Pokeshell

Pokeshell is a ranchable critter that eats Polluted Dirt or Rot Pile and excretes Sand, while also shedding a shell that can be processed into Lime. It is one of the colony’s most useful renewable sources of Lime, especially for Steel production, since its molts can be crushed in a Rock Crusher. A young Pokeshell sheds a small molt when it dies or grows up, while an adult Pokeshell sheds a larger molt.

Pokeshells produce Pokeshell Molt as they mature, and an adult Pokeshell also drops molt on death. A regular adult molt yields 10 kg Lime when crushed, while a small Pokeshell Molt yields 5 kg Lime. Pokeshell Molt is made of Genetic Ooze. The critter can be kept wild in a dedicated room as a perpetual molt source, but this is only safe if dupes are blocked from accidental access, since a room with eggs can quickly become dangerous.

By default, Pokeshells are not hostile. However, if a Pokeshell can path to one of its eggs within a limited space, it turns red and enters a protective, aggressive state. In this mode it stops foraging, attacks any Duplicant or critter in its way, and can kill them if left unattended. It calms down again once it is separated from its eggs, the eggs are removed, or the eggs hatch. Because of this, cramped ranches should be designed to allow safe egg extraction, often with unpassable Pneumatic Doors or similar barriers.

Pokeshell feeding is often awkward because its preferred foods, especially Rot Pile and Polluted Dirt, are transient or messy resources. A Water Sieve can supply some Polluted Dirt, but not enough by itself to support a Pokeshell long term, and one constantly running sieve still falls short of fully feeding a single critter. Ethanol Distillers are a much more reliable source, and a single running distiller can feed nearly three domesticated Pokeshells. Unfed but groomed Pokeshells can still reproduce once, so ranches can be made partially self-sustaining even with limited feeding.

Pokeshells can also be used as a cleanup solution. They can consume polluted dirt emptied from outhouses, turning waste into Sand for Deodorizers and temporary early-game oxygen management. They can likewise be used in polluted-water setups to rot unwanted food items, though this is space-intensive and not practical for large-scale food disposal.

Pokeshells have three variants based on the liquid they live in. All variants consume Polluted Dirt and produce Sand, but their molt and egg outcomes differ. Keeping a Pokeshell in Water increases the chance of producing Sanishell offspring, while keeping one in Ethanol increases the chance of producing Oakshell offspring. Because the reproduction chance depends on liquid exposure, ranches that use liquids must carefully manage how much of the critter’s life is spent submerged.

• Sanishells do not produce shells for Lime; instead, they remove germs from their surroundings and are efficient at converting Slime into Sand.
• Sanishells drop Raw Shellfish on death, which can be cooked into Cooked Seafood, making them a strong meat source compared with Pacu under the right conditions.
• Oakshells shed wood-based molts that can be processed into Lumber instead of Lime, making them useful in ethanol and arbor tree loops.
• A small amount of liquid can prevent offgassing, but keeping Pokeshells below the liquid threshold preserves their normal form and avoids unintended morph changes.

In practice, Pokeshells are most valuable as a renewable Lime source, a Polluted Dirt sink, and a flexible part of resource loops involving Sand, Lumber, or seafood production. Their value is high, but so is the risk of angry, egg-guarding crabs if the ranch layout is not built carefully.