The Alters Act 1 Walkthrough

After creating the first alter and turning on the engines, players get to experience the first journey in The Alters, which leads them to the first act of the game. While there are still many features to learn about down the road, players mostly use their knowledge from the prologue to maintain the base and manage the crew.

The beginning of Act 1 seems peaceful, but if the players don’t use these calm moments to gather valuable resources, they might face major issues and time shortages near the end of the act. So, this guide not only explains all the steps in Act 1, but also lists the resources, items, and research nodes required based on their priority throughout the act.

Base Building Priorities

Throughout this act, the player will need to upgrade the base multiple times with new modules. A Dormitory, a Research Lab, and a Refinery are the highest priorities. Then, you will need a Rapidium Ark, a new module that Jan will earn after making progress in the Act 1 story. Also, it’s strongly recommended to have five small storage rooms in total. The Social Room is also an optional module that players can consider building to deepen Jan’s relationship with his alters, and complete some side quests or even play a mini-game with them.

A Green House or an Infirmary is not necessary during this arc. Don’t spend resources on them if you have not built the priorities. You will also be asked for a second Rapidium Ark, which is, again, not necessary. The main problem is that you can’t even fit all the optional and priority modules in the base unless you unlock the Base Expansion 2 node in the Research Lab, but that happens near the end of the act, and it is quite difficult to make it. However, the Social Room is still a more viable option than the Green House.

Resource Gathering Priorities

Organics are the resource that you will need the most throughout Act 1, but Rapidium is the resource you need to get first. Since only a scientist can run the Research Lab, Jan’s first priority is to create a scientist alter of himself. If you already have enough Rapidium for this, initiate the process from Quantum Computer. Otherwise, mine Rapidium.

Since Organics are almost required in crafting every new tool as well as food items, it’s worth assigning Technician Jan to extract Organics from its mining outpost.

After Organics, the next required items are Metals and Minerals. Metals are needed to craft items for daily usage, like the Radiation Barrier capsules. If you run out of these capsules, you will get a 6-hour notification. If you don’t manage to craft one Radiation Barrier in time, the entire base will collapse. So, it’s important to at least craft one or two Radiation Barriers every day. The same goes for food. With the Scientist on board, the daily food consumption will grow to three units.

Before the beginning of Act 1, Technician Jan will notify the player of a new tool in the Workshop menu. This is Vertara Drill and is required to make progress in the act, along with the Climbing Hook. Make sure to craft them both before anything else in Act 1. Minerals will be required in the latter half of the game. The player will be tasked with gathering Polymer as a new resource, which requires a Refinery.

All Mining Outpost Locations For Major Resources

Except for Polymer, there is one major mining source for every resource type in Act 1. You will find Metal, Enriched Metal, Organics, Rapidium, and Mineral mining sources on the map, as you explore the area. You can check out the location of each mining outpost in the image above, which will help you with placing the scanners to find the exact source of the resources on the first try. Make sure you have at least 5 Mining Outposts and 12 Pylon connectors to run all the resource nodes properly.

Act 1 Main Story Quest Walkthrough

The Path Ahead

The first act will begin once the journey is interrupted by the Lava River. The Ventara Drill and Climbing Hook are essential for exploring the area, so make sure to craft them first, or go after the resources that enable crafting them: Metals and Organics.

Your first task is to explore the area until you find the lava river that is blocking the path, the location of which is highlighted on the map above. After witnessing the lava river, it’s time to craft a new plan, but you will need to talk to a scientist about that matter. Follow the path to the Rapidium-rich area shown on the resource map earlier in this guide, and build a mining outpost there.

Since having a scientist is essential to making progress from here on, Rapidium should be a priority if you don’t already have enough of this material in storage. Initiate the Scientist’s creation of the Quantum Computer and wake him up when the creation is over. While the Scientist is being created, build a Research Lab module on the base.

Unlike Technician Jan, Scientist Jan has a rational personality, and thinks of nothing but speeding up projects and succeeding in his work. He will even offer running crunch working times near the end of the act. If you want to improve your relationship with him, try to reply rationally to his questions or requests.

Talk to the Scientist about the lava river, and he will add a new project to the Missions tab in the Research Lab. Put the project in the queue and assign the scientist to the Research Lab. In the meantime, gather Metals and Organics to craft enough Radiation Barriers, as you will need more of them when the Magnetic Storm begins. One Radiation Barrier is enough for a single day in normal situations, but during a Magnetic Storm, you will need three Radiation Barriers per day.

Make sure to fill in the food stock too. Keeping these daily requirements fed early on will help reduce the workload during the final

Once the lava river research is done, speak with the scientist, and he will ask you to get the blueprints for a bridge from Maxwell. After that, you will have a call available with Maxwell. Talk to him about the blueprints and then speak with the scientist about the results. There will be a new project available in the Missions tab of the Research Lab called Bridge Anchors. Make sure to get this research done as quickly as possible.

