Which resources/materials are necessary? | Oxygen Not Included Oxygen Not Included Guide
Last update: 09 August 2019
Before you get to build a base and explore the interior of your asteroid, you need to know what is needed in order to survive. The game offers a lot of opportunities, and it is easy to get lost at the beginning, and forget what is important for your people. The most important things are oxygen and food. Without these, your duplicates will die sooner or later. For obvious reasons, oxygen is much more important. Your people can withstand a long time without food. Interestingly, they do not need to drink water for now, although they will often need to use the toilet. Apart from that, at the beginning you will have some supplies of resources, but these will soon run out. So do not rush to print new team members! More people means more consumption of your stocks.
Oxygen can be obtained in several ways. At the beginning, in your room or nearby there will be a special mineral - Oxylite. It emits oxygen, which is why for a few days you will not have to worry about the supply of air. Do not destroy or dig up this mineral! You will not be able to use it afterwards. Your basic way of getting oxygen will be though a special structure – the algae deoxidizer. By using large quantities of algae you will be able to gain a substantial supply of oxygen. The alternative may be the algae terrarium. This object uses up carbon dioxide from the air and converts it into oxygen, consuming both algae and water. It works slower and needs carbon dioxide in the vicinity, but uses less algae. Later on, you will be able to set up other means of producing oxygen.
Food. Although the initial stock is quite large, you have to start thinking about getting food fairly quickly. While digging through rocks you will see that some fields are cracked, and if you hover the cursor over them, you will see the description "buried object". Most often they will contain some Muckroot, an edible fruit, or plant seeds such as Mealwood, which you will be able to sow.
Other important resources
Water. In the current version, water is not necessary directly for the duplicates. They do not need to drink. This may be a simplification, because the production of all meals in the game is based on water. Two basic types of dishes require tens of kilos of water, where in the game one field can hold up to 1000kg of water. It is also needed for advanced research. The shower, or better outhouse also require water to operate. In the later stages of the game, you will be able to produce two gases from water: oxygen and hydrogen. Water may also appear as contaminated water, not drinkable or used by other machines. Consequently…
Sand is another essential resource from the moment you start to run out of water, or you will only have the contaminated version available. In addition, it is used to clean up contaminated oxygen.
Algae. The primary resource used for oxygen production. There are plenty of algae around the starting area, but you will consume large amounts of it. So do not rely on algae for oxygen production if you do not have to.
Slime. A type of mud or sludge, it is a mixture of water, algae and a few other things. After unlocking the right technology, you will be able to process this raw material into algae, while also producing contaminated water.
Copper ore and iron ore. These two minerals are used to construct most of the structures and the entire infrastructure used for the purposes of production, storage and transporting electricity. You will have no shortages of these materials, but remember to stock up on them before building larger projects.