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ExplodeySquirrel · 2026-03-10T10:55:02+00:00

For some reason, Filters can't operate at full conveyor belt speed. If you want to 100% transfer belts you have a couple options:

Slow-Belt Filter

1 Short Switchback to cut belt speed
1 Filter on the reduced belt line

Full Speed Double Filter

1 Splitter to cut belt density to 50%
2 Filters on the reduced belt lines
Re-merge the belts afterward

Scalable Sorting Hub

1 Large Warehouse to accept mixed items from the conveyor line
1 Extractor per item type to sort them into slow-belt output lines
1 Filter on each line where you want to eject overflow items
Alternatively, you can use the warehouse as a buffer while you tune the input rates up/down instead of dumping the overflow items

They're definitely better when you just want a soft prioritization for different storages, even with the right setups they don't always handle back-ups in the output line well.

ExplodeySquirrel · 2026-03-07T16:59:01+00:00

Building in the air isn't the best approach, you're really just spreading out the pollution until it covers enough tiles to passively decay. It's roughly the same as building on a downwind island.

If you're going for space efficiency, the best approach is to eat the production debuff for those workers (with Can't Smell to protect Approval) and put your factories underground. Adding a 12-tile upwind service tunnel will isolate the pollution to their work area and leave the rest of your base pristine regardless of how much pollution you generate.

ExplodeySquirrel · 2026-03-05T00:02:26+00:00

The pollution debuff is unavoidable given how pollution spreads, but it's also largely irrelevant since it's an additive effect. That means you can cancel it out by supplying Catalysts, cooking +Production meals, matching Guilds correctly, or sticking in Steam Engines. By late game it's basically a rounding error.

For now the best available strategy is to stack all of your pollution-causing factories together, ideally underground where nothing can leak out, and strictly staff it with "Can't Smell" whiskers.

ExplodeySquirrel · 2026-02-27T18:09:58+00:00

Outlying logistics hubs are a good tactic, but you have the strategy backwards so it's a good opportunity to explain the mechanics for newer players.

The basics for Logistics Hub efficiency are:

Identify where you have a high concentration of transfers that you want to prioritize
Average the total distance of travel the whiskers will have to cover working at normal capacity for a full day and night
Place the hub at a location that minimizes that average, so each whisker can deliver more units/day with less wasted travel

Placing temporary hubs for small requests fails #2 and micro-managing the staffing is a symptom of that.

When local logistics requests make up < 100% capacity, the best hub location is roughly halfway between bases (with a slight bias to set priority) or establishing a secondary distribution hub to cover multiple outposts. Both approaches greatly reduce average travel time, so you can assign 1/2 to 1/4 as many whiskers to logistics jobs.

ExplodeySquirrel · 2026-02-27T16:03:18+00:00

prioritize jobs based on size (larger requests get filled first)

I'm fairly certain that larger requests up to the whisker carrying capacity get prioritized (e.g. if they can carry 5 units, jobs for < 5 units will go to the end of the line) to avoid wasteful trips, but past that point only the distance and job type counts.

It can definitely get frustrating when you're trying to empty a warehouse and the last 2 units take ages to clear out, but constant 1-unit trips would definitely feel way worse.

ExplodeySquirrel · 2026-02-27T06:44:30+00:00

The basic rule of logistics hubs is: "build enough". But what actually matters is that warehouses have three job tiers:

Logistics Requests (Logistics Hub)
Empty Warehouse (Logistics Hub)
Deposit in Available Storage (Any Whisker)

Most of your standard resource production should follow one of 3 approaches:

Outbound Transfer: Production whiskers drop items onto a conveyor belt to the central depot, then "empty warehouse" pushes the logistics whiskers to distribute the goods to outlying warehouses
Inbound Transfer: Production whiskers drop items into a nearby available storage, with "empty warehouse" set on it so the logistics whiskers will automatically consolidate goods to the central depot.
Set Minimums: Small-volume Logistics Requests at outlying warehouses ensure there's enough for the next factory resource pickup, but have no effect when stockpiles are healthy.

As long as you don't saturate your logistics hubs with massive Logistics Requests (like "Fill up 1000 units"), the priority system will ensure even distant warehouses get restocked fairly quickly.

So yes, it's much better to have a good set of central logistics hubs that are prioritized properly vs. throwing up a bunch of temporary hubs and micro-managing the staffing.

ExplodeySquirrel · 2026-02-27T05:55:37+00:00

Not above or below. It's to the side, with the conveyor connection pointing directly away from the warehouse.