Once the research is finished, Bridge Anchors will be added to the crafting menu in the Workshop. You will need four of them to build a bridge and continue the journey, but this requires a massive amount of resources. From this point on, you will need Minerals, Organics, and a Refinery to craft Polymers, which is one of the materials required to build Bridge Anchors.

Each Bridge Anchor needs 20 Metals and 20 Polymers, so to craft four of them, you will need 80 Metals and 80 Polymers. The Polymer itself can only be created through the Refinery with Minerals and Organics. A 10-stack of Polymer requires 20 Organics and 20 Minerals. So, to get 80 Polymers in total, you’ll need 160 Organics and 160 Minerals.

Collecting these materials might not seem difficult, but timing is the hardest part of this process. Players will need to spend hours in the Refinery to get Polymers, and the same goes for crafting Bridge Anchors. Daily requirements like Food, Radiation Barriers, and Repair Kits will consume a lot of time. That’s why taking care of the daily requirements early on is so important.

Starting on Day 18, the sun will get closer, and the radiation will start an hour earlier. Starting on Day 26, the countdown to sunrise will begin. The sun will rise on Day 36, and the player must be gone by that time.

Once the Bridge Anchors are built, you will need to place them in the locations marked by red rectangles on the map. Two of them are quite easy to reach from the base, but for the other two, the player must circle around the river and follow the path next to the Minerals Mining Outpost.

By placing the Bridge Anchors, all you need is to fill in the Organics storage. Make sure that the mass of your base does not exceed 300, which is equal to the Organics storage. If it exceeds that limit, you either need to expand the base, which is a lot of work, or remove a few unnecessary modules to reduce the mass.

Once the base mass is in line with the Organics storage, you can initiate the next journey.

Strange Phenomena

This one is related to anomalies that the player will face while exploring the planet during Act 1. Near the Minerals Mining Outpost location and beyond, you will find bubble-like floating anomalies, which will cause a surge in the amount of radiation Jan absorbs.

After encountering the anomaly for the first time, talk to the scientist. You will be asked to investigate anomalies further, which simply requires you to continue on the path until you reach the other side of the lava river. Then, return to the scientist and talk to him about the anomalies again.

The next part of the quest will again ask Jan to investigate more strange phenomena, but you won’t be able to make any more progress until Day 26. On this day, a new question mark will appear on the map, which is a new anomaly. Check it out and then report back to the scientist. He will unlock a new crafting item in the Workshop, known as Luminator. Craft one and get back to the new anomaly.

If you aim down sight and hold the shooting button, the anomaly will reveal a series of plants. Follow the plants until you reach a big anomaly flower. Use the Luminator’s shooting process on the flower to melt it down and grab the Planetary Sample, a valuable resource that is required for certain research projects.

There are two anomalies in Act 1 that you can follow to obtain Planetary Samples. It is recommended to collect them all before starting the next journey. Collecting all Planetary Samples will put an end to this quest.

Side Quests In Act 1

There are multiple side quests that you can complete during Act 1. Completing all of them will be quite difficult, as they require excellent timing, but you can tackle at least a few of them while proceeding with the main story missions.

The Radiation Barrier

This is quite an easy quest to complete. All you need to do is go to the Machinery Module, interact with the terminal, and turn the Auto-Load Filters on.

A Mysterious Device

A Myerstious Device will be activated when you find the damaged chip while exploring the planet in Act 1. The location of the chip is highlighted on the map above. After showing the chip to the Technician, players must craft a Qubit Chip for the Quantum Computer and apply it. The chip will increase the alter slot by one and unlock a new wave of research projects.

A Place To Rest

This quest begins when Technician Jan wants to talk to the player, and he will ask for somewhere to sleep. You will need to build a Dormitary at this point. This is not a main quest, but it will have a great impact on the player’s relationship with the alters. Sometime after building the Dormitary, talk to Technician Jan again, and he will ask for a Social Room module. Build this module and play a mini-game with Technician Jan here to put an end to this quest.

The Good Husband

After talking to Lena for the first time, The Good Husband quest will become available, asking the player to build an alter that can actually talk to Lena properly. For this purpose, create a Botanist Jan. Share the subject with him, and let him talk to Lena. This will put an end to the quest.

This is a time-limited mission. If you don’t complete it in time, it will fail.

Is One Enough?

After building the first Rapidium Ark, you will be asked to build a second one. This is almost impossible without upgrading the Quantum Computer and researching Base Expansion 2. So, you will need to collect a lot of resources to complete this task.