An Explorer burns 120 calories per day and a surface worker burns 80. Aim for a 200+ calorie daily surplus before accepting any wanderer, and never before Day 10. Cooked meals double nutritional value and avoid the 15% Food Poisoning chance on raw food; place the Communal Kitchen within 3 grid tiles of primary food storage for ~15% extra efficiency.
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What the daily loop costs
An Explorer burns 120 calories per day. A surface worker burns 80 calories per day. A settlement should aim for a 200+ calorie daily surplus before accepting any wanderer. New arrivals should not be accepted before Day 10.
Food: raw vs cooked
Raw food has a 15% Food Poisoning chance that grounds a settler for a full day. Cooked meals double nutritional value and avoid Food Poisoning. Feed settlers cooked meals before they become desperate — desperate settlers tank morale and dump into stress.
Surface vs underground food output
| Source | Yield | Cycle | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
Surface bushes (foraging) | 10 berries | every 48 hours | Insufficient past Day 5 for any non-trivial settlement. |
Subterranean Mushroom Plots | 25 mushrooms | every 36 hours | Outperforms foraging within five in-game days. |
Cultivated fields / Farm | Variable by crop | Oats and Dustroot documented | Unlocks after Basic Agriculture; 300 work to sow. |
Where to place the kitchen and tables
Place the Communal Kitchen within 3 grid tiles of primary food storage for about 15% extra efficiency. Eating at a real dining setup with tables and food counters is a morale investment; eating on the floor or eating spoiled food tanks mood and stress.
Shelter: beds and the Slept on Ground debuff
Place Basic Beds in enclosed rooms; rooms need walls, doors and corners fully closed. Without a bed, settlers accumulate the Slept on Ground debuff (-20% work speed). Wounded settlers need 24 hours of uninterrupted bed rest to recover.
Medical recovery chain
Build a Medical Tent with an assigned Herbalist. Stockpile Medicinal Herbs in a dedicated Consumables Chest. Healing only counts if the bed rest window is uninterrupted — pull wounded settlers off any task that could wake them.
Research that unlocks the food/shelter chain
| Research | Unlocks |
|---|---|
Basic Cuisine | Cooking Workstation |
Relief Rations (follows Basic Cuisine) | Better expedition ration output |
Wooden Housing | Wood Bed, Wood Table, Wardrobe, related shelter furniture |
Basic Agriculture | Farm structure |