Wildlife Supply

The harder a colony climbs, the rarer the gas and liquid it demands. Exotic fluids come from a prospect → capture → refine → meter chain. Common fluids skip the Refiner; uncommon and rare fluids use raw feedstock plus tar.

Fluids by rarity

Four gases and three liquids appear in Habitat requirements:

Common (tap and use directly): swamp_gas, ammonia (gases); brine (liquid).
Uncommon (raw → Refiner + tar): sulfur_gas (gas); cryofluid (liquid).
Rare (raw → Refiner + heavy tar): chlorine (gas); quicksilver (liquid).

Uncommon and rare exotics have a raw deposit form (raw_sulfur_gas, raw_cryofluid, raw_chlorine, raw_quicksilver) and a refined Habitat-ready form. Most colonies never need the rare pair chlorine + quicksilver, so demand for those deposits stays low.

1. Prospect

Exotic deposits follow the same model as thermal vents:

discover and survey by sonar (basic = active?, wide = rate, deep = cycle timing),
collect with a cap (gas vents) or tap (liquid springs),
pipe the output into gas or liquid storage.

Deposits alternate active and dormant phases. Stockpile during the active phase, then feed Habitats from tanks during dormancy. Deep-sonar timing lets you predict dormant phases and size the buffer first. Deposits do not deplete; multiple deposits help cover each other’s dormant gaps.

2. Refine (uncommon / rare only)

Raw feedstock is not ready for Habitats. The Refiner converts raw feedstock + tar → refined exotic via a recipe (unlocked through Biolab orders). Pick the exotic with self.set_recipe(...); wire raw feedstock into gas_in / liquid_in, tar into self.input, and the refined product out of gas_out / liquid_out.

Tar, the refining reagent

Refining eats tar alongside the raw feedstock. Tar is an oil-refining byproduct that otherwise mostly goes to the Waste Processor. Tar cost scales with rarity:

Common: no tar (tapped direct, no Refiner).
Uncommon: moderate tar.
Rare (Chlorine / Quicksilver): heavy tar.

Tar is a running cost on the liquid pipe network carrying oil, not a hard gate. If you run short, expand oil production or slow the Habitat intake until the Refiner catches up.

3. Meter

The refined gas/liquid flows into a Gas Tank or Liquid Tank. Your Habitat script meters it in with self.set_gas_intake(...) / self.set_liquid_intake(...) to hold the band. See Wildlife Husbandry.

When each step matters

A freshly-founded colony needs only feed. Mid-stage colonies add a basic gas/liquid. Thriving colonies can demand rare refined exotics, which pushes you into farther prospecting and heavier refining. Research Exotic Husbandry unlocks survey/cap/tap plus Refiner for uncommon exotics. Deep Exotics unlocks at 500,000 Wildlife and opens the rarest extraction and refining. An early legendary colony may pause at its rare-fluid transition until the broader menagerie reaches that total; this is recoverable and costs no population. Read the Habitat’s exact next-stage methods and grow other species while preparing the rare supply.