Oxygen

Oxygen is the player’s life support resource in Astroneer. It is required to avoid suffocation, and most exploration revolves around extending or maintaining access to it. The backpack contains a built-in oxygen tank across the top, which can store up to 72 seconds of oxygen. Sprinting consumes Oxygen faster than walking or idling, reducing the effective duration to about 45 seconds while sprinting.

Players automatically connect to nearby oxygen supplies when they are close enough, a process known as tethering. The current oxygen level can be checked on the backpack’s blue oxygen bar, with audiovisual warnings appearing at the 50% and 25% marks. When oxygen is unavailable, the tether line turns black.

The main ways to maintain oxygen are the Oxygenator, Tethers, shelters, vehicles, and carried backup items. The Oxygenator is the first dedicated oxygen source most players encounter, and it provides oxygen continuously while the player remains in range. When placed on the starting Shelter or on a platform, it extends oxygen through connected platforms and Tethers, allowing exploration far beyond a base. Tethers themselves do not produce oxygen; they only carry it outward, and they require an Oxygenator attached to a platform or shelter to function.

After the early game, Field Shelters and Shelters provide oxygen without requiring a separately crafted Oxygenator, since they include one built in. This makes them a convenient way to establish bases on other parts of a planet or on other planets without having to bring a platform or shuttle fitted with an Oxygenator. Rovers and Shuttles also provide oxygen at all times, making them a mobile source of life support, although an Oxygenator is still needed if the player wants to tether away from them. Even if a vehicle runs out of power, it still continues to provide oxygen.

For emergency situations, Oxygen Filters can provide a short safety net when the player is too far from a tether line or shelter. They fill oxygen tanks before being consumed directly, making them useful as a backup if resin is available nearby. Each filter holds an effective eleven minutes of air, but it can only be attached to the backpack for 72 seconds before it is used up. Oxygen Filters can be managed more efficiently by toggling them on and off so oxygen is not wasted while the backpack tank is already full.

The backpack’s oxygen tank behaves as the primary reserve, and Small Oxygen Tanks extend that reserve by acting as extra storage. They empty first when disconnected from an oxygen supply and fill last when reconnected, which makes them useful for longer trips and safer exploration away from established oxygen networks.

• Oxygen is listed in the game’s Astropedia as an atmospheric resource, though this was corrected in Patch 1.0.7.
• When the player starts to suffocate, the audio becomes distorted and a heartbeat sound grows faster and louder.