Astroneer is a sandbox adventure game where players can colonize entire planets by exploring outer space, creating structures and managing resources. This guide will tell you about the Rail systems in the game.
Astroneer: Rail Systems Guide
The rail posts are basic buildings required for any rail system and there are two types of rail posts. There are the short rail post and tall rail posts which can be obtained from a small printer. You will also get a rail bundle that includes 10 such rail posts that can be placed at any location of your choice.
After you put down these rail posts, you can rotate them by pressing V and it will produce a ghost rail line that will connect to the next rail post.
This rail line will also change its colour depending on the distance to white, blue or red. The red colour indicates that you have extended it beyond the length of the rail line and you cannot place it whereas blue or white means that it is ready to be placed.
The only way of getting a straight rail line is by walking backwards to change the direction and angle of the rail line. In case you are very nitpicky with your rail line and only want straight rail lines then you will need to turn around and face backwards before placing it.
The difference between the short and tall rail posts is that you can stack the tall posts over a short rail line allowing you to place multiple rail lines in the same areas to fully utilize the space.
You can always connect a tall rail line with a shorter one to create a loop or rollercoaster-shaped rail track.
In order for the rail line to work, you will either need a railcar or a rail engine. All of these schematics are easy to unlock except the rail station which requires you to visit another planet since it needs titanium.
You don’t need a rail station or rail engine for the rail system to function and you can simply use a rail car to make the system functional. However, it will be significantly slower if you use a rail car instead of a rail engine.
These rail engines and cars require power to work with the engine itself needing three units of power per second and each additional car requires one unit of power per second. You can hover over the rail engine or rail car after placing it on the rail line to see the total power draw.
You can either have five rail cars and one rail engine or six rail cars to create a complete train meaning that this is the maximum length that your train can have. The game also allows you to have multiple trains running on the same line. In case one of the train stops then the other will continue to run until the obstruction in its path is removed.
The other piece of the building is the Rail Junction bundle which is used to divert your trains from one location to another allowing you to switch between tracks. This is extremely useful when you wish to have all of your trains in one station or depot. You can automate the entire process of switching the tracks so you don’t have to worry about them.
Next are the rail stations which have two settings: station stop mode and station loading mode. With the stop mode function, you can either stop trains from stopping at the station, stop all uncalled cars, or stop all called cars.
The station loading mode on the other hand allows you to disable loading or load all stopped cars or unload all stopped cars. This can be useful in situations where you need to produce a resource, load it on your train then transport it to another station where it can be unloaded.
Unfortunately, the rail station does not call the train back after the journey is complete, you will need to manually go back to the station or visit a rail post and then press a button to summon the rail cars.
Another thing that you need to be careful of is that when you place a rail line, it will deform the terrain to make space for the rail cars. This can have an effect on your surroundings when you try to place a rail line through the mountains or make a tunnel underground.
You can put these rail lines anywhere even on the wall or ceilings however you will need to create some soil or ground first if there is none present.
After you complete the story, you will get the Conductor suit and emote along with a special train called C.O.L.E.This train is significantly faster than the other rail engines but you only have one piece so use it wisely.
The last thing to note about these rail lines is that you can transmit oxygen and power through them which will show as blue and yellow coloured stripes along the tracks. This will provide you with oxygen at each rail post making it more useful than extenders.
That’s everything you need to know about the Rail System in Astronner!
