All in one Pacu guide - a farm for every need

[Nxf7]

I'm not sure if the DLC will change much about Pacu and invalidate these builds, but for the time being these are my 3 favourite farms and I have no reason to build a different one.

Generally I recommend that you switch off algae for o2 generation soon enough that you still have plenty of algae reserves to satisfy your Pacu needs. In theory 42 tonnes of algae is enough to breed up to 100 Pacu extremely quickly (it would be 21t, except a bug causes the Fish feeder to delete twice as much algae as it should). To sustain 1 dupe on surf'n'turf you need 4.17 unfed Pacu (6:25), and each Pacu provides 2kg egg shell per 25 cycles.

If you don't have much algae then the farm will have to be bigger, meaner and slower to compensate. However, I have built the biggest and meanest farms with a focus on reliability and efficiency followed by size and construction cost, and have been rigorously tested on x10 debug speed. They lose some efficiency at that speed but they don't break.

If you noticed a mass extinction of Pacu in your builds, then you probably made a mistake. If you're noticing a gradual decline, this is because Gulp Fish will still have a 2% chance of hatching, they can't survive above 25c, and the body temp of regular Pacu is 30c, so any body of water that mostly has normal Pacu in it will be 30c and every Gulp Fish will die prematurely. If you really want, you can filter out the gulp eggs and keep them in their own insulated tank where their body temp should keep that water cold.

Algae Dump build:

Includes population control. Feeding stops once the desired population is reached, and starts again once enough Gulp Fishes die.

You can build this wherever your largest pond with a pacu is. Contain them within reach of a single sweeper if you like (with mesh tiles), and then build out from there. The critter sensor in the breeding room should be set to "turn on when critters below [water tiles/8, round down, -1]".

If you don't want to breed more than about 80 Pacu, then you don't need the middle tank. The reason it's even needed is because critter sensors can't be set above 64 (Klei pls). Also I've been informed there's a mod if you prefer (No Sensor Limits).

Automation

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Conveyor

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Single breeder build:

Restricted algae feeding. Once in top gear it produces 2 eggs (net) every ~3.01 cycles, if there's no lag. x10 debug speed appears to make that 3.52 cycles.
This one also has population control. Costs 4kg algae per 3 cycles.

It is mostly idiot proof to build in that you don't need to know how it works. See "other notes" for specifics.

Automation

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Conveyor

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Other notes

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Once built, ensure that water is pumped all the way through into the feeding area (until the hydro sensor disables the pump) before sending an egg in. If the door next to the feeder is preventing that, open it by hitting "reset" on the top-most counter.

You may send in a single wild egg, or as many tame eggs as you like. More than 1 wild egg probably won't turn out well.

Takes roughly 69 cycles go to from 1 wild egg to top speed production.

Scalable build:

Each vertical feeder section produces a net of 2 eggs every 3.01 cycles at the cost of 3kg algae. It is scalable, shown here is only 3 wide.
This specialises in mass producing omelette, but could also be used if you have no algae, want to breed to 1000 pacu, and are mad.
This will sustain 3.7 dupes (4.2 if cooking and counting the Fish Fillet) using only 1kg algae each cycle (per feeder). Subject to lag of course, I recorded 84% efficiency on x10 debug speed.

Despite how it looks, I do believe it is idiot proof if you copy it perfectly. However you must not send in a wild egg, see the "other notes" if you want to do that anyway. Even a single tame egg will eventually populate the farm and bring it to top speed.

Automation

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Conveyor

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Other notes

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Prime this by sending in at least one tame egg. Sending in more will prime faster, especially if sending in only a few every 3 cycles.

If you want to prime this with a wild egg you must disable the timer, build a temporary timer sensor so that algae is ejected every cycle (1 second on, 599 off), keep an eye on the pacu and reconnect the timer once tame.

Takes roughly 73 cycles to go from 1 tame egg to top speed production. This was when 3 wide, although it doesn't matter too much.

Old thread on scalable farm: https://forums.kleientertainment.com/forums/topic/118681-scalable-super-simple-and-efficient-algae-restricted-pacu-farm/

Save file (all 3 builds are on the one map):

Sandbox - Slow Workers.sav