At this point, the sky is the limit with regards to what you can build and achieve (and thanks to the Green Planet expansion, this end objective should be to fully Terraform Mars into Earth-like conditions). Done consistently, this leads to a "virtuous cycle" wherein your produce more and more resources to the point you enter the state of permanent surplus. Newly produced resources are then converted into more investments which expand the engine.
power plants, mines, colonists) which produce more resources. You start with a pile of resources, which you convert into investments (e.g. Surviving Mars is instead a management simulation - more specifically an engine-building game. Indeed most "survival" games are misleading because they are not really about survival - instead you simply collect more and more resources to build bigger and bigger things. Surviving Mars, despite the name, is NOT a "survival" game. For Terraforming, head to the very last addendum of the guide. This guide is also divided into a basic introduction section for first-time players, and an addendum filled with notes for advanced players. If you have just the base / Space Race version of the game you can check my original guide here: It therefore refers to some buildings that are available only in the expansions. Note: This guide is meant for players which have bought not only the base game but also all the expansions (which you should, it's a really good game).