How to combat Germ Infestation in base?

[Izzy248]

I've never had quite the issue with Germs as I do now. First time playing again in a while since the Rocket upgrade and started a new base. A couple cycles in and I mined upwards a bit and near a Swamp Biome. I didn't mine into it mind you but near enough to grab some algae. Well that's all it took apparently because within a very few cycles the entire top portion of my base is just littered with germs. It's worse than any time I've ever had to deal with before. My dupes keep getting slimelung one after another and some are starting to double up on it. And none of them have Biohazard or had weak immune systems initially so what gives? I never really liked the Germ Outbreak expansion but this is a whole new level.

How do I increase my dupes immune systems? How do I get rid of all these germs in my base? Is there a way to maybe just switch off germs altogether or make them "Impervious" mid playthrough??

[Dr. Worm]

When algae that is covered in slimelung is put into an algae deoxidizer, the slimelung is emitted into the air along with the O2.  Although it dies quite quickly, if you have slimelung infected O2 being pumped out 24/7 you'll probably have a problem.  Try and keep infected algae away from your algae deoxidizers, feed them into terrariums instead.

To save your current colony, try investing in medical care and building the required facilities (pharma chamber, care set to high priority, and fabricating medicine).  Also build some deodorizers if there is polluted oxygen floating around the base, as slimelung breeds like crazy in that.  You could also try dropping little bits of chlorine into your base, but be careful you don't suffocate yourself in it.  Once you stop the source of germs, your clean oxygen should be sterile in several cycles.

[RonEmpire]

Flood your with Oxygen at high pressure.

The immunity can be adjusted by taking pills that you can make. 

[SackMaggie]

Your germs is in the gas right ? If it was polluted oxygen use deodorizer to change it to oxygen then Slime lung will eventually die in oxygen.

If it was other gas then you can.

mix chlorine in there, put reservoir in chlorine, consume it, ignore it and use exosuit.

And you can't change your germs setting in the game (You might be able to do it in save editor).

[RonEmpire]

My strategy here is to make an water airlock entry into swamp biome area. This keeps polluted oxygen (with slime lungs)  from floating around your base.   Put a door up to control who goes in and out of the biome.   So when a guy has slime lungs, limit the low immunity guy from going into the swamp until he recovers his immunity.

Work on getting an deoxidizer researched so you can suck out ll the PO2.   

Work on getting Oxygen made so that your base has high amount of Oxygen.   I usually don't care about popped ear drums.  I can live with that and it's manageable. 

Pump Oxygen into the swamp to kill off remaining simelung in the air.

Once you have the biome air cleaned out.   You can get rid of the airlock and simply plop down a few deoxidizer as you dig the slime tiles and it will be fine .

 

[0xFADE]

Don’t let it in. Airlock any polluted oxygen areas off and suck it to some puft ranch or whatever else you’ve got to consume it.

[crypticorb]

3 hours ago, Izzy248 said:

I've never had quite the issue with Germs as I do now. First time playing again in a while since the Rocket upgrade and started a new base. A couple cycles in and I mined upwards a bit and near a Swamp Biome. I didn't mine into it mind you but near enough to grab some algae. Well that's all it took apparently because within a very few cycles the entire top portion of my base is just littered with germs. It's worse than any time I've ever had to deal with before. My dupes keep getting slimelung one after another and some are starting to double up on it. And none of them have Biohazard or had weak immune systems initially so what gives? I never really liked the Germ Outbreak expansion but this is a whole new level.

How do I increase my dupes immune systems? How do I get rid of all these germs in my base? Is there a way to maybe just switch off germs altogether or make them "Impervious" mid playthrough??

As with most diseases in real life, preventative maintenance is FAR more effective than curing sick people.

To keep germs out, and salvage the situation as it is, there are a few things you MUST do to keep them alive:

1. Make a medbay. All you need is a toilet, med-bed, wash basin, and a mess table. Don't even need them to be functional.
2. Wash basin at all exits. Two at any exit to a swamp biome.
3. Ice water or bleach stone. Put ALL storage for algae and slime into cold water or in a chlorine gas bath, to kill germs fast. This lets you freely use germy algae, and scrubs germs off slime so you can farm mushrooms.

