Water, Food & Farming

Crew reference.

System read

From a Waterskin and foraged berries to hydroponics that never runs dry — the food and water curve, real recipe costs, and all 33 farmable crops by name. Use it before a prospect when a loadout, unlock path, base plan, or production chain depends on this system.

How to apply it

• Start with the current crew goal, then identify the specific unlock, recipe, item, or risk that changes the plan.
• Translate the reference notes into a shopping list before launch; in-mission improvising costs more time than preflight planning.
• Favor reusable infrastructure: benches, power, mounts, farming, and storage pay back across many missions when staged well.
• When the game patches, update the guide body and any linked item pages together so search results stay coherent.

Operational checklist

• Confirm prerequisites and required talents before promising the crew a build or strategy.
• Check whether the relevant items are crafted, workshop-purchased, farmed, hunted, or map-gathered; each source changes the prep route.
• Plan failure recovery: spare tools, backup food, storm shelter, and a way to retrieve dropped equipment.
• Record lessons after the run, especially costs, unlock surprises, and hazards that were worse than the guide implied.

Source notes

Hunger and thirst tick every minute of a long prospect — treat both as a resource to bank ahead, not a bar to watch redline.

Early

• Waterskin refills at any clean water source; cooked meat and foraged berries cover Hunger until a base is up.
• Untreated tainted or rain water risks Dysentery — a Water Treatment Pill or Xigo Puri-tab converts it to a safe drink (see the Weather & Hazards guide) if boiling isn't convenient.
• A Drying Rack (Wood x50, Fiber x50, Stick x25 — hand-craftable, no bench needed) turns raw meat/fish into jerky that doesn't spoil on the trail. Pack it before a multi-day mission instead of fresh meat.

Mid

• A Dirt Mound starts crop plots so you can grow Farming Packets instead of foraging. All 33 farmable crops: Agave, Avocado, Banana, Bean, Berry, Bramble, Carrot, Cocoa, Coconut, Coffee, Corn, Fiber, Garlic, Gorse, Kiwi Fruit, Kumara, Lily, Mushroom, Onion, Potato, Prickly Pear, Pumpkin, Reed, Rhubarb, Squash, Strawberry, Sugar Cane, Tea, Tomato, Truffle, Watermelon, Wheat, Yeast — enough variety that a base can specialise rather than growing one crop badly.
• Basic Fertilizer — and the specialised Progenitive/Recovery Fertilizer — push yield and growth speed further.
• A Rain Reservoir (Stone x60, Wood x24, Leather x8, Stick x8) collects water passively — free hydration for a base, no more waterskin runs.
• Kitchen-bench meals (Kitchen Bench up through the T4 Marble Kitchen Bench) apply real buffs — stamina, health regen, warmth — on top of just filling the bar. Cook for the buff, not just the calories.
• A Beehive adds a low-maintenance food/crafting input alongside your crop plots.

Late

• The Electrolytic Oxygen Synthesizer and powered water pumps mean base hydration stops being a chore entirely once electricity is running.
• Higher-tier setups like the Aeroponic Crop Plot push a base toward genuinely self-sufficient food production, no soil required.

Spoilage

• Everything on the ground has a spoilage clock; cook or dry it fast rather than hauling raw meat home.
• Deep Freeze (and a powered Fridge) stop the clock outright for stockpiled meals — worth the electricity investment on any base running multi-day sessions.
• Compost failed or spoiled food in a Biofuel Composter rather than binning it — it feeds straight back into generator fuel.
• The Cooking / Farming talent tree's Sturdy Stalks and Fresh is Best talents slow spoilage on harvested crops and stop planted crops withering if you can't tend a base daily.