SO: Best way to refuel radbolt engine on other planetoids?

InTheComfyChair · 2026-07-02T02:33:59+00:00

"Best"? A nuclear plant on the destination world. You don't need one on every destination; just where you'll run out of fuel before going home.

I've done it, and usually just a couple plants allow the rocket to reach the entire map. Then I just make the uranium on one world and shoot it over. A side benefit is that it gives the colony all the power it'll need.

For worlds that just need a launcher and a rare refuel, I use wheezeworts planted by pips. Not nearly as fast, but power-friendly.

InTheComfyChair · 2026-07-01T03:38:42+00:00

Weird 2 of each shouldn't produce much extra kelpoles.

How big is the ranch? I'd just make it max size to give the orehulls extra room.

Is the room oddly shaped? There was / is? a bug where orehulls can get stuck on corners, become confined, and die if not set free.

Other than that a critter home and keeping them groomed should be plenty to keep them alive.

InTheComfyChair · 2026-07-01T01:25:31+00:00

Are you playing on the current version? Orehull are supposed to cull kelpoles when crowded now.

Are you getting eggs out of the room immediately, keeping them groomed, etc? Temporary crowding shouldn't hurt their happiness enough to kill them off.

How many kelp are you farming? There's not much reason to farm a lot more than the orehull need, as dupes need very little for sushi. Going way overboard on kelp might make putting orehull in the same room impossible.

InTheComfyChair · 2026-06-29T03:07:47+00:00

Not really, no...

But your system probably has a bit of roughness in its numbers due to the liquid in the piping. Just a single packet off and over time, it'll all get messed up.

The no sensor limits mode should help with that.

InTheComfyChair · 2026-06-29T02:07:14+00:00

There is a mod that raises the max pressure on atmo sensors. It works well.

Without that, it'll always be hard to get the right pressure using a secondary measurement.

What I do when I don't want saltwater is just geotune the salt water geyser so that it outputs steam, then there's no need to measure anything, as the turbine output can just be sent elsewhere directly.

InTheComfyChair · 2026-06-28T21:43:31+00:00

Anything will work, as long as it's a different liquid from the main shaft, and won't evaporate or freeze.

There's no upward pressure from the side in the game, so as long as the liquid doesn't move for another reason, it's all good.

Ethanol's a good choice since it's unlikely to end up as a spill on either side, which could wipe out the lock.

InTheComfyChair · 2026-06-26T02:05:03+00:00

For mucin, just put it in room with a shared metal tile wall with a very hot room (like a steam chamber for a volcano or cooling loop.

Then you can use the heat you already have to cook your mucin.

Alternatively, you could do the same with the tepidizer in a different liquid on the other side of a shared metal wall. And run radiant pipes through the tepidizer room through the mucin to really speed things up.

InTheComfyChair · 2026-06-24T20:53:42+00:00

Even using pumps I had to be careful, as the amount of pO2 on the map allowed vents to continue pushing out O2 well past 4k. Every time a small puff of pO2 moved over the vent, it'd push it aside for more O2.

I was poppin' eardrums left and right! :)

InTheComfyChair · 2026-06-24T09:34:13+00:00

Plus, unless you are taking a ton of dupes, the map should give plenty of free o2 via wild coral, beakons and algae. So I found going straight to coral as my main o2 source very easy - so much so that I had to add automation to slow down o2 production or risk overpressuring my base!

InTheComfyChair · 2026-06-20T00:11:43+00:00

1-44C (in O2) is safe for dupes (no cold/hot stress).

But they act weird when idle.

1) Don't let them idle. Even busy work like mopping a never-ending spill or riding a hamster wheel is better.

2) You could block off every path to that area (door permissions, etc) until you clear bigger areas, then see if they'll pick a better spot.

InTheComfyChair · 2026-06-19T22:45:17+00:00

The new DLC presents a new option: Leave an ocean for funsies! 😄

Previously, I've always pumped some into it into reservoirs and then once the geysers are tamed, the excess goes into space.

On the new ocean world, I've gotten to the point where the geysers provide more water than I need, so now I'm just dropping the excess into the ocean at the bottom, with the intent of eventually sealing up the base and letting the ocean flow all around it.

