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Planets are large dodecahedrons of floating material. From far away they seem like multi-colored backdrops, but you can travel to them. Be advised, it can take a while and you may run into some pirates en-route. This can be avoided by using Jump Drives, and, if you have a space station near the planet, you can use Warp Gates.
Planets have minerals that can be mined and sold in the shop.
Types[]
Each planet falls into a certain category of planet, for example, Ice Planet or Desert Planet.
- Ice Planets. They are notable for their unique glowing "Ice Crystal" blocks, which are found under large spire-like terrain structures. Ice planets have whitish atmospheres. They are covered in "Ice Planet Surface" blocks and "Ice Planet Rock" blocks.
- Desert planets. Cactus blocks are found on the surface, and these planets are covered in Sand blocks. Desert planets also have blue atmospheres.
- Purple "alien worlds". A notable feature is that they are covered in massive tentacles of "Purple Vine Stuff" blocks, which also feature a coating of "Purple Top Stuff" blocks. Purple planets have green atmospheres, and the surface is mostly composed of "Purple Vine Stuff" blocks, "Purple Top Stuff" blocks and "Purple Rock Stuff" blocks.
- Earth-like planets. Earth-like planets have blue atmospheres. Their surface is mostly covered with "Dirt Grass Planet Terrain" blocks and "Rock Grass Planet Terrain" blocks. Additionally, trees made of Wood blocks and Foliage blocks are often found on these planets.
- Mars-like planets. Mushrooms are abundant on these planets. Mars-like planets have reddish atmospheres. Their surface is mostly composed of "Red Rock" blocks and "Red Dirt" blocks.
Landing[]
As mentioned, wood, grass, cacti, and ice crystals (and often the related Ice and Ice Rock) are prime targets for harvesting, and will usually result in the biggest Credit payoff when sold.
A common mishap is to land on a planet with too much mass and/or inadequate thrust; unlike asteroids, planets have a strong gravitational pull which can strand unwary travellers. This is especially apparent if you have added natural blocks such as lava or grass to your ship, as they weigh more than standard hull.
Drop-Ship Method[]
This method involves carrying an agile drop-ship docked to the main ship for planetary visits. The drop-ship is un-docked at the planet and the main ship left outside the planet's sphere of gravity. Having one or two Plex Storage attached to the drop-ship can also increase efficiency on long resource-gathering trips.
Lazy Method[]
Very simple: just fly your battleship right into the planet. It may be a bit troublesome to get in and out of your ship while landed, but this shouldn't be much of a problem if you designed your ship to land on planets (i.e. landing skids, plexdoor staircase). Don't forget to add PlexStorage blocks.
Build Block Method[]
Drop down to the planet using your preferred method, then place a build block on the surface. Enter the build block and set the scale of building to 10x10x10. Now you can delete huge blocks of the planet at a time. This is far superior to any form of mining and can net you 200k+ blocks for very little effort. This is most effective on ice planets, where the terrain is worth huge amounts. You can usually max out your credits with a single planet using this technique.
NOTE: Generally, build block harvesting is considered cheating, and you will be banned if caught doing this on some servers. Although it isn't as bad as it used to be, thanks to the grab-all-the-plexglass-you-can-from-the-abandoned-space-station-thing getting nerfed in a recent update, you can still earn millions in a matter of minutes.