Solarpunk looks gentle, but the opening hours still have a real route. If you spend every rare item on comfort, rush iron tools before the dock, or fly away before your starter island can feed and water you, the game slows down fast. Treat the first island as a logistics puzzle: stabilize food, water, cloth, storage, sleep, research, beeswax, and iron, then use the airship to widen the map instead of escaping a messy base.
This is a practical early and mid-game progression guide, not a fixed linear walkthrough. Solarpunk is a survival crafting game about floating islands, farming, power systems, animals, automation, and airship exploration, and several details can shift with patches. Use the in-game objective and Survival Guide as your final authority, then use the tables here to decide what to build next, what to save, and which cleanup goals are worth delaying.
Fast Progression Route
If you only need the clean route, follow this order. It keeps the first island productive, avoids wasting bottleneck materials, and points you toward the first airship without pretending that every save has the same exact layout.
| Stage | Main Goal | Why It Matters | Common Mistake |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mode choice | Pick Standard for the full survival loop, or Soft if you mostly want cozy building and exploration. | Your hunger, thirst, death recovery, and early pressure should match the run you actually want. | Choosing Standard for pride, then playing like resources and weather are optional. |
| Tutorial basics | Gather berries, wood, sticks, stone, cotton, and early seeds while following the tutorial prompts. | These items become tools, food, cloth, the Survival Guide, and your first workstations. | Decorating before the island has food, water, and storage. |
| First base | Place the Crafting Table, Research Table, Rain Collector, Bed, and early chests near your main resource loop. | You need a short walk between water, crops, storage, smelting, and future machines. | Building a large house far from water, crops, or ore because it looks nice on day one. |
| First research | Research the practical unlocks first: storage, water, bed support, furnace, map, beehives, and dock path. | Research is the spine of progression; it unlocks the tools that reduce daily friction. | Spending iron and cloth on small upgrades before you know the next gate. |
| Airship prep | Save iron, cloth, and the Crashed Airship Component, then build the Airship Dock and first airship. | The airship opens new islands, crops, ore, and Traderbot progression. | Flying with no food, water, empty space, repair plan, or base storage. |
| Trader and power | Use Traderbot, energy devices, drills, batteries, and better generation to automate key bottlenecks. | Power lets you mine, water, move items, and scale your base without doing every chore by hand. | Overfilling generators, wiring switches incorrectly, or running drills without enough generation. |
| Cleanup | Finish airship upgrades, plants, animals, vending tickets, loot chests, trades, recipes, and energy achievements. | Most late achievements are easier after travel, storage, animals, and power are solved. | Trying to 100 percent the game while the starter island is still starving for cotton and water. |
Standard Or Soft Mode?
Standard is the better choice if you want Solarpunk to behave like a light survival game. Hunger, thirst, weather, death recovery, and travel preparation matter more, so every base decision has weight. Soft mode is the better choice if your main goal is to build, decorate, farm, and explore with less punishment for early mistakes. There is no achievement value in making the first save miserable. Pick the mode that matches the pace you want for the next twenty hours.
The only bad mode choice is the dishonest one. If you want a relaxed building save, use Soft and enjoy it. If you want the satisfaction of making a self-sustaining island, choose Standard and respect food, water, shelter, and spare materials from the start.
First Island Walkthrough
Your first island should become calm before it becomes impressive. Do not judge the save by how pretty the house looks on day one. Judge it by whether you can wake up, drink, harvest, craft, store, repair, and leave with a clear objective.
