Brine Star

Brine Star is an extra dungeon categorized as threat 6+. Talk to S.A.I.L. to beam there.

Acquisition

You will need to find and interact with a map to unlock the quest and the dungeon location in S.A.I.L. interface. The map can be found at the end of the Ancient mini dungeon found on the surface of planets. If you are using More Planet Info, this mini dungeon is shown in the Surface Analysis tab as "Unknown Alien Ruins".

Quest Reward

1 Ancient Remote, 1 Transmutation Matrix, 1 Ixodoom Figurine, 5000 Research

Items Requirement

Explosives are recommended since there's a few Red Doors you need to blow up through the dungeon, but it's not required. No other items are required to complete the dungeon.

Dungeon Guide

Brine Star is mostly guarded by Floran soldiers, the melee one wielding 2-handed spears or swords and the ranged one using bows (they also have a 1-handed spear but they usually try to keep their distance and use their bow). You will also find some monsters deeper in the dungeon.

First part of Brine Star

You will enter the dungeon in a small room with an elevator leading you down. After riding it, you can find a Red Door to your right. You will need some kind of explosives to open it. Behind it is a small room with a vase containing Ancient Essence and a chest with a codex entry about Brine Star. Then head back to the elevator and go through the door to your right. Use your Matter Manipulator to dig the flowers block in the middle of the room and open your way down. You will fall in a pool of water and 2 paths will be open to you: the path to the left is mostly combat focused, with a lot of ennemy Florans and monsters on the way, while the path to the right have few ennemies but a lot of traps instead.

Path to the Left

Exit the water pool to the left and open the door. You will quickly be attacked by 4 Hunter Pteropods. You will then find a small house with a melee Floran inside. Climb above that house and you will reach a wooden bridge crossing a poison pool. 1 melee and 1 ranged Florans await above the bridge and the melee one will quickly come down to attack you. After the bridge, you will reach a small area made of hive blocks. 4 Ixolings will attack you there. Under the Ixolings, another small house with a melee Floran await you. A Red Door block your path to the left, leading to a small cave with a healing water pond. You will then fight another house with 1 melee and 1 ranged Floran. Keep following the path leading down and guess what you'll find? Another house with 1 ranged and 1 melee Floran. You will then find a ranged Floran patrolling the area and an underground house with 2 melee Florans. You will find a console in the house that open the door leading to the right. A Lumoth also seem to wander the area, but it doesn't seem agressive.

After crossing the door, you will reach an area made of hive blocks. You will be attacked by 2 giants flies in the first room. You will need to climb down in the next room. 2 more giant flies await you down there and a few other Lumoth wander the area. You will find 2 yellow platforms that will disappear when you step on. Use them to reach the room below you. Activate the console in the middle of the room: it will start spawning Ixolings (i counted 24 Ixolings) in the room and it will open the exit to your right after ~30s. Exit throught this door and you will then find another door unlocked to your right. This door lead you to the first boss of Brine Star. You can also skip the first boss by digging a hole in one of the slime pool in the Ixolings room, but the first one being way easier than the final boss of Brine Star, you shouldn't need it. Skipping the boss is also extremely slow because you need to crawl through a long passage filled with slime using the Microsphere. The boss also drops some Ancient Essence, so i wouldn't skip it.

Path to the Right

If you exit the pond to the right you will first reach a small stone hallway. A Red Door is blocking a room above you, and opening it will allow you to skip the first "puzzle". At the start of the hallway, you will find a wall button. Pressing it will activate a green gas trap in front of you (boost your movement speed) and open a door below you for a shot time. You will need to reach that door before it closes. Your basic movement speed with the speed gas will not be enough to reach the door in time. I was able to do it using the Sonic Sphere, but other way to go faster should work too. You can find a console in the room behind the Red Door that open the hatch above the exit door allowing you to reach it without any speed boost. If you cannot reach that door however, another exit is found on the right of the room, which will lead you to a longer path with more traps along the way.

If you use the exit to the right, you will reach a hallway with boulders rolling down every few seconds. The Microsphere should help you sneak between the boulders. After crossing this room, you will find another Red Door to your right. The stairs leads in a room with a Cultivator hologram. There 3 Tintics and 3 Monopus will attack you. Exit through the door to the right and you will find a Red Door to your right and stairs leading below. The Red Door lead to a room with 3 chests, but you will need the Micro Spider Sphere tech to reach them. Climb down the stairs and you will reach a room with several oil pond and throny bushes. At the bottom right of the room, you can find an opening that will lead you to 3 other chests, you will need the Micro Spider Sphere once again. To exit the room with the oil, you will need to reach the top left of the room. You will then reach a room with a small healing water pond, the room you reach is you were able to cross the door the Speed Door.

