Best game resource to obtain sustainability

[Mr. Rimbaud]

I've seen similiar discussions in the forum but none adressed this question: whitch resource or resources are the most important to achieve sustainability forever?
And how much of it? 

[Yoma_Nosme]

Oxygen included?  so lame pun...

[blash365]

I'd say water. Because you can make oxygen and food out of water. And everything else is more or less optional.

[Nutter]

Agreed.  Water is life.  Oxygen, power, and food can all be made from water.

[SakuraKoi]

All you need is love!

or, well, 100kg of water per dupe and per cycle, something I'd dub "mucho lovu" as well.

[MorsDux]

If you aim high dupe count, I would say water is the one resource that you need lots of and from early on.

[yoakenashi]

Not just any water, polluted water. Everything can be made from polluted water!

<sarcasm> It’s pretty obvious too from this very easy to understand graph:

</sarcasm>

 

[ShadowOfALegend]

water, regolith and nat gas

need I say more

[KittenIsAGeek]

1 hour ago, ShadowOfALegend said:

water, regolith and nat gas

need I say more

Regolith is very prolific.  It isn't something anyone is going to run out of unless they try really hard.  Also, nat gas is technically not an issue as well.  All maps have at least 3 oil wells (unless another POI kills one).  But to get this infinite supply of oil (which can be turned into nat gas) you need.... that's right: Water.

So, water is truly the only resource that  will limit the total sustainability of your base.

[TOOK14]

Water first and foremost, followed by dirt, natgas, and crude oil, then filtration medium, which is a non-issue with regolith.  With proper design, you can get electrolyzers to be power positive, giving you O2 and a decent bit of power, and about 3-4 wheezeworts in hydrogen per electrolyzer easily deal with the heat.  Natgas and crude are to both power what isn't covered by hydrogen, and for PH2O.  Dirt is for food, which I find to be the trickiest part, as the ways to make renewable dirt are either compost, which is work intensive and takes away a PO2 source from pufts, or cooking slime/algae/Ph2O.  I usually start my permanent infrastructure with bathroom plumbing, and then an electrolyzer system.
For reference, I invariably take 16-18 dupes to cycle 1,000-2,000 plus with no sign of an inevitable death, in fact I usually can AFK for hours with no issue once I hit cycle 1k.  I'm far from perfect, and have much to improve upon and learn, Which is why I love these forums.

[simonchvz]

How I usually approach the game as a habitual 1 colony per patch player:

Urgent but pretty simple to establish sustainability for typical (12-20 dupe) colonies:  PH2O->H2O->O2->Kcal. Ranked by long-term importance of sustainability, but typically my starting colonies get them set up sustainably in reverse order.

Less urgent, but necessary for mid- and late-game content and can have some complexity that scales with needs: Energy->heat deletion->manufactured mats->heat aggregation.  There are (mostly) multiple resources/systems so I personally prefer to switch up the details. 

Not urgent, simple systems that are helpful to plan ahead for late game: Dirt->H2->Lime->Clay

Not urgent, but worth thinking about long-term for late game stuffies and often requires complex solutions: Heat creation->Water/Crude/Petrol boiler/PH2O->advanced energy solutions->high-volume cooling systems

[karyuendan08]

WATER > TEMPERATURE

 

[ShadowOfALegend]

1 hour ago, KittenIsAGeek said:

Regolith is very prolific.  It isn't something anyone is going to run out of unless they try really hard.  Also, nat gas is technically not an issue as well.  All maps have at least 3 oil wells (unless another POI kills one).  But to get this infinite supply of oil (which can be turned into nat gas) you need.... that's right: Water.

So, water is truly the only resource that  will limit the total sustainability of your base.

regardless of which is more needed, all 3 have a share in sustainability albeit water normally being the one to be burden with the overall weight but even nat gas can be close to the same place

 

right now in my colony, I have such a huge supply of water that spending a chunk of it for H, O2 and even cooling with PH2O wouldn't even phase my supply i stored up, my issue stems from my nat gas plant being fed from 3 sources and still not relieving enough hence why I can even say regolith (as common as it is) still has a ton of value:

 

I have a steady supply of dirt from converting slush water from both my nat gas plant and my 2 geysers which keeps my clean water cool to keep my well and brissle farm going

my hatches need fair supply of clay to keep fed which means i need to convert most of my bottled PO2 and my hot PO2 vent into the precious resource for power

 

I like to think that the 3 resources have equal importance in the grand scheme of things

[KittenIsAGeek]

OK.  So.. water and polluted water are pretty much interchangeable.  You can convert one to the other  easily enough. Anyway:

polluted water --> Sieve --> Polluted dirt -->  compost --> dirt.  So you can get dirt from water.

water --> Oil well --> Crude Oil --> (variousm methods) --> natural gas.  So you can get natural gas from water.

So, really, water covers all of your basic needs, since it can be used to provide air, food, and power.  If you have a base with a small supply of water, it will not be able to support as many dupes long term as a base with lots of water, no matter what other resources are available.  So, I stand by my previous statements:   Water is the resource you need to obtain sustainability.

 

[ToiDiaeRaRIsuOy]

Water. It's not even a debate. Water gets you food, oxygen and energy. You get those 3 deratives in abundance and it's hard to loose a colony. Almost every build around here also centralizes around highly efficient use or even net-positive production of water.