What decides a moon
Four things matter when you pick a destination. Travel cost is only one of them.
- Entity pressure. Some moons spawn nastier indoor entities, and some are far worse outside after dark.
- Weather. The terminal shows a forecast before you commit. Bad weather adds danger without adding loot.
- Layout size. Bigger facilities pay more and take longer to learn.
- Travel cost. The paid moons cost credits, and the price climbs with the moon’s reputation.
The trap is paying for a hard moon before your crew can survive an easy one. A crew that wipes on Titan loses the travel fee and the day.
The tier list
| Tier | Moons | Go there when |
|---|---|---|
| S | Experimentation, Assurance | You are learning, or you need a safe, cheap fill day |
| A | Vow, Offense | Your crew is steady and wants better scrap per run |
| B | March, Rend | You have gear and can handle real outdoor pressure |
| C | Dine, Titan, Artifice, Embrion | You are geared, coordinated, and deliberately chasing a big quota |
S tier — learn the loop here
Experimentation is where every crew starts, and it stays useful. The facility is readable, the entity mix is forgiving, and the scrap is enough for the early quotas.
Use it to drill the boring habits that keep crews alive. Keep an exit in mind. Call out what you see. Walk back before midnight rather than running back after it.
Assurance is the other gentle moon. It is a good second stop when Experimentation stops paying enough. The layout is still manageable, and a crew that has learned the basics can clear it comfortably.
Both are cheap to reach. That matters more than people expect, because a cheap moon you survive beats an expensive moon you do not.
A tier — the first real step up
Vow raises the pressure without punishing you for one mistake. The facility is larger and the entity mix is sharper.
Bring a light source you trust and a plan for the walk back. Vow is where crews learn that the return trip is the hard part, not the looting.
Offense is the moon that teaches hazard awareness. Expect more of the things that kill you without a fight: turrets, landmines, and tighter corridors.
Slow down on Offense. The facility punishes speed. Sweep with your scanner, watch the floor, and treat every open doorway as a question.
B tier — you need gear for these
March and Rend are where outdoor entities start to matter as much as indoor ones. Nights on these moons are genuinely dangerous, and a crew that lingers after dark will lose people.
Go in with at least one weapon, a spare light, and an agreed retreat call. Decide the retreat rule before you land, not during the chase.
These moons pay well enough to justify the cost once your crew is equipped. Before that, they are an expensive way to lose a day.
C tier — high risk, high return
Dine and Titan are the moons crews talk about. They carry the best scrap returns in the game and the worst survival odds.
Titan in particular is the one people pay for too early. The entity pressure is high, the weather is often unkind, and the facility is big enough that getting turned around is a real risk.
Artifice and Embrion sit in the same bracket. They are late-game destinations with late-game demands: coordinated crews, real gear, and a clear plan for getting out.
Treat every C-tier run as a calculated gamble. If the quota does not force you there, it is usually correct to stay on a cheaper moon.
Weather changes everything
Weather is the variable most crews ignore, and it is the one that ends the most runs. The terminal lists the forecast before you commit, and you should read it every time.
Bad weather does not raise scrap value. It only raises the chance you die carrying it. That asymmetry is why weather should veto a moon more often than it does.
Two conditions deserve special respect:
- Stormy. Lightning is drawn to conductive metal. Carrying conductive scrap in a storm is a decision, not an accident.
- Flooded. Water changes how you move and where you can go. Routes you relied on yesterday may not exist today.
Fog is the quiet one. It does not kill you directly, but it removes the sightlines you use to avoid what does.
How to pick, run by run
Use this order of checks before you pull the lever:
- What is the forecast? Bad weather on a hard moon is a no.
- What does the quota demand? Do not overpay for a moon if a cheap one clears it.
- Is the crew geared? No weapons and one flashlight means stay in S or A tier.
- How many days are left? A big spend on the final day is rarely worth it.
A crew that follows those four checks will clear more quotas than a crew that always flies to the highest-paying moon.
What the terminal tells you before you pay
The route screen hands you three facts for every destination. Read all three before you spend a credit.
The fee. Paid moons charge up front. That money is gone the moment you commit, whether the run pays or not.
