In Oxygen Not Included, managing your colony’s resources is a constant challenge, and one of the most effective ways to ensure long-term sustainability is through proper critter husbandry. Ranching animals, or critters, provides valuable materials like meat, eggs, coal, lime, and plastic, and also plays a role in controlling waste and pollution. But critter ranching isn’t simply about putting creatures in a room and waiting for benefits it requires thoughtful planning, understanding the mechanics of grooming and reproduction, and knowing which critters provide the most strategic advantages depending on your colony’s stage. Efficient husbandry can make the difference between a struggling base and a thriving, self-sustaining ecosystem.
Understanding the Basics of Critter Husbandry
What Is Husbandry?
Husbandry in Oxygen Not Included refers to the practice of breeding and managing critters to gain resources. This includes building ranches, assigning duplicants to the ranching task, and ensuring the right conditions for critters to thrive and reproduce. Unlike plants, critters require more active management, but they offer a diverse range of materials not easily available through other means.
The Role of the Rancher
The Ranching skill is essential for managing critters. Duplicants with this skill can groom critters to keep them happy and increase their reproduction rate. Without grooming, critters become glum, which reduces their productivity and prevents reproduction entirely. It’s critical to assign at least one duplicant with the Ranching skill early if you plan to build a critter-based economy.
Room Requirements for Ranching
Critters must be kept inside properly defined rooms called Stables. To be recognized as a stable:
- The room must be between 12 and 96 tiles in size.
- It must contain a Grooming Station.
- It must be enclosed by walls, floors, and ceilings.
- No other conflicting buildings like farms or industrial equipment should be inside.
Each stable can support a limited number of critters based on their wildness level. Tamed critters count fully toward the ranching limit, while wild ones count as half.
Popular Critters for Husbandry
Hatch Variants
Hatches are among the most efficient early-game critters to ranch. They eat resources like dirt, sedimentary rock, and metal ores, converting them into coal or other outputs depending on the variant.
- Regular Hatch: Produces coal, good for early power setups using coal generators.
- Stone Hatch: Eats raw minerals and produces more coal.
- Smooth Hatch: Eats metal ores and produces refined metal, which is energy-efficient compared to using a metal refinery.
A sustainable hatch ranch can easily feed a colony’s power needs and metal demands if managed properly. Their diets are also flexible, making them ideal for new players.
Drecko and Glossy Drecko
Dreckos are a bit more specialized but extremely useful. They are the only critters that produce reed fiber and plastic.
- Drecko: Requires hydrogen environment and eats mealwood or balm lilies, produces reed fiber from shearing.
- Glossy Drecko: A variant that produces plastic and requires a hydrogen environment while eating mealwood.
These critters are critical for mid to late-game colonies, especially in plastic-based builds or atmosuit production. Maintaining a hydrogen atmosphere in the stable is essential for their scales to grow.
Pacu and Variants
Pacu are aquatic critters that can be a reliable food source. They reproduce quickly and produce meat and eggs that can be cooked or processed.
- Pacu: Eats algae and reproduces rapidly, suitable for mass food production.
- Gulp Fish: Variant with unique interactions but less commonly used.
- Tropical Pacu: Eats polluted dirt and polluted water, producing less waste.
Though not very resource-efficient, they are useful in early water-based colonies where food is in short supply.
Shove Vole
A rare critter that eats regolith and produces refined metal. This makes it valuable in asteroid types where metal is difficult to access. However, they are hard to ranch due to their fast movement and escape behavior.
Critter Management Tips
Temperature and Atmosphere
Each critter has specific environmental needs. For example, Dreckos need hydrogen to grow scales, while hatches can live in most breathable gases. Always check critter entries in the codex for habitat requirements to avoid making an uninhabitable stable.
Feeding Strategies
Food management is crucial. Critters won’t eat if their preferred food isn’t available. Use auto sweepers and feeders to automate food distribution and prevent starvation. Also, balance food usage between critters and duplicants avoid feeding critters valuable resources that could serve better elsewhere.
Egg Control
Eggs are a central part of critter reproduction. You’ll need to manage eggs to avoid overpopulation or glum critters due to crowding. Use critter drop-offs and incubators to direct breeding and hatch specific critter types. Incubators with a Rancher present can accelerate hatching time significantly.
Automation and Ranching Efficiency
Automation can streamline ranching. Use critter sensors and doors to move animals around automatically. For example, set up an auto-wrangle system to move excess critters to a slaughter room or deep freeze storage. This keeps your stables efficient and prevents overpopulation penalties.
Advanced Husbandry Practices
Evolution and Selective Breeding
Over time, critters can evolve from one form to another depending on diet and environmental factors. For example, feeding metal ore to hatches leads to smooth hatch variants. You can selectively breed critters to build colonies that produce specific materials needed for your current stage of development.
Stable Layout Optimization
Design your stables for maximum output. A typical 96-tile room can fit eight critters comfortably. Add grooming stations, feeders, and automation while keeping layout compact. Use airflow tiles and doors to manage gas types and temperatures inside the stable.
Critter Food Recycling
Some critters can be used to recycle materials. For instance, shove voles can turn regolith into refined metal, and dreckos eating mealwood essentially convert plant-based food into plastic or fiber. Efficient recycling strategies reduce the need for complex industrial chains.
Benefits of Efficient Husbandry
A well-maintained ranching system significantly boosts your colony’s efficiency. Critters provide key outputs:
- Meat and eggs for high-quality food like barbecue and omelets.
- Coal for power through hatch ranching.
- Refined metal via smooth hatches or shove voles.
- Plastic and reed fiber from dreckos for suits and insulation.
- Pollution control by critters that consume waste products.
With these benefits, husbandry becomes a backbone of sustainability in mid and late game colonies.
Critter husbandry in Oxygen Not Included is a deep and rewarding system that offers countless strategic possibilities. From powering your base with coal to mass-producing food and refining metal without energy input, the advantages of ranching are significant. By understanding critter behavior, environmental needs, and reproduction cycles, you can build a robust animal-based economy that supports your duplicants and conserves essential resources. Whether you’re aiming for a high-efficiency colony or just looking to explore every mechanic in the game, husbandry is a crucial skill worth mastering.