1. Gather With A Short Survival List
During the tutorial and first free minutes, collect broadly instead of tunneling one material. You want enough wood and sticks for tools and workstations, enough stone for basic tool loops, berries or other food to keep moving, cotton for cloth, and early seeds so your farm starts growing while you do other jobs. Replant as soon as you can. Resources regrow, but waiting for every plant to return after you ignored farming is one of the easiest ways to slow the whole route.
| Early Item | Why To Prioritize It | Do This Before Spending It Freely |
|---|---|---|
| Cotton | Turns into cloth, which touches tools, bed setup, airship prep, name tags, and other unlocks. | Plant more cotton before crafting comfort items or duplicate upgrades. |
| Raspberries and food crops | Keep your stamina route comfortable and prevent short trips from becoming emergencies. | Keep a travel stack ready before your first long flight. |
| Wood and sticks | Feed tools, crafting stations, beehives, docks, building pieces, and early fuel needs. | Replant trees near the base once you can, so wood trips stay short. |
| Stone and ore | Support tools, furnace progression, iron, copper, and later machine crafting. | Mark permanent-looking ore patches mentally; they become better once drills are available. |
| Iron | Competes with the furnace path, dock, airship, postbox, drones, machines, and upgrades. | Keep an iron reserve before making iron tools just because the recipe appeared. |
2. Build Near The Loop, Not The View
A good first base is close to water, crops, starter trees, common materials, and enough flat room to expand. The prettiest cliff edge may be a terrible workshop if every craft forces a long run. Put the early Crafting Table, Research Table, Rain Collector, Bed, furnace, and chests where you can move between them without crossing the entire island.
Use simple storage categories even before you have labels: food and seeds, raw building materials, ore and bars, research parts, travel supplies, and animal or farming items. The exact layout can change later. The important part is that every new craft does not become an inventory search.
3. Craft And Read The Survival Guide
The Survival Guide is not flavor. Craft it as soon as the game lets you and use it as the local rulebook for systems you have not learned yet. It also lines up with the easy early achievement for reading it. When a community guide and your current patch disagree, the in-game Survival Guide should win.
4. Build Water, Sleep, And Storage Before Big Projects
The Rain Collector is a deceptively important unlock because water decides how long you can work, travel, and recover. Build it early, then improve water storage as soon as you can. A bed also matters, but interact with the pillow to set your spawn point. Simply resting is not the same thing as making the bed your return point.
On Standard mode, storms are not just scenery. Take shelter during lightning, and harvest mature crops before bad weather if you do not yet have proper protection. Greenhouse-style protection becomes more important once progression crops such as wheat, carrots, and sunflowers are involved.
Research Priorities
The Research Table is where Solarpunk starts asking you to plan. A recipe is not automatically worth buying the second it appears. Ask what the next gate needs, then spend toward the system that removes the biggest bottleneck.
| Priority | Research Or Build Direction | Reason | Delay If… |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Research Table support, Rain Collector, basic storage, Bed, and core workstations. | These make the island playable every day. | You already have a stable water, sleep, and storage loop. |
| 2 | Furnace and material processing. | Iron bars and later refined materials drive dock, machines, and upgrades. | You do not yet have ore, fuel, or storage to feed it. |
| 3 | Beehives and wax fuel planning. | Beeswax feeds trade and fuel loops, and multiple hives reduce waiting. | You have not stabilized wood and sticks. |
| 4 | Map, airship dock path, and travel prep. | The first airship opens the wider game: new crops, ore, Traderbot, and upgrade routes. | Your base cannot support a round trip with food, water, tools, and empty inventory. |
| 5 | Energy Bench, drills, batteries, Postbox, Recycler, and transport drones. | Automation turns repeated chores into a base system. | You cannot generate enough power or spare enough copper, silicon, cobalt, and iron. |
Do Not Rush Iron Tools
Iron tools feel like progress, but early iron is a travel and machine fund. If the current blocker is the dock, furnace path, airship, research tier, or a machine requirement, keep using basic tools until the upgrade actually saves more time than it costs. Upgrade the pickaxe when mining speed is the bottleneck. Upgrade the axe when wood is the bottleneck. Do not upgrade because the recipe is shiny.
Use Beehives Earlier Than You Think
Beehives are easy to postpone because they do not look as exciting as an airship. Build them anyway. Beeswax supports fuel planning and later trade pressure, and a single hive is slow. Multiple hives make the base feel less starved. If a recipe asks for beeswax or wax briquettes later, you will be glad production started before the need became urgent.