After reaching the healing water pond, either by crossing the Speed Door or going through the exit to the right, you will find a path leading below to the right of the pond. You will then have 2 paths available: you can take the path leading down between the saws or the small opening in the wall to the left.

Saws path

You will need to carefully climb down between the saws. A grappling hook should allow you to pass between those saws safely, but you can also jump down, a pool of slime await you below to mitigate the fall dammage. Then head to the left where you'll need to cross a small hallway. You will need to jump above the saws on the floor, but there's also a turret shooting horizontally above the saws. Just wait for the turret to fire, then cross a saw, wait for next shot, cross the next saw etc... You will then reach the door leading to the first boss to your left.

Opening in the wall

To cross this small passage, you will need to use a Spike Sphere tech to climb on the roof of the hallway, the floor being covered in throny bushes. You will then exit the hallway next the the door leading to ..., the first boss of Brine Star.

First boss

If you already completed the Ancient Vault located on the Ancient Gateway, you should know the kind of boss that await you. The first boss is indeed a guardian you find at the end of the Vaults. Like the other Vault Guardian, its appearance and attacks will be randomized, gaining more attacks after losing a certain ammount of health. Refer to the Vault Guardians page of the vanilla starbound wiki to see some of its attacks. It is infused with poison element, so all its attack will deal poison dammage. It shouldn't be much of a challenge, so just take it out quickly. When it dies, it will explode and drop a good ammount of Ancient Essence (around 1250) and a small chance to drop a Microformer. Exit through the door to the bottom right of the arena and you will reach a merchant to empty your pocket and the first checkpoint of Brine Star.

Second part of Brine Star

After beating the first boss, follow the stairs leading you further below until you reach an elevator. The elevator will lead you to another crossroad, with path leading you to the left and to the right. The left path will once again be full of ennemies and will require an oxygene source and the right path will have more traps and puzzle.

Path to the left

If you head to the left of the room, you will cross a door leading you to 2 melee and 1 ranged Florans in a small house. You will find another ranged Floran in the next house. After this house, 2 ranged Florans will spawn from the house in the top left and 3 melee Florans will come at you from the stairs. At the end of the stairs, you will find a small house above a swamp water pond. 2 ranged Florans will come out of the house when you approach it. You will then need to dive inside the swamp water pond. You will first reach a room with turrets on both sides of the room firing horizontally every few seconds. Make your way through those, then head to your right. You will reach a room with spikes on the roof and the floor and laser beam shooting vertically every few seconds. Cross that room and you will reach the elevator leading you to the final boss of Brine Star.

Path to the right

If you head to the right from the elevator, you will find stairs leading down near a Red Door. Climb down those stairs and cross the door to your left. You will then find a Red Door to your left. If you can open it, you will be able to skip the incoming trap room. If you don't open it, descend the platform to the right of the Red Door. You will find some repulsion trap blocking your way down. Open the door to your right and press the button on the wall. This will open a door below you for ~40 seconds (it's more than enough time) and activate some trap along the way dealing ice dammage. After crossing this room, you will reach a room with a small swamp water pond and to the left of this room you will find the elevator leading you to the final boss of Brine Star.

Final Boss

Ride the elevator and you will reach a checkpoint. Once you are ready, cross the one way door to your right to enter the boss arena. The boss is once again a Vault Guardian but this one is unique: unlike any other Vault Guardian, it is attuned to the shadow element. It will also deal much more dammage that the other boss of Brine Star and have more HP. Its first 2 attacks however are still randomized and it still uses the same attack as the other Vault Guardians. Once it loses ~1/3 hp, it will have access to 2 additional moves, and after losing ~2/3 hp. Once again, refer to the Vault Guardians page of the vanilla starbound wiki for an idea of its attacks. Don't underestimate it because you killed the first boss easily, this one is way harder. When it dies, it will explodes and drop Madness, Research and Ancient Essence in the arena (around 500 Madness, 1000 Research and 750 Ancient Essence).

Exit the arena to the right and you will reach the last room of the dungeon, with the usual diamond pedestal to turn in the quest, a few chests and a teleporter to get back to the ship. Much like Ancient Vaults, you will also find a Terraforge there and a Weapon Upgrade Anvil. You will also see some platforms leading you below. You will find there a locked gate and 4 torches, corresponding to 4 detectors you have to find through the dungeon to reach an extra part of the dungeon. Check the Secrets section for more information.

Secrets

Brine Star hides a few extra chests inside hidden room along the dungeon. But its biggest secret is the locked door after the final boss. The walkthrough for the secrets is explained on this page.