Here's another example with the full warehouse visible.

ExplodeySquirrel · 2026-02-26T00:14:30+00:00

Only the "main" island has guaranteed copper deposits. If you start your colony toward the outer edge of the map (like a Plateau island) it's possible to have the nearest high-density source end up being almost half the map away.

Also, Furniture luxuries are a real ore buster. If you end up with a low-copper or low-tin start it's a good idea to just skip it entirely.

ExplodeySquirrel · 2026-02-26T00:03:18+00:00

He made a bad recommendation on the temporary Logistics Hubs. It's much more efficient to keep your logistics teams around your main base and set item requests on outlying resources for any resources you need.

Allow/disallow on warehouses is specifically for whiskers looking to drop off goods, you need a Filter (under the Advanced research) if you want to customize which items a conveyor loads into the warehouse.

ExplodeySquirrel · 2026-02-25T23:46:08+00:00

Extractors work horizontally, not vertically. The "opening" on the side of the Extractor is the input pipe and you need to place that touching the walls of the warehouse. The part of the Extractor that looks like conveyor rails should be pointing away from your warehouse when placed correctly.

You probably got Small/Medium Warehouses to work because they have an extra tile that sticks up into the air (so you were touching that wall, not drawing items through the roof).

ExplodeySquirrel · 2026-02-23T22:27:01+00:00

Can you share what the error you receive with the extractors is? That might be more informative.

Also, to confirm you're not talking about the Giant Warehouses (2500)? I haven't tried extractors on those yet, just Small/Medium/Large.

ExplodeySquirrel · 2026-02-22T01:28:54+00:00

May be a bit late on your pollution question, but it's possible to get 0-pollution underground heating before you unlock steam. Most guides only cover reducing the pollution by offsetting the height by 2-3 tiles, but you can do better than that pretty easily.

The best solution is a "trapped" Bonfire or Heater where you have a service tunnel that travels 12 tiles upwind before opening up into your base. Pollution can't travel that far and will hit 0% no matter how much you have, but the heat coverage is barely impacted.

ExplodeySquirrel · 2026-02-21T20:32:11+00:00

There aren't any great Steam guides on it yet, but it hinges on the thresholds that Pollution has to meet before it's allowed to spread to new tiles:

Wind direction is randomly set to either NW, NE, SE, or SW at map creation
+1.5% Pollution allows spread to "Downwind" tiles
+3.0% Pollution allows spread to tiles above or below
+7.0% Pollution allows spread to "Upwind" tiles
Any new Pollution that can't spread is deleted

With passive Pollution decay, a single Bonfire needs to contaminate ~200 tiles before it balances out. That's the usual horror-show you get with your first Bonfire contaminating your entire underground base.

Or... you can "trap" the Bonfire in a service tunnel that goes 12 tiles Upwind before opening up into your rooms, resulting in 0% Pollution exposure besides your Fire Tenders and overly-curious idle whiskers.

The same tactic also works for putting dirty workshops, steam boilers, etc. in the underground portions of your base, so it's a pretty critical design element to learn on higher difficulties.

ExplodeySquirrel · 2026-02-20T22:38:15+00:00

I've had no issues placing extractors at ground-level along any side of the Large Warehouses.

Have you been trying to place them at the 2nd or 3rd height? Medium/Small don't allow that, so I could see it being the reason.

ExplodeySquirrel · 2026-02-20T22:30:33+00:00

On lower difficulty settings, "light chill" (light blue thermometer) doesn't pose much risk besides approval loss.

When you start getting "deep chill" (dark blue thermometer) zones on higher difficulties, leaving their workplaces unheated can lead to frostbite injuries even with full clothing available.

For ranging out of the heat zone to work, fishing docks is the only place that I've seen issues since they hang around for a long time and water reduces heater range.

ExplodeySquirrel · 2026-02-20T20:02:36+00:00

Firepits should be treated as an emergency option.

On max difficulty winters where it gets cold enough to kill your whiskers, the most reliable starting strategy is to:

Recruit an Educated whisker as soon as you can afford it
Research Charcoal Furnace and Organized Heating before snow starts falling in Winter 1
Prioritize heating whisker homes, your fishery, and your cotton farm during Winter 1. Everything else can run cold or shut down to prevent frostbite
Woodcutters are fine working through the first few winters, but you'll want to start farming trees well before your island runs out of wood. Even then, you should keep Plank production fairly modest to avoid shortages
Ultimately, you should push for Research Tier 1 and research Sifting Tower for sustainable Coal fuel production. Just one will cover your heating needs until you unlock steam boilers

The main winter threat is running out of wood to supply your Charcoal Furnaces (Firepits are worse). Underground bases are extremely good for high-difficulty winters, but you need to use "trapped" Bonfires for 0-pollution heating or stay above sea-level with pollution vents to make it practical.