Power, Drills, And Wiring
Power is one of the systems that separates a cute starter island from a real base. Official materials describe Solarpunk around sunlight, wind, water, energy systems, and automation, and the current guide evidence agrees: once power unlocks, your goal is to stop hand-solving every repeated chore.
| System | Useful Rule | Risk |
|---|---|---|
| Energy Generator | Use it for steady early power and fuel it only for the work you need. | Generators may accept more fuel than the useful runtime you actually need, so overfilling can waste resources. |
| Solar Panels | Good for daylight power and battery charging when weather is favorable. | Output drops in clouds, rain, storms, and night. Do not size a critical machine as if every day is clear. |
| Batteries | Store extra daytime power so devices can keep working after generation dips. | Two panels that barely feed one drill may leave almost nothing for charging. |
| Drills | Put drills on permanent ore deposits once the Energy Bench and Traderbot route unlock them. | A drill needs a serious power plan; do not place it and assume the base can support it. |
| Switches | Wire source to switch to device when you want the switch to control the load. | If the source is also connected directly to the device, the switch may appear broken because power bypasses it. |
| Transport Drones | Use them after you can spare the cobalt, iron, copper, silicon, and energy for automation. | They are excellent later, but a drone is not a fix for a base with no storage categories. |
How To Unlock The First Airship
The airship is the first major progression break. It opens distant islands, new materials, the Traderbot route, and later cleanup, but it is not the first answer to every problem. Build toward it once the island can support the trip.
| Step | What To Do | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Reach the research tier that unlocks the Airship Dock. | Community references place the dock unlock on the third Research Table tier. |
| 2 | Save wood, iron, and cloth for the dock route. | Do not spend all cloth on comfort or all iron on tools if the dock is next. |
| 3 | Craft and place the Airship Dock on the island edge. | Current community data lists the dock craft around 40 wood, 20 iron, and 3 cloth after unlock. |
| 4 | Recover the Crashed Airship Component from the upper starter-island route. | Look back near the spawn side and build or climb toward the higher area if you skipped it. |
| 5 | Build the first airship at the dock. | Current community references list 10 iron, 3 cloth, and the Crashed Airship Component for the first airship. |
| 6 | Use the airship map range circle to choose reachable islands. | Range expands through Traderbot upgrade kits installed at the dock. |
Controls are straightforward once you are aboard: accelerate, brake or reverse, steer, and use vertical movement to land carefully. Land gently and do not abandon the craft on a bad ledge. If it is damaged, community references note that a repair kit can be made with iron. If you die away from home, retrieve the airship at the dock rather than assuming the save is ruined.
Before Your First Flight
Pack like you expect to come home with loot. Bring food, water, the right tools, at least one empty row of inventory, and a plan for where the new materials will go when you return. If your base has no chests, no smelting area, no crop reset, and no water reserve, the first flight will create more chaos than progress.
In co-op, current community notes say each player needs their own airship; do not assume one player can simply carry the whole group forever. At minimum, agree who is building which dock, who is bringing repair materials, and where everyone regroups after landing.
Resource And Crop Guide
Because Prima’s individual resource pages were blocked during source capture, this table only uses details supported by readable guides, Steam Community notes, and cross-checked route references. Treat named islands as community map language, not official patch-proof labels.
