Slickster

The Slickster is a critter variant often found near the bottom of the map, where it naturally fits into carbon-processing ranches. It consumes Carbon Dioxide and converts it into crude oil, making it one of the game’s most useful gas sinks once a colony can provide a steady supply of CO2. Slicksters have three variants, each with different temperature preferences and products: the standard Slickster, the colder Longhair Slickster, and the hotter Molten Slickster.

Regular Slicksters consume 20 kg/cycle of Carbon Dioxide and output 50% of the consumed mass as Crude Oil at their own body temperature. The process is nearly heat-neutral, though the petroleum path creates a bit of extra mass. Longhair Slicksters are a lower-temperature variant with a decor bonus; they consume Oxygen instead of Carbon Dioxide and produce nothing, functioning mainly as an expensive ranch pet. Molten Slicksters are the high-temperature variant and convert Carbon Dioxide into Petroleum instead. Their higher heat tolerance makes Atmo Suits necessary for handling them in practice.

Slicksters move by hovering. They travel over solid terrain like a Hatch, but treat sufficiently deep liquid tiles as solid ground, can jump diagonally, and can swim through water or polluted water mist above liquid. They can also move through shallow liquid surfaces as long as the liquid is not forming a full tile. If they arrive on a tile-forming liquid with insufficient pressure, they drown and will try to reach the nearest air-exposed dense tile. Since they do not remember dangerous places, the same hazard can trap them again later if the path remains open.

For ranching, a max-size Stable can hold up to 8 Slicksters without mood penalties, and each wild Slickster can be fed by 4 duplicants. A Carbon Skimmer consumes about as much CO2 as 9 tame and happy Slicksters or 36 wild ones. A constantly running Coal Generator can feed 0.6 tame and happy Slicksters or 2.4 wild ones, while a Wood Burner can support up to 5.1 tame and happy Slicksters or 20.4 wild ones. A constantly running Petroleum Generator produces enough CO2 for 15 Slicksters; in return, it takes 120 tamed Molten Slicksters or 240 tamed regular Slicksters with an Oil Refinery to produce enough petroleum.

Useful handling notes:

• Slicksters require 12 open tiles per critter to avoid overcrowding.
• They are vulnerable to temperature like other critters, but prefer much hotter environments and are far more threatened by cold than by scalding heat.
• They can now be caught by wrangling.
• A full ranch works well as a gas sink for colonies with excess Carbon Dioxide, especially when paired with industrial exhaust or a Petroleum Generator.
• For oil production, the standard Slickster is the basic choice; for Petroleum, the Molten Slickster is the specialized option.