Wasteland Biome

Wasteland Biome is a biome variant associated with the Rime asteroid, which starts the game in a cold state and is built around frozen and low-temperature terrain. Rime contains a wider spread of biome types than most asteroid templates, and its cold start makes early heating and temperature control more important than usual. The biome is part of a world where plant growth is constrained until the base is warmed up, but once the temperature is stabilized the rest of the game proceeds much more normally.

On Rime, the relevant cold-world layout includes temperate, swamp, caustic, frozen, tide pool, forest, rust, oil, volcanic, and space regions, with the Barren Biome missing entirely. The biome also appears in two listed variants: a temperate version and a surface version. Because the asteroid begins cold, the player must usually create heat before relying on agriculture; volcanoes can help with that transition once they are available.

A few practical consequences follow from this environment:

• Cold slows or suppresses some hazards early on. Slimelung tends to die out quickly at the start of the game because of the low temperatures.
• Rime still supports both major oxygen production routes: electrolyzer and rust deoxidizer.
• The asteroid’s resource spread includes Igneous Rock in Forest and Caustic biomes, Sedimentary Rock in Swamp and Tide Pool biomes, Iron Ore in Caustic Biome, and Gold Amalgam in Swamp Biome.
• Polluted Water can be filtered in the Swamp Biome, while Salt Water and Brine can be desalinated in the Tide Pool Biome.
• The frozen Oil Biome contains only Solid Crude Oil, so it must be heated before use.
• Rime lacks wild Dreckos and Slicksters, which can make phosphorite access, fertilizer production, plastic production, and long-term carbon dioxide handling more awkward.

Rime’s biome layout also affects early colony planning. The player can rely on care package deliveries and Printing Pod rewards for some missing ranching options, but if care packages are disabled, the lack of certain critters becomes a more pronounced challenge. Once the colony has enough heat control, the cold environment stops being a problem and becomes mostly a different resource puzzle rather than a direct threat.