Mastering Critters in Oxygen Not Included

In the unforgiving yet endlessly creative world of Oxygen Not Included, your colony's survival hinges not just on resource management and advanced technology, but also on the thriving ecosystems you cultivate. Central to this are the game's diverse array of critters – fascinating alien lifeforms that can be both a challenge and an immense boon to your dupes. Understanding how these creatures behave, how to care for them, and how to harness their unique abilities is paramount for any aspiring asteroid colonist.

There are currently 11 different categories of critters in Oxygen Not Included, each with its own set of behaviours, dietary needs, and valuable outputs. Most of these critters begin their lives as eggs, which your dupes can either consume for sustenance or allow to hatch. Once hatched, they emerge as young versions of the critters, eventually growing into their 'adult' forms. While small on screen, a quick hover of your cursor reveals their names, helping you keep track of your growing menagerie.

Are Critters Dangerous?

A common concern for new players is whether these alien creatures pose a threat to their industrious duplicants. The good news is, for the most part, critters in Oxygen Not Included are entirely harmless. Unlike some other survival games, these creatures will not actively attack or injure your dupes. The sole exception to this rule are Pokeshells, which will become aggressive if they are actively guarding an egg. Other creatures, and even Pokeshells not protecting their offspring, are merely bothersome at worst, never intentionally causing harm.

Wild vs. Tamed Critters: A Critical Distinction

Critters exist in two primary states: wild or tamed. This distinction is crucial, as it profoundly impacts their behaviour, resource output, and care requirements.

• Wild Critters: These creatures are self-sufficient. They can be hungry but will never starve to death, making them incredibly low-maintenance. A wild critter will lay only one egg during its entire lifetime, ensuring that the wild critter population on your map remains relatively stable. Their eggs will always hatch into other wild critters. While generally happy if they have sufficient space, their resource production rate is significantly lower, typically around 25% of a tamed critter's output.
• Tamed Critters: Once a critter is tamed, its life changes dramatically, and so do your responsibilities. Tamed critters will starve to death if left without food for too long, necessitating a stable food supply. However, the payoff is substantial: a tamed critter, under ideal conditions (no glum or cramped debuffs), can lay up to 16 eggs over its lifetime. All descendants of a tamed critter will also be tame. Tamed critters require frequent grooming at a Grooming Station by a rancher to remain happy. Failure to groom them leads to the "glum" debuff, drastically reducing their metabolism and thus their output by 80%. Tamed critters boast a 100% production rate when satisfied or happy. Wild fish, uniquely, are tamed by feeding them from a Fish Feeder, which provides a "Ate From Feeder" buff, reducing wildness and increasing happiness.

Managing Your Menagerie: Wrangling, Traps, and Drop-Offs

Getting critters where you want them is a key aspect of effective ranching. Most critters can be wrangled by selecting them and choosing the 'Move To' option, then designating a destination. A dupe with the ranching skill will then move the critter. Alternatively, you can use the 'Capture Critters' icon (a net) to click and drag over multiple critters you wish to wrangle. Some critters, however, cannot be wrangled and must be caught using specific traps: a Critter Trap for land-based critters, an Airborne Critter Trap for flyers, and a Fish Trap for aquatic life. These traps require a dupe with the Critter Ranching 1 skill to arm them before they become active.

Once a critter is wrangled or trapped, you'll need a Critter Drop-Off building (or a Fish Release for fish) to instruct your dupes where to deliver them. It's vital to select the Drop-Off building and define which types of critters you want brought there. You can also set a maximum limit for the number of critters to be brought to a stable, with a maximum of 20. This is crucial for preventing the 'cramped' debuff. Be aware that if a drop-off is in an open area, all critters roaming that general space count towards the 20-critter limit. The Critter Pick-Up building can be used to automatically wrangle critters that exceed your set stable limit. Mousing over a feeder or drop-off will display the current critter count in its area, helping you manage population density.

