Quick answer
To clear the opening stretch of Code: Terraform, boot the system, read the thermometer, connect the transmitter to Earth, and send your current temperature. That unlocks the shop and biology lab. After that, repair the oxygen and pressure sensors, buy a solar generator plus a small battery, and script the solar tracker so the base can stay powered.
Fast path
- Boot the terminal. The opening sequence gives you the first keyboard-level steps and gets you into the main console.
- Read the thermometer. The first meaningful objective is to read the live temperature from the thermometer component.
- Connect the transmitter to Earth. The connection belongs to the current script run, so connect before every transmission script that needs it.
- Send the temperature value. A successful first uplink triggers the first-contact milestone, pays the opening credit reward, and opens the shop plus biology lab.
- Repair oxygen and pressure. Oxygen teaches live-value calibration. Pressure introduces a clean
if/elseand modulo check. - Buy and deploy solar power. Get a solar generator plus battery and script the panel so it keeps following the sun.
First-contact script pattern
thermo = get_component("thermometer")
value = thermo.get_value()
transmitter = get_component("transmitter")
transmitter.connect("earth")
transmitter.transmit("current_temperature", value)If this runs successfully, the first-contact objective should clear and the next set of systems becomes available.
What opens next
| System | What it teaches | Next page |
|---|---|---|
| Oxygen sensor | Read → transform → calibrate | Oxygen Sensor Calibration |
| Pressure sensor | Conditions and modulo | Pressure Sensor Solution |
| Solar generator | Continuous automation | Solar Tracker Script |
| Biology lab | Multi-machine state flow | Biology Lab Automation |
Common early mistakes
- Connecting the transmitter to the wrong target instead of
earth. - Hardcoding a sensor result instead of reading the current value from the component.
- Forgetting that a later script run needs to connect again before transmitting.
- Assuming a script problem when the machine or power system is actually offline.
- Packing every expression into one line before you have verified the intermediate values.