Extreme deserts: HOW JUST HOW

[DizzyChimera]

I decided to try surviving in an extreme desert near the pole on a world with rainfall at its lowest and temperature at its highest. It's got pretty extreme temperatures later but it's actually pretty decent when I start. Okay, I'll set up a solar-powered "temperature safe-room" with a heater and a cooler and some beds. Now I'll start getting a base in a mountain set up because it's cooler in there. Whoops, ran out of survival meals, gotta get some food...

There is one beetle on the map and nothing else. How the heck am I supposed to survive? It seems literally impossible.

Are extreme deserts full of animals normally or what? Does farming produce more than I thought? In the long term I was going to use hydroponics but I don't have them yet.

[Elpopeyo]

Suggest you take a look at Rhadamant latest gameplay on youtube. He is doing an extreme desert challenge with what seems to be similar specs. I haven't watched it yet as I am trying it as well.

Did you start with rich explorer?

From experience when you play extreme biomes you need to go straight for hydro as research, build a coms console and an orbital beacon. You need to be ready to turn cannibal as a last resort and pray you will get lucky to buy/produce/receive food before you run out of survival meals.

Save your resources as much as possible and get ready for a slow start.

Lots of fun though...

[mattpage84]

Only let your colonist eat once a day, forbid the meals the rest of the time.

[Cultist]

Extreme desert has no animals apart from beetles and the odd iguana. You will have to rely on growing crops for food. If the outdoors temperature is too high for growing, you're stuck with indoors farming. I would go for hydroponics as the lack of soil makes tradtional farming slow and with a poor payoff.

If the outdoors temperature is within growing range, you can get a decent amount of food just planting in gravel. Potatoes don't mind gravel too much, but growing xerigium will be slow and vulnerable to blights.

[Cam]

indoor plant potatoes in gravel with a sunlamp + cooling, if you want to spice it up add some human meat to the mix.

[DizzyChimera]

Didn't think potatoes grew fast enough. It was like the third day or so.

[grapplehoeker]

With any luck you might get the occasional wandering dromedary. Try and tame them as they manage well, make milk and produce lots of meat if necessary.
But otherwise yeah, hydroponics is the way to go and don't go crazy with expanding your colony size.
Don't forget your cowboy hats and dusters too for clothing.

[spacezoro]

Hydro, potatoes, passive coolers, hats and dusters, coolers.

[Orpheus]

If you have enough farmland, grow some corn as well. Potatoes should still be your main food supply, but corn is handy because it lasts for months without any kind of refrigeration. So it's useful to have some as a fall-back, in case you get blight or anything else that kills your crops.

[Sugar Show]

Not have many pawns and send hunter from to other tiles.

[Swordmouse]

Potatoes, potatoes, potatoes.

[DizzyChimera]

Originally posted by Sugar Show:

Not have many pawns and send hunter from to other tiles.

Sending hunters out was not an option when I posted this, because it was three years ago.

Can you like... not answer a question that was already answered three years later? I'm glad you're trying to help, but it's been three years.

[crgzero]

He/She/It really loves necro stuff. Makes you wonder sometimes.

[Gamefever]

What you do is,

Right after making your shelter and getting a power system in place with a cooler.
You build yourself a research bench, and beeline your way to hydroponics.

Number of starting colonists does matter...So having 3 mouths to feed can make the early game harder than it needs to be, and the rich explorer start with 1 colonist is actually easier. Also having an animal may be a detriment.