Resources

Food is the basic source of nutrition to both humans and animals. Consuming food provides saturation. Deprivation of food leads to malnutrition and, if prolonged, death.

Summary

Food is measured in units of nutrition. Most raw foods, as well as certain cooked foods like pemmican, give 0.05 nutrition per unit. Prepared meals, such as simple meals or lavish meals, generally give 0.9 or 1.0 nutrition.

Baseline adult humans require 1.6 nutrition per day to avoid being hungry. They can "store" 1.0 nutrition at any one time. As they start to eat while they are "hungry" (0.25 saturation), certain types of meals are subject to overeating. A rough baseline of 2 meals per day, or 32 units of pemmican/raw food, is required to feed a person.

By default, colonists will eat the tastiest valid food; from Lavish to Raw. Certain traits or ideology precepts may change their priorities. You can control what foods colonists are able to eat in the Assign tab. You can also select a colonist's or prisoner's food policy in the Health tab.

Raw food

For a list of raw food items, see Raw food.

Food found in its natural stage is raw. Most raw foods will give the −7 Ate Raw Food moodlet to an ordinary colonist. All raw food comes with an innate chance of food poisoning. Milk, berries, and insect jelly can be eaten without mood penalty, but can still give food poisoning.

You can cook food into meals at an electric stove, fueled stove or campfire, or process it at a nutrient paste dispenser. In addition to tasting better, cooked food allows you to get more nutrition off the same amount of raw food. For example, a simple meal costs 0.5 nutrition to make, but gives 0.9 nutrition when eaten - this equates to 180% more food. Food poisoning of a prepared meal is based off of Cooking skill and cleanliness of the room. Nutrient paste can never cause food poisoning.

Raw food can be obtained from a variety of sources:

Wild bushes can be harvested to give agave and berries.
Growing zones can be used to plant rice, potatoes, corn, strawberries and haygrass (for domesticated animals).
- Hydroponics basins can also be used to plant rice, potatoes or strawberries, and grows them at a considerably increased rate.
Meat is obtained from fresh non-mechanoid corpses, whether hunted or if they died via other means. Corpses may be eaten raw or butchered at a butcher table.
Occasional drops from cargo pods.

Degradation

As of version 0.15.1279 (29 August 2016) there is a message telling you when food has spoiled.

Food will be destroyed if left unattended by two entirely separate factors: exposure and temperature.

Items dropped in an area without a roof will deteriorate over time, and lose item HP.

Storing food in temperatures above 0 °C (32 °F) will spoil over time. Temperatures below 10 °C (50 °F) will slow down spoiling by a factor of 1/temp in Celsius. See Temperature for details.
- In the early game, food spoilage can pose a threat if located on warm biomes. A freezer room can be created by placing enough coolers in proportion to its size - the bigger the storage, the more coolers required.

For example: a raider is killed and drops a fine meal outdoors, while temperature is below freezing. The meal will not spoil, but it will still deteriorate, and lose HP. Conversely, a meal stored indoors at room temperature will spoil rather than deteriorating.

Once spoiled, food will vanish and can never be recovered. However, food can be eaten at any stage before spoiling with no negative effect. Food poisoning comes from other sources, such as a messy kitchen, an unskilled cook, or eating raw food.

Analysis

As a rough rule of thumb - 25 tiles of rice / potatoes / corn, in ordinary soil, is enough to feed a single colonist in Losing is Fun indefinitely, when:

They are cooked into and eaten as simple meals.
A grower's Plants skill is competent; 6 Plants is enough.
Crops are harvested reasonably quickly. 25 tiles gives a little extra food in case of emergency, but assumes that Growing is priority #1 in the Work tab.
Your colony has a year-round growing season.

20 tiles of rice/corn in rich soil (not potatoes) is also enough to feed a colonist, in the same conditions, with some food in reserve. A higher difficulty reduces plant yield; if playing in difficulties lower than Losing is Fun, then you technically need less crop to survive. If your biome doesn't have a winter, then just plant your tiles of rice, and you don't really have to worry about managing food unless toxic fallout happens.

Food crop comparison

Of the three "main" food crops:

Rice grows quickly, but gives the least per harvest. Rice is stable; since each individual rice harvest is small, a blight will not impact a rice harvest as much as it does with other crops. However, because it needs to be harvested more often, you will need more work for the same amount of food. Due to its grow speed, it is a great food to plant at the beginning of the game, or as a "last harvest" when winter is fast approaching.
Corn is the opposite of rice. It grows slowly, but gives the most per harvest. It needs to be harvested much less frequently, meaning corn takes much less work than rice. However, your corn harvest will be impacted more by disasters like blight and fire. Corn cannot be grown in hydroponics.
Potatoes are in the middle in terms of speed, harvest size, and work. Potatoes are notable for their low Fertility Sensitivity, meaning the quality of soil impacts them much less. They are great if you are forced to plant in stony soil or gravel, but bad to grow in rich soil or hydroponics.

Rice, corn, and potatoes give roughly the same amount of food per day per plant, assuming regular soil is used. Rice is ever so slightly higher than the other 2 crops.

Of the other available crops:

Strawberry plants give less food per day than any of the three food crops. It grows faster than potatoes, but slower than rice. Its niche is that strawberries can be eaten raw without a mood penalty, but this is rarely useful given that cooking food into meals will net you more effective food.
Hay is inedible to humans, but gives the most food per day of all plants. Slightly less work efficient per than corn. Hay can also be used for straw matting.
Nutrifungus is almost identical to potatoes; it grows slightly slower in regular soil, but has even less Fertility Sensitivity (slightly better in rough soil). Nutrifungus' benefit is that it has to be grown in complete darkness. This means that you can grow crops indoors, even during the winter, without having to use a power hungry sun lamp. As another benefit, nutrifungus is completely immune to blight. However, most ideoligions give −3 for Ate Cooked Fungus. Tunnelers enjoy eating fungus and despise any other plant. Tunnelers can construct fungal gravel to create fertile soil under their mountains.
Toxipotatoes have no fertility sensitivity at all, and are the only food source that can be planted in polluted terrain. They provide strictly inferior food per work and per day to the standard potato, but do reach full growth between one and three days quicker depending on the terrain.^{[Early harvest?]} They have double the chance to cause food poisoning when eaten raw.

Comparison table

Name	Nutrition	Taste	Deterioration rate (per day)	Days to Rot
Carnivore lavish meal	1	Lavish	10	4
Lavish meal	1	Lavish	10	4
Vegetarian lavish meal	1	Lavish	10	4
Nutrient paste meal	0.9	Awful	10	0.75
Simple meal	0.9	Simple	10	4
Carnivore fine meal	0.9	Fine	10	4
Vegetarian fine meal	0.9	Fine	10	4
Packaged survival meal	0.9	Simple	0.25
Fine meal	0.9	Fine	10	4
Ostrich egg (fert.)	0.6	Raw	2	15
Goose egg (unfert.)	0.5	Raw	2	15
Emu egg (fert.)	0.5	Raw	2	15
Goose egg (fert.)	0.5	Raw	2	15
Turkey egg (fert.)	0.5	Raw	2	15
Cassowary egg (fert.)	0.5	Raw	2	15
Cobra egg (fert.)	0.25	Raw	2	15
Chicken egg (unfert.)	0.25	Raw	2	15
Chicken egg (fert.)	0.25	Raw	2	15
Duck egg (unfert.)	0.25	Raw	10	15
Tortoise egg (fert.)	0.25	Raw	2	15
Duck egg (fert.)	0.25	Raw	2	15
Iguana egg (fert.)	0.25	Raw	2	15
Hemogen pack	0.1		5
Chocolate	0.1	Fine	8
Raw fungus	0.05	Raw		40
Berries	0.05	Simple	6	14
Potatoes	0.05	Raw	6	30
Hay	0.05		6	60
Milk	0.05	Raw	10	14
Agave fruit	0.05	Raw	6	25
Baby food	0.05	Terrible		14
Insect jelly	0.05	Fine	6
Insect meat	0.05	Raw	6	2
Corn	0.05	Raw	6	60
Kibble	0.05	Raw	6
Human meat	0.05	Raw	6	2
Pemmican	0.05	Simple	2	70
Rice	0.05	Raw	6	40
Meat	0.05	Raw	6	2
Toxipotatoes	0.05	Raw	6	60

Version history

0.8.657 - Now spoils without refrigeration
0.9.722 - Food poisoning added. Bad cooks are more likely to accidentally poison meals.

Food

Meals: Chocolate • Fine meal (Carnivore, Vegetarian) • Kibble • Lavish meal (Carnivore, Vegetarian) • Nutrient paste meal • Packaged survival meal • Pemmican • Simple meal • Baby food
Raw food - Animal: Meat (Human, Insect) • Insect jelly • Milk • Hemogen pack
Raw food - Eggs: Cassowary egg (fert.) • Chicken egg (fert., unfert.) • Cobra egg (fert.) • Duck egg (fert., unfert.) • Emu egg (fert.) • Goose egg (fert., unfert.) • Iguana egg (fert.) • Ostrich egg (fert.) • Tortoise egg (fert.) • Turkey egg (fert.)
Raw food - Vegetarian: Agave fruit • Berries • Corn • Hay • Potatoes • Raw fungus • Rice • Toxipotatoes

Medicine

Medicine, also called industrial-tech medicine in the Health tab, is an expendable item used in doctoring.

Acquisition

Medicine can either be purchased from traders, looted from raiders, or crafted at a drug lab using 3 cloth, 1 herbal medicine and 1 neutroamine (skill requirement: intellectual 4+ and crafting 4+). Crafting medicine requires the "Medicine production" research to have been completed. Its synthesis speed is dependent on the Intellectual skill.

Summary

Any form of medicine can be used whenever a doctor tends to an injury or disease. In most cases, medicine does not directly cause healing. Instead, using medicine and better medicine will increase tend quality, increasing the rate of healing for injuries, or slowing down progression of a disease. For gut worms and muscle parasites, tend quality is directly used to cure the disease.

With a Medical Potency of 100%, medicine has a 100% multiplier on both tend quality and surgery success.

Medicine does not spoil, but will deteriorate when left outside.

Experience

The amount of XP gained from tending depends on the type of medicine used, and what it is used on (human or animal). The equation for this is:

XP = Patient XP Factor × Medicine XP Factor × Doctor's Learning Rate

Where:

Patient XP Factor is a multiplier from the patient type. ×175 for animal patients, and ×500 for human patients.
Medicine XP Factor is the medicine's potency multiplied by 0.7, and clamped in the range of 0.5 and 1.
Doctor's Learning Rate is the doctor's own multiplier on XP gained for the medicine skill. See "Improving Skills" for more details.

Medicine	Potency	XP Factor	Tend XP from patient
Medicine	Potency	XP Factor	Human	Animal
None	0.30	0.5	250	87.5
Herbal medicine	0.60	0.5	250	87.5
Medicine	1.00	0.7	350	122.5
Glitterworld medicine	1.60	1	500	175

Analysis

Superior to herbal medicine but inferior to glitterworld medicine.

Industrial medicine is best used for diseases and surgery, where Medical Potency has the greatest impact. A dose or two of medicine can save a colonist's life from the plague. So long as patients are constantly treated by a decent doctor, resting full-time, and well-fed, this medicine should be enough against any disease.

It is generally misused for bruises, cuts, and other injuries. These are usually too common to waste high-quality medicine on; use herbal medicine or no medicine instead. But if a colonist is bleeding out rapidly, you may want to use better medicine for its increased tend speed and quality. Note that colonists are set to use the best quality medicine by default. In the assign tab, you can set colonists and other pawns to herbal medicine or worse. You can also alter this in a colonist's Health tab.

Regular medicine is enough to reach the 98% surgery success chance cap, under the right circumstances. A healthy doctor with Medical 8 can reach the surgery cap (for most surgeries) in a lit, clean room, using a normal quality hospital bed. Without a hospital bed (or sterile tile), Medical 11 is required for the same thing. Note that many factors, such as a dirty room or a surgeon's damaged Manipulation, will quickly lower your success rates.

Gallery

One medicine
Partial stack
Full stack

Version history

1.0 - Received a new description.
1.4.3523 - Added recipe for bulk medicine creation.

Fourth texture
Third texture
Second texture
First texture

Materials

Resources

Materials are the most basic resources. They are used for structures, buildings, apparel, weapons and more.

Stuff

Materials are grouped in five stuff categories:

Stony for all types of stone.
Metallic for all metals.
Woody for wood.
Leathery for all leathers.
Fabric for all fabrics.

So called "stuffable" buildings and items (walls, armchairs, longswords, plate armor etc.) have stuff tags. They determine from which stuff categories the building or item can be made of. The player can choose any material from these stuff categories to build or craft that building or item. The stats of the end product are then affected by the modifiers of the used material.

Comparison table

The following table shows all materials, their stuff category and all their modifiers. The empty cells give a good overview which materials can't be used for what kind of building or item.

Fabrics and leathers can't be used for weapons, doors and beds
Stone can't be used for apparel. (Note that even though jade has armor and insulation modifiers, it can't be used for any type of apparel.)

Name	Stuff Category	Market Value	Beauty Factor	Beauty Offset	Work To Make Factor	Work To Build Factor	Work To Build Offset	Max Hit Points Factor	Flammability Factor	Armor - Sharp Factor	Armor - Blunt Factor	Armor - Heat Factor	Insulation - Cold (°C)	Insulation - Heat (°C)	Melee Blunt Damage Factor	Melee Sharp Damage Factor	Melee Cooldown Factor	Door Opening Speed Factor	Rest Effectiveness Factor
Bioferrite	Bioferrite Metallic	0.75	0.25	0	2.5	2.5		2	0.75	1.1	0.5	0.5	2.5	0	0.9	1.3	1	1	0.86
Alpaca wool	Fabric	3.8	1.5		1	1		1	1.7	0.36	0	1.1	30	16
Bison wool	Fabric	2.7	1.5		1	1		1	1.7	0.36	0	1.1	26	12
Cloth	Fabric	1.5	1		1	1		1	1.2	0.36	0	0.18	18	18
Devilstrand	Fabric	5.5	3.2		1	1		1.3	0.4	1.4	0.36	3	20	24
Hyperweave	Fabric	9	5.5		1	1		2.4	0.4	2	0.54	2.88	26	26
Megasloth wool	Fabric	2.7	1.5		1	1		1	1.7	0.8	0	1.1	34	12
Muffalo wool	Fabric	2.7	1.5		1	1		1	1.7	0.36	0	1.1	28	12
Sheep wool	Fabric	2.7	1.5		1	1		1	1.7	0.36	0	1.1	26	10
Synthread	Fabric	4	2.3		1	1		1.3	0.7	0.94	0.26	0.9	22	22
Bearskin	Leathery	3.4	1.9		1	1		1.3	1	1.12	0.24	1.5	20	20
Birdskin	Leathery	1.8	1		1	1		1	1	0.67	0.14	1.5	10	10
Bluefur	Leathery	2.3	1.3		1	1		1.3	1	0.81	0.24	1.5	20	16
Camelhide	Leathery	2.3	1.3		1	1		1.3	1	0.81	0.24	1.5	16	24
Chinchilla fur	Leathery	6.5	3.6		1	1		1	1	0.67	0.14	1.5	30	16
Dog leather	Leathery	2	1		1	1		1.3	1	0.81	0.24	1.5	14	16
Dread leather	Leathery	3.5	1		1	1		1.35	1	1.27	0.24	1.5	20	12
Elephant leather	Leathery	2.42	1.6		1	1		1.5	1	1.12	0.24	1.5	14	12
Foxfur	Leathery	3.5	2		1	1		1	1	0.81	0.21	1.5	20	16
Guinea pig fur	Leathery	5	2.8		1	1		0.6	1	0.67	0.14	1.5	38	18
Heavy fur	Leathery	3.3	1.85		1	1		1.5	1	1.24	0.24	1.5	30	14
Human leather	Leathery	4.2	1		1	1		1.3	1	0.64	0.24	1.5	12	12
Lightleather	Leathery	1.9	1		1	1		1	1	0.54	0.14	1.5	12	12
Lizardskin	Leathery	2.1	1.2		1	1		1	1	0.81	0.27	1.5	12	12
Panthera fur	Leathery	3	1.7		1	1		1.3	1	0.93	0.24	1.5	16	24
Patchleather	Leathery	1.5	1		1	1		1	1	0.45	0.19	0.9	9	9
Pigskin	Leathery	1.9	1		1	1		1.3	1	0.64	0.24	1.5	12	12
Plainleather	Leathery	2.1	1		1	1		1.3	1	0.81	0.24	1.5	16	16
Rhinoceros leather	Leathery	4.2	2.4		1	1		1.5	1	1.29	0.24	1.5	14	14
Thrumbofur	Leathery	14	8		1	1		2	1	2.08	0.36	1.5	34	22
Wolfskin	Leathery	3	1.7		1	1		1.3	1	1.02	0.24	1.5	24	16
Gold	Metallic	10	4	20	0.9	0.9		0.6	0.4	0.72	0.36	0.36	3	0	1	0.75	1	1	1
Plasteel	Metallic	9	1	0	2.2	2.2		2.8	0	1.14	0.55	0.65	3	0	0.9	1.1	0.8	1	1
Silver	Metallic	1	2	6	1	1		0.7	0.4	0.72	0.36	0.36	3	0	1	0.85	1	1	1
Steel	Metallic	1.9	1	0	1	1		1	0.4	0.9	0.45	0.6	3	0	1	1	1	1	1
Uranium	Metallic	6	0.5	0	1.9	1.9		2.5	0	1.08	0.54	0.65	3	0	1.5	1.1	1.1	0.75	1
Granite blocks	Stony	0.9	1	0	1.3	6	140	1.7	0						1	0.65	1.3	0.45	0.9
Jade	Stony	5	2.5	10	1.4	5		0.5	0	0.9	0.45	0.54	3	0	1.5	1	1.3	1	1
Limestone blocks	Stony	0.9	1	0	1.3	6	140	1.55	0						1	0.6	1.3	0.45	0.9
Marble blocks	Stony	0.9	1.35	1	1.15	5.5	140	1.2	0						1	0.6	1.3	0.45	0.9
Sandstone blocks	Stony	0.9	1.1	0	1.1	5	140	1.4	0						1	0.5	1.3	0.45	0.9
Slate blocks	Stony	0.9	1.1	0	1.3	6	140	1.3	0						1	0.6	1.3	0.45	0.9
Wood	Woody	1.2	1	0	0.7	0.7		0.65	1	0.54	0.54	0.4	8	4	0.9	0.4	1	1.2	1

Materials

Stony: Granite blocks • Limestone blocks • Marble blocks • Sandstone blocks • Slate blocks • Jade
Metallic: Gold • Plasteel • Silver • Steel • Uranium • Bioferrite
Woody: Wood
Leathery: Bearskin • Birdskin • Bluefur • Camelhide • Chinchilla fur • Dog leather • Elephant leather • Foxfur • Guinea pig fur • Heavy fur • Human leather • Lightleather • Lizardskin • Panthera fur • Patchleather • Pigskin • Plainleather • Rhinoceros leather • Thrumbofur • Wolfskin • Dread leather
Fabric: Alpaca wool • Bison wool • Cloth • Devilstrand • Hyperweave • Megasloth wool • Muffalo wool • Sheep wool • Synthread
Other: Gray

Textiles

Resources

Textiles are materials typically used to make clothing. Textiles are divided into two categories:

Fabrics: Fibrous material typically harvested from plants, or sheared from tamed animals (i.e. wool)
Leathers: A byproduct of butchering animals

Both can often be used interchangeably to produce items, though exceptions exist and specific materials differ as to value, beauty, and combat and temperature protection values. As such, there are some textiles that are best used for different clothing, some for armor, some for hot/cold weather, some for furniture, etc. See the relevant item's article for details and analysis on material selection.

Comparison table

Below is a list of material effects for fabrics and leathers. When a stuffable item is created from a textile, each of its base stats is multiplied by a factor for that stat belonging to the material used. Take "Armor - Sharp" for example. For this stat, Cloth has a factor of 0.36 and a duster has base stat of 0.3. Thus, the final "Armor - Sharp" of a Cloth Duster before quality multipliers is: 0.36 * 0.3 or 10.8%

This process is then repeated for each stat. The material's HP factor is applied to the items base HP, flammability factor to flammability etc. Insulation is not expressed as a percentage and is thus slightly different. For an example of how to calculate the insulation for a given piece of apparel, see Apparel

Market value is the notable exception to this direct multiplicative relationship, but the value of a material does have a direct effect on that of the final product. See Market Value for details.

Textile	Stuff Category	Beauty Factor	Max Hit Points Factor	Armor - Sharp Factor	Armor - Blunt Factor	Armor - Heat Factor	Insulation - Cold (°C)	Insulation - Heat (°C)	Flammability Factor	Market Value
Alpaca wool	Fabric	1.5	1	0.36	0	1.1	30	16	1.7	3.8
Bison wool	Fabric	1.5	1	0.36	0	1.1	26	12	1.7	2.7
Cloth	Fabric	1	1	0.36	0	0.18	18	18	1.2	1.5
Devilstrand	Fabric	3.2	1.3	1.4	0.36	3	20	24	0.4	5.5
Hyperweave	Fabric	5.5	2.4	2	0.54	2.88	26	26	0.4	9
Megasloth wool	Fabric	1.5	1	0.8	0	1.1	34	12	1.7	2.7
Muffalo wool	Fabric	1.5	1	0.36	0	1.1	28	12	1.7	2.7
Sheep wool	Fabric	1.5	1	0.36	0	1.1	26	10	1.7	2.7
Synthread	Fabric	2.3	1.3	0.94	0.26	0.9	22	22	0.7	4
Bearskin	Leathery	1.9	1.3	1.12	0.24	1.5	20	20	1	3.4
Birdskin	Leathery	1	1	0.67	0.14	1.5	10	10	1	1.8
Bluefur	Leathery	1.3	1.3	0.81	0.24	1.5	20	16	1	2.3
Camelhide	Leathery	1.3	1.3	0.81	0.24	1.5	16	24	1	2.3
Chinchilla fur	Leathery	3.6	1	0.67	0.14	1.5	30	16	1	6.5
Dog leather	Leathery	1	1.3	0.81	0.24	1.5	14	16	1	2
Dread leather	Leathery	1	1.35	1.27	0.24	1.5	20	12	1	3.5
Elephant leather	Leathery	1.6	1.5	1.12	0.24	1.5	14	12	1	2.42
Foxfur	Leathery	2	1	0.81	0.21	1.5	20	16	1	3.5
Guinea pig fur	Leathery	2.8	0.6	0.67	0.14	1.5	38	18	1	5
Heavy fur	Leathery	1.85	1.5	1.24	0.24	1.5	30	14	1	3.3
Human leather	Leathery	1	1.3	0.64	0.24	1.5	12	12	1	4.2
Lightleather	Leathery	1	1	0.54	0.14	1.5	12	12	1	1.9
Lizardskin	Leathery	1.2	1	0.81	0.27	1.5	12	12	1	2.1
Panthera fur	Leathery	1.7	1.3	0.93	0.24	1.5	16	24	1	3
Patchleather	Leathery	1	1	0.45	0.19	0.9	9	9	1	1.5
Pigskin	Leathery	1	1.3	0.64	0.24	1.5	12	12	1	1.9
Plainleather	Leathery	1	1.3	0.81	0.24	1.5	16	16	1	2.1
Rhinoceros leather	Leathery	2.4	1.5	1.29	0.24	1.5	14	14	1	4.2
Thrumbofur	Leathery	8	2	2.08	0.36	1.5	34	22	1	14
Wolfskin	Leathery	1.7	1.3	1.02	0.24	1.5	24	16	1	3

All textiles have the following modifiers in common:

Work To Make Factor and Work To Build Factor of 1.

Materials

Stony: Granite blocks • Limestone blocks • Marble blocks • Sandstone blocks • Slate blocks • Jade
Metallic: Gold • Plasteel • Silver • Steel • Uranium • Bioferrite
Woody: Wood
Leathery: Bearskin • Birdskin • Bluefur • Camelhide • Chinchilla fur • Dog leather • Elephant leather • Foxfur • Guinea pig fur • Heavy fur • Human leather • Lightleather • Lizardskin • Panthera fur • Patchleather • Pigskin • Plainleather • Rhinoceros leather • Thrumbofur • Wolfskin • Dread leather
Fabric: Alpaca wool • Bison wool • Cloth • Devilstrand • Hyperweave • Megasloth wool • Muffalo wool • Sheep wool • Synthread
Other: Gray

Miscellanous

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Shell

Shells can be traded for profit. In the future, they will be used in Mortars.

Resources

Contents

Food

Summary

Raw food

Degradation

Analysis

Food crop comparison

Comparison table

Version history

Medicine

Acquisition

Summary

Experience

Analysis

Gallery

Version history

Materials

Stuff

Comparison table

Textiles

Comparison table

Miscellanous

Shell

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