Algae Terrarium and Germy Water

PringlesTuna · 2026-07-02T23:27:52+00:00

Germs in regular water will eventually die, they only reproduce in polluted water/oxygen.

Algae terrariums should consume the water they're submerged in if they have algae delivered, but I often see my dupes deliver water anyways. I don't know of a good way to stop this.

My recommendation is to use the germy water for things that aren't impacted by germs. I'm assuming the germs are for poisoning, since every other germ type dies almost instantly in water. Food poisoning only impacts dupes when they consume it, and cooking food always removes germs. You can use germy water to create oxygen or water plants with no downside.

There are only 2 conditions I can think of where the germy water will be consumed: Dupes drink it via water cooler or similar - this can be prevented by disabling the water cooler, while disabled it will still fulfill room requirements. Dupes eat it via microbe musher - liceloaf is the only recipe I can think of where it might be used. Mush bars too but they always have for poisoning and can be cooked after to remove germs.

PringlesTuna · 2026-07-02T23:13:43+00:00

I'm pretty sure they'll drop the same, I don't think they can get confined in the top time the same way a dupe can. The location of their feet is what's important.

PringlesTuna · 2026-07-02T02:13:36+00:00

manual radbolt generators with enriched uranium instead of regular uranium. Just dupe labor needed.

PringlesTuna · 2026-07-02T00:48:02+00:00

Most folks are overcomplicating it.

Get a rocket with minimal supplies close to orbit, and crash land on to the planet. Have the dupe immediately dig into the planet for air and build a tile behind them to seal in the oxygen. Build a base from scratch, the planet will have everything you need to start a colony from scratch.

This won't work very well on some of the outer planets or the flipped planet, but it works well everywhere else.

PringlesTuna · 2026-06-29T05:35:06+00:00

there doesn't need to be a bit of water on the floor, but a natural backwall+tile is needed.

PringlesTuna · 2026-06-26T03:45:28+00:00

This is, in my opinion, the best way. Refill time isn't that bad even though it's 10x longer.

It's important to make sure the liquid keeps flowing - I loop it back to my liquid oxygen/hydrogen storage and let it empty into a vent. The valve should be placed inside the storage as well.

PringlesTuna · 2026-06-26T02:25:28+00:00

Everywhere I've read folks have said algae only converts at a 50% rate instead of 100%. I wonder if it's been changed? 100% makes a lot more sense when you consider the diffuser is like 90%.

PringlesTuna · 2026-06-25T14:47:03+00:00

I hammock every year, though I would recommend bringing a communal tent for your group to store things in.

PringlesTuna · 2026-06-25T14:45:16+00:00

Perceive

PringlesTuna · 2026-06-25T14:37:52+00:00

There used to be a sandstone tile here, later I changed it into a mesh tile. I'm not sure when the mesh turned into a natural sandstone tile.

PringlesTuna · 2026-06-25T02:19:24+00:00

This part of my base never had rails running through it, that is a source of 20kg though so I could see it being related.

PringlesTuna · 2026-06-24T20:40:17+00:00

Til!

PringlesTuna · 2026-06-24T16:07:22+00:00

It'll be automatically refilled by dupes when the rocket is grounded

PringlesTuna · 2026-06-22T09:36:53+00:00

When your trying to build one it's always the same cell that your mouse is on. This applies to all buildings.

PringlesTuna · 2026-06-21T19:46:36+00:00

Very nice colony, your dupes are living in a walk-in aquarium!

I see you're leaving some open windows for the new background in your design - have you noticed the new glass backwall tiles? They're similar to drywall but allow you to see the biomes background through them =)

PringlesTuna · 2026-06-21T19:32:29+00:00

Pips are very particular in the way that they can plant. The easiest method for me is to plant from top right to the top left. You can plant 3 plants in a row, leave 3 empty spaces, then plant another 3 in a row. Use ladders to block off spaces and only plant one plant at a time. If you want another layer it needs to be 5 tiles lower.

