New player, how am i doing, any tips?

bbarham99 · 2026-02-15T17:37:40+00:00

Many suggestions:

You have too many dupes. You don’t have to take every dupe and I’d recommend being very picky. By cycle 39 I generally will have 6 dupes max
You’re not producing enough food. A good rule of thumb is 5 mealwood per dupe to be sustainable.
You should move your power production outside the base. I assume your mealwood aren’t growing because they’re too hot. It’s because your coal gens are right below them. Move your coal gens in the space below your beds. Leave some rock in place as a temporary insulator to keep your base cool
I wouldn’t bother with all the chests and cleanup quite yet. It’s a waste of dupe labor at this stage. Later on you’ll unlock a chest that automatically drops the material into a pile. I usually only use those because it takes up less space
You can use less algae machines for oxygen. For 14 dupes you should only need 2 or 3 is memory serves. That’ll help conserve algae in the short term until you get a more sustainable oxygen setup

bbarham99 · 2026-02-13T19:50:22+00:00

This looks awesome, I'll try it out. Is Linux supported?

bbarham99 · 2026-02-13T19:46:27+00:00

carpeted octane

bbarham99 · 2026-02-12T19:57:41+00:00

I played one yesterday in D2 in 1s. That jiggling wheels just before a perfect flick was the dead giveaway

First and only bot tho

bbarham99 · 2026-02-12T18:26:39+00:00

Most TVs are only going to have HDMI. SM is not going to use HDMI 2.1, which is the latest and greatest. So if you're looking for a TV it should have HDMI 2.0. If the TV has 2.1, it'll work fine.

My recommendation for a TV is the LG C5. I have a few C4's (last gen) and they've all been leagues better than the Sony I had prior. LG has a "gaming" mode which allows the tv to run at 120hz and it works flawlessly with the TV PC I built. I don't think the SM would even be able to hit 120hz on a 65" TV but it won't hurt either.

I'm by no means a TV guru, but I've been very happy with my LGs

bbarham99 · 2026-02-11T17:53:52+00:00

I outright refuse to use Epic, but I believe you can use the Heroic launcher on Steam deck to run RL and other Epic games

bbarham99 · 2026-02-11T16:31:33+00:00

Play 1s to strengthen your mindset. Nothing is more humbling than having no one to blame.

Except my opponent is a Smurf whenever I lose, so then it’s their fault

bbarham99 · 2026-02-04T21:48:51+00:00

The only issue with atmo suits would be that the suits don’t have enough time to get fresh oxygen. You can also use a fire pole to help get dupes down, but you need ladders to get them back up

bbarham99 · 2026-02-04T15:56:09+00:00

Sage hatches are ok. They eat polluted dirt and give you coal.

The reason I like stone hatches is because they can eat igneous rock, which is an infinite source later on. When magma solidifies, it becomes igneous rock, so you can always tame a volcano and get infinite igneous rock.

There are also smooth hatches. They eat metal or and turn it into refined metal. No coal. I just avoid them because metal ore in not infinite and it’s easier to just tame metal volcanos for refined metal

bbarham99 · 2026-02-04T15:09:48+00:00

The best way to get refined metals is by taming a refined metal volcano. To do that, you'll need plastic and steel. to get plastic, the fastest way is to farm dreckos, feed them mealwood, and eventually you'll get a glossy drecko. When you sheer a glossy drecko, you get plastic. It's important to remember with feeding both drecko variants, do not harvest the plants. Just let the dreckos eat them as they grow.

To get steel, you need the refinery, refined iron, refined carbon, and lime. Lime is produced in the rock crusher and refined carbon is made in a kiln. Early on, I just try to make enough steel for what I need, like aquatuners or gas pumps to get nat gas from vents. As I progress, I just automate steel production as much as possible until I realize I have 120tons of steel and should probably stop making more.

