Like Survive Mars—Paradox Interactive and Haemimont Games’ clever twist on the city-building game – today celebrates its three-year anniversary, given a new lease of life in the form of a new developer (Abstraction Games), a new extension is coming later this year, with two new updates coming today (a free tourism update and a paid buildings packAnd did I mention the game itself is free?
Visit the Epic Games store, where you can purchase the basic version Survive Mars for the low price of nothing. You have until Thursday, March 18, ET to take advantage of the deal, after which the price will likely go back up to its normal $ 30. You don’t want to miss a thing – I spent 44 hours of my life transforming Mars into a habitable environment, and I feel like I haven’t even scribbled to the surface of what the game has to offer yet.
And if you really put some time into the game in between, you can also pick up the expansion packs at a discount:
However, you don’t need them to get started. You will spend a lot of time figuring out how the Mars infrastructure works in your few playthroughs. Once you’ve optimized a plan and are ready to take on more twists and challenges, consider grabbing the extensions; Otherwise, if you give up because Mars is a pretty hostile environment, you’re not going to lose any money.
The first mods you need for Mars
Speak about, Survive Mars supports modding, and there are a few you might want to consider even for your first playthrough. This is super easy to do if you buy the game on Steam; otherwise you will want to use the in-game mod manager or Nexus’ Vortex mod manager to keep track of everything as the Epic Games store does not support native mods for the game.
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Was I playing again – and I probably will once the new expansion drops / if I ever get tired of the Dyson Sphere program – here are the mods I would use on Mars:
Most ChoGGi’s QoL mods ChoGGi has released a ton of different mods for Survive Mars, and some of them you won’t get unless you’ve played the game a little bit. If you’re ready to start modding, I’d take a look at the quality of life collection first; mods that enhance your gameplay experience without making you cheat. You still want some kind of a Martian challenge, right?
However, you can get started with it this one, making the annoying “Welcome to Mars!” voice-over when you start a new game. And this one, allowing you to fly a small drone near you to keep you company. Mars can get lonely (at least in the beginning).
The Pause loading mod is great too, in case you want to start the game and get a cup of coffee or take a biopause while it’s loading. I also like the Better zoom distance mod, which allows you to, well, zoom out a lot more than standard in the game. It’s great for basic planning or if you just want to sit back and admire your work. While you’re at it, grab it NASA logo mod so you can make your missiles beautiful with brand safe image.
If you really want to transform your game, go to Silva’s mod collectionSome of these new buildings and customizations feel a little fake, so I recommend going for it after you’ve had a few ‘hard’ playthroughs – aka ‘suffering through your first few attempts at surviving Mars while you don’t have idea what you are doing. “Once you get past that point, you really start to give your stats, like a mod Info bar More information can help you truly optimize your Spartan life on Mars.
Rebalancing of drones is a great way to automatically assign your mechanical helpers to areas that need more help and away from those that don’t. (You know what I mean if you’ve played the game a bit and find yourself dealing with boring busy work manually.) And while you’re at it, you grab Fewer clicks for mass resupplyand live the easy life on Mars. Which reminds me, you’ll want better Martian radio stations to listen to as well.