VTOL
 VTOL
| |
|---|---|
| |
| Details | |
| Tier | Large |
| Group | Aircraft |
| Type | Lightweight |
| Crafted at |  Medium Printer
|
| Recipe |  EXO Chip Tungsten Carbide Silicone
|
| Unlock Cost | Unlocked via Missions |
The VTOL, or Vertical Take-Off and Landing, is a lightweight aircraft in Astroneer that allows the player to travel long distances across the planets by flying over the surface of the planet.
Source
| Output | Input | Module |
|---|---|---|
 VTOL
|
EXO Chip Tungsten Carbide Silicone
|
Medium Printer
|
Players will obtain a free VTOL and its Schematic from completing a long chain of Missions:
- By completing either Fuel for Thought or Onboarding, players obtain Vertical Thinking.
- Finding and blowing up the Vehicle Data Recorder on Vesania and retrieving its EXO Chip will unlock the mission Bootstrapping and reveal the location of the MAT.
- Finding the MAT and slotting an EXO Chip will unlock two missions to bring two each of Hydrogen (full canister), Nitrogen (full canister), Graphite, Titanium, and Tungsten.
- Once all ten resources have been provided, another mission unlocks to provide the MAT with two of each Silicone and Tungsten Carbide.
- Completing this mission unlocks one more to provide the MAT with three EXO Chips.
- For the last mission, Finished Product, the player just needs to activate the MAT, in order to be able to collect the rewards: The VTOL, its Schematic, as well as two Hydrazine.
Uses
The VTOL takes off vertically by double-tapping the take-off button (
on PC), and holding the same button allows the player to ascend higher. The VTOL can descend by holding the descend button (
on PC). Double-tapping the descend button when near the ground will land the VTOL.
When nearing a slope of a mountain or some other kind of obstacle the VTOL automatically ascends to avoid a collision. The player may exit the VTOL at any time by pressing the use key (
on PC), although, if high enough, they may take damage, which could be fatal, and the VTOL will land automatically.
Holding the forward movement key will accelerate the VTOL forward, speeding up after 10 seconds of holding for faster flight. The left and right movement keys will strafe the VTOL, while moving the camera will turn the VTOL in the direction the player wishes to move.
Like other vehicles, the VTOL supplies oxygen to the player nearby, but not to Tethers unless equipped with an Oxygenator. It provides no Power, not even for a Worklight, which doesn't consume any, but requires it.
Capacity and Fuel
The VTOL has a Tier 1 slot in the back that can only be used for Hydrazine as fuel. It will auto-pull canisters if the current one runs out. The VTOL will drop down to the ground, when no fuel is left, without taking damage. Hydrazine canisters put into the fuel slot cannot be removed, even if it wasn’t used at all. The gauge at the back indicates how much fuel is left in the internal tank. When a Packager is used to repack a VTOL, all Hydrazine in the vehicle is lost.
There is a built-in seat for the player and two more Rover Seats may be attached using the two Tier 2 slots in the upper front. The VTOL may be controlled by any of the three seats. Instead of holding seated persons, the Tier 2 slots can also hold a canister filled with Hydrazine for long time flights or any other Tier 2 item.
There are two Tier 1 slots on the bottom left and right, which can be activated using context keys (for PC: 
or 
, Xbox: 
or 
, PS4: 
or 
, Switch: 
or 
). This allows players to shoot fireworks, play horns, or toggle lights while flying.
Notes
- Over time, the VTOL will accelerate faster if headed in a straight line. This is handy to know for fuel efficiency on longer trips.
- Because of its two medium slots and extreme maneuverability, the VTOL is an exceptionally powerful tool when unlocking the Gateway Chambers on each planet by combining it with Medium Storage Silos, Small Batteries, QT-RTGs, and Platforms. This is especially useful on Glacio and Atrox which require more than 24 U/s of power, which cannot be achieved by a single Silo. Though glitchy, it is also possible to use a Winch to carry around a vehicle such as a Large Rover to allow using larger power sources
- Attaching a Medium Resource Canister and Auto Arm into the T2 slots, and QT-RTG and an extra Hydrazine in T1 slots will be useful setup when gathering resources in caves. When parking VTOL next to resource deposit, and standing in the input ring (green) of the Auto Arm, and then digging up resoures, the backpack will quickly fill up, and the following resources will drop to the ground, and get gathered by the Auto Arm, and deposited into the resource canister. Note: remember to add filter to the auto arm so that it won’t pick up items from the T1 slots.
- Although VTOLs may be built on the Gateway Portal platform, they will be unable to be flown there.
Media
VTOL icon
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