Feeding Your Friends: Sustaining Your Critter Population

Feeding critters varies depending on their species. Most land-based critters are fed using a Critter Feeder, while fish require a Fish Feeder. Clicking on the feeder allows you to select the types of food you want your dupes to supply. Placing a storage bin nearby, set to store the same food type, can significantly reduce dupe travel time. Some critters, like Dreckos, can also eat plants growing wild or in farm tiles. Pacu, for instance, are known to consume algae and seeds lying on the ground, so if you wish to preserve these resources, ensure your dupes sweep them up promptly. A clever trick is to set up high-priority plant commands for specific seeds in empty pots; dupes will then pick up and plant these seeds before hungry Pacu can get to them.

The Power of Evolution: Critter Morphs and Egg Chances

One of the most exciting aspects of ranching is the ability to influence critter morphs. Critters can lay eggs that hatch into the same species or into a different version – a morph – of that critter. These morphs are significant because they often consume different food types and produce different resources. For example, feeding Hatches sedimentary rock increases their chance of laying Stone Hatch eggs; Stone Hatches can consume abundant igneous rock, a common early-game resource. Similarly, feeding Dreckos mealwood makes them more likely to lay Glossy Drecko eggs, which are invaluable for producing plastic when sheared.

You can check a critter's egg chances by selecting it and looking under the 'egg chances' tab. Mousing over the different egg types will reveal which foods encourage their production. This mechanic allows for strategic resource generation based on your colony's needs.

Hatching Success: Eggs, Incubators, and Speeding Up Growth

Eggs require time to hatch, a process known as incubation. You can monitor an egg's progress by selecting it and checking its 'condition' percentage. To significantly accelerate incubation, you can use an Incubator. An egg placed in an incubator can be 'lullabied' by a dupe with the ranching skill, granting it a "Lullabied" buff. This buff dramatically increases incubation speed, providing a +20% incubation per cycle, compared to a mere 5% for a normal egg. This means a lullabied egg can hatch in just 5 cycles, versus 20 cycles for a non-lullabied one.

The "Lullabied" buff lasts for one cycle, so for maximum efficiency, eggs need to be lullabied daily. While the incubator itself requires a hefty 240W of power, it only needs to be powered while a dupe is actually performing the lullaby. After that, you can power it down, and the buff will persist. This allows for significant power savings through manual toggling or simple automation using a Signal Switch connected to the incubator's automation port. For those looking to save refined metal, a single incubator can even be used to lullaby multiple eggs by swapping them in and out as needed.

Pips: Nature's Little Gardeners

Pips are unique among critters for their ability to plant wild plants from seeds. This is a valuable feature, as wild plants, unlike domesticated ones planted by dupes, do not require fertilising. While wild plants grow slower (e.g., a wild mealwood takes 12 cycles compared to 3 for a domesticated one), their zero-maintenance nature makes them ideal for sustainable, long-term resource generation. It's important to note that if a Pip plants a seed in a farm tile or hydroponic tile, the resulting plant will still be considered domesticated. Pips follow specific planting rules, which are extensively documented by the community. Online tools like Oni Assistant and Professor Oakshell's Lab can help you plan efficient natural farms, calculating your resource needs based on your colony's size and chosen diets.

Optimising Your Operation: Understanding Critter Moods and Debuffs

A critter's mood directly impacts its metabolism and reproduction rates. Understanding and managing these moods is key to a productive ranch. Critters can be:

• Miserable: (-10 or less happiness) 20% metabolism, 0% reproduction.
• Glum: (-9 to -1 happiness) 20% metabolism, 100% reproduction.
• Satisfied: (0 to 3 happiness) 100% metabolism, 100% reproduction.
• Happy: (4 or more happiness) 100% metabolism, 1000% reproduction.

Tamed critters have a base happiness of -1. Various factors can affect their mood:

Space Matters: Critter Housing Requirements

Critters require adequate space to thrive, and failing to provide it results in negative debuffs that severely impact their productivity. These debuffs are:

• Confined: This is the most severe debuff, occurring when a critter is trapped within a door, tile, or a space too small to meet its minimum space requirement. It reduces happiness by -10 and reproduction rate to 0%. It overrides both Crowded and Cramped debuffs. For example, a Puft requires 16 tiles of space, so a 3x4 (12 tile) room would make it confined.
• Crowded: A critter becomes crowded when the total number of critters in a room (including itself), multiplied by its individual space requirement, exceeds the room's total size. Each additional critter above the comfortable limit reduces the critter's happiness by 1. For instance, in a 28-tile room, three Cuddle Pips (4 tiles each) would not be crowded (3x4=12 < 28), but three Shine Bugs (12 tiles each) would be crowded (3x12=36 > 28).
• Cramped: This debuff is similar to crowded but specifically considers the number of critters *plus* any eggs in the room. If this total exceeds the room's capacity, and there's at least one egg present, the critter's reproduction rate drops to 0%, preventing further overpopulation. While it doesn't directly affect happiness, it can still occur alongside the Crowded debuff.

