Spindly Grubfruit

Spindly Grubfruit is an edible crop item produced by Spindly Grubfruit Plants. It is the counterpart to Grubfruit: both are edible, but Spindly Grubfruit is associated with plants that can be farmed without Divergent critters in the farm, at the cost of lower calorie output.

A harvested Spindly Grubfruit provides 800 kcal and takes 4 cycles to regrow on a healthy plant, for an average of 200 kcal per cycle. This means a stable supply requires about 5 plants per duplicant if it is eaten raw. Like Grubfruit, it has a short shelf life and should be used promptly or cooked into a longer-lasting meal.

Spindly Grubfruit can be cooked without any extra ingredient into Roast Grubfruit Nut, which provides 1200 kcal and improves food quality to Poor [+1]. This cooking route raises the average food output to 300 kcal per cycle, reducing the requirement to about 3.33 plants per duplicant. It is the direct analogue to Grubfruit Preserve in terms of calories, but it does not need a Divergent critter or Sucrose.

Useful notes:

• Spindly Grubfruit Plants must be farmed without Divergent critters in the farm.
• The crop is less calorie-dense than most other foods in the game, so storage by mass is inefficient compared with its calorie value.
• A healthy plant can be harvested repeatedly, with the exact production depending on the plant variant and mutation.
• Some variants can greatly improve output, while others trade speed, temperature tolerance, light requirements, or special conditions for different yields.
• Since Spindly Grubfruit spoils quickly, cooking it is usually the safest way to avoid waste.

For farming calculations, the base domesticated plant produces one Spindly Grubfruit every 4 cycles, while the wild version grows much more slowly. Several mutation variants exist, including ones with higher yield, faster cycle times, different temperature ranges, or special light and darkness requirements. Among them, the highest-yielding variants can dramatically increase output, but they also introduce additional farming conditions that must be maintained.