In ICARUS, you leave your technological progress on the planet behind when you finish a drop, and the true progression comes from unlocking missions — and new technologies in the Workshop. In this guide, we’ll cover the basics of how the Workshop functions, and how to earn the Currencies you need to unlock and craft Workshop items.
Note that this guide is a work in progress, and we will be updating it regularly with more information and advice.
How to Get Currency for the Workshop
There are two types of currency in Icarus:
— RenCurrency: AKA “Rocketbucks”; what you earn from most missions in ICARUS.
— Exotics: After completing each type of Extraction mission, Exotics will begin to appear in other missions.
You can see what kind of currency you’ll receive from a mission by selecting it on the Prospect Tree, then looking in the bottom right corner of the mission briefing window. However, you won’t be able to see the amount of Exotics you earn on a mission from the briefing, because your Exotics reward depends on how much you bring back with you on the dropship.
The Workshop
This is where you’ll spend your hard-earned rewards. In the Workshop, you can unlock special consumables and equipment that you can bring to the surface with you. You can also unlock better envirosuits, which can dramatically increase your chances of survival, and even bring other useful stuff like coal or medicines.
If you hover an item in the workshop, you can see 2 costs: what it costs to research, and what it costs to craft. You only have to pay the research cost once, but you’ll need to pay the crafting cost each time you create the item(including the first time).
The workshop tree
Loadout: How to use Workshop Items
Once you’ve crafted your sweet new 3D-printed axe, you’ll want to use it! To take items to the surface with you, you can equip them ahead of time from the Loadout menu, or you can do it right before you go on a mission — you’ll get a chance to check your loadout and equip anything you want right before you begin the mission.
One important thing to note is that you can take any Workshop items in your Hotbar or Suit slots back up to Orbit with you. Make sure you’ve got any Exotics in the Dropship Cargo, and make sure you don’t have any Workshop items left in your inventory — put it all in the remaining Dropship Cargo slots, or put it in your hotbar (Water and Oxygen items can stay in their suit slots).
Make sure that when you’re leaving the planet, you drag any Workshop items and exotics you have in your inventory into the Dropship Cargo section, or into your hotbar. (Note that you can’t take items you created on-planet with you).
The Orbital inventory screen
Put your sweet stuff back in that Dropship Cargo before you blast off!
How to Repair Workshop Items
To repair tools you crafted in the Workshop, simply drag them from your Dropship Cargo into the “Your Items” inventory. This will immediately repair broken or damaged items.
We hope this guide on the Orbital aspect of ICARUS was helpful! Please leave questions and suggestions in the comments below.
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DanielD
Unabashed FromSoftware fanboy still learning to take his time with games (and everything else, really). The time he doesn't spend on games is spent on music, books, or occasionally going outside.
Only done it once, but my MXC axe and food ration were both in my normal 0-9 slots when returning to station. They were both still available for next drop. So, maybe equipped slots + the 6 slots on dropship?
Thank you for the info! I also was able to bring equipment back while it was equipped in my 1 slot, looks like it works. I’ll leave the guide as-is for now because it’s unclear what will happen if all of your Dropship cargo slots are full and you try to bring back Workshop gear in your hotbar.
Hi Will, unfortunately I haven’t got that far into the tree yet. It’s a great thing to test, and we’ll be sure to update this guide once we have the answer.
— RenCurrency: AKA “Rocketbucks”; what you earn from most missions in ICARUS.
— Exotics: After completing each type of 
Only done it once, but my MXC axe and food ration were both in my normal 0-9 slots when returning to station. They were both still available for next drop. So, maybe equipped slots + the 6 slots on dropship?
Thank you for the info! I also was able to bring equipment back while it was equipped in my 1 slot, looks like it works. I’ll leave the guide as-is for now because it’s unclear what will happen if all of your Dropship cargo slots are full and you try to bring back Workshop gear in your hotbar.
Dose the higher end pick axe in the workshop allow you to mine the better minerals like platinum
Hi Will, unfortunately I haven’t got that far into the tree yet. It’s a great thing to test, and we’ll be sure to update this guide once we have the answer.
Yes, the “dong” pickaxe can mine higher levelore since it is steel
Thank you, Jesse!
How can i repair broken pick axe
Drag the item back into the “Your Items” inventory on the loadout screen.
Confirmed! Thanks for sharing Angelus.