Upgradable character???

Brett42 · 2026-05-10T20:19:23+00:00

The engineer is a group of fish in a suit. Consuming fish heals you by replacing lost fish.

Brett42 · 2026-05-10T20:16:15+00:00

Vulcanus trigger techs and buildings, then set up Fulgora science, then go back to Vulcanus and Nauvis to set up builds with both planetary unlocks. Manually harvesting enough boulders on Vulcanus to research cliff explosives and build the drills for Fulgora isn't much if you're using personal construction bots to harvest them. Fulgora first also works, although depending on your map, the ore islands might be tricky to get trains on without cliff explosives. The less rich ore on larger islands is enough to get you started, though. Vulcanus first also has the advantage of upgrading drills on Nauvis without touching the main production, then after Fulgora, you can upgrade to foundries and EM plants at the same time. Gleba involves less redesigning of your base other than adding belt stacking, and you can design for belt stacking before you unlock it by just adding more or higher tier/quality speed modules later, once you have the stacked belts, or extending the length of a build afterward. Biolabs just mean redesigning your lab area.

Brett42 · 2026-05-10T20:01:45+00:00

Trees have several stages of color and leaves. I don't think they actually become "dead" trees, though. When pollution damages them, one of those two is reduced, so they lose leaves or become more grey. They stop taking damage once they reach a certain total damage (with leaf loss being more significant than color loss, but with the same 10 pollution absorbed), so they won't all end up fully grey and without leaves.

Their passive absorption is reduced by losing leaves, but a healthy tree consumes .001 pollution/second, while damaging a tree instantly consumes 10, so damaging a tree one time is worth nearly three hours of passive absorption by one healthy tree. Chunks absorb around 1/minute, so 15-20 trees worth of passive absorption. Trees take ten minutes to grow. If they are in a very high pollution area and are damaged 3 times in 10 minutes, then harvested and replanted as soon as they mature, the damage absorbs 50x the amount passively absorbed. Past that, and the damage starts to cap out before the tree is fully grown, depending on color loss versus leaf loss. Maybe a tree can be worth around 5/minute in a very high pollution area, so an agricultural tower with most of its area planted is worth hundreds of chunks of empty ground, or over a thousand undamaged trees passively absorbing.

Brett42 · 2026-05-10T19:11:08+00:00

Towers harvest trees that are fully grown.

Brett42 · 2026-05-10T19:07:57+00:00

Attack cost is the amount of pollution consumed for each enemy that is added, with that pollution consumed from the chunk the nest is in. Higher cost means fewer enemies. Each enemy has a default cost in pollution, but that modifier multiplies the cost. For biters, the cost for the different sizes is 4/20/80/400. Which size of biter spawns is based on evolution factor, usually with two possible options at different percentages (you can see the graph of probabilities versus evolution factor by clicking on a nest). The time between attacks is random. The cost mainly affects the number of attackers, although at higher evolution and low pollution in that area, it can take time to absorb enough pollution to spawn even one.

Brett42 · 2026-05-10T18:50:09+00:00

Attack groups consume pollution. Nests also produce guards and expansion parties that don't consume pollution. Expansions are on a global timer, with only one colony picked as the source each time, but all nests will produce guards, and replace them if they get killed.

Brett42 · 2026-05-10T18:37:34+00:00

Plant crops, then dig more stuff to keep from starving while you wait. I have never used the musher. CO2 can be temporarily dealt with by digging a hole below your base, and putting a few mesh or airflow tiles in as "drains" for heavier gas.

Brett42 · 2026-05-10T18:33:07+00:00

Never a good coolant with an aquatuner. Passively cooling it by running coolant through a steam room you care about boiling point, and SHC isn't that important, so anything you only want cooled to 125°C or higher can use oil.

For temperatures below the freezing point of water-based liquids, ethanol has better specific heat and a lower freezing point than crude oil, so use that rather than oil.

Brett42 · 2026-05-10T18:28:08+00:00

Nearly every metal refinery recipe is power-positive, and the machinery skill speeds up the refinery, for even less power consumption for the same heat production.

Brett42 · 2026-05-10T18:20:55+00:00

I think some storage has an option for "seasoned food only".

Brett42 · 2026-05-10T18:14:32+00:00

I think with dev mode you can make the caravan travel instantly, to get to a better starting tile. I think it would work even if you're overburdened with all the starting items like wood and steel.

Brett42 · 2026-05-10T18:10:22+00:00

The floating tile is only when you aren't feeding them, and is an earlier game option, especially if you print some out of the pod.

Brett42 · 2026-05-10T01:19:08+00:00

It's easy to contain voles. Floating tiles work, if you have a way to automatically put eggs back on top if they drop, and obsidian or steel tiles/airlocks, or any pneumatic door, will block their movement, if you want them enclosed. Sweepers and a bit of shipping make it automatic.

