have a very special blogpost! Even though the game was released one month ago, we thought it'd be nice to give you a few tips from the team to you!
Tips for Dead in Antares
Welcome to Antares Prime! Too late to repent friends, you’re here and it SUCKS. Dangerous creatures, unknown diseases and loads of problems await you on this hostile planet. But guess what? We won’t let you down: here are some practical tips to survive on Antares Prime… for some time, at least.
Do not neglect exploration and fights.
The Ixion is your refuge and your home, that’s cool, but you can’t possibly stay in here and wait for a miracle. Expeditions are essential to your survival as they let you get new resources to bring back to your ship and find out more about the planet.
Each expedition bears a risk to lead to a fight which can lead to serious injuries… but will also bring loot and XP! So get out of that ship and go explore the totally-not-dangerous environments of Antares Prime!
Craft is King
Well, it’s not like you’ve arrived on Antares Prime with a full, functional camp, right? Crafting new camp stations is VERY important if you don't want to lag behind the difficulty curve that will hit you when the days advances... Upgrades are also worth checking out.
Watch for your characters’ traits
Each member of the Ixion has its own past and personality which can be particularly complex to manage in such a crisis like the one they endure. However, you’ll need to deal with it to survive. Learn to know your characters and exploit their Traits to make them more efficient while avoiding to trigger their own insecurities. For example, So Young will be more stressed if she does nothing so try to keep her busy!
Let your characters learn
It's often a good idea to use the character with the best skills suited to the camp station you want to do. But one thing to know is that low level skills level-up faster than higher ones, so it can be a viable strategy to get some XP in low skills to get a quicker character level-up (because global level-ups are tied to skills level-ups...)
Take care of your characters
In Dead in Antares, States are statues that represent your character’s fatigue, hunger, illness, stress and injuries. Do NOT let States get worse! No only will they have negative effects on your character’s skills but they can also be very hard to manage in the long-term. Let your characters rest, cure their illness and injuries, allow them to relax and eat. Craft medicines from Antares Prime natural pharmacopeia, use the infirmary and the recreation area, watch the Ixion thermostat so your characters can have a good night sleep, and thus, your crew will be healthy and strong to face the dangers of this planet!
Anticipate your future needs
As your crew awake from their hypersleep, the Ixion will be more and more crowded, with a lot more mouths to feed... The first few days of the game may feel easy, but it will soon get a lot harder if you weren't cautious. Try to save food and items for later when you'll really need it.
Don’t be too harsh on yourself
Dead in Antares has four difficulty modes and you can switch from one to another whenever you want! Apart from one specific achievement, no malus will be applied if you want to make the game easier. So, do not forget you’re here to have fun ;)
Use the crafting queue
Don't forget that if you don't have anything left to craft or to study in the queues of the Forge, the Workshop and the Laboratory, you'll lose the excess crafting/research points your characters will produce... It's often a good idea to add several items to the queue before crafting/researching, if you have the necessary resources.
Sorting feature
Clicking on a station name bar in the camp will open the character bar and automatically sort them depending on how suitable they are for this station: we recommend using this small QoL feature as often as you possibly can!
Analyze unknown objects whenever you can
Along your journey on Antares Prime, you’ll find many strange yet very useful items… as long as you take some time to understand what they are! Use the Laboratory to analyse those mysterious materials so you can use them to craft new upgrades and camp stations.
Knowledge is power
To survive on Antares Prime, knowledge will be key as it will allow you to upgrade your battle skills and unlock more crafting projects. You can earn knowledge points by extending the map with the radar and analyzing objects with the laboratory.
Develop your character’s bonds
Characters working together will get closer, which not only means some nice bonus dialog scenes between them, but also little bonuses (XP, work efficiency...). It can be a good idea to sometimes change pairs to farm these precious little bonuses..
Energy is key
Don't trivialize the new Energy system! At first it may seem that you have enough energy to do everything you want, but when you'll advance in the game you'll see that you'll crave for more and more energy points... The "EnergyBoost" upgrades are really worth using, because they maximise the efficiency of a single task - and you always want the best outcome for any task.
Do you have other tips? Let us know in the comments!
Take care! <3