Plastic

Plastic is a refined industrial material used heavily in the mid to late game. It is normally produced from Petroleum in a Polymer Press, though Glossy Dreckos can also grow Plastic scale when kept in a Hydrogen atmosphere. In resource-strapped starts, Plastic may be one of the materials that is not available on the starting asteroid and must be reached through rocketry or a teleporter-enabled colony chain.

Plastic is one of the most important construction and manufacturing resources in the game because many late-game buildings and special items require it, especially Steam Turbines, Comfy Beds, and Transit Tubes. It is also used for Plastic Ladder and Plastic Tile, and it can be consumed in the Orbital Data Collection Lab during rocket flight to create Data Banks, at a rate of 5 kg Plastic per 1 Data Bank. In Spaced Out!, some colonies begin on asteroids where Plastic is not directly accessible, making long-term petroleum processing or Glossy Drecko ranching a key part of industrial planning.

A few practical properties make Plastic particularly valuable:

• It has excellent radiation absorption, with an 85% absorption rate, placing it among the best buildable radiation absorbers alongside Lead and Depleted Uranium.
• It has very low thermal conductivity, so it is useful when insulation-like performance matters.
• It is described as antiseptic, but this has no in-game effect.
• When melted, it turns into Naphtha. Any building or item made primarily from Plastic will also convert into Naphtha if melted down.

The Polymer Press recipe is straightforward but resource-intensive: 833.33 g/s Petroleum → 500 g/s Plastic + 8.33 g/s Steam + 8.33 g/s Carbon Dioxide. This means Plastic production is tied to Petroleum supply and creates byproducts that must be managed. Because of that, colonies often delay large-scale Plastic production until they can support oil refining or ranching chains comfortably.

Plastic also has a few niche uses beyond construction. In the Molecular Forge, it can be used to synthesize Plastium, with the recipe consuming 70 kg Plastic, 15 kg Brackwax, and 15 kg Thermium to produce 100 kg Plastium. In the Dehydrator, Plastic can be used to produce Dried Rations. These specialized uses reinforce Plastic’s role as a high-value late-game material rather than a general-purpose resource.

Availability of Plastic varies significantly by start and world setup. In standard colony progression, it is often assumed to be accessible later through oil industry or Drecko ranching, but some asteroids require teleporter access or space travel before Plastic becomes practical. In difficult starts such as Radioactive Ocean, reaching Plastic may be part of the broader challenge of accessing critical mid-game resources.