Phoning Home tips and tricks for smoother gameplay

Phoning Home is an open-world exploration and survival game set on a strange, alien planet. The surprising part is that the main character isn’t a fierce warrior who fights for the survival of this tribe, but two cute little robots named ION and ANI.

If you’ve already bought Phoning Home or are planning to, check out the tips and tricks listed below for better gameplay.

Phoning Home guide

• Use your compass to find resources that you already scanned at least once. Before resources appear on your compass, you will have to find them. Watch for anything that looks out of the ordinary.
• Gameplay starts out slow for you to learn all the basic mechanics and to introduce characters, but don’t be fooled. There might be a dangerous surprise behind the next corner already. So, stack up on power-ups like Hull Repairs, Power Cells and Fuel.
• If storage for one resource is full and you cannot collect anymore, try to craft some power-ups or tools with it to not leave valuable resources behind.
• Be careful when getting close to lava or other sources of heat.
• After you met another small robot named ANI, take care of her. She will be helpful, a little bit annoying and sometimes hilarious, but most importantly you cannot win the game if you leave her behind.
• In cases of bad weather, ANI is very vulnerable. Find shelter for her and disable her auto-follow for a while. You can roam around and look for new paths while the storms rage. ANI really hates everything but sunshine, so make sure she always has enough coating. When her UI interface symbol turns red, she has run out of coating.
• ANI has her own opinion. Take everything she says with a grain of salt. She is NOT your tutorial guide.
• When you think you’re stuck, chances are you’re not. Some of the puzzles are rather tricky, especially in the second half of the game. Check the environment and what tools you have unlocked (or can unlock).
• Combine your tools and features. Maybe the Attractor PLUS the Teleporter might offer a way. There are times when you don’t need the Teleporter for a long time, and then you will run into situations where you constantly need it to traverse the landscape or help ANI around.
• ANI will follow you through the portals you create with the Teleporter or world portals that you enter. That is, if she can reach them.
• You can toggle ANI’s auto-follow mode (F) and her auto-attack mode (C). This may be necessary in certain situations to survive. ANI has her own mind and is sometimes very emotional.
• Save resources in the beginning. You will need them later in the game. In fact, your mission will depend on your ability to use your thruster and other tools.
• You can, but you don’t have to, fight all hostiles. It’s often the better alternative to avoid confrontation.

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