Your crew is feeling good. Day 1 went fine — 130 scrap from Assurance, quota met with a small surplus. Day 2, you decide to push Rend for a bigger haul. You type the route on the terminal. You don’t check the weather column. The ship lands. Rain is hammering. The ground is mud — your movement speed drops 40%. You hear an Eyeless Dog howl from the treeline. Normally, outdoor enemies don’t spawn until 5 PM. But you didn’t check the weather. It’s Eclipsed. Outdoor enemies spawn from the moment you land.
Two crew members die in the mud before reaching the facility entrance. The survivors sprint back to the ship, empty-handed. Day 2 scrap: zero. Day 3, you can’t recover. The run is over — not because you played badly inside the facility, but because nobody pressed one button on the terminal before routing.
That button is moons. Type it on the ship terminal before every landing. The weather column shows Clear, Rainy, Stormy, Foggy, or Eclipsed for every moon. Reading it takes 10 seconds. Skipping it costs runs.
Here’s what each weather type actually does to your run, and which moons become death traps under each condition.
Clear weather is ideal. Nothing changes. Land anywhere. This is what you hope to see when you check the terminal, and it’s the only weather where paid moons (Rend, Titan) are consistently safe investments.
Rainy weather creates mud patches in open areas. Your movement speed drops about 40% when walking through mud. On small moons like Assurance and Offense — where the walk from ship to entrance is short and mostly on solid ground — Rainy is annoying but manageable. On large moons like Rend and Titan — where the walk from ship to entrance crosses open terrain — Rainy becomes dangerous. An Eyeless Dog that spawns at the normal time (5 PM) can catch you in the open mud, and at 60% movement speed, you can’t escape. If you’re landing on Rend or Titan in Rainy weather, plan to be back at the ship by 4 PM sharp. The mud doubles the danger of the post-5 PM outdoor window.
Stormy weather is Rainy amplified. Mud covers almost all outdoor terrain. Lightning strikes random outdoor positions — being struck is rare but instant death when it happens. The only moon I’d recommend landing on during Stormy is Assurance, and only if you’re on Day 3 with quota on the line. Any other moon in Stormy weather: skip the day if possible. Two small Assurance runs in Stormy average more scrap than one dead crew on Rend.
Foggy weather reduces visibility to roughly 15 studs in any direction. Getting lost between the ship and the facility entrance is the primary danger — not enemies, just disorientation. Assurance is the safest foggy moon because it’s the smallest and hardest to get lost on. Every large moon in foggy weather becomes a navigation challenge where you can spend 5 real minutes walking in circles trying to find the entrance while the clock ticks toward 5 PM.
Eclipsed is the hardest weather in the game. Outdoor enemies — Eyeless Dogs and Forest Keepers — spawn from the moment you land. There is no safe daytime window. The walk from ship to facility, which is automatic on Clear days, becomes a lethal gauntlet. On high-hazard moons, Eclipsed is borderline unplayable. If your intended moon has Eclipsed weather, seriously consider skipping the day entirely and running two drops on a clear moon instead. The only exception is absolute desperation on Day 3 — if you’re 200 scrap short of quota with no other options, pop Sprint Potions the moment the ship lands and have all four crew members sprint directly to the entrance. Don’t stop for items on the ground. Don’t look around. The dangerous part is the 15-second sprint from the ship door to the facility door. Survive that, and the weather doesn’t matter once you’re inside.