Summary
Every decision in The Alters is shadowed by the ticking clock of a dying sun, unpredictable storms, and crew morale that can nosedive into chaos. While players juggle expansion, research, and base-building, the humble stockpile is quietly doing the heavy lifting. It’s the last barrier between disaster and a narrow, hard-fought victory.
A depleted inventory doesn’t just mean inefficiency; it’s the spark that can ignite a full-blown catastrophe, from a base-wide systems failure to a crew rebellion. From the Radiation Filter to the Repair Kit, knowing what to keep in stock is the real secret to survival. What follows is the definitive ranking of the eight best items to always have instock in The Alters. Some may be surprising, but each one has earned its spot after careful consideration and meticulous evaluation.
8Drill Cartridge
The Key to Unlocking the Planet’s Secrets
Every player knows the Drill Cartridge is the key that unlocks the map’s deepest secrets. While its moment of glory comes when cracking through a rock wall, its true value lies in efficiency, not in averting disaster. Drill Cartridges are relatively cheap but time-consuming to craft because they take an hour in the Workshop.
They’re single-use, so keeping two ready means never having to detour just to clear a barrier. Its absence doesn’t threaten instant failure, but it does waste precious hours if a rock barrier halts expansion. Running out means players are forced into a frustrating loop: retreat to base, craft, return—a massive loss in a world wheretime is the most important asset.
7Suit Battery
Buying Back the Game’s Most Precious Resource
InThe Alters, time is the ultimate currency, and the Suit Battery is the most direct way to purchase more of it. Every action Jan takes outside the base drains his suit’s energy, and a full depletion forces a long walk back to the base or an outpost for a recharge.
A Suit Battery, which costs 20 Organics and an hour to craft, allows players to instantly refill their energy in the field, effectively converting a common resource into priceless hours of exploration. The need for backup power becomes even more critical once players acquireenergy-hungry tools like the Luminator, which are essential for clearing out planetary anomalies.
6Pylon Component
The Foundational Building Blocks of Your Economy
Pylon Components are the building blocks behind every functional outpost and resource vein. Without them, even the best finds are useless—there’s simply no way to get the goods back to base. Crafted in batches, they’re not daily throwaways but critical for planned expansions. The recommended stock is five, ensuring any deep deposit can be tapped as soon as it’s found.
What sets Pylon Components apart is their role in base logistics. Run out, and the entire supply chain grinds to a halt. Suddenly, that new vein of Rapidium is out of reach, and mission progress stalls. This forces a long and inefficient trip back to the base to queue up the 1-hour, 18-minute crafting job before returning to the field.
5Mining Outpost
For Long-Term Growth and Survival
Mining Outposts transform deep deposits into endless streams of Metals, Organics, or Rapidium. They’re expensive and take up serious storage space, so hoarding them can be risky. The golden rule is to always keep at least one ready to deploy. Find a new deep deposit, and instant setup keeps the resource funnel flowing.
When it comes tothe Mining Outpost, it’s all about balance. Overstocking Outposts means building extra storage, which adds mass, and that increases the Organics needed to move the base, risking a fuel crisis.
4Raw Food
The Hidden Ingredient to Balance Crew Morale
Raw Food can’t be eaten directly, but it’s the root of all high-morale meals. Players can make one at a time or batch-produce for maximum efficiency, but both require investment in Organics and a well-managed Greenhouse. The importance of Raw Food only increases with crew size; two per character is the strategic minimum.
Without Raw Food, Cooked Meals become impossible, and that’s when crew happiness starts to nosedive. Sure, Mush will keep everyone alive, but it’s a ticket to the crew’s collective grumpiness and thelooming threat of rebellion.
3Mush
Bare Minimum but Absolutely Non-Negotiable
Mush is for staying alive. It is the absolute, non-negotiable daily requirement that prevents the crew from starving. Every Alter must eat once per day, and missing a meal guarantees a significant and immediate drop in their morale. A player can complete the entire game on a diet of nothing but Mush. However, no player can survive without it at all.
Two per character creates a vital buffer, protecting against supply chain hiccups or sudden disasters. The Recycler module helps automate production, turning Mush into a background process, but don’t ever let it slip. Starvation is the quickest route to chaos, and Mush is the last line of defense.
2Repair Kit
The Cheap Fix That Prevents Catastrophic Collapse
The Repair Kit is the single most cost-effective insurance policy in The Alters. Costing only 10 Metals and one hour to craft, this unassuming item is the sole defense against cascading, base-wide systems failure duringpredictable crises like Magnetic Storms. These storms are guaranteed to cause multiple, simultaneous module failures, and being caught without a stockpile of Repair Kits is one of the quickest ways to lose a run.
Imagine a storm hits, and the Workshop, the only place to craft new Repair Kits, is one of the modules that breaks down. Suddenly, players are unable to build the very item needed to fix the builder. This potential for total, unrecoverable collapse makes a healthy stockpile of Repair Kits an absolute, non-negotiable priority.
1Radiation Filter
The Critical Barrier Against Annihilation
The Radiation Filter is, without question, the single most important item to have in stock in The Alters. Its importance stems from a simple, terrifying fact: it counteracts a constant, passive, and lethal threat that will destroy the base with absolute certainty if ignored. The base’sradiationshield consumes exactly one filter every 24 hours, making this a mandatory, daily tax on survival.
The moment a filter expires and is not replaced, a strict six-hour countdown begins. If a new filter isn’t installed in the Machinery room within that window, the base collapses, resulting in an instant “Game Over.” This isn’t a risk that can be mitigated or avoided; it is an immutable law of the planet for the majority of the game.
