Surviving Mars is the original 2018 sci-fi city builder developed by Haemimont Games, later maintained by Abstraction, and published by Paradox Interactive. This guide covers the original base game, not Surviving Mars: Relaunched, Space Race, Green Planet, Below & Beyond, Martian Express, Project Laika, or other DLC systems that add sponsors, terraforming, trains, underground areas, animals, or governance.
Difficulty note: This is a beginner-focused guide, but Surviving Mars is still a survival city builder where a small planning mistake can cascade into oxygen, water, power, food, or maintenance failure.
Essential Tips
1. Start With New Game, Not a Blind Easy Start
Surviving Mars is easier when you see the setup decisions instead of skipping past them. Pick a sponsor, commander, rocket cargo, and landing area yourself so you understand what your colony is good at before the first rocket touches down.
For a first successful run, choose a forgiving sponsor and do not turn the landing-site screen into a difficulty challenge. A lower-risk sponsor gives you more money, rockets, applicants, or safety margin, which matters far more than pride while you are still learning how drones, domes, and grids fit together.
2. Scout Before You Commit the First Colony
Do not treat the suggested landing spot as final. Scan nearby sectors, use probes when you need fast information, and look for practical access to concrete, metals, water, and space for future domes.
Your first dome should not be stranded far from basic resources or boxed into awkward terrain. Early scouting also reveals anomalies, which can feed research or unlock useful discoveries. A few careful minutes before landing can prevent hours of expensive relocation.
3. Keep Drone Range in Mind Every Time You Build
Drones are the hands of the colony. They build, haul, repair, and maintain, but only inside the service area of their controller. A construction site outside that range is not just inconvenient; it may sit unfinished while your colony waits for resources that technically exist but cannot be delivered.
Before placing new infrastructure, check whether a rocket, drone hub, or rover can cover the site and the needed depots. If you expand with disconnected pockets, give each pocket its own workable drone coverage and storage instead of assuming the original landing zone will handle everything.
4. Protect Solar Power From Dust
Solar panels are attractive early because they are cheap and straightforward, but dust is a real operational problem. Rocket landings, launches, extractors, dust geysers, and disasters can all make nearby equipment need more attention or perform worse.
Keep rockets and extractors away from your main solar fields when possible. If you must build near dusty work, add maintenance resources and drone coverage nearby. Power failures are not cosmetic in Surviving Mars; they can interrupt oxygen, water, heating, and other life-support chains.
5. Avoid Long, Fragile Pipe and Cable Runs
It is tempting to stretch one grid across the map, especially when a deposit is just out of reach. Long cable and pipe runs invite faults, leaks, and slow repairs. A distant break can cut off power, oxygen, or water while drones crawl across an overextended service area.
Build compact, local networks where you can. When a new resource pocket is far away, think in terms of a small outpost with its own support, storage, and drone coverage rather than a thin lifeline from your first base.
6. Delay Colonists Until Life Support Is Boring
The first humans should arrive after you can already support them. Before requesting founders, make sure the dome is powered, supplied with oxygen and water, stocked with food, and connected to the jobs and services you expect them to use.
Founders begin an evaluation period before more colonists can arrive, so a sloppy first passenger rocket can freeze growth right when you need workers. Treat the first dome like a proof test: if a pipe leak, blackout, or missing food depot would kill the plan, solve that before inviting people.
7. Staff Production With Purpose
Factories and other staffed buildings are not magic boxes. Empty work slots reduce output, and specialists perform better in the right jobs. If you import too many colonists without matching workplaces, you create idle mouths. If you build too many workplaces without colonists, you burn materials on facilities that underperform.
Use building priority and shifts deliberately. Night shifts or heavy workloads can help in an emergency, but they can also hurt colonist wellbeing. Early on, one well-staffed production chain is usually stronger than three half-empty buildings.
8. Research for Survival, Not Curiosity Alone
Research unlocks buildings, upgrades, perks, and long-term advantages, but the tech layout can vary. Anomalies can grant research, reveal breakthroughs, or unlock specific technologies, so exploration and science feed each other.
In the opening phase, favor improvements that stabilize the colony: better scanning, safer infrastructure, useful production, or logistics. Mysteries and breakthroughs are part of the fun, but survival systems should come first. A colony that cannot keep water, oxygen, food, power, and maintenance stable will not enjoy its discoveries for long.
9. Use Domes as Specialized Neighborhoods
Domes are not just housing bubbles. They define where colonists live, work, eat, recover, and use services. Many buildings only function inside domes, and colonist filters can help shape mining, research, farming, or service-focused neighborhoods.
Do not cram every possible function into the first dome forever. Start simple, then let later domes specialize around deposits, research needs, or population groups. Specialization makes staffing and services easier to read, especially when the colony grows beyond one settlement.
10. Expand Logistics Before the Map Gets Busy
Early colonies can survive with drones and rovers doing most of the hauling. Later, resources need to move between extractors, factories, farms, domes, construction sites, and depots. That is when logistics becomes its own survival system.
As the colony spreads, keep depots near the work they support, avoid starving remote projects, and pursue broader transport options when your layout demands them. Drones are excellent locally; they are not a substitute for planning how distant colonies stay supplied.
Early Colony Priorities
| Priority | What to Check | Why It Matters |
|---|---|---|
| Landing setup | Sponsor, commander, cargo, and nearby deposits | Determines your first safety margin |
| Scanning | Sectors, probes, sensor coverage, anomalies | Reveals water, metals, concrete, and discoveries |
| Drone coverage | Sites, depots, maintenance resources | Keeps building and repairs moving |
| Power | Production, storage, dust exposure, cable length | Prevents life-support shutdowns |
| Life support | Oxygen, water, food, dome connection | Keeps founders alive |
| Staffing | Jobs, specialists, shifts, priorities | Prevents wasteful production chains |
| Expansion | Local grids, depots, future dome room | Stops the first base from becoming a bottleneck |
Common Mistakes to Avoid
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Do not skip the setup screen without learning it - Sponsor, commander, cargo, and landing choices shape the whole run.
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Do not land before scouting nearby sectors - A poor first site can leave you short on water, metals, or workable expansion space.
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Do not place construction outside drone service range - Drones need both the site and the resources within reach.
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Do not land rockets beside your solar field - Dusty equipment creates more maintenance pressure and can hurt your power plan.
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Do not run one thin pipe or cable line across half the map - A single leak or fault can starve a distant base of life support.
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Do not invite founders into an unfinished dome - Humans need stable power, oxygen, water, food, housing, and useful work.
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Do not overbuild staffed facilities - Empty shifts waste materials and may leave critical production too weak.
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Do not ignore colonist comfort and sanity - Survival is more than calories and oxygen once people are living in domes.
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Do not treat anomalies as decoration - Explorer work can feed research, breakthroughs, events, and long-term options.
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Do not mix DLC assumptions into a base-game plan - Expansion sponsors, terraforming, trains, underground sites, and governance belong to separate scopes.
Summary
| Category | Top Tip |
|---|---|
| Setup | Use New Game so sponsor, commander, cargo, and landing choices are visible |
| Scouting | Scan sectors before committing the first colony footprint |
| Drones | Keep construction, depots, and repairs inside service range |
| Power | Separate dusty work from solar fields and avoid fragile grids |
| Life Support | Bring founders only after oxygen, water, food, and power are stable |
| Domes | Build simple first, then specialize later domes around real needs |
| Research | Prioritize survival and logistics before chasing curiosities |
| Expansion | Prefer compact local support over long pipes and cables |
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8 checked for this guideEvery factual claim in this guide was checked against at least two independent sources before publication. These are the references used for Surviving Mars.
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