Best colony builds & strategies

What makes a good colony build?

Every strong build follows the same three rules: never let power or air fall behind population, zone industry away from habitats so happiness doesn't tank, and keep a metal buffer for upkeep. After that, your doctrine decides your identity.

Adjacency is the secret lever: cluster same-category buildings to boost their output (up to +40%), but keep domes, parks, and med bays away from mines and smelters, which sap morale nearby. Build like a city planner, not a spreadsheet.

How do you build an industrial powerhouse?

Take Industrial Automation, rush power and extraction, and automate everything. This is the fastest route to a Helium-3 stockpile and an early Gateway — ideal for the Speedrun achievement.

• Doctrine: Industrial Automation (+25% extraction & processing).
• Opening: Solar → Metal Mine → Regolith Miner → Dome → Oxygen, then Fission the moment you can.
• Core: Strip Mines (no deposit needed), Automated Foundries, a tight power grid, and Rovers for the colony-wide +15% extraction.
• Watch: happiness — buy the occasional Med Bay and keep the smelters in their own district.

How do you build a thriving, happy colony?

Take Sustainable Habitats and lead with life support and recreation. You'll grow a larger, calmer city that rarely loses a colonist — the build for the Not One Lost and Megalopolis achievements.

• Doctrine: Sustainable Habitats (+30% life support, +25% happiness buildings, −20% supplies).
• Opening: the standard five, then a Hydroponics Farm and a Park early for a morale cushion.
• Core: Biodomes and Greenhouse Towers for cheap air, Memorial Groves and Wellness Centers for happiness, Arcology Spires for dense housing.
• Payoff: playing gently also warms the Moon's caretaker toward you — and its ending.

How do you rush the Signal mystery?

Prioritize research over expansion: Labs early, then Mobility → Scanning → an Observatory to decode the signal, then Xenoarchaeology to open the ruin. Land at Daedalus (far side) where the signal is strongest.

• Focus: two or three Labs by day 5, an Observatory as soon as Scanning lands.
• Do the UAP challenge: keep the Observatory running to decode the 11-second signal — it fast-tracks the arc.
• Then: Excavation Site on the ruin → Resonance → Gateway. Follow the campaign phases straight down the middle.

How do you survive Hardcore mode?

On Hardcore, disasters are frequent and losses are permanent, so play defensively: overbuild power storage, keep a Med Bay and repair buffer, and never expand faster than your air and morale can follow.

• Store more than you think you need: extra Battery Banks and Storage Depots absorb dust storms and supply delays.
• Med Bay early: happiness swings hurt more here; a Med Bay and a park stop a morale spiral.
• Slow and steady: a smaller colony that never fails beats a big one that collapses. Opening the Gateway on Hardcore earns Against the Odds.