As we’ve invited the trailerblazers along and had a bit of visibility on Steam, I thought it would be a good idea to share some useful hints and tips about some of the features in Boundless that are not obvious at the moment.
Something like this was done a few months ago in this thread but I thought it would be good to resurrect it and get it rolling again for those who haven’t seen it:
I’ll get the ball rolling:
Did You Know?
When a citizen visits your Beacon, coin is deposited into your Beacon Control for you to collect, this is known as Footfall.
Higher level tools need mastery to utilize their advantage. Otherwise they perform equal or even worse than lower level tools.
On death all tools in inventory loose durability. Carry only one of each in dangerous surrounding. With death penalty reduction skill you can achieve 0% durability loss on death.
Also health is only filled to half on revival.
You can return to sanctum at any time, but your character will meditate for 10 seconds, so refrain from doing so near hostile creatures.
Stuck/Lost underground?
Returning to sanctum when in a 2 block tall space will relocate your warp upwards until it it finds a more suitable place for your portal.
Is your Sanctum warp exit in a bad place?
You can use the interact key on your warps/portals, this opens a menu where you can relocate the exit if needed. Hopefully it will settle in a safer place.
exploring higher tier planets it’s more dangerous and rewarding?
You start your game on home planet which is very friendly world to a new player. Either using a warp crystal token upgrade or existing players portals you can travel to high level Moon and Ring planets which are dangerous, but rich in resources. There you will find gems from mining and hunting monsters, and your luck attribute will make you drop even 2x or 3x more resources!
compacting coal is more efficient?
If you want to generate more spark from coal, collect 360 either soft, medium or hard coal and compact it then insert into spark core. You can also use it to cook higher amount of meat. 10 hard coal lasts for 40 cycles, where 1 compact hard coal lasts for 53 cycles. It’s more efficient to compact coal!
some gem tools have different block damage patterns?
With diamond tools you also destroy block on the left and right. With amethyst tools you destroy one block below. With emerald tools you hit all block in a cross shape. With sapphire [ ? ].
Did You Know?
If you aren’t finding ore/gems/material in one area try another. There are many areas on every planet that are rich in resources. You just have to find them.
Certain planets are exclusive to certain gems:
Andooweem has diamonds
Alturnik has emeralds
Nasharil has sapphire
Vulpto has rubies
Epsilo has topaz
Munteen VII has amethyst
Took me a long time before realising it, just sharing this awesome game-changing tip with you guys so you can also have fun while playing (if your language is wierd enough to have a different keyboard cough french cough, be sure to use the Z key instead)
Also there is wide variety of settings for controlling items in hands:
you can use scroll wheel to switch items in both hands by default
you can set to only rotate primary hand with scroll wheel, you can choose which hand is primary
you can press Q and flick mouse with either right either left mouse button to switch item in corresponding hand
you can set hand inventory to show for a certain time or to be displayed constantly
One more thing, in network Tab in settings you can set to ignore slow network, that way you will have rubber banding instead your char “return to sanctum” when network is slow.
Breaking glass will yield glass block, it won’t disappear so feel free to rearrange glass as much as you like.
You can use peaty soil as furnace fuel. It’s a bit weak, you’ll need much of it to do anything but if you have no other alternative handy it’s good enough.
Gravel is utterly useless and ugly, avoid it at all costs, don’t waste your tools on it, unless you’d like to use it in a build.
You can dual wield grapples to get on top of any build/cliff. When you reel in grapple so that you’re touching edge of the cliff you can just jump forward and you’ll climb on top.
Be wary of diving, water is not behaving as you would expect from other games, you’ll need more time to dive out than you think.
You can outrun all aggressive creatures.
Use shift+click to move items from inventory to shelves and vice versa.
EDIT: Updated somethings to match current build. Updated on: May 3, 2023
To collect higher tier ores, you need tools of greater quality to gather them:
Every hammer listed higher than the other retains it’s ability to harvest such items from lower tier hammers
Wood Hammers => Stone
Stone Hammers => Copper Ore, Iron Ore, Soft Coal
Copper & Iron Hammers => Silver Ore, Gold Ore, Medium Coal
Silver Hammers => Titanium Ore, Hard Coal
Gold Hammers => Rough Gems
Gem Hammers => Ultra Rare Ores
Ultra Rare Hammers = > Nothing gets better than this
Every tool has it’s own pros and cons, this can vary a lot in the stats listed:
Damage
Critical Chance
Critical Effect = The added damage when you get a Critical Hit
Action Speed = Rate at which you swing your tool
Durability
Stamina Drain = Not Yet Working
Difficulty = How difficult it is to use this tool, the more difficult it is, the more hammer mastery you need for this hammer to be effective. (Example: 1 Hammer Mastery = 10 Difficulty) Having enough mastery will improve the overall feel and usefulness of these tools vs. using them without enough mastery
Note: You do not need to meet the requirements to use high end tools, but they will feel and seem very slow or not what you may have come to expect of them to be.
