I feel feel like the dehydrator has been forgotten...

[nyolcvanhet]

Dehydrator only works on gas range foods, but nowadays that's a fraction of the lategame foods we have today.

The deep frier makes shellfish tempura and fried fish, both have a +4 morale value and are aquatic so they protect against radiation, they should be really good for space exploration, but the dehydrator cannot work on those.

 

The new sushi bar is also there, uni and sushi are both +4 foods with the aquatic bonus, but they cannot benefit from the dehydrator. You need to use surf'n'turf or mushroom wraps, and sometimes you don't want to make meat or mushrooms just for the dehydrator benefit.

 

Yes you can use pemmican or berry sludge, but they give a much worse morale bonus and they don't have the radiation bonus

[Sasza22]

A big problem with the dehydrator is that dehydrated food packs don`t stack. Each pack is calculated separately and making most of your food dehydrated hits your fps hard. If this wasn`t the issue more ppl would use the dehydrator as an alternative to deep freezers especially corner loaded that some might cosider exploits.

Adding more recipies to the gas range from newer expansions or at leas alternative ingredients would also help. This and some sources of nat gas (dartle morph, blowter morph) would work to make the gas range the high tier food station and also help the dehydrator stay relevant.

[KittenIsAGeek]

I think the only time I use dehydrators is when I'm preparing a bunch of food for starting a base on another asteroid.  Otherwise, I try to design my base so that the food produced is close to what the dupes need to eat each cycle.  Raw materials get deep-frozen (sleet-wheat, meat, etc).  Also.. I still haven't found any mealwood on my Aquatic asteroid so even though I have plenty of nori and stuff, I can't make sushi or nigiri!  Argh!

[Shinkarr]

Also with the new DLC and sushi bar it is reasonable to farm mealwood for some new recipes. That means easy access to the freshner spice, which is direct competitor to dehydration. Mini fridge also fits better into rocket interiors.

[gumyns]

On 6/9/2026 at 12:09 PM, nyolcvanhet said:

Dehydrator only works on gas range foods, but nowadays that's a fraction of the lategame foods we have today.

The deep frier makes shellfish tempura and fried fish, both have a +4 morale value and are aquatic so they protect against radiation, they should be really good for space exploration, but the dehydrator cannot work on those.

 

The new sushi bar is also there, uni and sushi are both +4 foods with the aquatic bonus, but they cannot benefit from the dehydrator. You need to use surf'n'turf or mushroom wraps, and sometimes you don't want to make meat or mushrooms just for the dehydrator benefit.

 

Yes you can use pemmican or berry sludge, but they give a much worse morale bonus and they don't have the radiation bonus

I had same thought after buying Aquatic pack, so here we go. 

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3754481883

[BLACKBERREST3]

Yeah, I just don’t see a use for it at all. it isn’t too much trouble to make a 1 tile infinite freezer no matter what location you are in. could even use mech doors and automation so you don’t need mechatronics either.

It doesn’t help that both processes consume resources. if it only costs power or gave back those resources that would be different.

and like sasza said, it needs to stack so it doesn’t hit fps later

Edited Monday at 05:04 PM by BLACKBERREST3

[Jussatoon]

3 hours ago, BLACKBERREST3 said:

it isn’t too much trouble to make a 1 tile infinite freezer no matter what location you are in.

Elaborate. 

[BLACKBERREST3]

This:

https://oxygennotincluded.wiki.gg/wiki/Food_(Resource)#Spoilage_speed

pretty sure it only counts atmosphere so you only need a few grams of freezing-sterile gas.

 

or this?

dispensers (locked automation state only works in SO! and has different mechanics to base game)

mechatronics to deliver between sterile-frozen atmosphere to hungry dupes

mech doors and specific setup to push debris around and through tiles.

Edited Tuesday at 10:42 AM by BLACKBERREST3