how to feed drekos?

[gwackmung]

so i watched a few videos and think i have a good dreko farm setup but im not sure how to feed them the mealwood or feed them in general. i figured i could have a co2 layer at the bottom but it wouldnt grow fast enough to actually feed the drekos and the feeding station doesnt do drekos...???? and i realize i could do some super overcomplicated auto dispenser thing but i just dont want to lol ,,,,, is there a simple way to feed them?

[cswiger]

Dreckos eat living plants only. Build a mealwood farm, or balm lily if you like.

[robotnikkkk]

=...................... AT MY EXAMPLE IT'S LOOKING LIKE THIS.......... LOTS OF PAIN TO KEEP THEM GROWING BUT................... NICE,ISNT THAT???? https://steamcommunity.com/id/robotnikkkk/screenshot/2053127520748589537/

.............. YEAHHHH IT'S HORRIBLE BUT IT'S WORKING!!!!!

............. AND ABOUT REGULAR DRECKO........... https://steamcommunity.com/id/robotnikkkk/screenshot/2053127520748609149/ ........ HORRIBLE AGAIN BUT IT'S WORTH IT,RIGHT??????..... I WAS THINKING ABOUT GETTING PHOSPHORITE TO ALL WHEEZE WORTHS,BUT CAME UP TO DUPLICATING THEM BY A LOT AND PUTTING IN FLOWER POTS BUT LEFT THAT SETUP ANYWAYS........ AT LEAST LOTS OF REED FIBER,HEHE

........................ BUT THAT DIRT MANAGEMENT...... THAT'S PAIN THAT'S FOR SURE LIKE THESE MEAL WOODS EATING LOTS OF THAT........ AND IT CANNOT BE IN FLOWER POTS!!!!!! ..............SO BUILD SOME PIP FARM WITH EVERYTHING U WANT......

-TL,DR: IS IT WORTH IT??IT DOES..... IT IS PAIN TO MANAGE TEMPERATURE??IT IS....BUT IT'S BETTER THAN ALL THESE OIL REFINERIES POLYMER PRESSES!!!!!MUCH BETTER!!!!!!

[Bobucles]

Drecko diets change when they evolve. Check their info box.
Dreckos eat directly from living plants, which cause the plants to lose growth progress. Balm lily is great drecko(vanilla) food as they grow for free.
Do beware that dreckos want hydrogen to grow their scales, but their food doesn't grow in hydrogen. It takes some practice to set up a room with the two air layers they need.

[Shame]

Balm lilies. They take no resources to grow either, you just need chlorine at the bottom for them to grow and you are done. You can feed them pincha pepper plants but that will take resources if you grow them on top. Basically you can have as many drecko ranches as your space allows and processor can handle when feeding the balm lilies to them and just keep generating meat/eggs and potentially also reed fibre.

If you're gonna give them mealwood, you will get glossy dreckos inevitably. I would only feed them mealwood to get glossy dreckos specifically. Then transition to feeding the glossy ones bristle blossoms, which take water instead of dirt.

[Aranador]

Lets see if I have a screenie of an old drecko ranch I used

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2104066989


This is for plastic dreckos, who like to eat mealwood. The thing about drekos, is they like to eat live plants, hence there is the farm boxes inside their ranch. The plants do not grow in hydrogen, so I use heavy carbon dioxide to flood the farm part of the ranch. Dreko scales only grow in hydrogen, hence the top half of the ranch being flooded with hydrogen. Dupes that enter are in a suit, but using CO2 rather than other gasses is mostly because if a dupe does go in and exhale, it doesnt mess things up.

There are a zillion other rnach designs out there, but the fundamnetals is ensuring you've set up access to live plants for them to nom on.

[XceptOne]

I wouldn't lose sleep (anymore) with juggling different gases in a single ranch (Even 8 dreckos in a partial hydrogen ranch will only produce miniscule amounts of fibers/plastic). Rather have a breeding stable that has plants(food) submerged in whatever it needs to grow. So, chlorine for balm lillies and o2/co2 for mealwood/bristle blossoms, but no hydrogen.
This stable doubles as phosphorite and egg producer.
For eggs:
Normal dreckos + balm lillies results in exclusive normal dreckos. Glossys + mealwood result in exclusive Glossy Dreckos. Normal dreckos + mealwood and glossy dreckos + bristle blossom will both result in 1/3 normal dreckos and 2/3 glossy dreckos. So, the last two variants can produce both morphs in a single breeding stable.

Additionally have a starvation ranch. This is where all the overflow eggs will go.
For dreckos that's a room with a shearing station completely filled with hydrogen, but no food. Dreckos here will starve to death in about 30 cycles and lay no eggs. There is also no creature limit here, so more than 40 critters at the same time is no problem at all.
Glossys will regrow their scales in as little as 3 cycles, normal ones take 6 cycles, so each drecko will be sheared a few times before dying.
This stable will massproduce plastic/fibers.

The only downside is that it takes a long while until production is up to speed.

Have some screenshots, early game/automationless variant:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3000480598
Eggs need to be moved around manually. Replacing critters in the breeding stables requires wrangling a few from the stavation ranch.

Automated versions in two different places:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3000481376
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3000481560
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3000481963
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3000482133
Eggs are transported on conveyor rails and breeding stables automatically refilled.

All in all, the starvation ranch is 'the' trick to get dreckos to produce fibers and plastic in very high quantities.


Edit: Fixed picture links (damn screenshot uploader gives the wrong ones nowadays)

[Empath demon]

I make my drecko stables float in the middle of the room so they can never climb off the island, and dangle peppernut vines from the underneath bits. That way it can all just be hydrogen, easy peasy fiber forever.

[brian_va]

Originally posted by XceptOne:

All in all, the starvation ranch is 'the' trick to get dreckos to produce fibers and plastic in very high quantities.

i really haven't played in a while, nor do i have a bunch of hours, but im disappointed in myself for realizing this was possible.