Oxygen Not Included Wiki
This article is considered accurate for the current version (U51-600112).
This article is considered accurate for the current version (U51-600112).

Vacuum is the absence of any Solid, Liquid or Gas. It is 'destroyed' when any element moves into it. It is unbreathable for reasons that may be obvious.

Vacuum can be found naturally:

Vacuum can be artificially created by using a Gas Pump to remove all gas from a completely sealed enclosure. It can also be made by filling an area with tiles, and then deconstructing them without letting in any new gas, like with a Liquid Airlock.

To access an area of vacuum without breaking it, a Gas Pump can be placed between two Airlocks, similar to an actual airlock in the real world.

Uses[]

Vacuum can be used to completely block many types of heat transfer. Gas Reservoirs and Liquid Reservoirs don't exchange any heat if placed in Vacuum, even with their contents between each other. Storage Bins only exchange heat with their foundation tile. A building that produces heat will continually heat itself up until it breaks from overheating or reaches its material's melting point. Duplicants only exchange heat with their environment, meaning they can safely pick up and deliver high-temperature resources. Pipes and wires do not directly transfer heat with each other or overlapping buildings, with the exception of the Conduction Panel.

Tips[]

Airflow-tile-as-insulation

Using an airflow tile as insulation tile. The tile above the airflow tile will remain at 20°C even if the airflow tile is way hotter.

  • Despite being considered to be at absolute zero, Vacuum cannot be used for cooling because it does not exchange heat (and technically doesn't actually have a temperature).
  • An Airflow Tile or a Mesh Tile "filled" with Vacuum will only take heat from its adjacent tiles but not give heat to them, making them effectively insulated tiles (of sorts).
  • Similarly, pipes surrounded with Vacuum can only exchange heat with their contents.
  • Dupes only exhale Carbon Dioxide when there is Oxygen to inhale, so they will not destroy a Vacuum even if they aren't wearing an Atmo Suit. Conversely, Dupes wearing an oxygen mask will destroy a Vacuum with their exhalations.
  • A Duplicant with the Flatulent trait may destroy a vacuum by 'emitting' Natural Gas. Wearing an Atmo Suit prevents this.