Starbound

(Tips may change through beta states.)

• As soon as you start, hit L and read the survival guide and controlling yourself sections. It contains some valuable tips and hotkeys.

• Your first three building priorities should be a stone pickaxe, a wooden bed, and a stone hoe.

• Once you build your hoe, use it to hit some dirt blocks near your spawn point until they've got a brown top and make squishing sounds when you step on them. That indicates that they're ready to farm the seeds from your ship's storage box on, which provides an easy and infinite source of food.

• Beds both heal you and freeze the hunger meter while you're asleep. If you need to step away for a break, surround yourself with blocks and sleep, then pick the bed back up when you're done.

• Hitting furniture with your pickaxe lets you take it, just like building materials. Nobody cares if you do this, so steal whatever you like.

• Right-clicking with the pickaxe lets you dig away at background tiles or items, and right-clicking while placing blocks lets you put them in the background. This is especially important when you're building a house, because...

• ...You can only beam back to your ship when you're standing in a area without background tile - he sky must be exposed. If you're building an underground base, leave a hole in the wall that's big enough to let you beam back up.

• Hunting bows and the Hunting Knife both have the highest chance of dropping meat and leather. Upgrade your bow to iron, and you'll have a much easier time collecting them both.

• Cook alien meat twice to turn it into meat chunks, which are a part of the best recipes. They still provide the same food value as regular grilled meat, too.

• You find better ores as you dig down towards a planet's core, but you also run the risk of digging into a cave deep enough to die from fall damage, or finding nasty critters. Pack torches and a decent weapon, and dig diagonally down so that you have an escape route if things go bad.

• You can dual-wield one-handed weapons by putting them both in your hotbar, left-clicking on one, and right-clicking on the other. A good use of this is to wield a weapon in one hand and putting your flashlight in the other.

• Ten pieces of unrefined wood in a smelter becomes one piece of coal. One piece of coal equals two points of fuel for your ship. If you're running low, deforest a planet and replant the saplings to continue getting wood.

• When you're near a village, put your weapons away. Otherwise, the guards will get upset, and they're very rough to fight.

• However, nobody cares about items that you take. Raid everybody's crates, chests, and bookshelves. Steal their decorations and windows. Destroy their roofs for your own use.

• If you find a big medieval castle and the guards are warning you not to approach, it's a really good idea to leave.

• The distress beacon is a sucker trap. Don't use it until you're kitted up for war, including armor and bandages.

• Use the examine cursor (N) on everything.

• Only scan stuff into your 3D printer when you're swimming in pixels, or when you need to free up storage space.

• When you see an anchor on the ground and a chain leading up, climb up by setting platforms onto the chain. The people at the top sell guns, which are a lovely alternative to bows.

• Make a cooking table at the craft table. Stuff you can cook usually has gigantically improved hunger restoration and health regeneration.