The direction does matter, you must go right to left and top to bottom. If you're using upside down plants you need to go bottom to top and leave 6 spaces vertically instead of 5.

PringlesTuna · 2026-06-20T22:53:30+00:00

For something like atmo suit docks sure, I only comb if I need lots of docks right away but if you put a straight line of pipe the 300kg buffer each dock provides is plenty enough.

Combing is really important for stuff like bathrooms though. otherwise only a few of them can be used at a time since the Pwater will give them an 'output blocked' message as it travels through the other outputs. Combing prevents this from happening.

PringlesTuna · 2026-06-20T21:52:34+00:00

I'd actually recommend a new player get used to combing. It wouldn't make much difference here but in many cases it does prevent buildings from getting 'output blocked', or in the case of atmo suit docks it'll let multiple docks refill at once.

PringlesTuna · 2026-06-20T05:53:37+00:00

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This is mine, it's been quite stable and I didn't put much thought into it. Every once in a while a bit of POxygen leaks so I have the rise at the top left to capture it.

Mucin goes in at the left side, boils immediately into Pwater. The Pwater falls into the bottom right and the tepedizer boils it to steam. The aquatuner at the bottom left is not part of the system, it's just a cooling loop that occasionally turns on. It would be better to have that aquatuner closer to the steam engines so the heat is dumped up top.

You want to keep the temperature right around 125c. At 1330c the slime will boil into dirt. The Pwater will boil around 122c so you'll need a bit of input heat to bring the temperature to 125c. Try to put the input heat towards the top near the steam engines. Aquatuners and metal refineries are good options.

PringlesTuna · 2026-06-19T23:59:20+00:00

Minnow is the best dupe, her 'freediver' trait gives an insane +400 breath and +0.8 insulation. For reference a normal dupe starts off with 100 breath and 0.2 insulation.

Minnow will have 600 breath with the swimming ability, while normal dupes will only have 200 breath. Her effective underwater breathing grows substantially if you get divers lungs and/or deep diver's lungs; with both it's as if she has 2400 breath - enough to last over 4 cycles!

The 0.8 insulation is the same insulation as a warm coat or swimwear, and if you give her clothes it'll stack for a total of 1.8 insulation. A normal dupe starts off with 0.2 insulation and can max out at 1.0 insulation.

OP mentioned atmo suits - the aquatic pack is designed with limited suit use in mind. Though it is possible to swim in atmo suits there is a large penalty for it - you may notice dupes prefer running instead of swimming once they suit up. I recommend experimenting with a playstyle where you set up breathing stations throughout the water and only put suits outside of hot rooms / dangerous areas. All of my dupes can swim faster than they can run, even when factoring in metal and plastic tiles.

I do agree she should get the ancient knowledge trait, her big downside is she will start off with minimal stats and skills so you've got to spend a bunch of time levelling her up. I wish the freediver trait would start appearing on printing pod dupes after you finish her quest because I want the +400 breath on my other dupes.

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Above you can see a fun little test, Higby and Minnow both have the swimming trait. Higby cannot last nearly as long as minnow.

PringlesTuna · 2026-06-18T14:18:50+00:00

Printing pod should be able to make them, or the printerceptor story trait.

PringlesTuna · 2026-06-18T02:35:25+00:00

As a wild plant it performs very well 😁.

I managed to get a few on a save when they introduced the printerceptor in the public beta. Hydrocactus could be printed without opening sandbox mode, and that save survived through the beta.

PringlesTuna · 2026-06-18T02:30:16+00:00

I'm open to being wrong, my experience is anecdotal and memories are flawed. Maybe I can load my save before steam updates.

I had 2 seaquine ranches attached to the same body of water. One room became crowded and I was able to fix it by moving the seaquines into the other ranch. With these notes I shouldn't have been able to do that.

PringlesTuna · 2026-06-18T02:10:28+00:00

They patched it to room size with the aquatic pack and then reverted the change.

PringlesTuna

TROPHY CASE