The forecast. The same screen shows the weather on that moon. Weather never raises the loot table. It raises the chance you die carrying the loot.
The hazard listing. The terminal rates what lives there. Read the rating as a floor rather than a promise. Moons listed as moderate still produce brutal nights.
Crews that check all three make boring, correct decisions. Crews that check one make expensive ones.
Travel cost versus total return
A paid moon has to beat a free moon by more than its fee. That sounds obvious, and it is the rule crews break most often.
Do the arithmetic before you commit. If Experimentation clears the quota, Titan’s higher ceiling is irrelevant. You would be paying for scrap you do not need.
The fee makes sense in one situation: the cheap moons cannot produce enough value in the days you have left. That is a quota problem, not an ambition problem.
Late in a cycle, a paid moon can be correct even at bad odds. Two days left and a target a cheap moon cannot reach is that situation. Every other reason to fly expensive is a preference dressed up as strategy.
Moon choice by crew size
Crew size changes which moons are survivable more than gear does.
Two players. Stay in S and A tier. Two divers cannot hold a watcher and a looter at once, and the entities that punish that gap live on the harder moons.
Three players. A tier is comfortable and B tier is possible with gear. The third diver is the one who can hold a stare or run a rescue while the others loot.
Four players. B tier opens up properly. Four divers split into two pairs, keep eyes on each other, and still carry a haul worth the trip.
Solo. Do not pay for moons. You cannot cover the roles a hard moon demands, and the fee is a loss you absorb alone.
When staying put is the right answer
The best moon decision is often the one you made yesterday.
Stay on a cheap moon in four cases: the quota is close, the crew is new, the weather is bad everywhere, or you are still learning a facility layout. Running one moon repeatedly teaches you its routes. Route knowledge beats a better loot table.
Move up in three cases. Cheap moons stop clearing the quota. Everyone carries a light and a weapon. The crew calls out contact without being reminded to.
Those two lists cover most decisions. Everything else is mood.
A five-day moon plan for a new crew
If you are starting fresh and want a sensible order:
- Day one: Experimentation. Learn the loop. Leave with something, even if it is small.
- Day two: Experimentation again. Run the same facility faster. The second visit is always quicker than crews expect.
- Day three: Assurance. New layout, same habits. This is where you find out which habits stuck.
- Day four: Vow or Offense. The first moon that can genuinely hurt you. Bring a weapon and a retreat plan.
- Day five: back to whichever of the four paid best. You know what your crew handles by now. The quota tells you whether you must gamble.
That plan is deliberately unglamorous. It produces crews that reach day ten, and day ten is where the interesting moons stop being a coin flip.
Common mistakes
- Paying for Titan on quota pressure alone. The travel cost is a real loss if you wipe.
- Ignoring the forecast. Weather adds risk without adding reward.
- Staying out after dark on B and C tier moons. Nights there are not the same as nights on Experimentation.
- Carrying conductive scrap into a storm. That is how crews lose a full haul.
Planets or moons?
A lot of players search for “planets”. The terminal, the store and the wiki all call them moons — same list, same travel cost, same hazard table. If you are looking for the best planet to fly to, every moon ranked on this page is what you are after.
One-line pick by situation
The four checks above are the discipline. When you just need a call, use this:
- Quota low + new crew + any weather risk → stay on Experimentation or Assurance. A free, safe moon you survive beats an expensive one you don’t.
- Quota mid + crew of 3–4 + gear on hand → Vow or Offense. Better scrap per run without the C-tier death rate.
- Quota steep + 2 days left + free moons can’t reach it → one calculated C-tier run (Titan/Artifice). The fee is worth it only when the deadline forces it.
- Solo, any quota → never pay a travel fee. Experimentation or Assurance, shallow routes only.
The best moons for scrap ranks the same moons by sellable scrap per trip if you want the per-moon breakdown.
Related guides
- Map guide — reading a facility and planning a route in and out.
- Quota guide — planning a day that clears the target.
- Beginner guide — the loop, the terminal, and your first day.
- Outdoor monsters guide — what hunts you on the surface.