Starbound has changed a great deal since Chucklefish first put the game up in Early Access Beta on Steam in 2013. When it officially went into Early Access in 2016, the developers had introduced many new features including a more dedicated story line. The beginning mission also functions as a bit of a tutorial/introduction to the game’s world and mechanics.

Shortly after starting your journey in Starbound, you will come across the quest to enter the Erchius Mining Facility. This is the first mission in the game and is important for unlocking your ship’s FTL drive. This guide has everything you need to know about the Erchius Mining Facility including how to begin the quest, enemies, and potential loot.

Accepting The Quest

Before you head into the Erchius Mining Facility, you will need to accept the mission. This is required to fix your ship, allowing space travel.

To accept the quest, head to Penguin Pete at the Outpost. You will find him on the right side of the main building, near the shipyard.

Talk to him to accept the quest, and then head back to your ship to prepare for the mission. Quests are given by NPCs, while missions are the action of going into a specific location. In this case, your quest is to do a mission.

Preparing For The Mission

The mining facility isn’t necessarily hard since it is an early mission. It can be quite scary though as the facility is dark and enemies can pop out of any spot. Below, you can find a few helpful items to bring.

  • Bandages and Salve A Melee Weapon A Ranged Weapon (gun or bow) Flashlight

Unlike normal exploration, you do not need to bring food. Your hunger bar will freeze for this mission, so you do not need to worry about eating.

At the Outpost, you can also unlock different mobility techs. You can initially unlock a double jump, a dash, and the ability to turn into a small ball and roll through tight spaces. These aren’t necessary for the Erchius Mining Facility, but they will definitely help you get around.

To unlock these techs, just visit the tech lab at the Outpost. You will need to a series of small quests that require different ore, but afterward, you will have these mobility techs unlocked. Once you have all the materials needed, interact with the SAIL panel on your ship to start the mission.

Erchius Mining Facility Map

After starting the mission, you will be teleported to the Erchius Mining Facility. The entire area will be incredibly dark so be sure to have your flashlight handy. Alternatively, you can use a yellow stim pack. This will make you glow a little, lighting up the surrounding area.

The mining facility is fairly straightforward. You will be required to flip breakers to proceed through the area. Let’s go over the general route you will take to get through the facility to get to the final boss.

  • Enter the above-ground building and head downwards. You will come across a closed platform. To open it, head to the right through an air vent and flip a breaker. Enemies will fall from the ceiling; kill them and head to the platform. Drop down from the platform and head to the right. Keep going right until you reach the end of the tunnel. There will be several enemies along the path. You can either kill them or run away. At the far right edge of the facility, there will be a tunnel going down. Follow this path until you come to a forked area. You can either go straight or go downwards. The tunnels will rejoin later. If you choose to go straight, you will come across a few miners in a small base. These tunnels will rejoin in a big area filled with enemies. Proceed left for a little until you see a tunnel directly above you. This loops back to the start of the mines. If you don’t need to visit the entrance, keep heading left until you come across a tunnel going straight down. You should begin to see Erchius Crystals in the walls. At the bottom of the tunnel, you will see a small room with a bunk bed. Here, you will be able to rest before fighting the main boss for this mission. This also serves as a checkpoint for the boss; if you die, you will respawn here. To enter into the boss area, flip the breaker and drop into the space below.

As mentioned before, the Erchius Mining Facility is straightforward. If you do die before making it to the boss checkpoint, the mission will reset and you will have to start over.

For a full view of the Erchius Mining Facility, check out this map on Steam as seen above. It shows every tunnel, including any areas that contain chests and loot.

Mutant Miner Enemies

While making your way through the Erchius Mining Facility, you will come across a lot of enemies. These are called Moontants and can be quite annoying but, with proper gear and weapons, you will be able to take them out. Moontants will shoot goo at you from a distance and will charge towards you. Their charge attack can do quite a bit of damage, so try to jump and avoid these.

Besides the boss, this is the only enemy you will encounter in the facility. Moontant appearance and strength can vary and these Moontants can be quite deadly if you don’t know how to deal with them. To avoid their attacks, try to jump out-of-reach areas. If you have a gun or bow, you can position yourself above the Moontants and shoot down at them.

Overall, kill as many Moontants as you can while avoiding ones that may kill you. However, you can also make some friends in the facility. Several bases within the mining facility have friendly people in them equipped with guns who can help you take out any Moontants.

Erchius Mine Facility Loot

Throughout the Erchius Mining Facility, you will come across a lot of loot. As you progress through the facility, you will encounter three types of loot in the Erchius Mine Facility: guaranteed, generated, and randomized. Here are lists of all three types:

Guaranteed Loot

  • Space Helmet Spacesuit Chest Spacesuit Trousers Spacesuit Backpack Communication Failed Paper Emergency Lockdown Paper Letheia Corporation Guidelines Paper The Erchius Horror Log Left Transition Wheel

Generated Loot

  • Lunar Base Blastdoor Blueprint Lunar Base Bunk Blueprint Lunar Base Chair Blueprint Lunar Base Console Blueprint Lunar Base Crate Blueprint Lunar Base Lantern Blueprint Lunar Base Lockers Blueprint High-Vis Jacket Miner’s Helmet

Randomized Loot

  • Money Rope Copper Pickaxe Silver Pickaxe Common Gun Bandage Flare Yellow Stim Pack Iron Bar

Erchius Horror Boss Fight

Finally, we have the Erchius Horror. This is the final boss of the Erchius Mining Facility. In the image above, it looks a bit scary. Fortunately, fighting this boss is easier than expected.

Located around the Erchius Horror are four pillars with switches on them. Your goal is to flip all four switches. Once you are flipped all of them, head to the area directly underneath the boss and activate the cannon. This will hit the Erchius Horror, causing its HP to go down.

The Erchius Horror will shoot out pink lasers as you flip switches. These can be avoided by jumping around, however, if they do hit you, you won’t die. Make sure to have your bandages and salve handy for this fight. Additionally, the Erchius Horror will spawn Moontants. You can either kill them or run to avoid them while flipping switches.

Overall, you will need to fire the cannon three times. After firing the first two times, the Erchius Horror will become more erratic, firing more lasers at faster speeds. Below, you can see the different phases of this boss.

Phase One

This is the first phase when you enter the room. Two beams will sweep slowly around the room. These can easily be avoided by outrunning them.

Phase Two

After you fire the cannon for the first time, two additional beams will appear in the shape of an X. Jump over these beams and flip the switches.

Phase Three

This is the final stage of the Erchius Horror. The four beams will begin a scissoring motion on either side of the boss. Thankfully, you can completely avoid these by standing either directly above or below.

After firing the cannon for the last time, the Erchius Horror will shatter. You can kill any remaining Moontants that spawned, and then proceed to the right to collect your loot and leave.

Boss Loot

After defeating the boss, you will receive some loot. You will have a 100% chance to receive The Erchius Horror log and have a chance to win other random rewards. Listed below are all the random rewards that you may receive.

  • Tech Card Iron Bar Diamond Money Uncommon Gun Capture Pod Uncommon Melee Weapon Shield

After completing the Erchius Mining Facility quest, head back to the Outpost and speak to Penguin Pete. He will give you a reward bag and some money, as well as repairing your shop.

With your ship repaired, you will now be able to travel to different planets in the universe!