When people start playing, the impulse is to get boots on the ground and start building. Resist! You would have a very hard time taking your astronaught, 240 kg food and 120L of water plus enough supplies to get a basic base built up.

Now that I covered what you shouldn't do lets look at a good start for your first launch. You should bring along the following:

• 1 or 2 Small Rovers
  
• 1 Methane extractor
  
• 7 or 10 Supplies

The Choice is yours but heres the run down:
With 2 rovers you can explore more of the area, with the 3 extra supplies your second launch can carry more food.

When you go to land your pod on Mars concider this location for the first map:



Now put out the methane extractor (this will refuel this ship in about 120 Sols) and then dispatch your rover. On the Rover control you can click the explore to turn on his ability to see ores and then set his route to cover the landing zone. (if you have a second rover you can extend the area you are maping ores in.)

Whew, now you know where to find a few things, hopefully that includes water and methane.

For your second launch I recomment the following loadout:

• 1 Methane Extractor
  
• 1 Astronaught
  
• 260 Kg Food
  
• 120L Water
  
• 6 Supplies

Now when you arrive try to land close to the previous lander.
Build Priotiy:

• Solar Panel (2)
  
• Straight Hallway (1)
  
• Greenhouse (3)
  
• Oxygen Generator (2)
  
• Cyrotank - Water (2)
  
• Solar Panel (2)
  
• Cryotank - Methane (2)

Notice the numbers at the end? Thats the number of supplies, if you've followed exactly as I suggested you have access to 16, this basic setup will take 14, leaving you 2 to set up an additional Solar Panel - Which I recomend.

By the time your third launch is avalible it's likly you're ready to toss this game out the window, having your astronaught walk back and forth for each supply box is a pain. Good news, there is a way to fix this, sort of.

Launch 3 List:

• Methane Extractor
  
• Forklift
  
• 4 Supplies

When you land, activate the methane extractor and the forklift, then click the forklift and place him on automatic.

By the time your 4th launch comes around you should have methane production, water production, and some basic food production. At this point what you're probably out of is supplies.

4th Launch list:

• 16 Supplies