Cardboard Box (Large)

The Cardboard Box (Large) is a placeable utility item used to create a temporary surface for movement and to block off space in a base. It can be positioned on walls, which makes it unusually flexible compared with many other simple construction pieces, and that flexibility is the main reason to keep a stack of them around.

Its most common practical use is to span gaps between locations that would otherwise be inaccessible. Because it can also be mounted on walls, it works well as an impassable barrier and can be used to cover open windows, letting players quickly seal off awkward openings without committing to a more permanent structure.

Large garden plots consume water at a noticeable rate when in use. They use approximately 18 mL of water every 2 minutes per occupied plot, or about 144 mL total for all 8 plots combined. That is about one-quarter less water than small garden plots. With all plots active and fully watered, a large plot setup can last about 45 minutes of real-time before running dry. This means that, without any special perks, 2 Moisture Teleporters are needed to keep 8 plants growing indefinitely without manual watering if they are harvested as soon as they are ready. For larger farms, the rough ratio is about 5 Moisture Teleporters for every 3 large garden plots.

The Agriculture Level 13 perk, Entangled Ecosystems, changes this dramatically. It applies a multiplicative 20% reduction in water consumption per nearby plant, with a floor of about 25% of normal consumption, reached with 7 nearby plants. With the perk active and all 8 plots planted, total consumption drops to roughly 36 mL per 2 minutes, which is a little over 3 hours to fully empty the plots. Since a newly planted crop takes slightly less than 3 hours to reach maturity, this allows crops to be planted and left alone until harvest time. Under these conditions, a single Moisture Teleporter can support about 2.5 fully planted large garden plots.

• It is useful as a quick traversal aid when you need to cross a gap without building a permanent route.
• Its ability to sit on walls makes it effective for emergency base sealing, especially over windows and other open gaps.
• Before a 1.0 hotfix, it could be salvaged into more resources than were needed to craft it, likely because the recipe had previously required more materials and the salvage output was not updated right away.