How to Play Out of Space: The Ultimate Guide

Playing Out of Space is easy, winning at Out of Space requires a plan of action. Out of Space is among my favorite Switch games. The controls are simple and the objective is basic: provide power to each room.

Once you launch the game you begin by choosing how many players. The next screen is where you choose between 6, 9, or 12 rooms. Challenges require 12 rooms.

Challenges are where 3 alternate rules are set. The game generates weekly challenges which count toward achievements. Playing the same weekly challenge counts toward the achievements.

The other option is to generate a random challenge or enter a seed number. If you find a particular random or weekly challenge fun write down the seed number for later.

After configuring the rooms and rules you start the game. Once it gets to the “press A to continue” screen the game is going in the background. If you aren’t ready it’s best to hit A then pause the game.

All matches start with a pumpkin garden, a recycler, a mop, a bucket and a power core. The platform you start on has a water spigot.

• 1 Player matches start with $30
• 2 Player matches start with $20
• 3 Player matches start with $10
• 4 Player matches start with $0

The joystick moves you around. The X button uses the item in your hands, whether it’s eating, mopping, or dumping a bucket of water.

The A button is for picking up an item, petting the dog, or operating a door. The B button is for dropping items or breaking down an item back into a box so it can be moved. It also hands other players whatever you’re holding.

The Y button opens the store. Once the store opens, the top buttons are used to scroll through the store. When the store is closed the top left button displays your hunger and sleep meter. While the top right calls the dog.

If you only use 1 joycon, substitute Y for X, X for A, A for B, and B for Y.

Throughout the game you need to get additional items. When the game starts, there are no more than 2 items in each room in my experience. However, there is a challenge rule for limited store which allows for up to 4 items in each room.

Learning about each item is useful for making strategies. I’ve found knowing which ones help and which ones hinder my progress helps immensely.

Just because you can get an item doesn’t necessarily make it useful. Much depends on how many players you have, how far along you are, or how much money you have.

I’ll break down each item into categories. Then explain each items strengths and weaknesses. Items you can buy in the store fall into 4 categories:

• Favorites
• Powered items
• Furniture
• Accessories

Store items available in the favorite category are:

• Power core ($30). You need these to win the game.
• Mop ($35). 1 per player is unnecessary, many mops tend to get in the way. I’ve found 2 or 3 mops is fine for 4 players.
• Bucket ($40). You need at least 2 no matter how many players. 2 per sink is a good rule of thumb.
• Sink ($45). Crucial item. For solo 1 or 2 sinks are fine. For 4 players you’ll need 3 or 4 sinks depending on the vent room layout.
• Recycler ($15). You can stack items to be recycled so there’s no need for more than the 1 you start with no matter how many players.
• Quarantine Spray ($10). Useful around midgame when there are too many doors and vents that need watered regularly. They also protect players and power cores! Use sparingly though.
• Pizza ($15). Emergency item only. I love pizza, but rarely need it.

Store items available in the powered category are:

• Shower ($20). Good for the shower hack, reviving cocooned players, filling buckets of water, and cleaning your player. Still, not a necessity.
• Macrowave ($35). A must have to provide food during 3 or 4 player matches. Plus a quick disposal of an alien while waiting for the mixer to finish.
• Pumpkin Garden ($20). A good purchase for 2 player matches instead of a macrowave. More than 2 pumpkin gardens is overkill, get a macrowave.
• Mixer ($60). The most expensive item but worth it. Get one as early as possible. It allows for quick disposal of aliens plus pays for itself by providing power cores.
• Refrigerator ($25). Most useful item in the store. You can store any item inside. Then break it down to move up to 20 items to a different room. Grinding up 1 fridge with 20 aliens inside is a huge time saver.
• Cleaner bot CB-8 ($40). A useful bot. Eases the pressure on players. Not a necessary purchase but shouldn’t be overlooked if you have the money.
• Exercise Bike ($15). Required for 4 player matches. An excellent purchase for 2 or 3 player matches. Optional for solo match. Getting 1 bookcase to accompany your bike is a good idea.
• Outlet Extension ($10). Only necessary during certain challenge rules. It’s better to keep moving items between rooms than being tied to one room with outlet extensions.
• Chef BotD2 ($60). Also the most expensive item but extremely useful. It isn’t necessary until mid or late game.
• Watering Bot R2 ($50). Mixed blessing. It’s slow and can’t handle vent rooms unless everything is near. They also take buckets back to the start spigot if poorly placed. But wake you up if you fall asleep and keep things watered.

