Jan Dolski is stranded far from home in The Alters, and it’s up to you to help him find his way back home. You’ve got your work cut out for you, whether you’re gathering resources, investigating anomalies, or just patching things up with half a dozen clones back at your base. Thankfully, our The Alters beginner’s guide has all the tips you need to pull through.

12 things you need to know to survive in The Alters – Beginner’s guide

Our beginner’s guide tackles several facets that you’ll encounter within the first few hours of starting the campaign. We discuss everything from managing your base to strengthening relationships with other characters. Likewise, we talk about some of the odd things you’d encounter, including anomalies and crashed pods.

Time moves at a brisk pace in The Alters–i.e. roughly three seconds in real-time equate to a minute in-game. Likewise, you’re not going to make use of all those minutes and hours due to being on an inhospitable planet. Here’s a quick summary:

• Jan’s day normally begins at 0700. From this point until 2100, you should be able to do all sorts of tasks outside, such as gathering materials and exploring nooks and crannies.
• However, when it’s almost 2100, a notification will tell you that nighttime radiation will occur. This effect can kill Jan within seconds, which is why you should drop whatever it is that you’re doing so you can return to your base.
• Ideally, you should sleep before 10:30 PM. That, or you’d want to avoid overexerting yourself.
• If Jan sleeps too late or is exhausted when he goes to bed, then he’ll wake up later than usual the next day.

Note: You can pause the game to stop the passage of time. Opening the overview/production menus, however, still causes time to pass.

One important tip in The Alters is that you should know the types of resources that you can gather. These include metals, organics, minerals, rapidium, enriched metals, and ALX. Generally speaking, these can be obtained through the following means:

• Smaller ores can be picked up by hand.
• Larger deposits can be mined by Jan. It takes a couple of hours in-game to fully mine a node.
• Deep deposits, meanwhile, need their location scanned first. Once you’ve done this, you need to place a Mining Outpost, which has to be connected to your base via Pylons.

Specifically concerning Mining Outposts:

• These structures allow Jan or his alters to amass a huge amount of a particular resource.
• There’s also a screen that allows you to recharge your battery–i.e. energy–which is depleted when you undertake certain actions.
• Mining Outposts, along with Travel Pylons, can be used to teleport to other fast travel points.

Related guide: How to scan and mine for resources

The aforementioned rapidium resource is used to create clones of Jan. This is done via the Quantum Computer, where you get to see what Jan has done throughout his life. Branching paths then appear, denoting crucial moments that led to another version of Jan–i.e. a life where he became a Miner, a Scientist, a Botanist, and more.

Once you’ve chosen to “alterate” a particular character, you need to wait several hours in-game until they can be “birthed” in The Womb. As such, it’s best to alterate at night when you’re done with most of your activities. By the time you wake up the next day, your new clone should be ready.

Related guide: Best alter characters/clones to create

The first alter that you get to create in the campaign is the Technician. Shortly thereafter, you should see more options. Here’s the most important tip in The Alters that you need to remember once you reach this stage: Birth the Scientist as soon as you can.

The Scientist is the only character who can complete research works in the Lab. Not only does he unlock boosts to production and gathering, but he also provides discoveries and breakthroughs that are integral to storyline progression. Creating him much later actually makes the campaign tougher, since you’d be hard-pressed to find ways to complete objectives.

Alters can perform a variety of duties when selected via the Assignments tab in the menu. Ideally, though, they should only handle the tasks that they’re best suited for. Here are some examples:

• The Scientist is the only one who can be assigned to the Research Lab.
• The Doctor is the only one who can be assigned to the Infirmary (not the beds), so he can heal injured characters faster.
• The Technician, Miner, Botanist, Refiner, and the Worker provide production boosts to Base Maintenance, Mining Outposts, Greenhouse, Refinery, and Workshop (i.e. item crafting). That said, the jobs in these rooms can still be assigned to others.
• The Guard and the Shrink affect the morale of other alters when inside the Contemplation Room.
• Alters can also be assigned general crafting-related jobs and those with production queues.

Note that alters tend to work from 0900 to 2100 only. However, they will continue working if:

• You activate the “Crunch Hours” option, which is unlocked later in the game. Doing this causes them to get upset.
• There’s an active Magnetic Storm, and they need to work double-time for everyone’s safety.

Every alter has his own quirk and personality, usually determined by their backstory in the Quantum Computer. That’s why there are times when you do need to talk to them:

• Sometimes, you might be prompted to speak with them to progress the objective.
• You might see a textbox icon next to their portrait, which means they have new dialogue.
• In other cases, they could confront another clone and you need to make a decision.

The more you talk to your alters, the better you’ll be able to understand their motivations. Eventually, you might unlock “Lessons Learned”–i.e. a special cutscene or moment pertaining to that other version of you.

Your mobile base is going to be a mess early on, especially as you start adding more rooms and modules in it. However, an important tip in The Alters is to allot enough time to reposition these modules properly via the Command Center.

You’ll want rooms like the Command Center and Research Lab to be close enough to the Airlock. That’s because you’ll be going back and forth these areas to make changes. The Kitchen and Dormitory should be easily accessible as well, as that’s where alters tend to hang out when they’re back in the hub.

Related guide: How to manage your base

You don’t need to run around the base just to select items and objects that need to be crafted. This can be done directly via the Production tab in the menu. Still, you need someone to complete the crafting/production tasks in these rooms. Either you do it yourself, or you’d have to get a clone of yours to do it for you.

One more thing to bear in mind is that you can choose to “uphold” a certain number of items. This means an item will always be crafted up to that minimum amount as long as you have the necessary resources. Perhaps the most crucial item is the Radiation Filter, which is needed in the Machinery room, since it prevents the deadly radiation from harming anyone inside the base.

Speaking of items and “upholding” amounts, it’s often a great idea to bring more than enough of a particular tool or consumable. Here are some examples:

• Pylon Component Package – You need several of these since Mining Outposts and their pylons need to be connected with one another, all leading back to your base.
• Suit Battery – Climbing ledges and scanning for deep deposits drains Jan’s energy. Even if Mining Outposts and Travel Pylons allow you to recharge your energy, you still need a Suit Battery or two when you’re in a bind.
• Drill Cartridge – The Drill Cartridge is used to melt down rock formations that act as obstacles. Try to have several of these while exploring so you can open up new pathways.

The ill-fated journey of Jan and his crewmates has, nonetheless, led to new discoveries. When you’re roaming around, you need to keep your eyes peeled for crashed pods in the area. Some of these contain special baubles and remembrances, which can be given to your clones to improve your relationship with them.

Sometimes, you might even find movies that the group can watch, or Qubit Chips that are used to upgrade the Quantum Computer.

Just a few hours after starting the campaign, you’ll have to contend with anomalies. These strange occurrences dot this barren wasteland and many of them are extremely dangerous. Some will only damage Jan briefly, while others can chase him down and kill him.

That said, your Scientist variant will let you craft a trust device known as the Luminator. It’s basically a flashlight that can destroy anomalies. And, yes, it’s akin to destroying the darkness shields in Alan Wake, heh. If you manage to keep these anomalies at bay, then you might find a valuable material known as ALX, which can be used to refine other resources.

That does it for our The Alters survival guide. We hope these tips help you as you journey ever onward.

Can you help Jan Dolski and his clones stay alive throughout their ordeal? Well, if you need more tips, you can head over to our The Alters guides hub.