It feels crazy to finally be able to say this, but Tharsis is making its way to PS4 tomorrow. After two years of nonstop work on the game, we’re finally going to be able to deliver our strategic, dice-rolling, cannibalistic baby to you. We hope you love it as much as we do.
We’ve come to be pretty open about the ins and outs of Tharsis in recent months, but there are a few things we’ve tried to keep secret (to varying degrees of success). For starters, did you know that our game Laserlife takes place in the same universe as Tharsis?
Although they take place thousands of years apart, they share a pretty strong narrative connection. You know that creepy skeleton astronaut floating around in Laserlife? That’s the astronaut who dies at the start of Tharsis. Oh, and spoiler alert on this paragraph, I guess.
To celebrate the connection between these two games in the most commercial way possible, we’re going to offer Tharsis for 10% off (or 20% off for PlayStation Plus members) at launch. Additionally, Laserlife is going to be 40% off (or 50% off for Plus members). Enjoy!
With that addressed, let’s get down to the brass tacks of gameplay. Tharsis is a complex strategy game, but it doesn’t take much time to understand and master the basics of it. That said, you’ll almost surely die a lot when you first start playing, and you may even find yourself having to sacrifice crewmates just to make it to the next turn. Perils such as these are to be expected in the harsh, indifferent realm of space, but they can be mitigated with a little patience and strategizing.
While we probably can’t teach you the virtue of patience in a blog post about a video game, we can at least help you out with the strategizing part. To make your trip to Mars a little less… death-filled, we’ve gone ahead and compiled a list of tips from the people who brought you Tharsis. Heed their words, and you’ll become a pro astronaut in no time. Or ignore them entirely and carve your own path. The choice is yours!
Whatever the case, please feel free to let us know in the comments if you have any questions. We’ll respond to as many of them as we can!
How to Live to See the Red Planet
-Don’t be afraid to move crew members through events. Taking the health damage isn’t so bad in the long run if you’re faced with a fatal event on the other side of the ship. -Sam Cho / Lead Programer
-Try to clear out events when possible, otherwise manage which ones remain. When the Ship is low on hull, you may want to ignore an event that does damage to the crew’s health for that turn. You can’t always fix everything, so fix what is the biggest threat. -Danny Johnson / Lead Designer
-Don’t rely on cannibalism unless it’s absolutely necessary. This applies to the game and real life. -Danny Johnson / Lead Designer
-Make sure you are smart about the order in which you move your characters. (e.g. if you have three people working on an event, moving your doctor in last, and using her character ability will heal all of the characters in the module.) -Mike Roush / Director
-Keep an eye on your “Assist.” If you have a lot of “Hazard Dice” a lack of Assist could take out your crew… or worse. -Mike Roush / Director
-Your ability to do anything is contingent on the action dice you have available to you — you lose that and things will start to spiral out of control. So, events that take away action dice might not kill you immediately, but don’t ignore them entirely, either. -Mike Gonzales / Programmer
-Sometimes the crew-member with the most dice isn’t the best choice for the job. Having a lot of dice is great but it also increases the chances you’ll take damage from events with lots of hazard dice. -Zach Gage / Systems Designer
-Stasis might not seem so bad, but triggering unnecessary hazards chews through your Assists that might be better used elsewhere, so think before you re-roll that 4 for a 5. -Zach Gage / Systems Designer
-Shuffling research cards and putting dice back into research is a great way to use up your extra dice which you cannot place anywhere else. It’s important to remember that research points get spent from lowest to highest. -Chris Meyer / Art Director
-Sometimes fixing an event head-on is not the way to go. Think about how spending those dice on a module ability might benefit you more in the long run than resolving an event immediately. -Matt Hickman / Lead Producer
-Don’t get cocky. Just because you’re ahead of the curve and all your crew are healthy this turn, doesn’t mean something very bad isn’t right around the corner. -Matt Hickman / Lead Producer
-Keep an eye on your stress. It may seem like the least of your concerns, but stress is, after all, the silent killer. Or is that farts? -Alex Neuse / Executive Producer
-I know it sounds kind of dumb, but avoid being overly cautious. Sometimes doing the riskiest maneuvers pay off in the best ways. -Alex Neuse / Executive Producer
Let all the children boogie.
We never lost control
There’s a starmaaaaan