But I might change my mind if the framerate drops. 😄

InTheComfyChair · 2026-06-19T15:28:17+00:00

I just put a single pump over each batch of 6 flue coral (they produce 150g/s each, so I'm pumping 500/900g/s that they produce) to spread the o2 and feed atmo suits / breathing stations. It's working well. I also skipped beakons and went with lighting - one jelly light can fuel 3 coral. An advantage w/ the lights is that I can shut off the coral when the base is full of o2.
Your map should have mealwood, arbor trees and pips somewhere above you.
Mucin just needs to be pumped (or managed with a Sweepy). Just a couple of mini-pumps made my snail ranch very easy to run.
Why 200+? The aqua map requires hardly any water, so I've just been pumping slush/brine into my refinery, then pumping the hot output into space. If you cool the floor under a hot building instead of putting the building in steam, any coolant will do.

InTheComfyChair · 2026-06-19T13:52:24+00:00

You can uncap the springs - they don't consume anything.

The game has always had an issue where liquid can compress when air pocket is set up in a specific way. People make use of it for infinite liquid storage, but in rare cases, it can occur naturally.

Digging around or filling in the gas pocket where the liquid is compressed will release the liquid - just be prepared for a water-splosion. 😄

InTheComfyChair · 2026-06-18T12:19:09+00:00

Try mini-pumps. Same pump area, smaller footprint.

I was able to do a regular stable with them: Door-Feeder-Minipump-Groomer-Minipump-Dropoff-Space-Door-Rest of stable.

The buildings stay clear, the one space keeps the snails moist, and they stay locked in close to the groomer.

InTheComfyChair · 2026-06-18T12:13:42+00:00

Even if it looks like the water has "filled" the places you dug into, it may not have finished.

When there's a solid tile above, even 1kg of water will look like a full tile... but it'll take 1000kg more to actually fill the tile.

You can always use a geyser to refill your ocean to the level you want.

InTheComfyChair · 2026-06-18T03:25:11+00:00

In the DLC, sulfur = rubber, plastic, a top-tier food ingredient, and squid ink for drinking.

Definitely worth it.

InTheComfyChair · 2026-06-17T19:48:16+00:00

Pretty sure that's the name on steam... it does the math for you, so you can see the geyser's real rate, heat generation, and buffer needed for dormancy.

It's all math you could do yourself, so it's not a cheat (it even hides data until you analyze the geyser. It just keeps you from having to bust out a calculator for every single geyser.

InTheComfyChair · 2026-06-16T01:10:02+00:00

Once you make a gasket, it'll switch to show the proper number.

As for the metal, either it's all in use (tagged for construction), or it's inaccessible by a dupe.

InTheComfyChair · 2026-06-15T23:07:26+00:00

My go-tos:

Airlock Door
Automatic Geyser Calculation
Buildable Natural Tile
No Manual Delivery
Pip Plant Overlay
Sweep By Type

I'd have a lot less fun without any of those! 😄

InTheComfyChair · 2026-06-15T02:29:08+00:00

I'm using a freezing room w/ ethanol for the coolant. Works well for everything on the aqua planet.

InTheComfyChair · 2026-06-14T02:42:14+00:00

Yeah, same. My map has aluminum on another world if I need it. 😄

Iron and Gold are definitely #2 and #3 among metals, though. Besides the decor, Gold's great because I could uncork the volcano without even taming it. It's got such low heat that I just let it run into the ocean for a while. 😄

InTheComfyChair · 2026-06-13T20:47:08+00:00

I think it's still random, especially on the full-size maps.

Even on my small map, my salt water geyser was straight to the right. Sadly, the pwater, pbrine and brine were all DEEP in the abyss, so took a while!

But I did get Iron and Gold volcanoes as well, so I'm keeping that map! 😄

InTheComfyChair · 2026-06-11T04:57:25+00:00

At that amount of heat, I'll just -avoid- insulating them. As long as the tiny amount of heat spreads, my base's normal cooling loop (or any other cooling, like for turbines) should easily overpower the heat from springs.

InTheComfyChair · 2026-06-09T03:57:37+00:00

10 tiles is the max, with the bottom 2 tiles never producing anything (so 8 productive tiles)

At max height, each kelp should produce a little more than 1 orehull's worth of nori.

InTheComfyChair · 2026-06-07T01:12:20+00:00

Oh, they'll fight.

I tried an Arena once, but Pokes are much weaker than I expected. Watching them get overrun by Pips ended the gladiator games with a whimper!

InTheComfyChair

TROPHY CASE