| Resource | Verified Or Cautious Source Pattern | Why You Need It |
|---|---|---|
| Cotton | Starter island crop; replant early. | Cloth, bed support, airship prep, name tags, and several early unlocks. |
| Raspberry | Starter island food crop. | Early food and travel stamina support. |
| Iron | Starter island ore patches and later mining; smelt ore into bars. | Furnace progression, dock, airship, tools, machines, postbox, drones, and many upgrades. |
| Wheat | Not on the starting island in current community notes; found after exploration, including Land Island / Tri Island references. | Research upgrades, cooking, animal feed planning, and later food routes. |
| Watermelon | Community plant table points to Tiny Start to the northwest. | Crop completion, food variety, and plant discovery cleanup. |
| Carrot | Community plant table points to Chair Island, Lower Nice, and Golden Mid. | Crop completion, recipes, and progression farming. |
| Sunflower | Community plant table also points to Chair Island, Lower Nice, and Golden Mid. | Crop completion and later farming requirements. |
| Tomato and Corn | Community notes point to Flat Big, Worm Island, and U Shaped Island. | Plant discovery, cooking, and broader farm production. |
| Paprika | Community notes place it on winter islands. | Late crop completion and pizza crafting backup. |
| Copper | Appears in later islands, chests, and machine routes. | Postbox, drones, energy devices, and higher-tier crafting. |
| Silicon | Needed for Traderbot and later energy routes; exact individual Prima page was blocked. | Energy devices, postbox, drones, and unlock progression. |
| Cobalt | Unlocks after airship progression in readable IGN notes; used to repair the vending machine. | Vending machine, postbox, drones, recycler, and energy unlocks. |
| Egg, Truffle, Sheep’s Milk | Animal products from cared-for chickens, pigs, and sheep. | Foodbasket ticket farming, animal achievements, and cooking. |
| Diamond | Community achievement notes place diamonds around winter island progression. | Shiny achievement and high-value vending tickets. |
Traderbot, Vending Machine, And Tickets
Traderbot is the main long route after the first airship. Keep trading requested items to unlock blueprints and airship upgrade kits, then install upgrade kits at the dock to expand your map range. Do not dump every new resource into decoration until you know whether Traderbot or a research tier wants it next.
The vending machine is a late cleanup system more than an early priority. Readable IGN notes say the machine starts broken and needs 1 Cobalt to repair, with Cobalt becoming available after Airship Upgrade 2. Tickets come from sending items through a Postbox, which is a Tier 3 Energy Bench upgrade. The same notes list the Postbox as requiring 10 Iron, 10 Copper, 10 Silicon, and 10 Cobalt.
| Ticket Source | Value Pattern | Use Case |
|---|---|---|
| Most spare items | Usually 1 ticket each in the current guide data. | Good for recycling clutter, bad as your only plan for 17,500 tickets. |
| Foodbasket | Readable guide data lists 20 tickets, using egg, milk, and truffle. | Best once animals are stable and producing reliably. |
| Diamond | Readable guide data lists 10 tickets. | Useful, but do not burn your first diamond before checking achievement needs. |
The vending cleanup achievement needs all purchases, currently totaling 17,500 tickets in the readable IGN notes. This is not a first-week task for most saves. Build the animal loop, storage, postbox, and travel route first, then convert surplus into tickets.
Loot Chests And Solar Pirate
Loot chest evidence is inconsistent across community references. One readable walkthrough lists 25 loot chests and treats them as a fixed map cleanup route. A Steam Community achievement guide says worlds spawn 30 chests in randomized categories and recommends using the Loot Chest Detector. That conflict is important: do not plan your 100 percent route around a single fixed count unless your current patch confirms it.
The safe cleanup method is slower but reliable. Upgrade the airship until the full map is reachable, unlock or build the chest-detection tool if your save has it, then clear islands one at a time. Place a marker or use your own checklist for islands already scanned. If the detector points somewhere awkward, check cliffs, elevated paths, shorelines, ruins, behind waterfalls, and drops below obvious routes before assuming the chest is bugged.
Animals And Farming Cleanup
Animals are not just decoration. Current community achievement notes describe happiness as tied to hunger, thirst, and shelter, and happy animals produce key resources: chickens provide eggs, pigs can find truffles, and sheep provide milk. Those products matter for cooking, Foodbaskets, vending tickets, and late cleanup.
Before you judge an animal setup, check the basics: food reachable, water reachable, shelter valid, and no pathing problem between the animal and its needs. If production seems stuck after everything is correct, save and reload before rebuilding the entire enclosure. That is a cautious community workaround, not an official guarantee, but it is less destructive than tearing down a working pen.
