Icarus // XPS / Reference
Beginner Reference

Survive the first drop.

Icarus doesn't ease you in — no tutorial hand-holding, and the planet will happily kill you in the first ten minutes. This page rounds up the advice that actually matters, pulled from the community's Reddit threads, Steam guides, and wikis, so new crew members aren't learning it the hard way.

Before anything else

Three rules that save runs

RULE 01
Oxygen, water, food, shelter
In that order. Everything else — mining, tech, missions — can wait. Land, check your surroundings for water, and don't wander far until the basics are covered.
RULE 02
Talent Points are precious. Tech Points aren't.
Talent Points are capped per character, so commit to a role instead of spreading thin. Tech Points have no cap — unlock what you need without fear of "wasting" them.
RULE 03
Respect the storms
An unprepared base gets wrecked by weather. Get under solid cover before one hits, and keep a Repair Hammer handy for the aftermath.
The full list

Tips by category

Compiled from Icarus community guides and discussions — the stuff experienced players wish someone had told them on day one.

🫁Oxygen
  • Mine a stack of Oxite early and drop it into the oxygen slot in your inventory — it auto-consumes as your tank drains.
  • Don't rush to craft an Oxidizer. It's more efficient long-term, but raw Oxite gets you through the early game for free.
  • An Envirosuit's oxygen slot works the same way — load it with Oxite before heading into low-oxygen areas or caves.
💧Food & water
  • On landing, look for a stream or lake immediately — water sources anchor where you should base up.
  • Berries are the safest early food but the least efficient. A stealth headshot with a knife or bow one-shots most prey and wolves.
  • Build a Campfire before you rely on meat — cooking it is a basic early recipe and raw meat isn't worth the risk.
⛺Shelter & storms
  • Thatch is fine below level 5; switch to Wood Building Pieces as soon as you can — it needs far fewer storm repairs.
  • In a pinch, carve into a rock face with a pickaxe or duck into a cave mouth — zero-build shelter that still blocks storm exposure.
  • Get a Bedroll down first. It sets your respawn point and sleeping through the night grants the Well Rested buff.
  • Keep a Repair Hammer for storm damage and a Fire Whacker on hand — lightning strikes can set structures on fire.
🛠️Early tool order
  • Stone Axe + Stone Pickaxe first, always. Then Stone Knife, Wood Bow with Stone Arrows, a Campfire, and a Small Wood Crate.
  • Repair tools before they fully break — it's cheap and keeps them efficient, versus rebuilding from scratch.
  • Unlock Wooden Ramps early — a simple raised platform makes a safe hunting stand for shooting predators from distance.
⛏️Caves & mining
  • Iron, Copper, Gold, Platinum, Aluminium, and Titanium are effectively cave-exclusive — and mining them nets far better XP than surface stone.
  • Don't overstay underground — prolonged exposure risks Pneumonia (-50% health regen, -50% max stamina).
  • Carry Antibiotic Paste or Tonic if you're planning a long cave run; they cut the duration or cure it outright.
🎯Talent & Tech Points
  • Talent Points are capped per character (see the Talent Builds reference) — plan around your role instead of dabbling in everything.
  • Tech Points have no such cap, so unlocking a recipe you end up not using isn't a real loss.
  • Prioritize talents that match how you're actually playing — a build that fits nobody at the table doesn't help the group.
💀Death & recovery
  • Dying costs you an XP debt to work off, not your gear outright — your loadout stays on your corpse until you (or a teammate) reach it.
  • Store valuables in a crate near your bed. If a death goes badly, your stockpile survives even if your corpse run doesn't.
  • Dying isn't the end of the world — it's frustrating, not fatal. Don't let one bad pull spiral into overcaution.
🤝Co-op specific
  • A teammate reviving you beats a corpse run every time — playing in a group largely neutralizes the death penalty.
  • Divide labor the way the crew's roles are set up — overlapping effort on gathering wastes a session.
  • A shared crate at base keeps materials flowing between roles without everyone hauling their own copy of everything back.
🎥 For the series

These tips are written with a fresh crew in mind — if you're jumping into the co-op series cold, read the roles breakdown first so you know which of these tips apply to your job at the table.

Once you're past the first few sessions, the talent builds and Cleanser reference cover the next layer of progression.

Compiled from community guides including EIP Gaming, Gameranx, and the Icarus Wiki. Mechanics get tweaked between updates — treat this as a starting point, not gospel.