Distribution and processing of basic resources in Surviving Mars Surviving Mars Guide & Walkthrough
Last update: 21 March 2018
Here you will find basic info about distribution & processing resources in Surviving Mars.
Water and oxygen
There are 2 ways to obtain water - Moisture Vaporators and water extractors. Due to low productivity of Moisture Vaporators, the latter solution is the recommended one. They produce water from the air and can only generate 1 water unit (see screenshot: water extractor on the left and Moisture Vaporator on the right).Do not build separate and independent water supply circuits - the game does not inform you in which circuit shortages of water occurred. You can use valves to control water supply. The same goes for oxygen
There are also two ways to produce oxygen - MOXIES and crops inside your dome. The first one is the recommended method, as the productivity is much higher. Use the second method only as an additional source of oxygen, or a backup plan if you temporarily run out of oxygen (see screenshot: MOXIE - third from the left).
Power
There are several ways to generate power. During the first stage of the game, and also later on, your main sources of power will be Wind Turbines and Stirling generators (3rd and 4th building from the left). Furthermore, you can generate additional power with Stirling Generators by opening them.
Just like Solar panels, they are vulnerable to dust. A very cost-efficient building is the fission reactor (the fifth from the left) - it requires to be manned by colonists. The more of them work there, the higher the energy yield. Try to connect together all independent circuits/building clusters that produce energy. The game does not inform you in which circuit power shortage occurred - it only signals the magnitude of shortage. Thanks to connecting all the circuits, you will not have to build powering structures blindly. To create simple circuits, you can always use the switch, thanks to which you can control your energy flow.
Dust influence
All your extractors, including water extractors (apart from rock waste), generate dust. Keep in mind not to build them too close to Moisture Vaporers, Solar Panels and Stirling Generators - dust will greatly decrease their productivity. Although Solar Panels and Stirling Generators can be closed to protect them from dust, it's an ad hoc solution. Apart from placing your buildings right, you could also invest in a Triboelectric Scrubber - it reduces dust accumulation.
Deep deposits
During the early stages of the game, you won't be able to locate or extract deposits deep beneath the ground without a specific technology (unless you selected the Astrogeologist profile). It's worth to research this technology, as there are more hidden resources than just the normal underground deposits. In order to locate deep deposits, you need access to Deep Scanning.
