Tharsis is a game that's totally based on RNG right? Not really... I made this guide to try to disprove that assumption. I won this game on my first try after booting up the game, and it was my 2nd best score in Hard mode to date. Ultimately most of the time you will be able to manage the RNG using careful strategy.

In order to get the best score you have to avoid being a cannibal and eating your fellow crew. Cannibalism functions as an "escape switch" of sorts because it gives you a lot of extra dice in exchange for lowering your score. It's too bad you have to be a cannibal so much to unlock the Cannibal character and unlock the achievement because it encourages playing badly which may lead to your loss... though the bloody dice are pretty awesome.

I start with Captain, Technician, Specialist and Doctor. Captain is probably the best single crewmember in the game, because extra dice are so valuable and prevent you from having to resort to cannibalism. You could probably cannibalize and replace him with someone else, like the Psychologist, but your score would be lower in the end. I would definitely recommend any mission include the Captain in it unless you want to deliberately challenge yourself (or are grinding for the Cannibal). Everyone else is a bit of a toss up depending on your play style.

I move everyone besides Doctor, who has a decent number of dice, to the main disaster and fix it. My Captain didn't roll enough to fix the disaster unfortunately, but he rolled a 5 and I accidentally wasted it on repairs instead of replenishing everyone's dice. Whoops.


I am presented with the option for +2 dice and +20% stress or +3 dice (food) and -2 health. Since I have a doctor, I choose the health loss.

Feeding Doctor and Captain, I then use Captain to finish off the disaster and replenish everyone's dice. I then send Specialist to deal with the System Fail, which she is able to, despite getting slightly hurt.


The Technician then goes to deal with the Steering Fail and the Doctor finishes off the job while also healing herself and Technician.


Here the action is insanely obvious, there is greater reward for less risk.

Some easy disasters pop up. I send Doctor to the first, hoping she can heal the Captain, but she is unable to.

Captain goes to the next and tries to replenish Specialist's dice, but also fails. However he does fix the disaster. Specialist stays there to heal which is easy thanks to her extra rolls. I've found that if a character has 2 health or less you should try to heal them ASAP if possible because the choices at the end of the turn usually only deduct 2 health max, and they are at quite a high risk of dying in any case.


Technician fixes the engine, though getting injured in the process. She also boosts assists and is able to do a single hull fix using Quick Patch. My hull is still weak here so every little bit helps.


I choose the +1 food here because the overall dice stays the same since one person only has 1 dice.

Luckily I have full assists to deal with the very dangerous radiation leak, which is also (even more luckily) in the same room as Captain. I send Captain who replenishes dice, then Specialist fixes it.


Doctor also stays to deal with the Spill, and Technician tries to do hull repair but gets a bad roll and is forced to put it all into Research.


I choose the +4 dice because I'm not insanely worried about health, my other 2 crew members have nearly full health and can handle any dangerous disasters.

Turn 5 starts with some seriously dangerous disasters. I send my Tech to fix the first, easy one, and she succeeds.

My Specialist fixes the second though she gets decently injured due to the lack of Assists.


I decide not to bother with the third, because if I fail to repair it, my ship will explode, and I need assists to repair it or I risk dying if I get 2 ones.

Instead I send my Captain to do the easy repair and send Doctor to patch the hull which she does, a lot. I guess she's better at healing ships than people.



I am forced to make this choice, otherwise it will kill the crew.

I send the Tech to fix the hull... which fails miserably yet again, but she puts the dice into Research.


I use the Anti-Hemmoragic to fix the Doctor's wounds, but unfortunately the Captain and Doctor fail to get any good rolls and fix the smaller issue, but at least they make enough Assists to let the Specialist fix the larger one.


I pick the Hull option because removing 4 dice is really, really dumb. Healing insanity is good, but always prioritize the dice.

I leave the Tech to deal with the engines and she is able to repair it for once. She even fixes the problem too.


Specialist fixes her issue and then I use Doctor to fix the EVV Broken and get some more assists so Captain can fix the HV Warning. All done!


I choose the middle option because it makes me lose less dice and less stress is good. 2 people are low on health but it's not a massive deal, since 2 people are also high on health.

The Large Fire is one of the most dangerous disasters yet since there are three different injury types that can chew through Assists.

First I send the Specialist to deal with the Centrifuge and she makes it out unscathed.


Then my Tech fails to fix the disaster but gets some Assists, and Doctor and Captain put out the fire and replenish dice - they both get hurt though.


I used some research (Call Home, I think) to cure the Technician's madness so the options are more rational.

I choose the Health because it damages the hull less and I have the Sedatives research option waiting in the wings.

I got a massive disaster in the engine room that would remove three hull points. Due to some bad rolls, I was forced to send all hands on deck but at least they significantly repaired the ship to offset the damage. They are very low on dice though.


Technician went crazy again. I badly need dice, so I had to choose the dice option.

Luckily the ship will remain intact so I dont have to sacrifice anyone! The health is a different matter, half the crew can't escape. I can fix that easily.


I send the Captain to the bridge to remove movement damage using the capsule's ability, allowing everyone else to escape. Then it's just a matter of padding my score with Research because I've all but won!



Total score was respectable though not amazing.