ATMOSFAR is a co-op survival game about floating islands, and the early hours come down to two things: keeping your Wasp fuelled and turning scrap into a working camp. The game entered Steam Early Access on October 29, 2026, from Swedish studio Apog Labs and publisher Shueisha Games. It costs $24.99 ($22.49 with the launch discount until November 12) and supports one to four players. This ATMOSFAR guide collects the beginner tips that matter most in the current build (EA 1.0-8, patched November 1). Sources are Apog’s patch notes and dev blogs, the community wiki and labelled player reports from the Steam forums.
Apog has shipped five patches in four days; the biggest change for beginners is that since EA 1.0-8 you no longer lose your inventory when you die. Checked against the official posts on November 2, 2026, 02:45 UTC.
Table of Contents
Quick answer: ATMOSFAR guide for beginners
- Never fly without a hydrogen refinery. It turns hydrogen crystals from geysers into Wasp fuel.
- Use the Utility Wasp as your mobile base. It’s the only Wasp that carries and powers a camp.
- Extract every piece of scrap you pass. Early recipes need copper, plastic, resin and volarite.
- Research artifacts and data drives. Research unlocks the tech tree and makes some materials usable.
- The Hauler Wasp unlocks the Cloud Cruiser. Only its magnet can move the nuclear reactor core.
- Respect the weather. Land and camp instead of flying through storms or at night.
| ATMOSFAR at a glance | Details (checked Nov 2, 2026) |
|---|---|
| Release | Early Access, October 29, 2026, 17:00 CET |
| Price | $24.99 / £22.49 / €25.49; 10% off until November 12; price rises slightly at 1.0 |
| Platforms | PC (Steam, Epic Games Store); no console version announced |
| Players | Single-player or online co-op for up to 4 |
| Content in Early Access | 2 of 3 regions, 3 Wasps (Utility, Hauler, Striker), the full Cloud Cruiser |
| Current build | EA 1.0-8 (November 1, 2026) |
| Early Access length | About 9 to 12 months, per Apog |
| Steam reviews | 67% positive out of 406 user reviews |
The Wasps: which one to use for what
Wasps are the hover-vehicles you fly between islands. Apog’s Wasps 101 dev blog explains that the first ones were built from repurposed car parts, which is why they handle like flying trucks. Three classes are in the Early Access build. The fourth, the Scout Wasp, arrives with The Rime Update. Older dev blogs and the community wiki still call the Hauler and Striker by their pre-launch names, “Cargo Wasp” and “Fighter Wasp”.
| Wasp | Role | Use it for | In Early Access? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Utility Wasp | Your starter vehicle; carries a deployable camp and powers it | Exploring, scrap runs, overnight trips | Yes |
| Hauler Wasp (was “Cargo Wasp”) | Heavy lifter with a reelable magnet and inventory slots | Heavy scrap, the nuclear reactor core, Cloud Cruiser logistics | Yes |
| Striker Wasp (was “Fighter Wasp”) | Fastest acceleration; turrets that fire a range of projectiles, including stun shots | Dealing with hostile creatures and drones | Yes |
| Scout Wasp | Fastest class, scans for resources and dangers | Finding resources and nuclear cores | No: comes with The Rime Update |
How to get the Hauler (cargo) Wasp: you find it as part of the progression toward the Cloud Cruiser. Players on the Steam forums report finding it in a cave hangar near the crashed Cloud Cruiser, behind a door that needs an access key found further along the cave path. Once you have it, the Hauler is the only way to lift the reactor core.
Fuel: the resource that ends most runs
Every Wasp, your jetpack and the Cloud Cruiser’s engines run on liquid hydrogen. According to the dev blogs, you get it in three ways:
- Hydrogen crystals + refinery. Crystals are most common around hydrogen geysers; the community wiki says each crystal chunk in a geyser field drops 2 to 4 hydrogen. A hydrogen refinery at your camp turns them into fuel. Apog’s advice: “never leave without a hydrogen refinery!”
- Fuel canisters. The wiki notes that canisters respawn at most Wasp landing pads, so old PACE pads are worth a detour when you’re running low.
- Your backpack reserve. The suit’s backpack holds a small reserve tank for topping up your Wasp. Your jetpack refills itself slowly from the air.
Damage makes the problem worse: the dev blog says a damaged Wasp burns more fuel, flies slower and steers worse, so repair it with the welder tool as soon as you have the materials. Patch EA 1.0-5 (October 30) also reduced Wasp fuel consumption.