Each critter species has a specific space requirement:

Note that Pufts, Gassy Moos, and Grubgrubs (from the Spaced Out! DLC) have the highest space requirements, meaning fewer can comfortably fit in a single room. Cuddle Pips, on the other hand, require the least space, allowing for much denser ranches.

Practical Ranching Setups: Hatches and Dreckos

To illustrate the principles of ranching, let's look at two common early-game setups:

Hatch Ranch Example: A basic Hatch ranch typically includes a Grooming Station, a Critter Feeder, and a Storage Bin to hold food. While not strictly necessary, an Auto-Sweeper can significantly save dupe time by automatically filling the storage bin and then transferring food to the critter feeder. As your ranch expands, you can add conveyor loaders and receptacles to automate the transport of resources like meat to your kitchen, egg shells to a rock crusher, or coal to generators. Automating the exact number of critters to prevent cramping can be complex and is often only necessary if you're ranching primarily for meat or eggs. For material production, simply letting the ranch overfill, even with a 'cramped' debuff, is often sufficient once your initial population is established.

Dreckos Ranch Example: Dreckos come in two varieties: standard (white) and glossy (blue). Standard Dreckos provide reed fibre when sheared, while glossy Dreckos yield plastic – a crucial mid-game resource. To morph standard Dreckos into glossy ones, you need to feed them mealwood. A common setup for glossy Dreckos utilises Balm Lilies as a food source for white Dreckos. Balm Lilies are low-maintenance but require a chlorine atmosphere and temperatures between +35°C and +85°C. For optimal production, a Drecko ranch should have hydrogen at the top (for scale regrowth after shearing) and chlorine at the bottom (for Balm Lily growth). Dupes entering such a ranch should wear Atmo Suits to prevent exhaled carbon dioxide from disrupting the chlorine atmosphere and to ensure their safety. Heating loops are often necessary to maintain the ideal temperature range for Balm Lilies. While wild Dreckos eat less and don't need taming for their scales to grow, their scales grow slower. For increased wild glossy Dreckos, the Critter Flux-o-Matic machine can be activated to morph regular Dreckos that pass through it.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: How do I know if my critters are happy?
A: Select any critter and check its 'Mood' status. You'll see if it's Miserable, Glum, Satisfied, or Happy. Look out for debuffs like 'Cramped' or 'Crowded' as indicators of unhappiness.

Q: My critters aren't laying eggs. Why?
A: The most common reasons are being 'Confined' or 'Cramped'. Ensure your stable has enough space for all critters and their eggs. 'Miserable' critters also have 0% reproduction. Tamed critters lay many eggs, while wild critters lay only one.

Q: Can critters escape their stables?
A: Most critters cannot use ladders for pathfinding. They can crawl into narrow spaces and interact with doors in specific ways. Properly designed stable entrances, often with liquid locks or doors, are essential to keep them contained.

Q: What happens if a critter dies?
A: Critters drop meat or other materials upon death, regardless of the cause (old age, starvation, drowning, or being killed by a dupe). Juvenile critters drop the same amount of output as adults.

Q: Is it better to have wild or tamed critters?
A: It depends on your goals. Wild critters are low-maintenance and never starve, ideal for passive, low-output generation. Tamed critters require more care (feeding, grooming) but offer significantly higher resource production and reproduction rates, making them much more efficient for large-scale operations.

Conclusion

Critters in Oxygen Not Included are far more than just animated decorations; they are a dynamic and essential component of a successful colony. From providing vital food and raw materials to contributing to your base's overall happiness and sustainability, mastering their care and ranching techniques is a rewarding challenge. By understanding their needs, managing their environments, and leveraging their unique capabilities, you can transform your asteroid base into a self-sufficient ecosystem, ready to face any challenge the void throws your way. Happy ranching, colonist!

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