The colony
Burroughs was the first crew on Mars: Mission Control, the habs, the colony hall, a drill that found ice enough for a town - and nothing they planted would grow. Then the supply ship broke up overhead, the burning lander came down on the colony, and the line to Earth went silent.
The way home
Three repair projects stand between the colony and Earth. Each needs parts, built from blueprints you unlock as the story goes, and supply crates - the colony's share of crops, forage, fish, food and goods. The seasons set the pace.
- The Command Center at Mission Control (Emi): get the line to Earth back.
- The Launch Pad at the Spaceport (Andre).
- The Ascent Vehicle, the wreck in the Wreck Field (Grace).
Side projects improve life on the crater: the Greenhouse at your homestead (Bea), the Basin Bridge (Ivan), the Ice Drill (Desmond) and the Ennui, the old boring machine in the Diggings (Bea).
Colony requests
From the second season the plaza board posts the colony's bigger jobs, two a week. Take one at a time: hand in a mix of items, or do something - harvest, fish, fight, ship - within a few sols.
Friendship
Talk to people every sol and give them things they like; two gifts a week count toward friendship, and a birthday gift counts seven times over. Each colonist's page lists what they love, like and dislike, and the Social tab in the game logs every gift you give and how they took it. Every colonist has heart scenes at set friendship levels, up to 10 hearts (and more for your spouse).
Places
The dome town holds the Commissary, the Cantina, the Archive, the Colony Hall, the Clinic, the Schoolhouse and most homes; outside are the Spaceport, the Ridge and its lake, the Dust Flats, the Basin, the Diggings, the Quarry and the Wreck Field, and under the Ridge, the mines.