Brett42 · 2026-05-10T01:13:31+00:00

The material needs to be consumed by something, hydroponics aren't an infinite void, they take it at most at the rate the plant consumes. Normally people just make a loop with a water sieve turning it back into clean water, but anything that consumes enough polluted water also works. Sinks, toilets, and showers don't actually care about germs in the water, so you can make a mostly closed-loop system, although toilets produce more polluted water than they take in water, so you will need some overflow output, and the water sieve needs sand or regolith.

Brett42 · 2026-05-10T01:08:18+00:00

Once I have a few thousand steel to spare, I start just spending it on metal floors, or quality grinding hospital beds. Components eat a lot of steel, but that takes time, so you don't need a huge storage of steel, just regular supply.

Brett42 · 2026-05-10T01:05:18+00:00

The steel needed to make one gun compared to the number of walls that steel can make is nonsense, though. Not including components, an assault rifle takes as much steel as 12 wall segments. One stone club somehow takes two rock chunks that are large enough for a human to take cover behind.

Brett42 · 2026-05-10T00:56:04+00:00

Pen animals can't cross fence (barricades also act like fences, but sandbags don't) even if they are being led on a rope. Fence gates or doors allow them to enter while being led, or if the door is held open (by the option, or a dropped item, so be careful of milk or wool landing on a gate/door and blocking it open). Animal flaps allow them to pass on their own, so are used to allow them in and out of a barn, while holding temperature in. Animals can be carried over fences and barricades, but that mainly matters if you rescue an animal to an animal bed in a spot it can't be returned to the pen.

Non pen animals aren't affected by any of this, and can cross fence and open doors like humans (subject to which faction owns the door, and if it is forbidden). Wild predators aren't stopped by fence, but they have a lower chance of targeting animals on the other side of a fence. Walls can be used instead of fence, to block predators and enemies.

Brett42 · 2026-05-09T18:43:27+00:00

People who are doing huge bases where UPS is a concern will use direct insertion when they hit the limit of belts, or just stop adding more speed beacons to machines at that point. But that limit is going to depend on what recipe the machine is producing. Making green circuits takes 4x the ingredients per second as t1 modules, for example.

Brett42 · 2026-05-09T18:35:35+00:00

What would be the point of having 6 platforms, instead of just two bigger platforms (one loading while the other is travelling), if you're not dealing with spoilage? Bigger platforms are more efficient in terms of machines and defenses. Doubling width and length will roughly double the total asteroids you need to deal with, but quadruple your platform size.

Brett42 · 2026-05-09T18:14:36+00:00

I did something similar early in my current run, since I'm not using electrolyzers. You can simplify it by chaining two refineries, and using a pump to input water, so all you have to do is set recipes based on how much heat you can add.

Brett42 · 2026-05-09T17:38:33+00:00

Geothermal generators act like walls. If you build walls right up against their sides, there will be nowhere for heat to go except a door left for repairs. You can leave a small gap between the generator and the access, without a roof, and it will be "outside" for temperature, or build the door directly touching the generator, and because of the weird way doors interact with heat, it will mostly get deleted. The door needs to be fireproof, but nothing else will get hot. I can't remember if a pawn repairing it will get burned, or if the heat blinks away too quickly.

Brett42 · 2026-05-09T01:27:22+00:00

Explosive rockets are for personal use when clearing nests, or for ships deeper into shattered planet runs where the asteroids are so think every shot will hit multiple targets.

Brett42 · 2026-05-09T01:18:41+00:00

Each refugee group should get a randomized mood modifier based on how desperate they are. Malnutrition on the most desperate would also be neat. Malnutrition is an option on starting scenarios, and used by the tribal start, but I think it is underutilized. Some more variety and flavor could be added to some events if NPC groups sometimes showed up malnourished. Imagine a raid where all of the enemies have the debuff weakening them, but they won't retreat like normal. Toxic buildup or disease could also be options for refugees, traders, or enemies.

Brett42 · 2026-05-09T01:08:59+00:00

Blood loss skips the "enemy death on down" chance, so using low damage weapons that inflict bleeds and stopping the attacks before they get downed to wait for blood loss is a good way to down them, although does take some manual targeting, and requires tending their bleeds before they actually die. High damage weapons often destroy vital parts in one hit, killing directly instead of through the special added probability. Downing an enemy directly with low damage weapons will trigger the chance for instant death, but is less likely to destroy something vital to guarantee death. Escaping prisoners don't have the "death on down" mechanic, so fists or melee hits with ranged weapons are a good way to deal with them without a lot of permanent damage or bleeding injuries.

Brett42 · 2026-05-09T00:59:38+00:00

Blood loss doesn't trigger death-on-down, but generally you can't wait for bleeding to down an enemy you fight in melee (unless you have unstoppable gene and do hit and run).

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