Captive biter spawner
Captive biter spawner |
Space Age expansion exclusive feature.
A captive biter spawner is a special production building that is initially unlocked by researching Captivity (research) with agricultural science packs
and is used to produce biter eggs. A captive biter spawner has no module slots, is unaffected by beacons, and cannot be connected to either circuit or logistic networks. A captive spawner cannot be removed by the player or construction robots, but can be destroyed via weapon fire, at which point it will spawn a small biter.
Biter egg production
Captive biter spawners are solely used to produce biter eggs, for which they are the only source in the game. Producing biter eggs does not require setting a recipe or providing any ingredients other than a constant influx of fuel in the form of bioflux. A captive biter spawner can hold a maximum of 100 biter eggs, which they produce at a rate of 5 eggs every 10 seconds, or 0.5 /s. The production cycle continues when the output slot is full, even though no additional eggs are being produced. Biter eggs held in the output slot will not start to spoil until removed.
Obtainment
Initially, the only way to create a captive biter spawner is by firing a capture bot rocket at a biter spawner on Nauvis, which will slowly transform the spawner into a captive one. After reaching Aquilo
and researching Captive biter spawner (research), the player can craft captive biter spawners themselves, which can be manually placed. While in the player's inventory or another container, a captive spawner has a spoilage time of 30 minutes, at which point it will turn into a behemoth biter.
Food consumption
A captive spawner requires a constant supply of bioflux. Starving spawners will stop producing biter eggs and lose health at a rate of 1/second. If a captive spawner's health reaches zero, it will transform back into a normal spawner and will have to be captured again.
Previously captured and then starved biter spawners will not be targeted by automated weapons (including turrets, artillery, and spidertron's automatic rocket launchers), but they still consume pollution and spawn biters which are affected by the evolution factor.
Bioflux is used for food. One item of bioflux has an energy value of 6 MJ, and since the captive biter spawner consumes 100 kW of food, each item of bioflux will last for exactly one minute. With one normal quality item of bioflux lasting for two hours before it spoils, this means that 120 items of bioflux of the same age may be consumed by a single captive biter spawner before any of them spoil.
Quality
Captive biter spawners with a higher quality level will not yield higher quality biter eggs.
If a captive biter spawner reverts back into a biter spawner for any reason, it will retain the quality it had as a captive biter spawner. This resulting spawner will spawn biters of the same quality, which will have the capability of forming expansion groups that will also retain their quality level upon successful expansion - creating more quality biter or spitter spawners, and even quality worms. Failing to contain such reverted spawners can lead to the planet becoming populated by higher quality enemies.
Gallery
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A previously captured spawner.