Oxygen Not Included is a simulation game where you need to manage a lot of things. Food is one of the most important things that you need to grow and prepare and our Oxygen Not Included Food Guide will help you with that.
Oxygen Not Included Food Guide
Growing plants and preparing meals aren’t that simple in Oxygen Not Included. Aside from preparing meals, you also need to manage where and how to store them, which plants to grow, and how to keep the food from rotting. In our food guide for Oxygen Not Included, we will cover everything from growing food to how to prepare the best meals.
The Basics
When the Duplicants first arrive, you won’t have much of a choice while managing. 16,000 kcal of Nutrient Bar is what you have in the Ration Box.
The duplicants can collect Buried Muckroot, Mealwood plants, and Bristle Blossom plants. Once harvested, Buried Muckroot won’t provide any seeds, meaning it can be replanted. Mealwood plants can be harvested for Meal Lice and Bristle Blossom plants can be harvested for Bristle Berries.
Once enough raw metal is collected, you can build a Microbe Musher that can prepare basic meals like Mush Bar and Liceloaf. Here is what you need for both of these meals.
Mush Bar – 75kg dirt and 75kg water per ration.
Liceloaf – 1,200kcal Meal Lice and 50kg water.
Not only that, cooking Liceloaf will increase the calories by 500. Meaning, if you are cooking it with 1,200 kcal, after cooking it, it’ll be 1700 kcal.
While you do that, in the man time start researching farming which will grant you access to Planter Box. The Planter Box is important as it’s much more efficient than growing plants wildly.
For example, Mealwood in Planter Boxes takes only 3 cycles to ripen up and yields 600 KCal of meal lice. Which is significantly faster than 12 cycles of growing them in the wild. Also, note that any meal that requires food as an ingredient will increase the calories provided after cooking.
Farming
Not that we have covered the basics, it’s time to delve deep into the game’s farming mechanics. After you have researched farming you can build Planter Boxes.
They are ugly and have -10 decor value and can be built on top of air-permeable tiles or a door. But, when the door is opened it’ll stop the plant’s growth cycle.
Planter Boxes support 4 types of edible plant which include Mealwood, Bristle Blossom, Dusk Cap, and Sleet Wheat. Here is what you need to grow all of these plants.
Mealwood
Fertilize it with 10 kg of dirt every cycle. Temperature requirement is between 10 and 30 °C while the air pressure needs to be above 150g.
Bristle Blossom
Requires artificial or natural light and water and the water need to be delivered manually. So keep it in check. Requires 6 cycles to ripen up and each plant provides 1600kcal Bristle Berries per harvest.
Can be consumed raw but I recommend Electric Grill to cook either Frost Bun or Pepper Bread which increases calories per gram.
Dusk Cap
This plant only grows in darkness and in a CO2 rich environment. Place them at the bottom of the colony but keep the temperature between 5 and 35°C. Also, you need to provide it with 4kg Slime per cycle.
Needs to be passed through an Ore Scrubber or a chlorine environment as Dusk Cap carries Slimelung Germs.
Sleet Wheat
This plant requires freezing temperature ranging between -55 and 5°C. 4 KG of fertilizer and 20kg of water per cycle and takes 18 cycles to ripen up. This plant provides with 18 Sleet Wheat Grain which also acts as seeds.
Hydroponic Farming
Watering the plants will require Duplicants to run around all the time. To reduce their workload, research Agriculture for the Hydroponic Farm. This will allow for water being supplied through pipes.
Meal Preparation and Preservation
Once you have learned to farm, you need to research Meal Preparation and do it as soon as possible. Researching meal preparation will unlock the Refrigerator which will prevent meals from rotting.
However, Refrigerator requires power. If you want to avoid using the refrigerator then you can store your food in an unpowered Ration Box in a sterile atmosphere. Meaning either there is no oxygen or there is polluted oxygen.
The Electric Grill
The Electric Grill is a useful tool as it’ll make a lot of things taste good. This tool improves food quality and increases calories.
How To Maintain a Steady supply of Food
Now that you have learned how to farm and cook food, it’s time to learn how to keep a steady supply of food as it’s very important to feed Duplicants. Otherwise, there will be complications.
You need to manage to farm in such a way that it fulfills Duplicant’s 1000kcal per cycle need. The following are the maximum cycles required to get the food and lowest possible rating for all of the plants.
Bristle Blossom
After 16 cycles, this plant will provide 4800 kcal. It’s one of the better tasting plants but requires a lot of work if you want these in abundance.
Pincha Peppernut
This plant ripens up in 85 cycles you’ll get from 12 to 24 seed. These seeds can only be used to season other meals as they don’t have any calories and they increase the quality of the meal.
Sweet Wheat
Takes 20 cycles to ripen up and provides a yield of 25 to 75 seeds. Using the entire yield will be beneficial while preparing meals. In the case of Frost Bun, using these seeds will provide you with 25000 to 75000 calories.
You have to be a bit patient for this plant and requires low temperature. But the yield will compensate you for your efforts.
Mealwood
Takes 12.5 cycles and provides with 2400 kcal do 4800 kcal. This plant can be used to prepare Meal Lice but, it weighs a lot and takes a lot of space in the refrigerator and the boxes. Liceloaf is a better alternative to Meal Lice.
That is all for our Oxygen Not Included Food Guide with tips on farming, preparing meals and how to keep a steady supply of food.