Water and finding more

[Mieumieu]

tl;dr version: Is there a direction to expand (up/down) that normally turns up more water sources than the other? Or is that all planet dependent? What about on the easy starting planet?

Detailed version: I'm playing the game for the first time. I'm about 100 cycles in, and I've about exhausted my sources of water.

I stopped at 13 colonists because I thought they were going through water too fast and didn't see many sources of it around. So it's not that I overwhelmed my colony number by some silly amount, but maybe I did in fact do that, being that my water resources were low. Still, they were never idle, I was always working and putting them all to good use.

I want to save my colony and so I'm just wondering what I should do. I don't see any of these things people talk about that can generate extra water (steam geysers etc).

Am I missing something? Or do I need to just venture off deeper and further away and hope I find something?

I do of course turn all my dirty water back into clean water, but I don't even have any more dirty water around either. I'm getting nervous.

I guess if I don't find more, I'm just going to have to live with the fact that my colony collapsed. It sure would be nice to find out I've just been missing something. I'm pretty scared that it's just my random spot didn't have much.

Maybe I didn't expand fast enough and since there wasn't much there, I just didn't get out there quick enough to find more somewhere. My lack of experience being my first game in, I didn't know that the amount I saw wasn't going to be enough to last.

I wish I was missing something, though I have poked a bit and think it's just the unlucky RNG of the world build that got me.

And yet I need to push on and so to help me decide which way to go, is there a direction I should dig? Is there more likely to be water in one or the other? I'm only on the suggested starting first planet, so it's embarrassing that I'm running out on Planet Easy but I am :P But is there more water towards the surface or deeper in or is it all just totally random?

I don't want to use a map viewer or anything, I just want to explore and see how it goes. But I'm good with tips.

[AlexMBrennan]

The easiest two cold steam geysers are found in the swamp biome (you might have been avoiding this area because of the slimelung germs) and the caustic biome. These should be close the printing pod.

There is also the tidepool biome which should have ample free salt water as well as a salt water geyser. Note that the cold steam and salt water are both near 100C and will require a working cooling setup.

The other 9-16 geyers are randomly chosen and randomly distributed so there is no telling if there are additional water sources or where they might be located.

[Xilo The Odd]

in the base game you'll get a mix of cool steam vents and some slush geysers, these are your primary water sources.

however, there are countless ways to generate more water, natural gas generators for example make P water as do petrol generators, filtered out its all clean water, your only worry at that point is carbon dioxide disposal (which is easy.)

[zverozvero]

Dig far in every direction exept too deep down. Heated depths and molten core wont help at the moment. At worst world have to generate some icy biomes and you can melt snow/ice. Also those usually house slush geysers that produce cold salty or poluted water. At best you'll find untapped slime biomes with slime and poluted water to run colony or salt waters as mentioned allready to desalinate. It'll help sustain till you find geysers.

Very few geysers are opened by map generation. Others are buried in ore/minerals and must be unearthed. Look for 4-tile wide Neutronium lines. Geysers generate with those as foundation. Otherwise Neutronium forms maps border so if you see 4x1 line of it theres geyser or vulcano standing right above.

[bwhitejr]

First - I generally don't take more than 6 dupes in the first 100 cycles. As you're learning, until you discover or dig up more water sources, it's pretty precious - the biggest use will be research, or growing gristleberries. The game is about balance - not going too fast, or too slow - and uncovering the map.

Play however you want - but what I do is collect all of the fresh water into one tank, and use that for research and such, and don't grow any plants that need irrigation until I have a lot more reliable water sources. I create a dirty water tank, and hook toilets and sinks up to it, with a sieve - the dupes pee more than they consume over time, I think it's a 1:1.5 ratio, and over time, the pee water tank will fill up - and I use the dirty water to sieve for 02 production, only. Before toilets,I just have them dump the pee bottles from the latrines and manual sinks. Throw a deodorizer over the tank, extra 02. I usually throw a compost pile over it, too - keep all the germs in one place.

The key here is to explore. There's more water on your map, you just need to find it, and learn how to use it - for instance, steam geysers will produce water, but it will be very hot, so you will need exosuits to work in and around it. The DLC asteroids are harder, but the big vanilla maps almost always have enough water that by midgame, I have way more than I need, and storing it is an issue.

You might lose this base - but no worries. We all do. :) This is a game where starting over isn't really held against you.

My best advice, go watch Francis John on Youtube. He has some tutorial videos that cover the early game pretty well. Or Magnet, or Cryptic Fox, there's plenty of ONI streamers you can learn a lot from.

[gimmethegepgun]

Note that, until you run out of Algae, Slime, and either Rust or Salt, you don't need water to survive. You can feed your dupes with food made from Mealwood (just don't make Liceloaf), Dusk Cap (though that does use Slime which can make some water), Nosh Vine (though that does need Ethanol, which can also be turned into some water, and growing lumber domestically needs polluted water), Meat from many critters, Pacu Fillets from Pacu, or from any plant growing wild, which you can get more of with Pips. Spaced Out! also has the Grubfruit plant.

[caseyas435943]

Base game or DLC makes no difference. You dig. You dig until the area says you can't without suits. If you think you should be doing something else dig first.

You fine things you need digging.

I've played seeds where I have zero water other than 1 cool stream vent. Very painful.

Then I have play throughs where I have 3 cool stream vents, 3 water geysers, 2 polluted geysers and count them 5 saltwater ones. It was insane.

But most times on 99.9% of my play through I find at least 3 water sources. At least. A cool steam vent or 2 and at least 1 kind of water vent.

In the DLC water from every play through I've watch rains out of the sky. You shouldn't have a problem there. The base game you never know if you'll get what you need. The DLC its hands to you without much work at all. And in the order, you need it. Very silly design.