AETHUS Base Layout Guide: Module Placement and Habitat Bonuses

An efficient AETHUS base layout places your main shelter hub beside the primary cave entrance, linking specialized rooms through multi-way connectors and air locks. Grouping refining gear inside Hubs and crates inside Cargo Habitats grants high structural bonuses across your surface outpost.

Site Selection and Surface Clearing

The initial outpost footprint should sit immediately adjacent to the primary cave descent. Maeve relies on regular trips between surface processing equipment and subterranean mining nodes. Placing your first structures right beside the cavern mouth eliminates long travel times while managing oxygen depletion. As your claim expands, you can branch toward open territory near the surface oasis to secure ground space for wide external installations.

Surface rock outcroppings frequently obstruct construction grids. You can clear small, medium, and large rock outcroppings by learning how to use terraforming charge explosives thrown with R. Detonating these deposits flattens building terrain and yields piles of regolith, scrap, and sandstone. Build mode lets you relocate existing habitats, access stairs, and crafting benches without losing stored inventory, so you can freely adjust your compound footprint as you clear more ground.

Snapping Rules and Connector Geometry

AETHUS uses a modular corridor network to link independent shelters into a pressurized compound. Standard habitats cannot attach directly wall-to-wall without dedicated doorways. You must install an air lock or a door seal on open module faces to generate valid connection snap points. Access platforms and staircases snap to these exterior air locks so you can enter and exit the base safely.

Corridors come in short, 45-degree, three-way, and four-way varieties. Because exterior terrain and module support feet can collide, the build menu includes a collision check toggle at the bottom left. If a 45-degree turn or connector leg refuses to seat against a habitat, disabling collision checks lets you place the section directly. In patch 1.025, developer Pawsmonaut Games added the ability to cycle snap points on multi-door structures like the Cargo Habitat and three-way connectors by pressing V, allowing alternate alignment angles. Holding Shift disables magnetic snapping when you want to pack interior furniture tightly against inner partition walls.

Specialized Habitat Bonuses and Room Planning

The game assigns distinct structural bonuses to advanced room types rather than limiting equipment through artificial power slots. Any facility built within an active habitat functions as long as your total outpost power pool remains positive. Placing machines into rooms that complement their functions yields higher output and reduced fabrication requirements.

Placing storage containers inside a dedicated Cargo Habitat increases the capacity of standard units from 600 units to 750 units. Keep your smelters and stone crushers inside the Hub to generate extra gemstones during ore processing runs. Because crafting tables and build mode automatically pull raw goods straight from nearby crates, you can cluster all your storage inside one Cargo module while placing workbenches in an adjacent Manufacturing module without needing to carry heavy metal ingots between rooms.

Power Generation and Distribution

Power in AETHUS operates as a global pool across the entire connected outpost. The build interface shows total generated electricity alongside total station demand. If consumption exceeds output and power drops below zero, every powered facility shuts down until additional generation comes online.

Starter energy comes from the Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator, known as the RTG, recovered from the cavern depths. The RTG provides 15 points of power and must be installed inside an enclosed habitat. As facility demands grow from automated printers and refineries, you will need outdoor power generators. Basic wind turbines produce modest power outputs, while larger solar panels generate eight to ten points of power each. Place solar arrays and tall generators along the perimeter hills where they will not block future corridor expansions.

Exterior Logistics and Automated Extraction

Certain operational facilities must sit outside the pressurized habitat shell. The Arc Planetary Exchange trade node handles resource sales and blueprint purchases, but it only functions when paired with an external Comms Antenna and a Drone Pad. Group these communication dishes near your main entrance for fast access when turning in ore contracts to corporate contacts.

Automated resource gathering requires cargo bays placed on the surface. Once you repair deep cavern drill rigs using a crafted drill bit and a cargo drone, the drones ferry mined ore directly to your surface cargo bays. Build multiple cargo bays outside your storage wing so automated extractions do not stall when a single bin fills up. You can also position an automated water pump near the surface oasis to supply continuous clean water for cooking and hydroponic crops. For bulky bulk goods that exceed indoor container limits, an exterior storage silo offers high-capacity stockpiling outside habitat doors.

Purchasing the construction camera from the trade node upgrade terminal ranks among the best upgrades for base expansion. Activating the construction camera gives you an overhead free-flight view in build mode, making it simple to line up multi-room corridors, snap exterior platforms, and spot terrain collisions across your entire outpost layout.