The Planet Crafter: Complete Terraforming Guide

A start-to-finish guide to The Planet Crafter: surviving your first hours, climbing the Terraformation Index, building a power grid and automation, exploring wrecks, and moving on to the other planets and moons, including the new free moon Skeo.

Researched September 2026 — current as of v2.103 (Skeo Moon Patch #1, September 14, 2026). Live games change; check the linked sources if something differs.

Quick Start

1. Watch three gauges: Oxygen, Water, and Food. Your oxygen runs out fastest early on. Upgrade the oxygen tank as soon as you can.
2. Every machine you build raises the Terraformation Index (Ti). Ti is made of heat, pressure, oxygen, and biomass, and later also plants, insects, and animals. Each Ti milestone unlocks new blueprints.
3. Build a small pod near your landing site first, with a storage container and a way to refill oxygen.
4. Power is your first bottleneck. Start with wind turbines, move to solar panels, then nuclear reactors.
5. Loot wrecks and containers for microchips. Blueprint microchips unlock important recipes that Ti milestones will not give you.
6. There is no combat. The only enemy is the environment, so explore freely but manage your oxygen.
7. Automate early. Ore extractors, drones, and the logistics system save enormous time later.
8. Co-op supports 1 to 10+ players. Everyone must be on the same version.
9. Pick a difficulty or preset you enjoy. Chill modes remove most survival pressure, and hardcore presets make every trip dangerous.

Where Everything Is (Planets and Moons)

Interplanetary travel: After you fully terraform a planet, build the Extraction Platform and the Interplanetary Travel Rocket. You keep your inventory, equipment, and blueprints between worlds. Moon machines also contribute to a System Terraformation Index across your planets.

First Hour Priorities

1. Gather iron, magnesium, silicon, titanium, cobalt, and ice. Early deposits are lying on the ground around the start.
2. Build a pod with a storage container and a Craft Station inside.
3. Craft an oxygen tank and backpack upgrade as soon as the recipes are available.
4. Place your first Drill, Heater, and Vegetube. They raise pressure, heat, and oxygen respectively, and each small increase unlocks more.
5. Build wind turbines to power everything.
6. Set up food and water: a food grower and water collector, once you unlock them, stop you from foraging constantly.
7. Explore the nearest wreck for microchips and supplies. Bring spare oxygen.

The Terraformation Index

As Ti climbs, the planet visibly changes through stages such as a blue sky, clouds, rain, liquid water, moss, flora, trees, insects, and animals. The HUD and the terraformation screen show your next unlock.

Rockets give huge multiplier boosts to a single component. Build them once your production can afford them. In v2.100, T2 rockets were raised to a 6000% generation bonus.

Power Progression

Rule of thumb: Keep at least 25 to 30% spare power. New machines unlock quickly, and a brownout stops everything.

Base Building

• Pods and corridors are the core structures. Windows and decorations are cosmetic. The 2.0 update added more of them, such as the arcade machine, vending machine, and lava lamp.
• Biodomes let you grow trees and plants indoors.
• Storage: Label and group containers by material type. The late-game logistics system uses supply and demand containers with drones to move goods automatically.
• New on Skeo: the Underground pod lets you build a base underground. It unlocks on Skeo.

Resources and Automation

• Ore extractors pull specific ores from veins. On Skeo, osmium is collected with the ore extractor, not a harvester (a v2.102 change).
• Drones move items between logistics containers. The drone T3 was added with the moon updates. v2.100 also added a button in the drone UI to stop all drones.
• Auto crafters automate recipes. Patch v2.103 fixed the Purification fuse not being available in auto crafters before the quartz craft station was unlocked. Wheat and cocoa seeds can now go through logistics.
• Genetics: The Genetic Extractor, Genetic Synthetizer, and incubators let you create custom plants, insects, and animals. On Skeo, you can find bones in the world and put them in the genetic extractor to create a new animal.

Exploration and Wrecks

• Wrecks hold loot containers, microchips, and lore. Many are procedurally generated, so each run differs.
• Portals: The Portal Generator opens procedurally generated wrecks with rare loot. The Portals Generator cannot be built on Skeo (v2.102). You can find animal effigies in portal wrecks.
• Bring extra oxygen and a way to mark your path. Wreck interiors are mazes.
• Look for the story. Logs and terminals across the planets tell the larger story of why you are here.

Skeo: What's New (v2.102 and v2.103)

• Access: Fully terraform a starting planet, then use the Extraction Platform and Interplanetary Travel Rocket. Skeo is not available as a starting planet.
• New builds: the Underground pod, Incubator T2, Tree planter T3, Rocket animals T2, the new "Brojo" tree, and a new interior lamp.
• Crafting: Magnetar quartz can be crafted once you unlock the recipe (Skeo).
• Harvestable veins: osmium, bacteria, and cocoa (check the map).
• Other: a new spacesuit found on Skeo, a new animal made from bones, and a new animal effigy in portal wrecks.
• v2.103 fixes: two new music tracks, Butterfly farm 1 unlocks sooner with higher insect output, fewer fuse drops in the endgame, and more ores near the starting zone on Humble.
• Rendering: DirectX 11 is the default. DX12 can be forced with the launch argument -force-d3d12.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

• Running out of oxygen deep in a cave or wreck. Always check the tank before a trip.
• Overbuilding before power is stable. Machines stop when power falls short.
• Ignoring microchips. Some key recipes only come from loot.
• Messy storage. It becomes crippling once you have hundreds of item types. Sort early.
• Sticking with T1 machines. Upgrades give far more Ti for the space they take.
• Mismatched versions in co-op. Everyone must run the same build. Restart Steam if in doubt.
• Keeping outdated mods after a patch. Remove them before reporting bugs.

Advanced Tips

• Chase the component that is furthest behind. Balanced Ti progress unlocks stages faster than spiking one component.
• Rockets are multiplicative. Launch a rocket for your weakest component once you can afford it.
• Build a central logistics hub with supply and demand containers and drones. Treat it as the heart of your factory.
• Start genetics early for unique trees and animals. They also add biomass.
• Plan interplanetary trips. Moons need resources from home, and trading goods between planets is part of the design.
• Switch branches for early access. The developers test on a development branch before the main branch. Back up your saves first.

FAQ

How do I get to Skeo? Fully terraform Prime, Humble, Toxicity, or Selenea. Then build the Extraction Platform and the Interplanetary Travel Rocket, and select Skeo as your destination.

Is Skeo free? Yes. It is a free update released on September 1, 2026, on Steam, Xbox, PS5, and GOG.

Are Planet Humble and Toxicity free? No. Both are paid DLC. Selenea, Aqualis, and Skeo are free moons.

Is there crossplay with consoles? No. PS5 and Xbox versions (July 2026, also on Game Pass) support multiplayer only with players on the same console family. Steam players cannot join them.

How many players can play co-op? The game advertises 1 to 10+ players in online co-op.

Is there combat? No. The game has no violence. The hostile environment is the only threat.

What is the next update? Miju Games said v2.103 should be the final Skeo patch, and the team is now working on its next DLC.

Sources

• Steam store page: The Planet Crafter
• Steam news: The Planet Crafter (Skeo, v2.103, dev branch notes)
• Steam News API feed for The Planet Crafter
• Wikipedia: The Planet Crafter