A deployed camp: the Utility Wasp powers the crafting table, refinery and other gear through its camp hub. Image: Apog Labs / Shueisha Games
Set up camp from the Utility Wasp
The Utility Wasp carries a folded camp hub that connects it to your camp gear and powers it. Deploy it whenever you need to refuel, craft, heal or wait out bad weather. The pieces to build first, based on Apog’s Life of a Vagabond dev blog:
- Crafting table: builds every other piece of camp equipment and shows which materials you are missing. Since patch 1.0-7, its resource list correctly includes what’s stored in your trunks.
- Hydrogen refinery: fuel, as above.
- Research desk: turns artifacts into new craftables. Without it, artifacts do nothing.
- Tent: sleeping heals you. A campfire lets you cook.
- Solar panels and trunks: extra power when the Wasp can’t supply enough, and storage.
Power is a budget: camp equipment, the extractor and the stunner all draw power units (PU) per second. The dev blog’s example: a small battery stores 100 PU and the extractor uses 1 PU per second, so it runs for 100 seconds. Your backpack battery recharges in sunlight or near bioluminescent plants. One practical tip from a Steam forum thread: if you recall your Wasp while the camp is still packed on it, the camp and its loot come along; a deployed camp stays where it is.
Scrap and materials: what drops what
The extractor tool breaks scrap into materials, and most early crafting depends on picking the right scrap. This table comes from the community ATMOSFAR wiki (edited October 30-31), so treat the exact numbers as player-recorded.
| Scrap type | Drops | Why you want it |
|---|---|---|
| Rust | 2-3 Volarite, 0-1 Sheet Metal | Volarite makes cogs (2 each) and sheet metal (1 each) |
| Industrial | 1 Cog, 1-2 Copper, 0-1 Pipe | Copper for wire (2 each) and circuit boards |
| Plastic | 1-2 Plastic, 1 Carbon | Plastic for circuit boards and fabric |
| Electronic | 1-2 Wire, 0-1 Circuit Board | Skips crafting wire and boards yourself |
| Furniture | 1 Plank, 0-1 Fabric, 0-1 String | Planks, plus fabric and string for camp gear |
Scrap too big for the hand extractor has to go to the Cloud Cruiser, which can build a material processor for large pieces. Two raw materials cause most of the “where do I find…” questions:
- Resin: harvested from tree stumps with orange mushrooms, per the wiki’s resources page. You need it for circuit boards (2 copper + 1 plastic + 1 resin). Players say the starting island has plenty if you run short, and patch 1.0-6 made resin easier to spot.
- Silica: players describe it as quartz-like crystals found in caves on the higher islands and on the Horizon islands outside the mission area (Steam forum thread). It’s not on the wiki yet.
If a material shows up in the world but you can’t use it, research it first. Players note that kaolinite and acid pods need a tech tree unlock. The research desk earns tech tree points. Players say you reach the tech tree by pressing Tab and scrolling across the menu tabs; blueprints such as the Cloud Cruiser’s material processor are listed there.
The Cloud Cruiser is a buildable flying base; its reactor powers almost everything aboard, while its thrusters burn hydrogen fuel. Image: Apog Labs / Shueisha Games
The Cloud Cruiser: how it works
The Cloud Cruiser is the big flying base you repair and then rebuild to your own design. Getting it flying is one of the big goals of the Early Access build. Apog’s two Cloud Cruiser dev blogs (part 1 and Cloud Cruiser 101, written with alpha footage) explain the systems:
- Power: a nuclear reactor makes the power units that almost everything aboard uses. Each reactor has a fixed output, so a bigger ship needs more reactors and more cores.
- Thrust uses fuel, not power. Higher thrust burns more hydrogen. Refill with hydrogen refineries (crystals delivered by the Hauler) or hydrogen siphons that pull hydrogen from the air. Since patch 1.0-8, the HUD warns you when the ship asks for more fuel than it has for its thrust level.
- Fuel tanks need power. Liquid hydrogen has to stay below -253°C, so if the power runs out, your stored fuel evaporates.
- The cargo lift on the roof opens when a Hauler Wasp comes close; drop the reactor core and large scrap through it.
- Wasp pads and plant beds: build pads to carry your Wasps along, and plant beds to grow the seeds you find into food and crafting materials.
Two warnings from players who have already rebuilt their ships: don’t remove a balloon without placing a replacement first, or the Cruiser drops out of the sky. And to redesign freely, players report you can strip it down to one thruster, one balloon, the reactors and the command center, then rebuild around them (Steam forum thread). Handle the reactor core carefully: the dev blog says dropping or damaging it risks an explosion.
