Dyson Sphere Program has hit Early Access with a head full of, well, Steam. It’s a game about building and automating production lines, and if you’ve ever played Factorio, you’ll have a pretty decent idea of what to expect. There are some key differences between Dyson Sphere Program and Factorio though, and if you’re new to the genre, the English translation may leave you with questions. Don’t worry – this guide will get you started, and you’ll be building stellar superstructures in no time flat.
The name of the game in Dyson Sphere Program is space optimisation, and to do that, you’re going to need to be thinking ahead. To start out, you need to set up basic resource extraction, eventually turning the resources into advanced finished products – so having an idea of how you want things to flow when you have multiple smelting, assembling, and research facilities is key.
Bear in mind that this guide is just a jumping off point, meant to familiarise you with the basic controls and concepts that form the foundation of Dyson Sphere Program.
In Dyson Sphere Program, you control a single mech, which mines resources and fabricates basic materials and products. Your mech needs fuel, so make sure to tap the inventory key (E, by default) to ensure you’re keeping the reactor topped up. You can burn just about anything in the reactor: start off by cutting down some trees and burning logs and leaves, and then work your way up to stacks of coal and carbon bars.
Your first task after landing on your new home planet, and after recycling your landing pod, will be to start mining resources. There are several raw resources available in Dyson Sphere Program, but the ones you need to be concerned about right away are iron and copper, with stone and coal next in line. Explore your planet until you find an area that has all of these nearby, then set up a mining machine to start digging ore out of the ground.
When you start out in Dyson Sphere Program, the logistics tools available to you are conveyors and sorters. Conveyors form the long beltlines that take items from one place to another, and sorters are the little arms that take things out of or put them back into things.
To reach the stars in Dyson Sphere Program, which is literally the whole point of the game, you need to get your science on. Once you can build a Matrix Lab, you’ll be able to start doing research in earnest, and as you might expect, research consumes resources that you have to produce.
