I’m still pretty new to the game. I’ve tried two of the expeditions—Utopia this month and I believe Singularity earlier this year—but didn’t make it very far through either (via a combination of not starting them early enough and, for Singularity, barely knowing how to play the game). I don’t have a lot of time over the holiday this year and I’m still trying to decide if I should attempt Cartographer or not. I probably wouldn’t be able to start it until after Christmas if I do—is it doable in just a few days?
Even having played a fair bit of NMS now, watching one of those guides really helps smooth things along. I usually just muddle through, since I’m not too focused on efficient completion. All my old Expedition saves have unnecessarily nice bases for example, but there is no doubt that just watching a guide or doing some research saves loads of time.
On this current expedition, for example, until I got into it, I didn’t realize how key finding water for Crystal Sulphide would be. If I read ahead, maybe. Follow that with tips on finding crystal sulphide in comments and threads like this. Also, I’ve found 3 abandoned settlements just hiking over this godforsaken world but didn’t realize that Larval Cores were going to be needed. So now I’ve saved myself some hunting later and grabbed some ahead of time.
Most of this can be gleaned by reading the tasks ahead of time, but the particulars of the environment aren’t clear until you are actually into it a bit.