Cinnabar Ore

Cinnabar Ore is a metal ore with the same specific heat capacity and thermal conductivity as the other common metal ores, making it a solid all-purpose choice when a build only needs a generic metal resource. Its main drawback is its relatively low phase transition temperature of 583.5°C, so it should not be used in extremely hot environments where it may be less suitable than other materials.

Like other ores, Cinnabar Ore can be refined into Mercury by a Rock Crusher or a Metal Refinery, and both methods require Duplicant labor. In practice, this means the ore serves as both a construction material and a refinery feedstock, with the usual tradeoff between convenience and labor cost.

Cinnabar Ore is also useful as critter food and as a crafting ingredient:

• It can be fed to certain Hatch variants.
  • One variant consumes Cinnabar Ore at 140 kg/cycle and produces 35 kg/cycle.
  • Another variant consumes Cinnabar Ore at 100 kg/cycle and produces 75 kg/cycle.
• It can be fed to Plug Slugs and their variants.
  • One variant consumes Cinnabar Ore at 60 kg/cycle and produces 3 kg/cycle.
  • Another variant consumes Cinnabar Ore at 30 kg/cycle and produces 1.5 kg/cycle.
• Duplicants can use 50 kg of Cinnabar Ore to craft 1 of a listed recipe.
• In the Spaced Out! DLC, Duplicants can use 200 kg of Cinnabar Ore to prepare 1 of a listed recipe.

Because it is a metal ore with broadly useful physical properties, Cinnabar Ore is often best treated as a flexible midgame resource rather than something to stockpile for high-temperature builds. If a colony has surplus ore, it can be diverted into critter ranching or labor-based refining; if not, saving it for construction may be the better choice.