None of these setups require power or much construction, and if you've a dupe with caregiving skills, prioritize them to aid your sick dupes.

Once cured, look into replacing the exit wash basins with the hand sanitizers, and using any wild balm lilies to make vitamin chews in the Apothecary. Long term, get a robust oxygen and power production plant working, and make exosuits. Dupes in exosuits are immune to most everything, but they have very high investment cost.

[goatt]

If cancer stage IV, you have no choice but pharma chamber.

But before that, key structures for easy open air solution is deoxydizer and airlock door. My explanation is really some common sense tedious simple steps. Bear it if you can.

Digging

Slimelung can only multiply in PO2. You should clean PO2 that contains slimelung or is going to contact slimelung. One simple thing to do before digging into slimes:

step1, build airlock door to keep potential PO2 out, and outside that door is your workaholic deoxydizer.

step2, dig

step3, if you dig out slime, put it in compactor that’s immersed in liquid immediately. If there is PO2, shut the door to let them die. If there is a lot of slimelung, let it be and it will die soon without PO2. when you open germ overlay, there is a slimelung bomb on the wall, dig it up, or it won’t stop spreading intense slimelung to the air.

Just build as many deoxydizer as you need in digging phase, they are cheap, you can take them down later.

also slimelung disinfect in cold temp (dying rate starts to increase at 9C)

Treatment

If your dupes immune is 30+%, you can still possibly save them by giving them pills depends on how much germs on them.

i had a dupe,36% immune, having 370,000 slimelung, -37%/cycle, with his own immune +15%/cycle, it’s getting -22%/cycle. He could die in 2 cycles. After feeding him pill and restricting him from slime area (by airlock door permission). He survived.

Dupes with high immune will also steal pill. You can prevent that by “Consumables” setting and let the most needing have it. You can also see doors are important in treatment.

 

[The Plum Gate]

@Izzy248, it would help to have a screen shot.

One issue with using algae from near a swamp biome is the possibility that it might be contaminated - when this goes into a dexodizer, then it puts out germs along with it. Despite the germs eventually dying off, the dupes will still breath it.

As long as their immunity isn't decreasing faster than 15% per cycle, then they should eventually rebound.

[InternetGuy]

If you find yourself in a situation where your duplicants are infected and you catch it early on, it it handy to make vitachews using wild balm lily. They really go a long way if you can catch it early and keep the colony's immunity at a hundred.

[Izzy248]

6 hours ago, Dr. Worm said:

When algae that is covered in slimelung is put into an algae deoxidizer, the slimelung is emitted into the air along with the O2.  Although it dies quite quickly, if you have slimelung infected O2 being pumped out 24/7 you'll probably have a problem.  Try and keep infected algae away from your algae deoxidizers, feed them into terrariums instead.

To save your current colony, try investing in medical care and building the required facilities (pharma chamber, care set to high priority, and fabricating medicine).  Also build some deodorizers if there is polluted oxygen floating around the base, as slimelung breeds like crazy in that.  You could also try dropping little bits of chlorine into your base, but be careful you don't suffocate yourself in it.  Once you stop the source of germs, your clean oxygen should be sterile in several cycles.

Ah good to know about the O2 situation. and thanks for the advice. I wish I could force them to eat the pills though. Ive made some but they really dont touch them, or at least they rarely did.

6 hours ago, RonEmpire said:

Flood your with Oxygen at high pressure.

The immunity can be adjusted by taking pills that you can make. 

Thanks for the advice. I did that and it helped a bit. The germ situation has dissipated a bit. As well as I have made some pills, I just wish I could force the Dupes to take them. They took them on their on time which took quite a while but eventually did and their Immunity is back to suitably high levels.

6 hours ago, SackMaggie said:

Your germs is in the gas right ? If it was polluted oxygen use deodorizer to change it to oxygen then Slime lung will eventually die in oxygen.

If it was other gas then you can.

mix chlorine in there, put reservoir in chlorine, consume it, ignore it and use exosuit.

And you can't change your germs setting in the game (You might be able to do it in save editor).

