Icarus is a session-based PvE survival game built around three distinct ways to play, and the difference between those modes is the single most important thing a new prospector needs to understand. Where you drop, how long you stay, and what you take back up to orbit are all decided by the mode you pick before you ever touch the planet surface.
What changed
RocketWerkz has shipped weekly free updates to Icarus since release, and a recurring theme across those patches has been refining the relationship between the timed mission loop and the permanent Outpost mode. The store page describes three modes: Open World, limited-time Missions, and Outposts. Over time the team has worked to make the same narrative content available in more than one mode, so that players who prefer a persistent map are not locked out of the story.
A representative example is the Outpost update that brought SMPL3 quests into Outpost regions. SMPL3 missions became triggerable on Outposts and in Open World, but not in Mission Mode, and they award both experience and Ren. The reward scaling was tuned so that completing one on easy, normal, or hard pays out 10, 20, or 30 Ren respectively, with a completion popup showing exactly how much of each currency you earned. That single change matters because it gave Outpost players a renewable income stream without forcing them into the timed prospect loop.
How the three modes work
Each mode answers a different question about risk, time pressure, and permanence.
Open World is the persistent option. You forge a long-term claim on a map, build a base that survives between sessions, and tackle narrative quests there as Operations rather than isolated jobs. Dedicated servers are recommended for Open World and are free to run, and a single session supports up to eight co-op players. This is where the husbandry and genetics overhaul, mounts, and breeding systems shine, because you have the time to invest in genetics, bloodlines, and tame talent trees.
Missions are the timed prospect loop. You drop to the surface with nothing, establish a base from scratch, complete the contract, and extract before time runs out. The inventory screen shows your time on the current prospect, which works across all modes but is especially relevant here. Success earns Ren and Exotics, the two currencies that drive the orbital economy. Mission Mode lets you play content in isolation rather than chained together, which is useful for practicing a specific Operation or farming a specific reward.
Outposts are the creative and low-stress mode. Resources regenerate, the environment is safer, and the focus shifts toward building, decorating, and testing setups. The Outpost update added regenerating resource dynamics and let SMPL3 quests run here, so Outposts now generate passive income rather than being purely a sandbox.
Prospect timers and what they actually gate
The timer in Mission Mode is not a kill screen; it is a planning constraint. Because you land with only what you load onto your dropship from orbit, every minute on the clock has to be budgeted. The general rhythm is: establish oxygen and shelter, set up a basic crafting chain, push toward the objective, then break camp and reach the dropship before extraction closes.
A few practical points grounded in how the game actually behaves:
- Time on prospect is visible. The inventory screen reports how long you have been on the current prospect, which removes the guesswork about how much clock you have burned on a long mission.
- Difficulty scales spawns and rewards. SMPL3 quests show the clearest example: the same mission pays 10, 20, or 30 Ren on easy, normal, or hard. Mission Mode uses similar scaling for the contracts you accept, and the harder tiers demand more preparation.
- Extraction is the only safe exit. Workshop items returned via dropship or Exotic Exchange Pod are supposed to arrive back in orbit. Past updates have worked to make that return more reliable, but the lesson stands: never leave your valuable gear behind.
The blueprint economy: Ren, Exotics, and three tech trees
Icarus runs on a layered progression that the store page frames as three separate tech trees: planetary tech, player talents, and the orbital workshop.
Planetary tech is what you craft on the surface. There are four core tiers of technology ranging from hand-crafted tools up to advanced composites and electronics, with a Tier 5 layer added by the free Kepler update. You unlock recipes by building the right benches and advancing through the tree during a prospect.
Player talents are your character’s permanent specialization. The store page lists over 100 talents spanning exploring, building, farming, hunting, taming, and combat, so two prospectors who play the same mission can fill very different roles in a group.
The orbital workshop is the meta layer, and it is where Ren and Exotics matter most. You exchange exotic matter harvested on the surface for advanced tech and items with unique properties that you can bring back down on the next drop. Exotics are the rare, valuable resource that sparked the in-fiction gold rush; Ren is the contract currency you earn by completing missions and SMPL3 quests. Because workshop items persist across prospects, spending Ren on the right deployable or weapon effectively raises your floor on every future run.
A clean way to think about the loop for a group: one player leans into gathering and Exotic mining, another specs into combat and taming, and a third handles building and crafting speed. The workshop then compounds that division of labor, because shared items like a portable oxygen refill tool reduce the startup cost of every drop for the whole team.
Solo versus group considerations
Solo play is fully supported, but it changes which strategies are viable. With one person, every minute spent on oxygen, shelter, and crafting is a minute not spent on the objective, so the workshop matters more. Pre-charged items and portable deployables that skip part of the Tier 2 setup chain are worth their Ren cost because they buy back time against the prospect timer.
In a group of up to eight, the constraints relax. Dedicated servers smooth out the connection overhead, and the talent system rewards role specialization. Group runs also make the husbandry and mount systems more practical: breeding animals for favorable traits, taming mounts for traversal, and running a farm to supply food all become reasonable uses of player time when several people share the workload.
A practical loadout checklist
Before accepting a prospect, work through a short list:
- Mode and timer. Confirm whether you are in Open World, Mission Mode, or an Outpost, and check the prospect’s time on the inventory screen.
- Workshop loadout. Pack items that reduce startup friction, especially oxygen and light sources, since these gate your first night.
- Talent role. Match your talent picks to your group’s division of labor, or to covering your own gaps if solo.
- Exotic plan. Decide in advance whether the run is for contract completion, Exotic mining, or both, so you do not over-invest in base building on a short timer.
- Extraction discipline. Keep your dropship and exchange pods clear, and return workshop items with the same character who brought them down.
Common mistakes that waste a prospect
A few errors recur often enough to flag directly. The first is treating Open World like Mission Mode, building a permanent base and then realizing the Operation you wanted requires a fresh drop rather than the persistent one. Operations and Missions share the same narrative content, but the cadence differs, and picking the wrong mode for a story beat leads to confusion about why a step will not advance.
The second is hoarding Exotics on the surface instead of banking them. Exotics convert to workshop advantage back in orbit, so leaving them in a chest on a timed prospect risks losing the whole haul if extraction goes wrong. The third is over-investing in mid-tier crafting on a short timer. On a fast Mission, spending the clock climbing to Tier 3 benches can cost you the objective; for short prospects, lean on workshop items that skip those tiers entirely.
Finally, watch the dedicated server browser’s version filter. It is enabled by default so that only sessions matching your client version appear, which prevents joining an incompatible prospect mid-run. If a server does not show up, confirming the filter rather than assuming the server is down saves time.