Out of Space: The Best Tips and Tricks

Out of Space is one of my favorite Switch games. Since the first game I’ve been hooked. It’s still fun after many hours spent trying to rid the ship of those pesky little aliens.

Along the way I’ve found good and bad ways to get through the game. Also a few tips and tricks.

A good strategy I’ve found is to immediately use the bucket to gain access to 3 or 4 rooms. Go deep, not just the closest rooms. This allows you to collect items from those rooms as well as stave off any eggs from generating.

Then fall back to the first room until you can power another room. Give some thought to the choosing the 2nd room to power. The best way to clear a ship of any size work along the outer wall in a clockwise or counterclockwise direction.

Instead of randomly going from room to room. Working in one direction along the outer wall keeps your front line small. I’ve found working in a direction that avoids the rooms with vents until the last works best.

Even working in one direction, there are exceptions. There are times taking one room makes more sense than proceeding in the same direction. Especially for dead end rooms, meaning they’re only connected to one room.

I usually save the vent rooms for last but sometimes the layout makes this impossible. A rug for vent rooms is a necessity. I only use bug spray once or twice, it’s not a long term solution.

For a vent room I get an extra sink, a water bot, and a bucket. If I have the resources, then I leave them all in the vent room and forget about it. Otherwise, I just leave them nearby.

We try to get an exercise bike before powering the 3rd room. Except for solo games, an exercise bike is a good buy early on. The extra money is the best trade off for time.

In my experience, pumpkin farms are expensive and time consuming compared to an exercise bike. Early in the game with only 2 rooms and an exercise bike you can easily rack up $100-200 to get a good start.

I’ve found powering 2 or 3 rooms then building up $600+ almost makes the game too easy. Rooms have a max capacity and with less than 3 powered rooms alien aggressiveness is low. So taking your time doesn’t punish you as much as you’d think.

A power core is usually the first buy, followed by a sink. For solo playing you don’t really need many items. I’ve played many 12 room games without getting any items other than power cores.

For solo you can get by with 1 pumpkin garden, 1 sink, 1 extra bucket, and just buying power cores. Buying a fridge or finding a small table helps to store stunned aliens so you can deal with them later.

There’s usually enough trash and aliens in each room to fund 12 power cores. However, getting an exercise bike and earning $60 makes life easier.

For an easy solo match win, take 2 rooms. Get an exercise bike and earn $250-$300. Get a mixer, sink, bucket, watering bot, and 1 power core. Then start taking new rooms. Once you have the money, get a cleaner bot.

If you have the resources a chef bot is a good option. Solo matches aren’t prolific on funds. So I’ve thrown in an occasional pumpkin to make my mixer useful.

There aren’t more than 4-6 aliens in any given room when playing solo. So taking a new room isn’t as hard as keeping it.

The chore of watering doors, pumpkin garden, and vents keeps you busy. But there’s usually a tipping point where there’s only a few rooms left and it gets easier.

After exploring the nearest 3 or 4 rooms for items. A power core and exercise bike are our first buys.

If you’re diligent about watering them you can get by with two pumpkin gardens. Otherwise an early microwave is necessary to keep everyone from starving.

We get a sink, mixer, and macrowave by the time 3 or 4 rooms are powered. A sink is a step saver. The mixer pays for itself by supplying power cores.

These items provide a quick disposal for aliens and save you from going back to the beginning for power cores. Even if you have 3 or 4 rooms left a mixer is still a good buy.

From here on out things get busy. Taking rooms 4 through 10 require a lot of housekeeping. Take you time and do all the chores before entering a new room.

Make sure your food and sleep meters are good before entering a new room. Also move your sink and alien disposal nearby. Moving items isn’t fun but a little thing such as a close sink makes a huge difference.

It’s easy to clear several rooms only to have everything undone because of not dealing with 1 sleeper or flying alien quick enough. Cut your losses and regroup if you’re ever overrun.

Giving up one room is better than losing the whole ship. It only takes one mistake to go from bad to worse. Containment is the goal. As long as you have some control of the room keep fighting.

The last few rooms have the most aggressive aliens. Housekeeping chores are at a minimum but dealing with aliens is at the maximum. Don’t be lulled into a false sense of security.

Instead of watering doors, spend time closing doors. Expect aliens to go far as they can. Check all rooms for signs of eggs. Move items closer. Use the spare time prepping for the last few rooms.

While rushing in and placing the last power core rarely fails. We like to have a clean finish and dispose of all the aliens.

I have played Out of Space many times with 3 and 4 players. In my opinion, there is a huge leap in difficulty between 3 and 4 players. Sleeper aliens seem to be more common too.

I’d say 4 players is by far the most challenging (and most exciting) way to play. Alien eggs spawn much faster. There are many more aliens per room. You get hungrier faster and recover sleep much slower.

If you get overrun and 1 alien is allowed to run around loose for just a little it wreaks havoc upon your ship.

Your first purchases should be an exercise bike, a microwave, and power core in that order. Followed closely by a refrigerator and a mixer. Then get sinks, rugs, and lastly the bots.

You’ll need a microwave before taking the 3rd room otherwise players will writhe in pain on the floor clutching their stomachs. Unless you use the shower hack.

A fridge is very useful for storing aliens for later or until you get a mixer. Getting one early also allows you to build up food while things are slow during the first 3 or 4 rooms.