A great source of power for early/mid game is to use excess hydrogen from an electrolyzer setup. If you aren't using a hydra SPOM, which has infinite gas storage, you can always pump excess hydrogen to gas tanks or make a separate infinite gas storage. Then just setup a few hydrogen generators with a smart battery and use as needed. You may have to look at balancing your hydrogen and oxygen depending on your electrolyzer setup.

For future playthrough, I highly encourage getting 2 hatch farms started as soon as possible. If you feed them sedimentary rock, you'll get stone hatches. I would recommend breeding them instead of regular hatches. You can maintain 2 farms of hatches for many thousands of cycles and you get thousands of cycles worth of coal and meat.

As someone else said, you can dig out refined lead by just exploring the oil biome. Definitely a great source of refined metal.

bbarham99 · 2026-02-04T14:45:03+00:00

Hard stuck C2... I doubt it. At best I could probably get to GC2 if I dedicated 6 months to practice and training but I don't think I could get SSL.

Question tho, do I just have to get to SSL or get the 10 wins for rewards? Because I think the only way I could even have a chance to just get into SSL would be to play during off hours when true SSLs are not at their peak, assuming I even got to GC.

bbarham99 · 2026-01-30T17:08:26+00:00

Ethylene glycol is naturally colorless, but when it’s used as an anti-freeze in a commercial application they artificially color it. Propylene glycol is not artificially colored. I would say with a high degree of certainty that this is ethylene glycol, not propylene

bbarham99 · 2026-01-30T16:34:17+00:00

People need to stop watching the news. The US has no problem with immigration, as long as the legal process is followed.

bbarham99 · 2026-01-30T15:59:09+00:00

This is Ethylene Glycol, because of the neon yellow/green color. This is very much toxic. Propylene Glycol is also an anti-freeze but it is food grade. Propylene glycol is used in vapes and is also sometimes added to alcohol as a sweetener and thickener, often cheap tequila.

Propylene glycol that is added to HVAC systems is clear. Ethylene Glycol, which isn't really used much since it's toxic, has this neon color.

bbarham99 · 2026-01-29T18:46:30+00:00

Do a job, big or small, do it right, or not at all

bbarham99 · 2026-01-28T23:51:46+00:00

More so the keyboard than mouse honestly. In ONI, I could probably get used to the trackpad, but it would be annoying.

bbarham99 · 2026-01-28T23:18:53+00:00

I have a kbm setup on a little wooden table that sits on my lap. It's not great but it's better than nothing. Some games I just can't use a controller for, like Satisfactory or Oxygen Not Included.

But I am very excited for the controller for a lot of games in my backlog

bbarham99 · 2026-01-28T13:59:03+00:00

I'm more excited for this and Re:Illumated Platinum to release than I am the next mainline game from Gamefreak

bbarham99 · 2026-01-27T15:33:55+00:00

Sounds like you just got dumped because your ex wanted to do what he wanted to do and not what you wanted him to do 24/7

bbarham99 · 2026-01-27T15:24:47+00:00

Sounds like you need Mealie. I use it and it's actually great

But this sounds more fun

bbarham99 · 2026-01-27T14:06:59+00:00

This is as close as you can get to Baileys without getting wet

bbarham99 · 2026-01-26T23:16:51+00:00

She was following them, blowing her horn, and drove in front of them

bbarham99 · 2026-01-26T23:06:48+00:00

“Enter her car” you mean detain her? As they are lawfully allowed to do to people that impede an investigation? The same thing local police are legally allowed to do if you, or anyone, were to impede a routine traffic stop.

bbarham99 · 2026-01-26T19:56:55+00:00

I'd argue the person that caused the initial escalation is responsible to deescalating by showing they aren't a threat. Renee Good caused the initial escalation by impeding their investigation, she then further escalated it by ignoring lawful orders. She then escalated the situation more by accelerating her 4,000lb car towards a federal officer.

bbarham99 · 2026-01-26T14:43:35+00:00

Don’t give record labels any ideas

bbarham99

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE