Wastepack atomizer
 | This article relates to content added by Biotech (DLC). Please note that it will not be present without the DLC enabled. |
Wastepack atomizer
A glittertech device that deconstructs toxic wastepacks into inert gases using advanced moecular proccesses.
The process requires considerable amounts of power.
Base Stats
Building
- Size
- 3 × 2
- Passability
- PassThroughOnly
- Cover Effectiveness
- 50%
- Power
- -400 W
Creation
- Required Research
- Wastepack atomizer
- Skill Required
- Construction 8
- Work To Make
- 30,000 ticks (8.33 mins)
- Resources to make
200 + 
50 + 
1- Deconstruct yield
- 100 + 25 + 0 - 1
- Destroy yield
- 50 + 12 - 13 + 0 - 1
- buildingTags
- Biotech
The wastepack atomizer cleanly destroys toxic wastepacks, preventing the spread of pollution.
Acquisition
Wastepack atomizers can be constructed after studying a nano structuring chip, obtained from defeating a Apocriton, and completing the Wastepack atomizer research project. Each requires 200 Steel, 50 Plasteel, 1 Nano structuring chips, 30,000 ticks (8.33 mins) of work, and a Construction skill of 8.
Summary
Wastepack atomizers use 400 W of power. Atomizers hold up to 10 toxic wastepacks, equivalent to two stacks. A single wastepack is destroyed every 30,000 ticks (12 in-game hours) inside a powered atomizer. Pawns only reload the atomizer with full stacks of wastepacks, or once every 2.5 days. Wastepacks do not deteriorate in the atomizer.
Analysis
Atomizers are the primary, consequence-free means of dealing with pollution. Transport pods consume steel and chemfuel. Caravan dumping takes a pawn's time, food, a large carrying capacity, and risks the caravan being ambushed. Empire shuttles 
are limited by the 40 day cooldown. Dumping wastepacks near faction settlements incurs goodwill penalties, regardless of delivery method.
However, each atomizer a player wishes to build requires defeating an apocriton for its nano structuring chip, which makes building multiple atomizers quite expensive. There exists an opportunity cost; nano structuring chips can also be used for advanced mechanitor gear, or gestating your own war queen.
Sustainability
Toxifier generators
A toxifier generator produces 6 tiles of pollution every 3 days, which is converted into 1 wastepack by a pollution pump. An atomizer can destroy 6 wastepacks in 3 days, and a pump can convert 2 generators of pollution. Therefore, 1 atomizer (-400 W) can support 6 generators (+1400 W) and 3 pumps (-200 W), for a total net power gain of 7400 W.
Mechanoids
Mechanoids will produce wastepacks proportional to their bandwidth every 12 days - working for 10 days and recharging for 2 days. An atomizer will destroy 24 wastepacks in 12 days. The table below shows how many mechanoids a single building will support per 12 day cycle, assuming 100% work uptime. Mechanoids that are idle or dormant wil produce less waste.
| Mechanoids | Bandwidth | Wastepacks Produced (per 12 day Cycle) |
# Mechanoids (per atomizer) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Agrihand, Cleansweeper, Fabricor, Militor, Paramedic | 1 | 5 | 4.8 |
| Lancer, Legionary, Pikeman, Scorcher, Scyther | 2 | 10 | 2.4 |
| Tesseron, Tunneler | 3 | 15 | 1.6 |
| Centipede (all) | 4 | 20 | 1.2 |
| Centurion, Diabolus, War queen | 5 | 25 | 0.96 |
By the time most players have finished the 8000 research points Wastepack atomizer project, they are highly likely to already have more mechs producing wastepacks than a single atomizer is capable of processing.
Version history
- Biotech DLC Release - introduced.
- 1.4.3531 - Fix: Pawns won't haul wastepacks to an atomizer unless there's 10 wastepacks on the map.
- 1.4.3555 - Reduced the power needed for the wastepack atomizer to 400 W from 800W