Day one decides whether your crew spends the rest of the cycle recovering or building.
The mistake almost every new crew makes is buying too much. The second mistake is landing on a moon that punishes them for it.
Buy this, nothing else
One flashlight each, 15 credits. A dark corridor is where every indoor entity gets its opening. This is the purchase that matters most.
One shovel for the group, 30 credits. Not one each. On day one the shovel is for Hoarding Bugs and Bunker Spiders, and one person carrying it is enough.
That is 45 to 90 credits depending on crew size. If you have credits left, save them — the quota is the real goal, and credits spent on gear are credits not spent on it.
Do not buy the Zap Gun. It costs 400 and stuns rather than kills. Do not buy the Jetpack at 700. Both are for crews whose quota problem is already solved.
Land on Experimentation
It is the starter moon for a reason. The outdoor entity mix is the weakest in the game, with Old Bird at 2.22 percent — the lowest figure for that entity anywhere.
That matters because the walk from the ship to the facility door is the part of a run that kills new crews. On Experimentation that walk is nearly free, so you get to practise the facility instead of the surface.
How to split the crew
Three players: two looters and one ship. The operator watches the radar, reads the clock and runs the terminal. Their call to come back is not a suggestion.
Four players: two looters, one scout, one ship. The scout goes in light and ahead, with no scrap in hand, and reports what is on the route. That report is what lets the looters move without stopping to look.
Do not send all four inside. A ship with nobody on the terminal cannot buy, cannot check SCAN, and cannot tell you where the last person went.
How the day should go
Land, agree a turnaround time, and split into two looters and one ship operator. The operator watches the radar and the clock, and their call to come back is not a suggestion.
Loot the near rooms properly rather than sprinting to the far end. Experimentation’s layout is readable, and a crew that learns it on day one has a route for every later run.
Take light scrap. Early quotas are cleared by volume of small items, not by one heavy score, and a sign weighing 42 pounds is a bad first-day lesson.
What a good day one looks like
Everyone comes back. The quota has moved. Nobody had to be talked out of a corridor.
That is the standard. A day one where you cleared more scrap but lost a diver is a worse day one, because the next run starts with three people and less gear.
After day one: the quota-stage order
Day one is flashlights and one shovel, then save the rest. From day two onward, stop buying by impulse and buy by which quota you are on:
- Early quotas (1–2): finish outfitting every diver with light and a walkie-talkie, then a lockpicker and pro-flashlight. No weapons beyond one shovel.
- Mid quotas (3–4): stun grenades and radar boosters — the items that save a run that runs long.
- Late quotas (5+): teleporter first, then zap gun, jetpack last.
That is the short form of the buy order guide. Before each shop trip, check the quota calculator so you spend against the days remaining, not against what looks useful.
Related guides
- Best moons for beginners — the five-day plan that starts here.
- Experimentation moon guide — what spawns there and how to run it.
- Best equipment tier list — the full buying order after day one.