Planets

Various planets and anomalies may orbit any Star. The player's ship can orbit these objects by clicking on them within the stellar system map display and selecting "Orbit". You can also land on planets with surfaces (rocky planets and garden planets).

Note that it is also possible to enter the Atmosphere of any system's central star (or Black Hole) from the stellar system map. Details are provided on the Stars article.

Planet Types[]

Garden Planet[]

Elements are extracted using a Drill after landing on planet (but are visible from orbit using a Geo Scanner)
- 1-49 (95%)
- 10-49 (100%)
- 1-9 (60%)
- 1-24 (60%)
- 2-48 (60%)
Inhabited by aliens that can be encountered
Must land and take off from planet
- Landing costs 5 fuel and 10 hull
- Taking off costs 5 fuel and 10 oxygen
- Breathable atmosphere refills ship oxygen upon landing

The primary characteristic of a garden planet is that it has a breathable atmosphere. The atmosphere results in Resistance-dependent damage to the ship's hull upon landing (base damage is 10). The ship's oxygen meter is always filled to 100 upon landing (even for exotic ships such as the Podracer that use non-standard elements to refill the oxygen meter).

Most garden planets can be drilled for Carbon , Oxygen , Cobalt , Gold , and/or Copper . Some combination of these elements is found on all natural garden planets. However, garden planets created by terraforming rocky planets retain their original elements (Iron, etc.).

Natural garden planets are always occupied by one alien race. The "Encounter Life" option after landing on the planet allows you to meet the local aliens, learn the alien Language, exchange Resources, and possibly learn a Technology. The Encounter Life option remains present until you complete a conversation (without Cancelling), drill on the planet, or use a Death Seed.

Overall, garden planets are the least common type of planet; on average, they make up less than 20% of all planets, and are only found in about one-third of all star systems. Yellow Dwarfs have the best chance of containing garden planets, with a 15% chance of containing three garden planets plus a 60% chance of containing one garden planet. Other stars that may have one garden planet are Supernovae (55%), Neutron Stars (35%), Red Giants (20%), and Blue Giants (20%). Red Dwarf and White Dwarf systems never contain garden planets.

Using a Death Seed on a star destroys the atmosphere of all garden planets, converting them into rocky planets. You can still land on the planets and drill to extract the same elements. However, the ship's oxygen meter is not refilled, and all life is killed (Encounter Life is no longer possible; Emissaries can not be returned to the planet).

Rocky Planet[]

Elements are extracted using a Drill after landing on planet (but are visible from orbit using a Geo Scanner)
- 1-49 (100%)
- 1-48 (40%)
- 1-24 (40%)
- 1-24 (40%)
- 1-9 (40%)
- 1-9 (40%)
Must land and take off from planet
- Landing costs 5 fuel (but 0 hull)
- Taking off costs 5 fuel and 10 oxygen

Most rocky planets can be drilled for Iron , Silicon , Thorium , Tungsten , Hafnium , and/or Platinum . Some combination of these elements are found on all natural rocky planets except the unusual rocky planet found at the Yellow Objective star (which contains 10 Oxygen, 10 Carbon, and 10 Platinum). However, rocky planets created from garden planets using a Death Seed retain their original elements (Oxygen, etc.)

Rocky planets can contain two unusual features, artifacts and Emissaries, that are unlocked the first time you land on the planet. Artifacts can be detected from orbit using a Geo Scanner (which reports "Anomaly Detected"). Emissaries, however, are invisible from orbit.

Artifacts teach you one new, randomly-selected Technology. If you already know all the technologies, you are still told about the artifact, but nothing else happens.

Emissaries are aliens found only on rocky planets who want to board your ship and be taken to their homeworld. Transporting an emissary requires one empty storage slot (like any other resource). If you do not immediately place the emissary on your ship, it is permanently lost. The reward for returning an emissary to its homeworld is 1-5 Omega; alternatively, an emissary can instead be used to complete the Orange Objective.

Rocky planets are the most common type of planet; on average they make up more than 40% of all planets, and are found in three-quarters of all star systems. Red Dwarfs have the best chance of containing rocky planets, with a 75% chance of containing two rocky planets plus a 10% chance of containing one rocky planet. However, systems containing three rocky planets are only found around Red Giants (20% chance). All other star types can contain rocky planet, with chances ranging from 85% (Blue Giants) to 30% (Yellow Dwarfs).

Using a Life Seed on a rocky planet adds an atmosphere, converting it into a garden planet. Landing on the planet will result in hull damage and refill your ship's oxygen. There is even a small chance that life will appear on the planet, enabling the Encounter Life option. However, drilling still yields the original elements.

Gas Giant Planet[]

Elements are extracted using a Hydrogen Probe from orbit
- 10-49 (100%)
- 15-20 (40%) (plus a 5% chance of hitting a Helium pocket, converting all Hydrogen into Helium)
  - Note that the minimum quantity of Helium on any Helium-containing gas giant (or star) is 15 units, at least in the current version (v3.2) of Out There. Therefore, scans will never show "He -".
Entering orbit causes a random amount of hull damage. Maximum hull damage is 50.
Can not land on planet (does not a have surface).

Gas giant planets come in two varieties: with and without rings. The presence of rings effectively provides a remote equivalent to Geo Scanning, allowing Helium-rich planets to be identified without any need to enter orbit and incur hull damage.