Taking rooms 5 through 8 are chaos. There’s a tipping point where rooms 9 and 10 seem to go easier. But the last 2 rooms are the easiest to get overrun.

You’ll need bots, rugs, and extra sinks to take and keep all 12 rooms. Yes, three strategically placed sinks are necessary in 4 player. Placing rugs makes retaking rooms easier, but not losing them in the first place is preferable.

Unlike 2 or 3 player matches you definitely need to coordinate attacking a new room with 4 players. You should have a player responsible for the door, one for a bucket, and two with mops.

Before you take a new room you should open the door and allow a few aliens out then quickly shut the door. Hit them with mops and water then dispose of them.

While you can take a new room in 4 player without this step. Skipping this step greatly increases your chances of being overrun.

By the time you get done dealing with those aliens, the room will probably be at max capacity again. However, thinning out the mutated aliens in a room does make it easier.

In 4 player, aliens refill a new room almost as fast as you can dispatch them. It can take a few waves of attack, but it does get easier.

Rushing in to the last room with a mop, a bucket and power core is riskier on 4 player mode. But it usually pays off. We prefer to at least clear it of live aliens first.

As you progress, it’s important to move your sink and preferred method of alien disposal closer to the action. Beds, food, and bots can stay behind but always have a sink less than 2 rooms away.

Check your meters, other doors, and vents before taking a new room. Be sure you aren’t close to falling asleep or a door spawning new aliens before opening a door to a new room.

A refrigerator is very useful item. As is a cleaner or chef bot. Watering bots are mixed blessing. All your buckets will end up at the beginning platform if you aren’t careful about placing a sink between a watering bot and the start.

Always have a bucket of water ready when opening a door to a new room, especially one with a narrow door. As the aliens pass through the bottleneck hit the group with the bucket of water.

Don’t rush into a new room with a mop. In our experience it’s better to let them come to you. Stand near the entrance and hit aliens as they try to enter your room. Once the bulk of the aliens have been dealt with then go in after stragglers.

I’ve found a rug in each room cuts down on the damage from stray aliens. We’ve found it also makes recovering lost rooms much easier.

Sleepy aliens are the hardest in my opinion. If you walk through the yellow sparkly stars and accumulate 4 you fall asleep. Don’t chase them unless they get past you. Let the dog go in the room or wait for the sparkles to go away before entering.

Keep plants or beds near to counter them. It’s time consuming but moving items close to new rooms is best.

Use the green unpowered rooms to your advantage. Think of them as buffer zones. Once you clean the floor and doors, shut the door. As long as you don’t open the door again, no eggs spawn. Leave the rooms past the green rooms for later.

You can grind up cocooned players to recover them. Tossing them into space doesn’t help but makes them a bucket head. Store cocooned players in the fridge.

Just for fun, we found out credits max out at $9,999. Then pizza went on sale for only $9. So of course we had to buy some! We spent over $6,000 on Pizza before the game crashed!

Most of the achievements are self explanatory. Just keep playing matches and you’ll get most of them. Achievements unlock gold versions of common items from the store.

The only achievements I needed help with were the unusual ways:

• Unusual way: No showering
• Unusual way: No cooking
• Unusual way: No resting
• Unusual way: Less shopping
• Unusual way: No killing

No showering and No killing are the most difficult challenges. The no cooking challenge isn’t so bad, just don’t use a macrowave. Buy an extra pumpkin garden per player to keep from starving.

No resting isn’t very difficult. Just don’t use a bed, chair, or couch. I found buying 4 decorative plants was enough to keep everyone awake. Or just sleep on the floor.

Less shopping is fairly easy. Do not buy any items from the powered category, including the shower. Use the bug spray on yourself if you’re close to being cocooned.

The quarantine spray is also useful for the no showering challenge. We sprayed ourselves before entering any new room. Then we were safe from any goo on the floor, spitter aliens, or picking up spikey aliens. The green spray protects you for 45 seconds.

The no killing challenge sounds hard but we got a few refrigerators to make like easy. The fridge can store 20 aliens each. Tables are Ok but take up a lot of room in my opinion. We found 4 fridge’s worked best for this challenge. Also an exercise bike was essential to make up the lost income from not killing the aliens.

Shower hack: By repeatedly entering and exiting the shower you can fully restore your food and sleep meter. You don’t need to take a full shower to take advantage of this.

The same button enters and exits the shower. Keep spamming the button while holding the stick toward the shower. Going in and out refills both meters in no time.

Refrigerator trick. Use a fridge to move multiple items. Instead of moving each item individually, place bots, power cores, or any item in the fridge and just move it to a new room.

The fridge holds 20 items. You can also grind up one fridge full of aliens or trash to save time grinding them up individually. A refrigerator is only $25 so a $12 loss is worth the time it saves.

While a fridge is one of the most useful items in the game, it releases all its contents when it loses power. If you plan on keeping a fridge close to new rooms get a can of quarantine spray and spray the power core next to the fridge.

The bug spray works on players too. If you need to pick up spiked aliens or close to being cocooned then use a can of bug spray on yourself. Bug spray is good but should be used sparingly. I rarely need it for 1 player mode.

Door trick. You can stun aliens through a closed door. Open the door and shut it again just before any aliens come out. While they’re still near the door hit it with a bucket. The dog also stuns them through the door too.

Retrieve trick. You can un-build the dog and bots to retrieve them. If they’re stuck in another room or you can’t find them, un-build them then place them again.

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