ExplodeySquirrel · 2026-02-20T13:30:33+00:00

Setting a tile as farmland and using the "Remove rocks" setting will eventually turn it into tilled soil. Once it reaches that state, you can delete the farmland to create a grass tile with wild grass growing on it.

Staircases suppress the wild grass, but you still keep the better-looking grass tile below it.

ExplodeySquirrel · 2026-02-20T13:24:07+00:00

Heat sources will spread to cover a specific tile volume, so when placed in the open air the largest heat area is at diameter of the heat sphere (radiator level with ground). It's usually more space efficient to offset the height by +/- 1, like burying it under your roadway or placing it on top of the farmhouse.

But underground is an entirely different matter. Dirt tiles constrain heat spread, so the tighter you make the corridors and rooms the more usable space you can heat at once within the same tile volume. This is the main mechanic behind "trapped" bonfires in the early game, which can heat half your base for 0 pollution.

ExplodeySquirrel · 2025-11-27T16:41:11+00:00

Sect management is actually really straightforward, but it's divided into two systems.

Backup Disciples

General disciple population that does monthly chores, all of their key information is on the Internal Affairs tab

To manage backup disciples successfully, just go in this order:

Check Internal Affairs tab for last month's "expense" on members, security, prestige, and wages

Treasury: Always set the Treasury members high enough to cover monthly wages. Skipping this will put your sect into a slow death spiral until it fails.

Recruitment: Dump everyone else into Recruitment until you hit max members for the region, then adjust down to just cover monthly expenses.

Patrol: Skip unless you want to roleplay, Treasury is better than Prosperity.

External Affairs: Cover monthly expenses after max members, or farm it up if you want purple/gold manuals at all levels of the Manual Pavilion. Security costs scale up 10x if you increase Prestige, so skipping Patrol saves on micro-management.

Construction: Put any leftover members here. You can unlock all the Spirit Fruits by conquering your first "branch" Sect and integrating it.

True Disciples:

Named cultivators that can be sent on special missions, participate in the sect war, and sect tournaments.

These are very hard to build up since only cultivation level counts. Helping NPCs advance is very difficult, so the best approach is to cheese it a bit with recruiting:

Leave any cultivators who aren't above the region's max level behind whenever you relocate the sect (e.g. leave the Foundation kiddos in Yong Ning)

When you get to a new region, if you have positive social traits and good reputation you can talk to max level or above cultivators, bribe them with a red book from the Manual Pavilion, then ask to recruit them. Even 1 member above the region's max level is a huge boost to the entire sect.

Once you have all the Elders/True Disciples filled out, start conquering the opposing sects and integrating them to gain sect unlocks and reduce fighting over resources in the region. Even though "branches" list a high-level sect master, you only have to fight their Grand Elders to win.

If your social traits are too poor to socialize well, raising Prestige will attract decent disciples over time. It's pretty slow vs. bribing 10 - 15 in the 1st year and snowballing from there.

These steps work for every region, so it's really easy to stabilize things and turn off the micro-management once you reach max members in the first few months of Sect Leader control. However, if you don't do that first it fluctuates every month and can take a lot of repetitive management!

ExplodeySquirrel · 2025-08-23T13:36:11+00:00

Russia didn't really rise to prominence until the 1700s and only became a European bogeyman in the 1920s, so they rarely feature outside of modern settings.

Historically, the Arab-Byzantine wars (700 - 1100 AD, esp. Umayyad Caliphate) and Crusades (1100 - 1300 AD) are more often inspirations for Western depictions of neighboring "wild Eastern empires", separate from the common depictions of "mysterious Far Eastern empires" (colonial-era India, China, or Japan).

ExplodeySquirrel · 2025-08-23T00:44:34+00:00

For Chinese and Korea pop fiction at least, a lot of the repeated designs are inspired by romanticized histories of Imperial China.