It was in the air. After cracking into a Swamp Biome the germs starting sinking down into my base fairly quickly. I havent gotten any chlorine yet, but hopefully I will soon. Although Im not yet experienced with it so Ill also have to take a bit of time to learn my way around that as well.

6 hours ago, RonEmpire said:

My strategy here is to make an water airlock entry into swamp biome area. This keeps polluted oxygen (with slime lungs)  from floating around your base.   Put a door up to control who goes in and out of the biome.   So when a guy has slime lungs, limit the low immunity guy from going into the swamp until he recovers his immunity.

Work on getting an deoxidizer researched so you can suck out ll the PO2.   

Work on getting Oxygen made so that your base has high amount of Oxygen.   I usually don't care about popped ear drums.  I can live with that and it's manageable. 

Pump Oxygen into the swamp to kill off remaining simelung in the air.

Once you have the biome air cleaned out.   You can get rid of the airlock and simply plop down a few deoxidizer as you dig the slime tiles and it will be fine .

 

Thanks for the advice. I put a couple of Deoxidyzer around my base to dilute the Polluted Oxygen and flooded it with pure Oxygen to hopefully kill off the germs. Its done a bit of a good job but the germs are still there. Progress though.

[RonEmpire]

Also-  put slimes in a storage container that is under water.   This will prevent it from emitting PO2 with slime lungs.

 

[Izzy248]

4 hours ago, RonEmpire said:

Also-  put slimes in a storage container that is under water.   This will prevent it from emitting PO2 with slime lungs.

 

Will that contaminate my water supply?? Or does that kill the slimelung

[SackMaggie]

46 minutes ago, Izzy248 said:

Will that contaminate my water supply?? Or does that kill the slimelung

Nope not contaminate and not kill germs (germs grow in slime).

[ShadowOfALegend]

i make gates inside the swamp biome and will shut access off if the germ count is either too high or the immunity goes too far down, key is knowing what you're getting yourself into and making sure you have the tools to combat it

[Carnis]

Use recycled toilet water electrolyzer.

The massive foodpoisoning germs on the Oxygen Will easily overpower The slimelung.

And breathing fp does nothing.

*

If you clear slime into a liquid pool, IT never offgasses.

[psusi]

17 hours ago, crypticorb said:

Wash basin at all exits. Two at any exit to a swamp biome.

Why?  Having slimelung on your hands doesn't hurt anything; it's only the airborne stuff that is bad.

 

You can also make your dupes stand in cold water to get hypothermia.  That preempts the slimelung and is cured faster.

 

[crypticorb]

1 hour ago, psusi said:

Why?  Having slimelung on your hands doesn't hurt anything; it's only the airborne stuff that is bad.

 

You can also make your dupes stand in cold water to get hypothermia.  That preempts the slimelung and is cured faster.

 

This is technically true, but at the stage @Izzy248 is at, he is likely cooking liceloaf or mush bars, and dupes who cook with germy hands get it in the food.

Having clean hands is also a HUGE timesaver, as germy hands spread it to all surfaces, eventually causing dupes to spend lots of time scrubbing germs off of bunks, ladders, tiles, stations, floors, etc.

[psusi]

24 minutes ago, crypticorb said:

This is technically true, but at the stage @Izzy248 is at, he is likely cooking liceloaf or mush bars, and dupes who cook with germy hands get it in the food.

Yes, but eating slimelung doesn't hurt you, only breathing it.  It's food poisoning that hurts when you eat it.

25 minutes ago, crypticorb said:

Having clean hands is also a HUGE timesaver, as germy hands spread it to all surfaces, eventually causing dupes to spend lots of time scrubbing germs off of bunks, ladders, tiles, stations, floors, etc.

Hrm.. good point.

 

[LeDorean]

1st thing you must do as you start your game and go in the slime biome is the exosuit research. Do a liquid seal and a exosuit dock before exiting your base.

[greggbert]

To be honest sinks and hand sanitizers at the entrances to my base are all the germ prevention I need.  I lock them out of slime biome if their immunity dips under 100%.  Otherwise I just kind of ignore germs and everything is fine.

 

In most of my bases I have two exits one on the right where my hospital is (with a sink at the door) and one on the left in my bathroom, so they pass 3 sinks on  their way inside.