Direct answer
If you want a clean first-session priority order in Solarpunk, do this:
- choose the right mode
- secure water early
- craft and read the Survival Guide
- stabilize food and crops
- build while crops are growing
- learn the research loop
- protect important crops from storms
- prepare for travel beyond the starting island
- understand that Airships are personal in co-op
- stop wasting time on the wrong early assumptions, especially Wheat on the starting island
1. Choose the right mode
The official beginner guidance recommends Soft Mode if you want a more relaxed first playthrough. That matters because Solarpunk is positioned as a lower-pressure survival-crafting sandbox, not a punishment loop.
2. Build water containers early
This is one of the clearest official early priorities. Water should be treated as foundational, not optional cleanup.
3. Craft and read the Survival Guide
The Survival Guide is not filler. Official guidance says to craft it and read it because it explains important systems you will otherwise misread or miss.
4. Establish food and crops
Early progression should move quickly from survival basics into a stable crop loop. The exact recipes are not the point here. The point is to stop living improvisationally as soon as possible.
5. Build while crops are growing
This is an explicit beginner recommendation and one of the most useful pacing tips in the game. Crop growth time is a window for:
- base cleanup
- storage organization
- planning next unlocks
- preparing future structures
6. Start thinking in systems, not in one-off tasks
By this point, you should already be thinking about research, travel, farming protection, and future resource trips as connected systems rather than isolated chores.
7. Protect important crops from thunderstorms
Official beginner guidance explicitly warns that thunderstorms can destroy plants and recommends a Greenhouse for protecting important crops.
8. Prepare to move beyond the starting island
One of the worst early mistakes is assuming everything important is meant to be found immediately at spawn. That is already disproved by the official Wheat guidance.
9. Treat Airship progression as a major milestone
The first Airship is the point where progression stops being only local optimization and starts opening the broader world structure.
10. Use co-op with the right expectations
If you are starting with friends, keep one specific rule in mind: Airships are personal in co-op. That changes planning, logistics, and player expectations.