Critter

This article contains outdated information that is inaccurate for the current version. It was last updated for CS-442154. Unreflected changes in the discussed game mechanics are detailed here: EX1-444349 • FA-471618 • FA-472345

This article contains outdated information that is inaccurate for the current version. It was last updated for CS-442154. Unreflected changes in the discussed game mechanics are detailed here: EX1-444349 • FA-471618 • FA-472345

This article is related to content of the Base Game. There may be a version for the DLC, see Critter (Spaced Out).

Critters are aliens that lay eggs and some species produce materials and/or drop meat when dying. Ranching can be used to increase the number of critters, eggs, and materials. Some critters have different morphs which consume different foods, live at different temperatures, or produce different products.

List of Critters

Image	Name	Diet	Produces	Egg	Drops	Stable Limit	Note
	Hatch	Solid	Coal Refined Metal		Meat	8	Will burrow in soft ground during the day, but will stay active if it can't find a place to burrow.
	Shine Bug	Food & Phosphorite	Light Decor		None	8	Floating/hovering critter, provides a constant source of light and +30 decor in its immediate vicinity. Nice to have in one's base due to the light and decor bonuses. Small health pool and only a small number spawn.
	Pip	Arbor Trees	Dirt		Meat	8	Plants loose seeds into soft blocks and can knock items out of storage bins.
	Drecko	Balm Lily,Pincha Pepper, &Mealwood	Phosphorite Reed Fiber Plastic		Meat	8	This creature can be found crawling around in cavities in the Caustic Biome. They are able to cling strongly to any surface, and will freely wander the full perimeter of whatever chamber they are in. They are not hostile and are quite mobile, inevitably wandering away from any chamber they are not trapped in.
	Pokeshell	Rot Piles Polluted Dirt	Sand Pokeshell Molt		Pokeshell Molt	8
	Puft	Polluted Oxygen/Oxygen/Chlorine	Slime/ Oxylite/ Bleach Stone		Meat	6	Floating/hovering critter. Its movement is based on invert pyramid shape, moves center to top, left then right, follows bubbles of contaminated air, prefers going up. Sucks in the closest air bubble, goes up into top of room/chamber on borders of gases then spits out slime. Can follow its own slime consuming again. Won't go under water, but can enter a stream of water from below or from the side (and then die).
	Pacu	Algae/Plant Seeds	Polluted Dirt		Pacu Fillet	12	Swims in water, can only be caught via a Fish Trap.
	Slickster	Carbon Dioxide/Oxygen	Crude Oil/Petroleum		Meat	8	Floats over the floor or liquid, and follows spots of carbon dioxide.
	Shove Vole	Regolith/Dirt/Iron Ore	Solid Tile		Meat	∞	Burrowing critters that eat the Regolith collected on terrestrial surfaces.
	Gassy Moo	Gas Grass	Natural Gas	none	Meat	6	Extraterrestrial creatures that feed on gas grass and excretes natural gas.
	Morb	none	Polluted Oxygen	none	Polluted Oxygen	∞	Spawns from full Outhouses if it filled long enough but can be found naturally, produces contaminated oxygen unless in high-pressure gas, explodes in a puff of Polluted Oxygen or Chlorine upon death. Cannot be Ranched.

Critters in DLC

See: Critters in Spaced Out

Common traits

Most critters share the following traits:

• Are not aggressive (with exception of Pokeshell, which will attack anything if there are any of their eggs nearby).
• Occupy one tile and can crawl into narrow spaces (except adult Pokeshells).
• Will die when subjected to temperature extremes (specific range depends on species). Tend to migrate to livable temperature zone accessible to it.
• Can live in any atmosphere including Vacuum, yet will drown in liquids (but will try to escape), with exception of Pacus and Pokeshells.
  • Common critters, such as hatches, will drown in
    • 1) a liquid tile with a mass difference less than 50kg to the element's critical mass(the maximum mass for a natural liquid tile), i.e. a water tile with over 950kg of mass, or,
    • 2) any liquid environment that is over 2-tiles deep, i.e. in a 10g water tile with any amount of petroleum on top of it.
  • On the other hand, Pacus will be reduced to the flopping state in absence of water(or some other liquids they can live in).
• Both wild and tamed critters age, lay eggs, and have a capped life expectancy (with exception of Morbs, those have no life-cycle, and Gassy Moos, which lay no eggs).
• Juvenile critters take 5 cycles to grow into an adult.
• A wild critter does not need a diet. Once tamed they will begin to lose calories and starve if not fed after a number of cycles. A tamed critter with "glum" debuff loses calories slower than a happy tamed critter.
• Tamed critters lay tamed eggs. Babies won't starve and don't require a diet. Once matured, tamed critters need a stable food supply to survive.
• Wild critters usually always stay happy, if they have enough space.
• Resource conversion can range tenfold depending on critter status ( wild+glum < tame+glum < wild+happy < tame+happy). See also: Metabolism
• Can't use ladders for pathfinding purposes, but can pass through opened pneumatic doors, and walk on opened horizontally placed doors. Drops only at the moment a door opens. Can get confined when a tile is built on top of them or were idle in a closing door.
• Can arrive as a care package by Printing Pod (except Morbs and Gassy Moos).
• They drop meat or whatever material when they die, no matter of how this happens (being killed by a duplicant, dying of old age, drowning, ...). Killing a Juvenile critter will grant the same amount of output.

Hatch and Morb, as walking critters, share the traits:

• Can walk, jump across 1 tile gaps, climb diagonally 1 tile, and jump up diagonally 1 tile to left/right and 2 tiles up/down.
• Babies can't jump tile gaps, or up/down.
• Non-aquatic critters sometimes jump into a puddle of liquids that's less than 1 tile thick.

External links

• Critter debuff and reproduction mechanic