Nutrient paste dispenser
Nutrient paste dispenser
Synthesizes nutrient paste from organic feedstocks. It consumes less ingredients and time than any other meal production method - but nobody likes eating nutrient paste. Accepts raw food, but not rough plant matter like hay.
Base Stats
- Type
- Production – Food
- HP
- 350
Building
- Size
- 3
- Placeable
- Yes
- Power
- - 200 W
A nutrient paste dispenser is an electrical device that converts raw food placed in an adjacent hopper into nutrient paste meals. Unlike production benches, this process does not require you to add bills. When a colonist is hungry and there are no better alternatives available, they will approach the dispenser and instantaneously generate their paste meal.
Usage
The nutrient paste dispenser is helpful, but not necessarily vital for survival. It is the most efficient way to prepare raw food in the game, increasing the nutritional value of its raw inputs by 200%. If you find yourself in a desolate biome where food is scarce, or your existing cooks can't produce meals fast enough to feed your population, nutrient paste dispensers can prove crucial in avoiding starvation.
However, consuming a nutrient paste meal gives your colonist an “Ate awful meal” bad thought, reducing mood by -4. This is still better than the -7 mood "Ate raw food" thought from eating unprepared raw food.
Be aware that converting human or insect meat to a nutrient paste meal does not mask its origins. Doing so results in all appropriate bad thoughts hitting at once.
One hidden property of the dispenser is that it functions as a wall capable of separating rooms, accepting conduits and blocking temperature. This allows you to place hoppers in a refrigerated space to prevent rot, or to point a dispenser into a prison where colonists can safely fill the hopper from outside the prison while the prisoners can feed themselves whenever they want without a warden needing to bring them food. Strangely, the dispenser does not block light.
When you build a NPD, the game will notify a hopper is needed
Hopper storage menu to select ingredients
Hopper mouse indicator will turn from red to green for correct placement and colonists will pick NP meals from the dispenser
