How To Space Engineers - Basic Starting Tips

Need help getting starting in Space Engineers? Look no further as I have some basic starting tips to help you on you Space Engineers Career! As I was making the base, I thought about putting the hinge block to good use and made a new base drill design. Thanks for the views!!!

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[PandemicPlayground]

What's your preference? Basic refinery or basic assembler first?

[JasonMcAlpin]

On moons and planets, I always find a spot down at the bottom of a hill that has a natural valley that funnels any dropped stone toward one spot. Then I build a base with a collector at that point. Then I can just walk along the hill shaving the hill surface to let all the stone roll down into the collector. It's faster than running back and forth and usually can completely build a full mining ship because of all of the material I get.

[Runescope]

When building a drill system, not only put a piston going down, put a piston going up as well, but extend it first. That way you get double the depth off of your drills.

[Runescope]

The MAXIMUM speed for your Pistons when you're drilling should be a TOTAL of 0.4. This means if you use two Pistons, each one should have a speed of 0.2, either positive or negative. Anything more and you will eventually break your drill.

[manwolf_lou]

If you add a rotor at the top (of the conveyor tubes) and a piston sideways you'll be able to mine a bigger area from the start.

[Runescope]

Stick with the Large Grid Drills for your Drilling Rig. The expense of the extra Steel Plate is really nothing when you get it from Stone and the Large Grid Drills will VASTLY outperform the Small Grid Drills. Also, the adapters you need to go from Large Grid to Small Grid (Conveyor Adapter and Conveyor Tubes) cost MORE than what the Large Grid Drill costs.

[vincewilson]

Newbie here. Thanks for helping me figure out how to get started. Now I can get going. I already tried twice but I could only make a few steel plates. Now I understand that the deeper rocks are usually better quality. I probably just got lucky that the surface rocks had a few good ones but then they got too low in quality so I couldn't build the blocks. The third try should be the winner thanks to your work on this tutorial. I liked and subscribed as I will probably look to your videos for more how-to stuff. Thanks a lot for your help. 😁😎👍

[Runescope]

The stone you were drilling at the start is the dense stone. It doesn't matter if it's on the surface, stone is stone. The difference is when you're digging through dirt first. Dirt won't provide much stone (naturally), so you have to dig down until you get to actual stone, but if you have stone on the surface, collect it.

[Runescope]

The Basic Refinery is really only useful for early game Cobalt refining. The Survival Kit will produce plenty of Iron, Nickel & Silicon from Stone. But you need Cobalt for Metal Grids which is required for the more advanced Assemblers & Refinery (among other things like thrusters). The main difference between the Survival Kit and the Basic Refinery is that you have to tell the Survival Kit to make Gravel and then it will process the Stone. The Refineries (both Basic & Regular) will automatically process Stone into Gravel, Iron, Nickel & Silicon.

[doncoskanal]

just started the game a few days ago. I build my first base and extended it, build a small mining ship after watching a guide, build now a "bigger" meiner that can transport 100tones but there is absolute no ice near my base. damn.

[justinsellers]

When I am just getting started, if I am by a cliff, I will set up a line of blocks to act like a dam. Then when I mine a lot of stone, I can let it roll down towards my dam. That way, I can just pick it up and pop it into the survival kit instead of having to carry it back and forth.

[Twelvegagesage]

Hey thanks for this man. I just started the game and am seriously overwhelmed with all the parts and menus. This helps alot. I had no idea what to prioritize or what to do.

[NoKapMan]

New to SE and this video helped me a lot. Thank you!

[Comicsluvr]

I strongly suggest that you look into a Lightning Rod mod. If lightning was a problem for a colonist/engineer, they would drive an anchor into the stone and put up a metal rod anyway so it's more of a 'making the game act the way lightning really would' thing than a cheat.

[CrusadingJello]

Space Engineers basically goes like this:

- "Oh my lord, this takes a while. And now I need a basic assembler!"
- "Well dang, some things need to be refined. Let's make a basic refinery!"

- "Le'bruh. Silver needs something more than the basic refinery? Time to blow through at least 2, 000 iron."
- "Yes! The refinery has been created!"
- "Wait... Now my 6x6 is too small. Time to expand."
- [Server restart in 15 minutes] "Oh god, I forgot to make any spawns or survival kits".
(Most stressed and annoying experience on SE.... Getting enough to make a survival kit. Say goodbye to your spawn pod).

- "Alright, survived the restart... Now... Where do I find cobalt..."

And then ragequit because you can't find any cobalt within 10km from your base, so you can't make a ship, and hopefully find an outpost or a somewhat friendly player who will trade with you.

[leonidmolochnikov]

Nice guide 👍. My addition to that would be:
1. Find the dark patches in the ice, and build a wind turbine + ore detector + beacon. This way - you can set the main base right at the iron + cobalt spot.
2. Use advanced rotor > small head > cargo junction > hinges > drills. The drill head then goes folded through the ice, and can be expanded where the ores are.
3. Build the refinery inside the underground cavern. Ores need to go through it anyhow, and you can have the bulk of the big machinery embed into stone out of sight... Just make sure to split the junction to o2/h2 gens as well to avoid ice buildup

[adopehipster]

good advice to start with the lower cost small grid drill i never thought of that

[Runescope]

Don't leave a large pile of resources on the ground, they will despawn as you add more to it. It's not that big of a deal with stone, iron, nickel or silicon, but with rarer ores such as silver and gold, you don't want to waste any.

[sevyrsgaming]

Hey man, you may not see this but with that set up, decreasing the force of the piston extending axis (the sliding scale second from the bottom) will allow you to utilize the piston/drill system with much less concern for destroying the drill. Hope that helps in your future projects.

[leonielson]

I know that I can use the jetpack to quickly get in and out of the hole, but I always spiral my way back up, leaving a pile of material at the bottom that I can scoop up on the next run. It also saves on hydrogen.

You've done it on newer builds, but for those finding this video for the first time, use interior blocks for your floor - they're cheaper than light armor blocks (using interior plates and construction components) and they have built-in lights. Think of it as an insulation layer between the ground and the floor. From there, a door, a bed, and a kitchen, and you've got your first apartment ...