Plots are used to protect your buildings and items from Players and World Regeneration, you gain more as you level up
Tip: Only build in plots you have placed and own, Building outside plots will result in either in…
Players taking your items (you don’t hardly have to worry about this right now, the community here is amazing ).
World Regeneration claiming your items, World Regeneration happens about every 8-13 hours depending on player activity, the more player activity in the area, the longer it’ll take for the world to regenerate.
Note: Plots also keep mobs from spawning in your builds, Also be sure to have a plotter and plot remover on hand to clearly see where you have plotted down, and to add or remove plots while you build on (or press [ B ] to open toggle plot viewing modes).
Note 2: Nobody can claim plots above or below you, these areas are Reserved and players are free to harvest resources from these areas, but are Reserved for you to claim when you desire to do so or allow others through the Master Beacon Controller.
Also, keep a eye on tool names, and their prefixes/suffixes, these can help you determine what that tools main statistical purpose is:
Statistical Titles:
Heavy = High Damage
Swift = High Action Speed
Balanced = Just as it says, a balanced mix between all stats
Eccentric = High Critical Chance, High Critical Damage
Hammer/Shovel/Axe Ability Titles:
Scyther = Tool capable of removing blocks in a 3 wide 1 tall shape (3x1)
Tunneler = Tool capable of removing blocks in a 1 wide 2 tall shape (1x2)
Infectious = Tool capable of removing blocks in a Plus shape + 3 wide 3 tall (3x3)
Grapple Ability Titles:
Swift-Reeling = Grapple capable of High Reel In values
Hookshot = Grapple automatically reels in Player to grappled location
Swift-Firing = Grapples capable of High Projectile speeds
Double-Swift = Grapples capable of High Reel In and High Reel Out values
Long-Range = Grapples capable of Higher Max Range values
Slingbow Ability Titles:
Precise = Slingbows receive high velocity giving more accurate shots
Repeater = Slingbows are capable of utilizing the Repeater Slingbow skill once unlocked, Rapid Fire
Charger = Slingbows are capable of utilizing the Charger Slingbow skill once unlocked, Powerful Single Charged Shot
Spread = Slingbows shoot 3 projectiles at once, in a 3 wide 1 tall pattern (3x1)
Cluster = Slingbows shoot 5 projectiles at once in an X pattern
Infectious = Slingbows shoot poisonous projectiles that deal Damage over time (DOT)
Chisel Ability Titles
Precise = Chisel is capable of removing 1 corner at a time, works along with titles below
Bevel = Chisel is capable of beveling an edge or corner of a block
Square = Chisel is capable of removing a small block from an edge or corner of a block, Examples: Stairs, Slabs
Slope = Chisel capable of removing corners and edges which form complete slopes or corner blocks, Examples: Ramps, Roofing
Each hit of a tool/weapon uses it’s durability (not when each block is mined).
Hitting grass also uses tool durability
If you are trying to dig up dirt, avoid hitting the grass and mine the dirt from the side - this way you get both the grass seed (chance) and the dirt block for less hits.
alternatively, hit grass with the totem tool (as it has no durability).
Don’t waste tool durability hitting things like storage blocks and doors. They can be mined with the same amount of hits using the totem tool.
Smart Stacks
If you picked up a block, but it seems to have disappeared from your inventory, it’s probably in a “Smart stack”. Look in your inventory for any blocks of a similar type (i.e. silty / clay / peaty soil) - the stack will show 9 dots instead of a number to denote that it’s a smart stack. Right-click that block and your missing blocks should be inside the stack!
Smart stacks are awesome!
Splitting Stacks
You can split stacks of items by holding down the right mouse button, until a radial selector appears. Move your mouse around until the selector shows the amount of items you want, then release your mouse button.
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