Achievement Cleanup Guide
Steam appdetails and the Steam global achievement API currently show 24 achievements. The easiest ones happen naturally as you read the Survival Guide, sleep, build the airship, build an energy network, and explore. The hardest current Steam global percentages are tied to the vending machine, all loot chests, pizza, full trade routes, and complete recipe/device cleanup, so leave the grind-heavy goals until travel, animals, and power are solved.
| Achievement Group | Targets | Cleanup Advice |
|---|---|---|
| Starter actions | Back to the Basics, Rise and Shine, Where did the Floor disappear? | Read the Survival Guide, sleep in a valid bed setup, and fall off an island once when you are ready to recover your items. |
| Airship route | Off to the Skies, No Limit, Ho ho ho, Repaint-Time Everybody! | Build the first airship, finish Traderbot upgrade progression, install upgrades at the dock, and buy color options through vending cleanup. |
| Energy and automation | Unlimited Power, Unlimited… POWEEEER!, Drones!, Silicon Valley, Zero Waste | Build the first network, later produce 3000 energy on one circuit, deploy a drone, unlock energy devices, and use the recycler after its unlock. |
| Animals | Hi Henri!, Well Henri’s happy today… | Craft a name tag from cloth, rename an animal, then keep hunger, thirst, and shelter solved until happiness maxes out. |
| Exploration and collection | Photosynthesis, Solar Pirate, Shiny!, the hourglass easter egg | Use upgraded airship range for plants and chests, check winter progression for diamond, and inspect the trader backroom painting for the hourglass note. |
| Crafting and trade | What can’t you do!, Would you like a paper bag?, I hope your items don’t get stuck… | Unlock all research and energy recipes, finish Traderbot trades, repair the vending machine, build the Postbox, and farm tickets after animals are stable. |
| Long play | It’s been a Full Month!, Bob the Builder, Yum! | Let the save reach 30 in-game days, construct 500 building pieces naturally, and find or craft pizza after late cooking and winter island progress. |
Some community notes mention patch-sensitive behavior, such as a diamond achievement not triggering until the item is dropped and picked up again. Treat those as last-resort cleanup ideas. Try the intended action first, make a manual backup if your platform supports it, and avoid destroying rare items before you know what the achievement really checked.
Common Mistakes To Avoid
| Mistake | Why It Hurts | Better Habit |
|---|---|---|
| Spending all iron on tools | Iron is needed for dock, airship, machines, postbox, drones, and upgrades. | Keep a travel reserve, then upgrade tools only when speed is the real blocker. |
| Ignoring cotton | Cloth appears in more progression paths than new players expect. | Plant cotton early and keep spare cloth before chasing the dock. |
| Flying before resetting the base | You return with loot but no storage, food, water, or smelting plan. | Unload, process, replant, refill water, and pack before every new island route. |
| Overfilling fuel devices | Extra fuel can be accepted without giving useful extra work. | Split stacks and fuel for the job, especially before wax briquettes and stable power. |
| Trusting one chest count | Readable sources disagree on fixed versus randomized chest totals. | Use the detector and island checklist method instead of one rigid count. |
| Leaving crops exposed forever | Storms can punish mature crops, and rare crops hurt more to replace. | Harvest before storms early, then protect important crops when greenhouse options arrive. |
| Skipping animal basics | Eggs, truffles, and milk become ticket and recipe support later. | Give animals food, water, and shelter before assuming production is bugged. |
What To Do If You Feel Stuck
First, narrow the problem. If you are stuck before the airship, the missing system is usually cloth, water, storage, beeswax, iron, the Research Table, or the Crashed Airship Component. If you are stuck after the airship, the missing system is usually Traderbot progression, range upgrades, copper, silicon, cobalt, a crop from another island, or energy infrastructure.
Second, stop trying to fix the entire save at once. Spend one session repairing a single loop: refill water, rebuild cotton, sort the workshop, smelt the ore, set the bed spawn, make a travel chest, or finish the next Traderbot request. Solarpunk is forgiving when you make the next goal small. It becomes frustrating when every trip tries to solve food, power, research, animals, and exploration at the same time.
Sources And Credits
Core metadata and official screenshots were checked against the Solarpunk Steam page and the rokaplay Solarpunk page. Progression details were cross-checked against current community guides, Steam Community notes, IGN guide pages, and readable Solarpunk walkthrough references. Blocked or limited pages were not treated as verified facts.