This was not what I was expecting when I built the portal generator device. Here I thought I'd be able to teleport around from my base to other locations on the main map. Turns out it teleports you just not anywhere you have been yet.
As someone who has enjoyed looting wrecks but by now, I've found just about all of them on the map. The teleporter device ended up coming quite in handy. It gave me a new avenue of hours of fun.
This is an activity you can’t start doing until quite late into the game. The requirement for the Portal Generator blueprint is 250 GTI. Even then it costs two Energy Multiplier Fuses that you might have to buy from the Space Trading Rocket for 5k Terra tokens each. Among some other high-level resources to construct.
When you interact with it. You are given three choices to pick from. All choices require a certain number of crystals before you can activate a gateway. There is always a minimum cost of three pulsar quartz. There can also be other quartz costs such as blazar, quasar, or even magnetars.
If for whatever reason you don’t have enough quartz to get started. You can always hit up the quartz caves in the northwest part of the map. Each one of the quartz has its rooms. This cave ranges from 2202:26:1711 to 2040:15:2053
You will also notice each one has a rarity and a difficulty. Rarity has an impact on the kind of loot you can find inside. While difficulty determines how complex and maze-like any wrecks you find inside are.
So far in running many of these portal generator maps I've been able to find 1 or 2 wrecks in each one. Some of them have been close to the exit portal. While others have been hidden in a cave off in the distance on the map.
Before entering one of these it’s best to be prepared. I always bring a couple of water, food, explosives, and fusion energy cells. Along with my rover.
While you can luck out and get some maps with water. There is also a good chance you get a map with lava instead or no water whatsoever. So, I feel it’s best to bring some water than none.
As far as the explosives I've never needed more than four on a given map. In most cases, I'll end up needing none whatsoever. Many times, I'll even end up looting explosives to blow up any rocks blocking my path. That has not always been the case when needing them.
As far as the fusion energy cells go. I always bring two. Since you will need one for each wreck you find. They will each have a reactor that you can power up that will unlock some closed doors. Once you insert the fusion energy cell into a reactor it becomes locked, and you can’t get it back.
As far as your rover goes. While there is not a ramp up onto the platform to drive it into the portal. You can pick your rover up and carry it with you. First, you need to empty the rover’s inventory. Then you just click on the red button in the back of it that grabs it and puts it in your inventory. Then once you are inside the mission you just click on it in your inventory and spawn it.
I recommend spawning it once you get to a wreck. Since the terrain inside these things can be quite hard to drive around on. Even more so if you need to get around lava.
The biggest thing to remember if you have a rover in one of these is never to leave it behind. Once you are done with the mission do not close it. Instead, head back home by going through the portal. Then summon your rover. If you close the portal before you recall your rover, you lose it along with anything you were storing inside it.
Once inside you need to start locating where a wreck is. Quite a few times I've ended up with maps with large lava pits around it. This is why I don’t summon my rover till I make it to the first wreck I'll find.
Since a lot of these wrecks like to be underground. You are looking for any part of the wreck sticking up above ground. This gives you a context clue of where to look for a cave or underpass opening. They are usually not that deep underground. They can sometimes however be a bit challenging to find right away.
Once I find my first wreck I'll deploy rover. Then I'll store anything extra I have on me with the expectation of some explodes, one power core, and some water. These sites are loaded with loot, and you will be making lots of trips out to store items if you intend to loot everything.
These wrecks even on the lower difficulty can be massive mazes. It’s best to have some kind of exploration tactic when you explore them. Such a tactic could be to take the first left you see until you can no longer take a left.
Keep in mind there will be many stairs and floors going both up and down in a single wreck most of the time. I’ve found myself getting lost a couple of times while inside some massive ones. Even more so when they have a bit of a loop going on in them.
Unlike normal wrecks, you will find a lot of extra things inside that can be deconstructed. This could be anything from chairs, tables, vaults, planets, global, and so on. Each one of these items will also give a chip for a blueprint for that item along with crafting supplies to make it like special fabrics.
The nice thing about these wrecks is that it costs quartz to enter them. They end up giving you usually more than it costs if you explore all the wrecks and rooms inside. I’ve only had the misfortune of leaving one of these sites with less quartz than I spent opening the portal. I had a feeling I was missing some big loot but could never find it.
The biggest thing you are hoping to find right away is the reactor. That way you can use your fusion energy cell to open a slot. More importantly, you are getting most of the closed doors open. Many of them will contain a single vault in each room. Making them on average more than worth the cost of crafting a fusion energy cell.
The other thing to keep an eye out for is keycards. In quite a few of the wrecks, you will find a locked door keeping you out of the vault room. Each one of these doors in my experience either cost one or two keycards. Sometimes you will get lucky and find an extra key card that you can save for another time.
Getting into these rooms will be extremely rewarding. The most I've ever found after getting into a locked area and then into where the vault room is located is six vaults at once.
You might even luck out and find a smaller vault room of say three vaults that required no key to get into that section of the ship. While not as rewarding. It’s sometimes nice not having to backtrack so much to find an area in these massive wrecks.
Once your inventory and the rover are filled. Just look for the icon for the exit portal back to the normal map. The nice thing is as long as you don’t do anything to force close the portal. It will remain open, and you can take many trips back and forth being as greedy as you like on loot.
On top of the loot, you would expect to get while clearing a wreck. There also tends to be a lot of Terra tokens to be looted. While sure you might find a few chips with 100 or 500 Terra on them. I’ve found a few times once with 1k or even 5k on them. On some runs, I'd end up walking away with gaining over 10,000 Terra. More than spending more of my time running these alone before thinking about anything else there is to be looted.
Once you are done with one of these maps there are two ways to close it. You can go back to the portal generator open the console and click on Close. You can also if you are still in the instance open the map and click on close. Always make sure your rover has been summoned out before doing so or you will lose it!
Running generator portal wreck maps can be crazy rewarding, fun, and even a bit addicting. On a good run, you could be making a few trips back to your base for offloading. Not to mention all the Terra you will have to spend with the merchant rocket.
Screenshots were taken and content was written by @Enjar about Planet Crafter.
Disclosure. A review copy of the game was received for free.