Ringed gas giants are guaranteed to contain Helium. One-third (on average) of all gas giants have rings.
Non-ringed gas giants rarely contain Helium (10% chance).

Both types of gas giant are guaranteed to contain at least 10 units of Hydrogen, with no apparent difference in average or maximum amounts of Hydrogen.

Any time a gas giant is probed there is a roughly 5% chance of encountering a Helium pocket, which causes all extracted Hydrogen to be converted to Helium, and may also add 1-2 bonus units of Helium. Helium pockets are possible even if the current ship does not use helium as a fuel -- and the same "how lucky" message is displayed even though these pockets may in fact be disastrous if a non-helium-using ship is desperately low on fuel.

Gas giant planets are relatively common, making up roughly 40% of all planets. Nearly three-quarters of all star systems contain at least one gas giant. Blue Giants have the best chance of containing gas giant planets, with a 20% chance of three gas giants plus a 65% of one gas giant. Red Dwarfs are equally likely to contain a gas giant, but they have at most two gas giants. Most other star types have a 55-65% chance of containing at least one gas giant. White Dwarfs are the key exception; at 15% they are the worst star type (other than Black Holes) to search for gas giants.

Anomalies[]

When using an Interferometer to remotely survey a star system, "Anomaly" is one of the entries on the Interferometer report. Up to two anomalies can be detected. Each anomaly is either an abandoned Space Ship or a Space Station; the Interferometer report is unable to distinguish between these two items. Note that in this context, anomaly never means an artifact found on a Rocky Planet; interferometers are unable to detect artifacts (instead, a Geo Scanner must be used when orbiting the planet).

Space Ships[]

Abandoned Space Ships are found orbiting various stars. At least 23 stars have abandoned space ships (more if the Graveyard Ships option is enabled). These ships are identified in the stellar system map with a beacon symbol. Orbiting the space ship allows resources to be transferred to/from the ship, as well as possibly boarding the ship.

Space Stations[]

Clicking on the cube inside a space station completely fills one ship's meter (fuel, oxygen, or hull). The type of resource provided by a given space station is randomly determined when you first enter a stellar system, and remains constant for each playthrough (except possibly when resuscitated by a Stellar Embryo).

Space stations are equally effective on all ships, regardless of which elements are normally used to refill the ship. They allow ships to be replenished without adding any elements to the ship's storage, making them particularly valuable on any ship where all storage slots are occupied by modules (such as the Flea).

A total of 28 space stations exist, including the one found at the game's starting point. In the game data, space stations are found every nine stars. The structure of the in-game star map, however, means that all the space stations other than the initial one (at star I) are found on strings C and F, at every third star along those strings:

String C (second string from the top): C2, C5, C8, C11, C14, C17*, C20, C23, C26, C29, C32, C35, C38, C41
- C17 contains a random space ship in addition to a space station.
String F (bottom string): F3, F6, F9, F12, F15, F18, F21, F24, F27, F33*, F36, F39, F42
- F30 is an exception: it does not have a space station, because it is the Green Objective star.
- F33 contains a random space ship in addition to a space station.

Other Stations[]

The target stars for some Objectives are orbited by special, objective-specific stations (no other objects are ever found in these stellar systems). These specialized stations are never detected by the interferometer.

Clicking on the special station and clicking "Orbit" triggers objective-specific cut scenes. In some cases, the cut scenes can be safely viewed even if you are not planning to complete the objective. The only exception is the STAR IRON STATION at the Red Objective star: interacting with this station immediately and irreversibly triggers the Red Objective final cut scene, ending the game even if the player was not ready to finish the game (or was attempting to complete another objective).

Planet Composition[]

Every planet has one or more elements that can be extracted from it, using a Drill (on rocky and garden planets) or a Hydrogen Probe (on gas giant planets). The mechanics of how the planet composition is determined is similar in all cases.

The available elements and their amounts are randomly predetermined for each planet, based on the planet type. Each planet type has one guaranteed element (, , ). Other possible elements have specified chances of appearing, all of which are calculated independently. All element combinations are possible, including possibly all elements appearing simultaneously (i.e., up to all six elements can be simultaneously pressent on rocky planets).

The amount of a given element can range from 1 to 49 units (although most elements have a more limited range of allowed amounts, as specified above for each planet). This is (nominally) the total amount that can be extracted during one visit to the star system -- whether by drilling/probing to a depth of 10 km or by repeatedly drilling/probing to a lesser depth. Using a Planetary Expander allows amounts in excess of the planet's composition during a single trip.

Leaving the star system and returning resets all available elements. The available elements and their amounts for a given planet will be the same every time you visit its star system.

The easiest way to determine a planet's composition is using a Geo Scanner. The scan lists all available elements, with a red minus symbol for low-amount elements (1-10 units) or a green plus symbol for higher amounts (11-49 units). The scan takes into account the effect of any drilling/probing that has already been done; it is empty if the planet is empty (i.e., if "There is nothing left to drill" appears when drilling/probing).

Drilling/probing provides more quantitative information on the planet's composition, but especially when drilling there is also a risk of overlooking some elements, whether because the six-slot limit on extracted elements was exceeded, or because some elements are randomly missly at shallow depths. See Extracting Elements for details.