Infectious Polluted Oxygen Vent

Infectious Polluted Oxygen Vent is a geyser that periodically releases Polluted Oxygen contaminated with Slimelung. It is one of the oxygen-producing geyser types and is found as a randomly spawned buried geyser, with its exact placement depending on the world and biome generation rules. Like other geysers, it can be covered to stop it from emitting anything, and once exposed it can be analyzed and managed like any other vent.

On Marshy Asteroid worlds in Spaced Out!, it can appear among the optional open geysers for the asteroid, alongside other vents such as Natural Gas, Chlorine Gas, Hydrogen, and Minor Volcanoes. In the general geyser pool, oxygen-producing geysers are part of the same random selection as water-, volcanic-, metal-, and power-producing geysers, so its appearance depends on the world’s available geyser slots and the biome set used by that map. Buried geysers start hidden under granite and obsidian, while open geysers are available immediately on some asteroid types.

The vent’s output is useful because it provides Polluted Oxygen at a relatively usable temperature, and its contaminated nature can also be turned into a pathogen source or cleaned up depending on your base design. Practical handling usually falls into one of three approaches:

• Convert the Polluted Oxygen into Oxygen with a Deodorizer. This removes the slimelung from the gas over time and turns the vent into a straightforward oxygen source.
• Route the gas through a Chlorine Gas room if you want to eliminate Slimelung before use. This is a common sterilization step for contaminated gas handling.
• Use the vent’s output directly for cooling or industrial processes if you do not need clean oxygen immediately, since the emitted gas is only 60°C.

If you want to preserve as much mass as possible, Polluted Oxygen can also be cooled to -182.96°C to become Liquid Oxygen, avoiding mass loss during processing. As with other geysers, all eruptions can be halted by submerging the vent completely in liquid, and low-pressure geysers can even drown themselves in gas if conditions allow it.

When uncovering or planning around a geyser, remember that a covered geyser does not emit anything and cannot be analyzed. If you need to identify it before digging it out, you can also mark it with yellow alert using the Priority Tool and inspect it with the cursor. For long-term containment, a simple insulated box is usually enough for low-temperature vents, since the main concern is managing the contaminated gas rather than extreme heat.