First thing you need to worry about is food and water. So try figure that out by yourself.

Fabricator is your friend. You can figure out a lot of things just by looking through the list of things you can craft.

I HIGHLY recommend you look through everything as it will give you ideas of what is possible to craft and what you need to make that.

Because its one of the first things people see and can pickup new players often fill their inventory with these (myself included). You DO need them. But because they are everywhere near you starting area you can always go and get as many as you want when the time comes. So do not worry about having them in your inventory at all.


Do not pick this up! Unless you want to craft something and really dont have titanium (which i doubt will happen to you on first playthrough). If you need titanium and you dont have any. You can leave your pod and look for some then. Otherwise same as mushrooms its going to take up all of your space.
A good way to make more space if you need is to make titanium ingot. Just remember you will probably wont have a use for it for at least 7 ingame days(probably more).


In order to items to your hotbar. Mouse over the item you need and press the the number you want to assign it to.




You have a storage locker in your pod:
Many people forget that it exists or just not notice its there. This is your main means of storing things early in the game. Keep that in mind.









You can also craft Floating Storage:

But realistically if you have more then 5 of them it gets really difficult to manage it and you will spend a lot of time looking for stuff.








You should be dropping things from your inventory in this order:

1. Any creature eggs (they wont be useful until much much later)
   
2. Coral Tube Sample
   
3. Mushrooms
   
4. Table Coral
   
5. Anything Creepvine
   
6. Metal Salvage
   
7. Titanium
   
8. Quartz (only if you have a LOT of it)

If you have to drop anything else for some reason i suggest you do it in an open space under your pod so you can get it back easily.




You do not have a map. So you might get lost. Its intentional as you progress through the game you will see that there are things to help you navigate, but they will come later.

I will explain some things about game mechanics as they are not immediately obvious.


Holding something in your hand slows you down. Click on the hotkey again to free up your hand. Other things can affect your swim speed that are pretty obvious.



You cannot drop anything from your inventory while you are inside of your pod/base.
But you can drop things outside and they will wait for you until you need them.


You WILL die. And its ok. Just remember that when you enter your pod your inventory is secured. Which means if you die you will have whatever you had on you when you were last inside. But fear not the new items you had on you should be dropped at the place where you died so you can go and collect them (if you can figure out where it was). But most things ingame (especially in begning) can be crafted again, so do not worry too much.


Certain fish become more aggressive during night time. Meaning that they are more likely to seek you out and bite you. That is the main difference between night and day. Yes its scary thats because it should be that way.

Some creatures are attracted to light. You can find out more by scanning everything and actually reading it.


You progress through the game by exploring.

Game encourages you to explore. And this is how you progress. You will be able to find a way to craft new things that will help you survive and explore more.


You cannot get everything in one go in Aurora. And its ok. In order to explore it fully you will need 2 additional tools (The game mentions that when you visit the ship). It is also easy to get stuck inside the ship.

Remember there are 3 or 4 separate places where you have to jump to progress. Sometimes it will look like it doesnt work, but keep trying. Its hard to explain without spoilers but it will be kind of obvious where you can jump because you will see there are more things to explore on the other side of the obstacle.


Lets say you need something called Cryptonite to be able to craft a blaster. You keep searching for it but you cannot find it. What isnt obvious is that Limestone outcrop:
can possibly contain only a few materials. So if you keep geting more and more of them and not finding Cryptonite means you have to look elsewhere. Usually that means visiting a new biome area. Usually that means going some distance from starting area where things might bite you. Some materials are rare and not easy to get. This is intentional game makes you work for it.

One hint is that most metals and materials (but not all) are found in these "outcrops" - things you need to click a few times to get whats inside. And limestone outcrop is just one of them.