
Pay attention to all of the information the game gives you so you know what you’re getting into. Other ships will have minimal oxygen meaning you have less time to explore there, or faulty generators and, therefore, power outages. In the image above, you can see that there’s a Warp Key (a useful item that lets you skip over ships on your Star Map) hidden somewhere on the ship, and that one kind of enemy is actually an ally. These work like your prisoners’ attributes - some are beneficial and some are harmful. Those three things are usually enough to determine if you should visit: You’ll know if it’ll have what you’re currently looking for, and if you’re likely to survive the bad guys you meet.īelow the enemies, you’ll see the ship’s (random) attributes. Next, you’ll see the types of enemies you’ll encounter. Below that are the useful items you might find there. At the top, you’ll see the kind of ship it is and its features - resources you can collect there, or special locations on the ship like a healing station. You’ll see these listed on the right side of your Star Map screen. Similarly, each ship has a variety of, er, variables. Every ship is different Your Star Map has lots of information about your prisoner’s current status and the ships available to board. Or, if your prisoner is eagle-eyed, loose items will appear on your map, so you’ll know you don’t have to waste time and oxygen looking around every corner for stuff to loot. Your smoker, for example, isn’t going to be able to sneak around enemies, so you’ll know to prepare for a fight. These attributes don’t have to change how you play, but playing into them (or at least being aware of them) will make the game more manageable. Some of them are smokers who cough and alert enemies. Some of them are short statured and harder to hit. They’re listed on the left side of your menu under the Bio tab. Blue Manchu/Humble Bundle via PolygonĮvery prisoner you control has a chance of having an inherent benefit or detriment. This mainly applies to ship layouts, but it also shows up a lot more subtly. Part of the roguelike conceit of Void Bastards is that you never know what you’ll encounter next. You can just start over again, slightly better off than you were last time. Just like your prisoners, don’t be precious about your carefully laid plans. Your carefully mapped route through the nebula is going to get short-circuited when you run out of fuel.

Your favorite prisoner with his eagle eyes and short stature is going to get surprised by a Screw and die. The other way to say this is: Expect it all to go wrong.


Use each prisoner you get for as long as you can, gather everything that isn’t nailed down, build new stuff, and leave the following prisoner that much better off. Progress in Void Bastards, however small and incremental, is still progress.

Don’t plan to die, but don’t plan to survive either You might die on this jaunt into to nebula, but you might also end up with an invaluable new weapon that your next incarnation can use. The tools you’ve constructed and most of the items you’ve collected will carry over to the next prisoner that gets rehydrated. Death isn’t a complete lossĭying in Void Bastards doesn’t completely reset your progress. Below, you’ll find our advice for navigating the deadly void and deadlier bureaucracy.
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We put in a lot of hours figuring out how to succeed - or at least die slightly less often - in Void Bastards. It’s a simple enough premise - collect Item 1 and Item 2 - but the roguelike nature of Void Bastards means your goals are always evolving. You need food so you don’t starve, fuel so you can find the next widget you “need,” bullets to defend yourself, and a vast array of other bits and pieces that you’ll use to make your journey easier.
