ONI Handbook

Now that I am familiar with the basic game mechanics which let my duplicants keep my colony clean and non-contagious, I am going to go through the rest of the key mechanics which will let my colony progress and thrive.

Research

To start the research I have to build a Research station.

💡When the station is built in the lit environment, researcher gets 15% bonus to the research speed. I will build my research station close to the Printing Pod.

To function the research station requires electricity.

Power

Manual Generator will let my duplicants produce up to +400W of electricity. Research station will consume -60W. To avoid wasting of my duplicants work, I will attach a battery to the research station and the manual generator.

Oxygen math

Next to the research station I will build the Oxygen Diffuser, which would consume algae and produce oxygen for my duplicants to breath. Each duplicant consumes 100g/s oxygen and produces 15g/s carbon dioxide. This leads to a lower pressure of the base over time. One Oxygen Diffuser wwil produce 500g/s oxygen. This means one Oxygen Diffuser would cover the needs of five duplicants.

📝Note, that duplicants with the "Mouth breather" debuf consume additional 100g/s oxygen.

The rest of the generated oxygen will be used to maintain gas pressure in my base, while I expand.

Research Tree

I can open Research Tree from the menu in the top right corner, hotkey, or when I click "Research" in the description of the Research Station when I select it in the world.

Research is split in Categories (rows) and Tiers (columns). I will need Novice Research Points to study first two tiers of the tree and additionally Advanced Research Points to study higher tiers.

I will start with the "Basic Farming", which would let me start growing food and handle Carbon Dioxide.

New duplicant

I received my first new duplicant from my printer pod. I can make use of all of them:

	Digging skill will allow me to expand my base faster.
	Farming skill allow me to take care of my plants faster and to operate specialized farming structures, which I will build in my Greenhouse.
	Cooking skill will allow me to produce food with higher calories value faster and to operate special kitchen structures like Grill.
	Husbandry is an important skill, which I will be able to use later in the game to wrangle critters and take care of them in the stables.
	Construction skill will allow me to finish new buildings and communications faster.
	Research skill will allow me to progress in my research tree faster.
	I will need decoration skill later, when I will start working on the decor of my base to improve my duplicants' morale.
	I will need medical skill soon, because my duplicants will need special care when I will extend my base into slime biom.
	I will need operation skill soon, it will allow me to produce new materials using specialized structures faster.

This knowledge and the experience I received so far will be useful when I will generate my next crew, which will better fit my play style.

Skills

My new duplicant has a skill point available! I can use it in the Skills tree, which I can open from the menu in the right top corner or when I press "J" button on my keyboard.

Learning each skill increases stress of my duplicant. It should be lower than the morale of the duplicant at all times. Later I will learn more about base organization and rooms to increase my duplicants' morale. I will also decorate my base to increase their morale even more.

Now, I will focus on the skills which are marked with the heart in the skill tree. Learning these skills increases my duplicants morale too.

Research Complete

Now when the Basic Farming research is finished, I can a couple of important improvements for my base.

Planter box

I will build a couple of Planter boxes from the Food menu (I can open it my clicking "4" key) close the Pitcher Pump. I will uproot mealwood plants which I can find around me, and plant them into the Planter boxes. 

The positive side of the plant domestication is that they produce fruits a lot faster. For example, wild mealwood would produce one Meal Lice every 12 cycles, while the domesticated one would produce the same Meal Lice every 3 cycles.

The complication which is introduced by the plant domestication is that now they need irrigation. In case of the Mealwood duplicants would have to provide water every now and then for it to properly grow.

There is no easy way to put the plant back into the wild soil.

Algae Terrarium

My duplicants breath in oxygen, which I can find in limited amounts during my explorations and which I produce in my Oxygen Diffusers. But they also breath out Carbon Dioxide, which collects in the bottom of my base. To remove Carbon Dioxide I will build a couple of Algae Terrarium in the bottom of my base.

Duplicants will provide Water and Algae to the Algae Terrarium to function. It will sometime produce Polluted Water, which my duplicants would have to remove from the Algae Terrarium. Polluted Water will produce Polluted Oxygen, which is breathable, but also allows germs to spread and make my duplicants sick. I will learn how to deal with the Polluted Water and the Polluted Oxygen later.

Compost

The last structure which I want to build today is the Compost. I will build it further away from my base, because it produces Heat and the Polluted Dirt, which is processed in it, frequently contains Germs, which I try to avoid.

My duplicants will bring Polluted Dirt from the Outhouse to the Compost and it will be reduced back to Dirt, which can be used again for the base needs.

Wrapping up

I learned how to research new things and produce power for my buildings. I learned basics of farming and how to use Codex and online resources to learn more about the things in the game. I've introduced a new duplicant to my crew and he learned his first skill. I've built first structures which will help me with recycling and let me use limited resources efficiently.

There is a lot more I need to learn, but now I have basic skills which would let me experiment and extend my knowledge about each of the topics I've encountered so far.