Store items available in the furniture category are:

• Armchair ($10). Probably the most bang for the buck. It takes up less room and coupled with a nightstand is as good as a bed.
• Bed ($35). Expensive buy and takes up a lot of room. If you have the room and money a good buy.
• Couch ($20). These take up nearly as much room as a bed. I usually get a bed or a chair/nightstand combo.
• Kitchen Table ($15). The most useless item in the store. You can put 4 things on it. It takes up too much room and the fridge is better.
• Table ($10). Also fairly useless but it’s better than the kitchen table. It only holds 3 items but doesn’t get it the way like the kitchen table. Instead get a fridge for the win!

Store items available in the accessory category are:

• Bookshelf ($25). Good accessory for the exercise bike but not much else.
• Decorative Plant ($20). A good buy. Place near the sink or food source. Get 3 or 4 and you’ll never need a bed.
• Rug ($25). Required for any vent room. Necessary in most rooms for 4 player matches. For 2 or 3 player matches strategic use is best, but they are not necessary for solo matches.
• Nightstand ($10). Good accessory for the chair but only slightly increases sleep recovery. If you have one room dedicated for sleep it’s fine. Otherwise inconvenient to haul around.
• TV ($20). Like the watering bot a mixed blessing. You have to be able to see it and remember to look at it. I wouldn’t buy one but I wouldn’t grind up any I find either.
• Lamp ($20). Almost as useless as a kitchen table. If you have aliens in a room going after a lamp you have bigger issues. If I find one I keep it, the rest I grind up.
• Family Portraits ($20). I wouldn’t buy one but I wouldn’t grind one up either. It’s rare for every player to be in the room to see any benefit from this item.

Know your enemy. The goo on the floor and doors eventually produces eggs. From the eggs spawn the standard dark pink aliens. Which make more goo everywhere they go.

Depending on the match rules, mutated aliens can also spawn. Mutated aliens are similar but have special abilities. The mutated aliens are:

• Snoozer. These are by far the hardest to deal with. Let them come to you, don’t run to them or through the sparkly yellow stars. Each star you accumulate adds to your sleep meter. It takes 4 stars to fill it. Prioritize eliminating these green gremlins.
• Leader. They speed up other aliens and are immune to the dog. Don’t panic, they’re just red, fast versions of the standard alien.
• Spitter. These are the flying purple aliens. Only the dog or a bucket of water stun them. They are easy to dodge but take out power cores and sinks with 1 hit.
• Spikey. They are the brown aliens with spikes. Not as bad as the others but don’t pick up too many or you’ll get cocooned.
• Bulky. These are the dark purple armored aliens that need hit with a bucket of water before you can stun them with a mop. The dog makes quick work of them. Next to sleepy, they’re the worst. They can consume a lot of time if there isn’t a bucket nearby.
• Swimmer. They are also dark purple like Bulky but have a smooth back. Hitting them with water wakes them up and increases their speed but they aren’t very difficult.

After too much contact with the goo you will cocoon. It’s game over on solo matches. But you can recover on multiplayer matches by putting them in the recycler or shower.

• Solo match: cocoon on 4th contact with floor goo. Spiked/Spitter alien 6th contact.
• 2 & 3 player match: cocoon on 2nd contact with floor goo. Spiked/Spitter alien 4th contact.
• 4 player match: cocoon on 2nd contact with floor goo. Spiked/Spitter alien 3rd contact.

There are a few ways to deal with being dirty. A shower or watering bot. For solo matches I get a watering bot. For multiplayer we get a shower or splash each other with a bucket.

While cleaning goo and disposing of aliens keeps you busy don’t forget other chores. Such as eating and sleeping. Also watering doors, vents, and the pumpkin garden.

Moving items after taking every other room is a chore but it is crucial to keep the sink and alien disposal near. Dispose of aliens in a mixer or fridge to be dealt with later. Only use a table if you find one.

Your player needs to eat and sleep before the meters are full. Otherwise they pass out and sleep where they are. A full hunger meter leaves them writhing on the floor until another player hands them something to eat.

Early game (one third of rooms powered) is about setting up and powering 2 or 3 rooms. By this time you may encounter a couple aliens. Instead of powering more rooms focus on getting useful items.

Explore rooms to get items, trash, and aliens. But spend it on useful items instead of power cores.

Midgame (two thirds of rooms powered) is when there are many chores requiring your attention and new rooms have many aliens. The items you acquired before expanding past 50% of the total rooms will help here.

Lategame is when there are only a couple rooms left and the cleaning chores have subsided some, money is abundant, and the tipping point is reached. It’s a good idea to regroup and move items closer.

The last couple rooms are deceptive. They usually have mutated aliens and are at max capacity. Not having a sink, rug, or means of alien disposal close can mean the difference between being overrun and an easy win.

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