Stuck early on? Common blockers
These are the early-game threads with the most replies on the Steam forums as of November 2. They’re player reports, not official solutions, and they contain light spoilers.
| Problem | What players report |
|---|---|
| Can’t lift the nuclear core | You need the Hauler Wasp’s magnet; find it in the cave hangar near the crashed Cloud Cruiser (needs an access key) |
| PACE Security Base frequency | Tune the scope to 71.2, but only while standing at the weather station / antenna; the frequency only works once the quest reaches that step. Patch 1.0-6 added better guidance for this objective, and 1.0-7 fixed a Fort Hannigan bug that reset progress and hid a frequency signal on saves from before 1.0-6 |
| Fourth fuse at the Horizon Isles power plant | One fuse is already fitted; the others are in the power plant’s storage room, a storage room near the restricted turret room, and the large hangar you open by routing power from the pylons |
Storms and jet streams make Wasps harder to fly; landing to camp is usually safer than pushing through. Image: Apog Labs / Shueisha Games
Survival tips: weather and creatures
The Steam page warns that storms, jet streams and nightfall all make flying harder, so land and camp rather than push through a storm in a damaged Wasp. Your stunner and the Striker’s turrets fire non-lethal stun shots that disable creatures and PACE drones for a while, and the flare gun lights up dark areas and scares off animals. The spotting scope locks onto islands and buildings and shows data about them; players use it to find resources and quest signals.
Patches so far and what they changed for beginners
| Patch | Date (UTC) | Beginner-relevant changes |
|---|---|---|
| EA 1.0-4 | Oct 29 | DLAA upscaling temporarily disabled for performance; research drives no longer lost on recovery |
| EA 1.0-5 | Oct 30 | Less Wasp fuel use, cheaper stunner, longer drone stun, lower mouse roll rate, collision-trap fixes |
| EA 1.0-6 | Oct 31 | Cloud Cruiser crafting pulls from ship storage, journal button on inventory, clearer resin and liftable objects, PACE base guidance |
| EA 1.0-7 | Oct 31 | Crafting tables count trunk storage; Fort Hannigan progression reset fixed; breathing camera sway removed |
| EA 1.0-8 | Nov 1 | No inventory loss on death, bigger Hauler magnet area, Cloud Cruiser fuel warning, reactor core fixes |
Full notes are on the ATMOSFAR Steam news page. Apog also runs an experimental branch with fixes before they reach the main build. It’s open to every owner, but the studio warns it can be unstable.
ATMOSFAR system requirements
| Minimum | Recommended | |
|---|---|---|
| OS | Windows 10 64-bit | Windows 11 64-bit |
| CPU | Intel Core i5-7500 / AMD Ryzen 5 1500X | Intel Core i7-14700K / AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D |
| RAM | 8 GB | 16 GB |
| GPU | Nvidia RTX 2070 / AMD RX 6700 XT | Nvidia RTX 4070 / AMD RX 7800 XT |
| Storage | 25 GB | 50 GB |
After launch-day performance complaints, Apog asked players to post their hardware and settings in the 1.0-4 patch thread.
Early Access roadmap
Apog’s Dev Blog 20 lists four updates before 1.0, with no dates yet: the Vagabond Update (quality of life and new player items), The Rime Update (the Scout Wasp and the third region, where the story ends), the Blue Side Update (new camp, Wasp and Cloud Cruiser features) and the Singularity Update (deeper systems based on feedback). Apog aims to keep saves working through all of Early Access.
More co-op survival: our Enshrouded best builds guide covers a survival game that grew out of Early Access, and our Once Human Isles of Abyss guide covers that game’s newest expansion. For another co-op hit from Steam’s October charts, see our Moon Sweepers beginner guide.
FAQ
Is ATMOSFAR on PS5 or Xbox?
No. As of November 2, 2026, ATMOSFAR is PC only, on Steam and the Epic Games Store. Apog Labs and Shueisha Games have not announced a console version.
Is ATMOSFAR multiplayer?
Yes. You can play solo or in online co-op with up to four players. Co-op players can share a Cloud Cruiser, ride on each other’s Wasps and fly in formation.
How long will ATMOSFAR be in Early Access?
Apog estimates 9 to 12 months; the Steam page says at least 9.
Do I lose my items when I die in ATMOSFAR?
Not anymore. Patch EA 1.0-8 (November 1, 2026) stopped inventory loss on death and respawn.
Sources: ATMOSFAR Steam page (price, requirements, Early Access FAQ, reviews); Apog Labs’ Steam announcements (Dev Blog 20, “ATMOSFAR is LIVE!”, patch notes EA 1.0-4 to 1.0-8); Apog’s dev blogs on atmosfar.game (Wasps 101, Life of a Vagabond, Cloud Cruiser parts 1 and 2; alpha builds, details may differ); the community ATMOSFAR wiki; the official ATMOSFAR site and games.gg (platforms); Steam community discussions (player reports, labelled). Checked November 2, 2026, 02:45 UTC.
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