Advanced Concepts

Welcome to Advanced Concepts! This page is designed to provide a reference for intermediate players as well as a guide on some things you will need to know in the mid to late stage of your Darkout playthrough. If you are a new player, it is recommended that you take a look at the Basic Concepts and the Beginners Guide also.

= Power =

As we all know, with great power comes great responsibility. As such, it's important to understand what it is, how to manage it and of course how to acquire it!

Generation
Believe it or not, you will already have a Device which is capable of generating power. Your Combinator is a great starting generator (and combiner!) and stops things from suddenly grinding to a halt when you start to reach the stage where your crafting devices are hungry for juice. It's a good idea to make your Combinator room relatively wide for this reason so you don't have to worry about placing a full electrical system until you are ready.

Of course, your Combinator is not an unlimited source of power and eventually you will have to begin crafting your first dedicated Power Generator. To do this, you will need to build and power your Workbench as well as gather and where required, research and craft the following components:

 5 x Fuel Tanks 6 x Electric Cables 3 x Iron Bars 3 x Copper Bars 

Once you have built and placed your generator, don't forget to shift + click it to turn it on. Once it has lit up, you are now generating power from your first dedicated generating device! Take a moment to admire your work, then proceed to the next section so we can make use of this precious resource.

Wiring
Of course, there's not much point in generating power if you're not going to use it, and the first step in using power is to learn how to connect it to devices. As most people with real world experience in using electronic devices will tell you, more often than not this entails using wires to plug things into sockets. Darkout is no exception, and when you start getting some powered devices you will want to make a few sockets and plenty of electric cable. How much of each depends on the size of your base and the layout you want, but remember you can connect multiple devices to a socket so there's no need to have one for each device unless your layout dictates otherwise. The basic principles to bear in mind are as follows:

 Devices must first connect to a socket before connecting to another device or generator Sockets may be connected to sockets. This will produce a neat looking encased wire, rather than the standard cable. This cased wiring is capable of bending around corners. Wires cannot be placed through wooden platforms or foreground blocks but these can be placed on top of wires without consequence. Power can flow through devices. If one device on a network is connected to a generator, all devices on the network will receive power from that generator.</li> Make sure you have room in your base for multiple generators, each one only provides so much power.</li> Placing a device right next to a socket will power it as though it is connected with a cable</li> </ul>

Once you reach the power generation stage, one of the first things you will want to do is set up powered ceiling lights. Being roof-mounted, these lights do not take up valuable floor space in your base and generate plenty of light. To give a concrete example of a late-game wiring setup, we will now demonstrate building a base-wise lighting system assuming a three storey base layout.

Feel free to check out Darkout Wiring Tips

= Elusive Components =

As you progress through the tech tree, you will come across a variety of materials which may not be readily apparent on your map. This list is an attempt to describe where to find most of the less intuitive materials.