Credits

Credits are the official economic currency for *Tiny Space Program*. Credits allow you to buy anything you need for your space career, including every buy option in the Market. Credits are used for building and launching Ships and Satellites, hiring new astronauts, building outposts and buildings and improving them, researching and buying all you need for your space journeys from the market.

Credits can be earned by scanning the planets in the solar system and their moons, completing quests, carrying out activities, taking tourists to see the solar system, selling resources in the market, or watching ad videos.

## Credit Income Methods

### **Expeditions**

Sending your astronauts and workers out to explore the planets and moons of the solar system, on foot or in vehicles, gives you 'data points' that are directly converted into credits, without needing a round trip to Earth. Astronauts can go on expeditions directly from a Lander every 30 minutes, but once you have an Outpost, you can send workers on as many expeditions as you have staff and vehicles and life support for. As a result, expeditions tend to become your largest source of income as your space program develops.

#### Cash Pump (Basic credit producing outpost)

A cash pump is an outpost designed to launch as many expeditions as possible with minimal investment. This method is noteworthy because it's both the most effective (even long-term) and perhaps one of the most hands-off and least labor-intensive methods available in-game. Currently, the game design favors colonizing with many low-level outposts over few high-level outposts. Also for the moment, resource gathering/mining does not comes close to the efficiency of running expeditions for earning credits.

Recommended Setup as listed:

* 1) Construct all level 1 main structures (all level 1 buildings other than outpost give +2 pop cap per level)
* 2) Upgrade Hydroponics to level 2 and have 120LS storage (storage level 3)
* 3) Have 5 buggies\* and 3 rovers (for quests), ignore trucks early game, upgrade buggy range
* 4) Have 12 workers and 1 astronaut (this will put you over the population cap, but that doesn't cause problems so long as you don't try to leave)
* 5) Don't use Radar, use Sat scan only (and just the first level is good; construct additional scanning capability as desired after initial outpost rush)
* 6) Construct the Vehicle Repair workshop addon. This can keep 5 buggies repaired indefinitely, if kept supplied with repair packs (either shipped from Earth, or crafted in the Workshop).

To *actually produce* credits, run expeditions from your outpost with both Astronaut *and* workers.

This recipe for a Cash Pump requires altogether (usually best when brought from Earth's Market):

* 26 Basic Tools
* 39 Basic Materials
* 10 Steel (must be crafted off-world, not sold on Earth)
* 3 Advanced Tools
* 2 Advanced Materials
* 45 Buggy Parts\*
* 9 Rover Parts\*

The 134 total resources calculated by this planner only shows the amount of **cargo** needed for such structure. By Neophyte's suggestions, the life-support is not included in the total calculation, and all vehicle construction is assumed to use the LS available onboard ships in this guide anyway.

\**Currently outdated after a recent update to all vehicles. The new Ranger vehicle has the same stats as the Buggy, but is considerably more expensive to produce, and the parts cannot be obtained from the Market. Proposal: Replace Buggies with Quads, and reduce the step 2 requirements to level 1 Hydroponics with storage level 2.*

Replacing the 5 buggies with 9 quads, and adding an Outpost upgrade to allow enough workers for them, gives the following total resources needed:

* 44 Basic Tools
	+ (2 + 10) Outpost + (5 + 10) Hydroponics + 5 Workshop + 2 Landing Pad + 3 Vehicle Repair + (1 + 2 + 3) Life Support Storage + 1 Satellite Scan
* 75 Basic Materials
	+ (5 + 20) Outpost + (7 + 10) Hydroponics + 5 Workshop + 5 Landing Pad + 2 Vehicle Repair + (3 + 6 + 9) Life Support Storage + 3 Satellite Scan
* 10 Steel
	+ Hydroponics level 2
* 3 Advanced Tools
	+ 2 Hydroponics + 1 Vehicle Repair
* 2 Advanced Materials
	+ Hydroponics level 2
* 63 Vehicle Parts
	+ (3 \* 3) Rovers + (9 \* 6) Quads

### **Resource Gathering/Mining (Selling them on the Earth's Market)**

For all purposes and intent, this method is assumed to cover specifically the activity listed under the Collecting tab rather than the other activities listed under the Scanning & Exploration tab. Collecting rock samples is only good for the short-term and brings less and less credits as more samples are sold to the Market, eventually costing more to send out an astronaut than the credits earned from retrieving the samples.\*

The other drawback to this method compared to running expeditions on a vehicle is the income being rather limited and slow. It is also very labor-intensive for the player.

To gather Resources on the Surface of the Moon/Planet:

* 1) Scan the surface for Points of Interest - usually best done passively by satellites, rather than radar
* 2) Have a high-capacity vehicle such as a Hound
* 3) Select the resource site and send an astronaut/worker on that vehicle
* 4) Prioritize the best quality of resources over the lesser qualities, and then within that type of resources, prioritize the nearest sites over the further sites. (usually Gold is best, second best Titanium, then so on)
* 5) Process the raw resources into smelted Ingots for improved value (both overall value, and value per unit of cargo) - inside the Workshop for crafting.
* 6) Ship the Ingots back to Earth on a ship
* 7) Sell them in the Market

\* *With good chemical efficiency, the Dragon and Dragon Extended can still profitably carry stone samples even at the minimum value of 10cr. However, filling them with low-value rocks can rapidly become tedious. If you have the patience, this is theoretically an endless source of income.*

### **Tourism**

Tourists are not individually very profitable, but spacecraft with a low launch cost (eg a Dragon with high chemical efficiency) and more than two seats can take groups of them and earn hundreds of credits per trip. They can also be added to regular trips for a small boost whenever there is not a need to carry Workers, eg when sending a Bullet to pick up a load of gold ingots. For more details, see the Tourism page.

### **Advertisement Rewards from Watching** **Videos**

Barring the previously mentioned methods that can be maintained over and over in the long run, the last available method other than limited activities that gives you one-time bonuses for each location, or the declining rock sample profits, would be the 100 cr you get from watching a 30 second video.

Click on the upper right corner of the screen where the yellow credits icon can be seen. A button will appear with the message:

> "Out of Credits?
>
>

> Watch a video to get 100 extra."
>
>

Press on "Watch", make sure to not exit the ad before the timer runs from 30 down to 0. The phrase will appear very briefly "onWatch Currency: 1 Reward awarded" before disappearing. That's when you'll know the 100 cr is accrued to you.

Despite the obvious drawbacks, this method is the one with the least initial set-up required (none), and is readily available to you from the start. While you're still in the early game, try to direct your expenses toward building an outpost that earns credits for you. So at the moment, just treat the ad money as an initial booster to start up your outposts, and get the snowball rolling.