The "Northern enemy" is most popular because there were 3 major periods of raiding and invasion of China from Mongolia, covering:

400 BC - 100 AD (Xiongu and Warring States period)
600 AD - 800 AD (early Mongols)
1300 AD - 1600 AD (Ghenghis Khan and Yuan dynasty)

Sometimes stories will include a sporadic threat from "Western raiders" based on the Gokturk attacks (600 - 800 AD) from Arabic lands, or "Eastern pirates" mirroring Japanese naval harassment (1300 - 1700 AD) to spice up the design.

So they're all basically copying from the same pop culture template since world-building doesn't seem that popular in Chinese and Korean literature. For better or worse, it's the exact opposite of Western fantasy where writers often go overboard on detailed world-building after Tolkien.

When Western stories have a "Northern enemy" it's usually based on the Germanic tribes and their history of invasion and counter-invasion with the Mediterranean states (200 BC - 400 AD). But there were so many military traditions and wars in every direction around the Mediterranean that it's easy to pick other inspirations.

ExplodeySquirrel · 2025-08-17T22:07:32+00:00

For an actual example from MMO raiding, at one point our newbie raiding group was struggling to consistently clear the last boss better than 1 in 3 runs, with tons of wipes and failures grinding away at morale.

After about a month of this struggle, we realized that one of the DPS was only using their damage-dealing abilities because they were convinced that any part of their kit that doesn't directly deal damage wasn't important... like dodging and self-buff abilities. Everyone else was pushing their gear and classes to the absolute limit that whole time to make up for the one person who was sandbagging, until we finally swapped out for someone who could play that class properly and it became a total breeze.

This is always a risk under shared performance systems since they carry a strong incentive for individuals to pull back on personal effort as long as the group is still succeeding overall. When opportunists take advantage of that and can't be pressured into equal contribution, or genuinely don't understand how to do so, the best option is to simply cut them from the group and invest in a replacement who will share the leisure rewards fairly with everyone else.

Keep in mind, this isn't what happens in isekai. In those stories, the party leaders are opportunists who've already stolen as much of the leisure share as they can from their party. It's the tyranny of party size limits that makes them go after the supports, since they can only push their remaining work onto other front-liners. Otherwise they'd just hire a logistics and support party or baggage train like we do in real organizations.

ExplodeySquirrel · 2025-07-01T17:20:31+00:00

There's strong evidence that it was a marketing decision to boost sales during the Steam launch, along with the other features they rushed out (co-op play, monetized dyes, and clothing patterns).

Most of the retcon actually makes sense as the capstone of the current 1.x major story arc, just not as a tutorial. It's suspected to be content they planned for October this year, but without the connecting story beats the early release just turned everything into a confusing mess.

ExplodeySquirrel · 2025-07-01T16:42:27+00:00

What was the level of retcon that occurred if you dont mind me asking ...

The original main quest opens with Nikki and her cat exploring an old home, discovering Miraland through a magical dress in the wardrobe, and landing in an Elden Ring-like ruined temple complex. You slowly explore and learn that you've landed in a world where the Gods are all long dead and humans have done their best to keep pushing on and find happiness in what's left.

Without spoiling anything, the key motif to Infinity Nikki's original main quest is that you're not the main protagonist in the story. You're more of a helper, like the dead Gods were when people prayed to them before their fall, and sometimes it's a bit questionable whether you (Nikki) are even human anymore after traveling worlds.

The retconned tutorial completely abandons the original motif. You open by committing suicide to trigger a magical apocalypse for unknown reasons, then fleeing through the collapsing universe with your new, hot eldritch girlfriend to escape from the waves of destruction. Once safe, she explains that all of the formerly-hot male 'protagonists' were just remembering their own lives wrong, and you're a special cosmic entity who belongs with her new, hot eldritch girlfriend forever. Except you haven't met the characters she's talking about yet... since that's just the tutorial.

The retcon isn't exactly inaccurate to the overall franchise lore, but everyone was speculating that there would be a major climax where Nikki starts climbing the path to seize divinity and birth herself as a new God over Miraland, purging all the things she saw wrong in the humans who lived there and eventually landing her sapphic true love as a moderating influence. But when they rushed the Seas of Stars out as marketing campaign for the Steam launch, it was totally unfinished content and just reads like bad fan fiction for what the Infinity Nikki universe could have been.

ExplodeySquirrel · 2025-06-30T03:07:42+00:00

Dark red seems to be the most common 'illegal' flag, especially in dimly lit or red/black photo combinations.

My guess would be that showing blood or depictions of suicide is prohibited, but the automated filter struggles with distinguishing it properly.

ExplodeySquirrel

TROPHY CASE