So, you’ve landed on a desolate planet with nothing but a giant, wheel shaped base and a setting sun that’s about to fry you to a crisp. Welcome to The Alters! It’s a rough start, but don’t sweat it; we’ve got your back. This is your Act 1 complete Guide, 100% walkthrough, designed to get you through every objective without any fuss.
We’ll focus on the critical path to survival, keeping story spoilers to an absolute minimum. Our goal is to help you get your bearings, understand the core mechanics, and live to see another day on this unforgiving rock. Let’s get Jan Dolski to work.
What’s in our The Alters: Act 1 Complete Guide?
Waking Up on a Hostile World
The first few moments of the game are all about disorientation. When you finally take control of Jan, you’re stumbling out of the wreckage of your lander. The air is thin, the landscape is alien and intimidating, and a sense of crushing loneliness sets in. Your first and only objective is simple: survive.
Follow the on screen prompts, which serve as a basic movement tutorial. You’ll learn to walk, run, and interact with the environment. There isn’t much to see out here besides red dust and jagged rocks, but you’ll soon spot your salvation in the distance: the massive, circular Mobile Base. It’s your new home, and your only hope.
Make your way toward the base. The journey isn’t long, but it does a fantastic job of establishing the scale of your problem. Once you reach the towering structure, find the ramp and head inside. The silence of the abandoned base is almost as unnerving as the howling wind outside, but it’s shelter. For now.
Getting the Mobile Base Online
Once you’re inside the relative safety of the Mobile Base, your priority shifts. The place is dead, running on emergency power at best. You need to get it fully operational. The game will guide you toward a large computer terminal in the Command Center. It’s pretty hard to miss, it’s the one with all the screens, right in the middle of the main room.
Interacting with this terminal will bring up the base’s diagnostic systems. This is your main hub for managing everything. Your first task is to restore the primary power. The terminal will point you to the Power Supply room. Follow the waypoint on your HUD to a nearby elevator and take it down to the lower level.
Downstairs, you’ll find the heart of the base’s power grid. It doesn’t look very easy, but your job is straightforward. You need to interact with the main console here to reboot the system. Once you do, you’ll hear the satisfying hum of the base coming to life. Lights will flicker on, systems will start booting up, and for the first time, it will feel a little less like a tomb and a little more like a home. Head back up the elevator to the Command Center. The main computer should now be fully functional, displaying all the critical information you need to survive.
Your First Big Task: Using the L.A.S.E.R.
With the lights on, a new, more pressing problem reveals itself. Your base is damaged and you’re desperately low on essential materials. The on board computer will flag a critical shortage of Polycarbonate, a resource you need for repairs and, more importantly, for expanding your base’s capabilities. Luckily, this planet is rich in resources; you just need a way to get to them.
This is where the L.A.S.E.R. comes in. No, not a tiny laser pointer. We’re talking about a massive, industrial mining laser mounted on the exterior of your base. Your objective is to get it working so you can start carving up the landscape and harvesting what you need.
Head to the Workshop area of your base. You’ll find a dedicated terminal for controlling the mining laser. When you first access it, you’ll see a map of the immediate area outside your base. The map will highlight several resource deposits. Your target is a deposit of Pyrite, as the computer informs you that processing Pyrite is the only way to produce the Polycarbonate you need.
Select the Pyrite deposit on the map. You’ll then need to aim the laser and fire. There’s a short minigame here where you have to keep the laser focused on the target to maximize your yield. It’s not too difficult, just keep the cursor steady. Once the process is complete, a drone will automatically collect the raw Pyrite and bring it back to the base for processing. Now you have the raw materials, but you still need to turn them into something useful.
The Moment of Truth: Creating Your First Alter
While you were busy playing with the giant laser, your base’s long range scanner picked up something: a distress signal from another crash site. This is a pivotal moment. The computer suggests that another survivor could be the key to your survival, providing a much-needed extra pair of hands. Your next objective is clear: investigate the crash site.
Before you head out, you’ll need to prepare. The game will prompt you to craft a special tool at the Workshop: the Metal Extractor. You’ll use the resources you just mined to build it. Once it’s ready, equip it and head for the exit.
Following your HUD, you’ll venture back out into the hostile environment. The journey to the other crash site is longer this time, and the eerie landscape really starts to sink in. You’ll eventually arrive at a scene of devastation, another lander, smashed to pieces. Inside, you find the grim reality: the occupant didn’t make it.
This is where The Alters introduces its central, game changing mechanic. Your mission wasn’t to find a survivor, but to find a source. Using the Metal Extractor on the deceased astronaut, you’ll extract something called their “Heart,” which contains the essence of their being and, more importantly, their divergent life paths. It’s a somber and slightly creepy moment.
