How do I make more food for my dupes?

[minespatch]

I'm starting to get a better idea of how the game works but one thing that puzzles me is the lack of food. I made three micro-muncher machines to speed up food production but my base keeps turning into a Venezuela simulator. How can I add more calories to my base so they won't starve?

[QuQuasar]

You can grow mealwood in planter boxes, which you have to research "Basic Agriculture" in order to build.You should do that as soon as possible, since mush bars are a massive waste of water and duplicant effort.

You can get mealwood seeds by digging up wild plants or buried objects.

[minespatch]

So mealwood is faster to cook for dupes on the machine?

[Priitm]

if cooked it gives more calories for dupes, so yes less cooking time needed...

But dont cook at all, let dupes eat raw mealwood - just plant more of them.

[QuQuasar]

What Priitm said. Raw mealwood doesn't need any water or cooking at all, which means you can save it for oxygen and better food further down the track. Liceloaf and mushbars are also vectors for food poisoning germs if any get into your reservoir.

 

You need 5 mealwood plants per dupe if you're eating it raw.

 

You'll eventually run out of dirt, but that can take hundreds of cycles depending on how many duplicants you have, giving you plenty of time to upgrade to bristle blossoms, dusk caps or ranching.

[Technoincubus]

There are several strategies, some include ignoring bristle berries and digging stright to mushrooms to establish a mushroom farm, which will feed your dupes for a long time with quite decent meals, and then there is an option to dig to wheat and just harvest it to bake top food. Mealwood hogs hge amount of work time, just bristle berries.

[tzionut]

For me first meal farm until cycle 100 - 150... then i switch to mushroom until cycle 500..then to bristle berry in the late game. Not worth farming sweet wheat...to much dirt included. I prefer to save dirt to future research upgrade. Water i can spare, dirt...we will see. Maybe in this build i will try setting up a sweet wheat farm.

[thewreckedangle]

plant your five BB around the printing pod. dont let them eat the berries, store them up. then when you get a chef, you can use "le grille" to cook gristle berries or of you have peppernuts, stuffed berries.

[goatt]

You should always get some bristle berries up if you are already doing mush bar / mush fry. They use much less water per calorie when cooked as Gristle berry than mushes.

[minespatch]

I'll try mealwood first and then plant bristleberries. Thanks for the info guys.