Tile

Tile is the basic building block used to construct walls, floors, and ceilings in a colony. It is the simplest solid building available and serves as the default choice whenever a more specialized tile is not needed. In addition to enclosing spaces, Tile slightly improves Duplicant movement speed when walked on and provides a small Decor bonus to nearby surroundings.

Because Tile is cheap and quick to build, it is commonly used for temporary access routes, emergency barriers, and basic room shaping. It is especially useful for sealing off flooding liquids or separating parts of a base early in the game before stronger construction options become available.

Tile has a few important mechanical properties:

• It blocks the passage of both gases and liquids.
• It does not let light pass through it.
• High pressure liquid against a Tile can eventually damage it and cause small leaks, depending on the material used.
• A wall or floor that is four Tile thick will prevent leakage under any pressure.
• Hatches cannot hide in Tile.

Tile provides a +5 Decor bonus in a 1-tile radius and a +25% runspeed bonus. This makes it a functional choice for corridors and living spaces alike, though it is generally outclassed by other tile types when specific environmental or utility needs are involved.

Compared with other floor or wall options, Tile is most valuable for its simplicity. It can be used to close off open spaces, create walkable platforms, and form basic room boundaries without needing any special properties such as gas permeability, insulation, irrigation, or automation support. For that reason, it is often one of the first building materials duplicated colonies rely on for organization and containment.

In practice, Tile is most effective when used with a clear purpose:

• to redirect Duplicant traffic through faster walking routes,
• to block contamination, flooding, or gas loss,
• to create temporary scaffolding for reaching new areas,
• or to form the shell of early base rooms before upgrades.

Its durability against pressure depends on the construction material, so a Tile wall that is adequate for one situation may still fail under sustained liquid pressure. When long-term containment is needed, thicker walls are safer than relying on a single layer.