The artstyle and music are amazing, but I'm having a hard time figuring out what perks I should upgrade to make the planet habitable. In short, a tutorial could have gone a long way.

Jeah, a Tutorial was planned but fell short, due to time contrains. Basically you need a warm Temperature around 25°C, a Pressure of about 1,5 Bar, 60% or more Protection and a high as possible Fertility.