With this grim prize in hand, return to your base. It’s time to do the impossible. You’ll be guided to the Medical Bay, where a massive, complex piece of machinery awaits. This is where you will create an Alter. Access the computer terminal here and you’ll be presented with the “Tree of Life” for the person whose essence you just collected. This branching path represents all the different decisions they could have made in their life, leading to different versions of themselves a scientist, a technician, an engineer.
For this first creation, the game directs you to choose a specific path that results in Jan the Technician. This version of Jan made different life choices and developed a skill set you desperately need. Select this path and initiate the process. After a stunning and slightly surreal cutscene, a new person will emerge from the machine. It’s Jan… but it’s not you. Congratulations, you’ve just created your first Alter.
You’re Not Alone Anymore: Managing Your Alter
The base suddenly feels a lot less empty. But this new Jan isn’t just here for company; he’s here to work. The game now shifts into a base management simulation. Your survival no longer depends solely on your own actions, but on your ability to effectively lead and delegate.
The new Technician Alter is confused, scared, and has a lot of questions. You’ll have a brief conversation to try and explain the unexplainable. After the initial chat, you need to put him to work. Your main computer terminal in the Command Center is now your go to spot for assigning tasks.
Managing your Alters is the core loop of the game. You need to keep them busy, but also keep them happy. Here are the basics of what you need to know:
- Assigning Tasks: From the Command Center terminal, you can see a list of available tasks, such as fabricating materials, processing resources, or crafting items. You can assign any of these tasks to yourself or your Alter. For now, assign the Technician to start processing that Pyrite you mined earlier.
- Skill Sets Matter: Your Technician Alter is, unsurprisingly, good at technical jobs. He’ll perform them faster and more efficiently than you would. Always try to match the Alter to the task that best suits their skills.
- Needs and Morale: Alters are not robots. They have needs, like hunger, sleep, and social interaction. You’ll need to build facilities like a Kitchen and sleeping quarters to keep them healthy. A happy Alter is a productive Alter. An unhappy one can cause problems.
- Monitoring Status: You can check on your Alter’s status at any time via the main terminal. Keep an eye on their energy levels and mood. If they get too low, they’ll stop working and may even start to question your leadership.
For now, the tutorial will guide you through assigning the Technician to process the Pyrite into the Polycarbonate you need. Get him started on that right away, because a new, far more dangerous threat is on the horizon.
Racing Against the Sun: Building the Radiation Shield
While you’ve been busy bringing a new version of yourself to life, a countdown has been ticking away in the background. Your base’s computer delivers the bad news: the planet’s sun is about to rise. This isn’t a beautiful, life giving sunrise. The solar radiation here is lethal, and your base is currently unshielded. If you don’t build a radiation shield before that sun crests the horizon, you’ll both be cooked alive.
This is the climactic challenge of Act 1. A timer appears on your screen, adding a powerful sense of urgency to everything you do. You don’t have time to waste.
Your objective is to build and install Radiation Shielding. The recipe is available in the Workshop, but it requires a significant amount of materials, including the Polycarbonate your new Technician friend should be busy making. You’ll also need to mine more resources.
This is your first real test of multitasking and delegation. While the Technician is busy at the processor, you need to get back on the mining laser. Scan the area for more resource deposits and start blasting. As the drone brings back the raw materials, your Technician can process them, and you can start fabricating the components for the shield at the Workshop.
It’s a frantic race against time. You’ll be running back and forth between the Command Center, the Workshop, and the elevator, all while that ominous timer ticks down. Once you have all the necessary components, you can finally craft the Radiation Shielding.
But you’re not done yet. You have to physically install it. Grab the shielding and follow the waypoint to the exterior of the base. Find the designated slot and install the shield. As you lock the final piece into place, the sun will begin to rise, bathing the landscape in a deadly glow. But thanks to your hard work, you’re safe inside. You’ve survived your first major crisis.
Looking for the Full Journey?
Congrats on making it through the intense first act! You’ve mastered the basics of survival, brought your first Alter into the world, and faced down a lethal sunrise. This is just the beginning of Jan’s journey, and the challenges are only going to get bigger, stranger, and more complex from here.
If you’re looking for a complete walkthrough for the entire game, from start to finish, be sure to check out our main pillar guide. It covers every act, every choice, and every secret this mysterious planet has to offer.
If You want to Learn Everything about the Game, You can read out The Alters Complete Walkthrough
One Day Down
With the radiation shield in place, Act 1 comes to a close. You and your Alter can finally take a breath. You’ve stabilized the base, secured a workflow for gathering resources, and proven that you have what it takes to survive. But the fundamental questions remain. What is this planet? Are there other survivors? And what are the long-term consequences of playing god and creating these alternate versions of yourself?
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