Tip 20 of 25: Auto Extractors

[Scrappy]

You can mine virtually unlimited amounts of all raw solid resources, with relatively low effort. I've extracted hematite, ammonium, graphite, titanite, lithium, and astronium. We cannot extract organic. We can extract scrap, sort of: Extract lithium, print small batteries, and shred them.

Site Selection. You want a rich pure deposit. See note on purity below. Anytime you're roving and find such a deposit, mark it with a beacon for possible extraction later. You can even extract from a deposit high up on a wall or a ceiling. Extractors and platforms stick to any terrain.

Setup. I've placed as many as 8 extractors on a deposit. A recommended minimal installation consists of one extractor, a large platform B, an RTG, a large canister, an auto arm, and a medium platform A. I add an oxygenator so I never need to worry about suffocating at the site. Also consider keeping a medium printer at the site and bring nano, titanium, and glass, so you can print large canisters onsite. Worklights can be helpful too.

Maintenance. For maximum production, you need to keep visiting each extraction site about once an hour. This is because an extractor's green bar runs down and it stops extracting. Usually it's just as easy as picking up each extractor and placing it back down in the same spot. In theory, extractors deplete the deposit. In practice, as of release 1.18.68.0, I'm not sure they really do.

Pickup. When a canister/storage is full you'll need to visit the site to retrieve it, and optionally replace it with an empty. Perform maintenance while you're there.

Exploit. You can easily power a zillion extractors with a single RTG, while doubling the extraction productivity. See youtube "overclocking extractor". All you need is a button repeater and two delay repeaters for the site. You won't even need to worry about auto arm power drain. SES will probably fix this at some point.

Purity. It's important to place extractors on pure deposits. Here's why and how:
https://steamcommunity.com/app/361420/discussions/0/3114772181322911131/

[Bomoo]

Originally posted by Imperial Crown:

You can mine virtually unlimited amounts of all raw solid resources, with relatively low effort.

Truly awe-inspiring gigabrain game design right here, guys.

"players love the RTG so much lets add more end game cheat items that trivialize resource collection/management"
"resources excessively plentiful to the point of absurdity? no, don't tune down resource availability, add storage tanks that store hundreds of nuggets you'll never be able to use for anything and tread all over the diugetic UI principle at the core of this game"

[Scrappy]

Originally posted by Bomoo:

Originally posted by Imperial Crown:

You can mine virtually unlimited amounts of all raw solid resources, with relatively low effort.

Truly awe-inspiring gigabrain game design right here, guys.

"players love the RTG so much lets add more end game cheat items that trivialize resource collection/management"
"resources excessively plentiful to the point of absurdity? no, don't tune down resource availability, add storage tanks that store hundreds of nuggets you'll never be able to use for anything and tread all over the diugetic UI principle at the core of this game"

If you're so critical of the game, what interests you in playing it? Why would you bother interacting in this forum?