How The Planet Crafter Loop Works
In The Planet Crafter, you begin on a hostile world and slowly make it livable by raising your Terraformation Index (TI), your overall terraforming progress meter. On the main Prime planet, TI combines your progress in Oxygen, Heat, Pressure, and later Biomass (on toxic planets, Purification also counts toward TI). The early loop is simple: gather materials, craft survival upgrades, place terraforming machines, unlock better blueprints, and repeat faster.
If the opening hours feel rough, that is completely normal. Low oxygen, tight inventory space, and fuzzy priorities are common early friction points. Focus first on survival uptime, meaning how long you can stay active before you must return safely. Do short resource runs, head back before oxygen gets risky, and keep water and food ready so each trip lasts longer. Build in layers: shelter and crafting first, reliable power second, then nonstop terraforming output. A helpful filter is: if a build does not help you survive longer or raise TI right now, save it for later.
Coach Tips to Regain Momentum
When progress slows, use this reset line: place a few oxygen/heat/pressure machines, add enough power to run all of them, then do one focused run for your current bottleneck resource. Repeat that cycle and new unlocks will start flowing again. Place small forward shelters on longer routes, too, so exploration feels safer and less stressful. In The Planet Crafter, steady machine uptime beats big risky trips every time.