Know the list
The critter database has the individual entries; the table below is the whole roster and what each one is for. Some are gold, some are pests, and a few will wreck your base if ignored.
Every critter and its uses
| Critter | Eats | Produces | Stable limit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hatch (Sage, Stone, Smooth, Gold, Dry variants) | Food, raw mineral, organic, metal ore, refined metal | Coal; Smooth refines metal; Sage converts organics | 8 |
| Pip | Arbor trees, thimble reed | Dirt | 8 |
| Drecko | Balm lily, pincha pepper, mealwood | Phosphorite, reed fiber; glossy shears to plastic | 8 |
| Puft | Polluted oxygen, oxygen, chlorine | Slime, oxylite, bleach stone | 6 |
| Slickster | Carbon dioxide, oxygen | Crude oil; molts to petroleum | 8 |
| Shove Vole | Regolith, dirt, iron ore | Meat and eggs in quantity | Unlimited |
| Gassy Moo | Gas grass | Natural gas; brackene | 6 |
| Morb | Nothing listed — it exists to pollute | Polluted oxygen | Unlimited |
| Plug Slug | Metal ore | Hydrogen; hangs on ceilings and generates power from exposed wires | 8 |
| Pacu | Algae, plant seeds | Polluted dirt; Pacu fillet | 12 (Fish Trap only) |
| Shine Bug | Food, phosphorite | Light, decor, radiation | 8 |
| Pokeshell | Rot piles, polluted dirt, slime | Sand; shell molts; raw shellfish | 8 |
| Beeta (Spaced Out) | Uranium ore | Enriched uranium — the hive converts 90% of the ore’s mass | Hive-bound |
| Sweetle (Spaced Out) | Sulphur and sucrose | Sucrose; grants a plant growth bonus on contact | 8 |
Four reads on that table. Hatches are the starter engine — Stone Hatches eat raw mineral (your infinite filler) and exhale coal for early power. Dreckos are the only renewable plastic source that does not need a polymer press, which is why a glossy Drecko ranch is a mid-game milestone. Plug Slugs are the only critter that makes power directly, worth a room if you have spare metal ore and an unused ceiling. Pacu are the protein line — 12 to a tank through a Fish Trap, and fillets feed back into the ranch’s own egg omelettes.
Ranch the helpers
Build ranches for the ones you depend on, in the order your base needs them: a Hatch line for coal, then Dreckos for plastic and fiber, then whatever converts your current surplus — Slicksters if carbon dioxide is flooding, Pufts if polluted oxygen is.
Wall off the pests
Morbs and wild critters pollute or break things. Trap or remove them before they spread — a Morb in a storage nook is a polluted-oxygen generator you did not ask for.
Eggs are the lever
Critter eggs let you control population exactly. Hatch what you need and cook the rest into omelettes; an overcrowded stable stops grooming and stops producing.
Match the biome
Each critter prefers a biome and a temperature band. Build its ranch where it is already comfortable, or you will spend more on climate control than the output is worth.
Build for them
The building database covers the actual ranch kit — stable doors, grooming stations, feeders and egg cradles. Place those before you capture anything.
Feed the ranch
A ranch with no food is a slow death. Pipe or plant the right diet (the table above) so the critters keep converting instead of starving.