Saturn Critter Trap

Saturn Critter Trap is a crop plant that feeds on critters instead of producing a normal harvest. It can be planted in a Planter Box, Farm Tile, or Hydroponic Farm, and it is found naturally in the Radioactive Biome as either a living plant or a buried object. Its seeds are limited: they cannot be obtained through normal farming or from the Printing Pod, but can be acquired by exchanging 25 Data Banks at the Printerceptor story trait.

A Saturn Critter Trap must be fed one land-based critter to keep growing. Flying critters such as airborne species simply pass over it, and it does not eat every critter type. When planted domestically it needs about 10 kg/cycle of fertilizer and can be planted by Pips, although dupes currently have a bug that can prevent them from planting it reliably. A wild Saturn Critter Trap takes 120 cycles to mature.

Its growth conditions are unusual: it requires a cold environment, between -90.1 °C and 0.1 °C, and air pressure between 150 g and 10 kg. If the plant stops growing because of unsuitable conditions or because no critter is available, it stops producing hydrogen, but any hydrogen already stored remains. While growing, it produces hydrogen internally at a rate of 167 g every 4 seconds. Once it has accumulated 33.3 kg of hydrogen, it releases that gas into the surrounding environment. This hydrogen production rate is the same for wild and domesticated plants and is not affected by growth bonuses such as Farmer’s Touch.

When successfully fed, Saturn Critter Trap produces Plant Meat as its harvest. The crop yields 900.1 g of Plant Meat, with a food value of 12,000 kcal per 30 cycles; wild plants take 120 cycles to reach harvest. Plant Meat cannot be further cooked and has a food quality of +1. It can still be used as a basic food source or fed to Sage Hatches.

A mature Saturn Critter Trap requires duplicant interaction to harvest, so if the goal is hydrogen production, a wild plant is usually preferable: it takes longer to reach maturity and therefore goes longer before needing dupe attention, while still producing the same amount of hydrogen per cycle. Once planted, Saturn Critter Traps are effectively permanent unless uprooted or their foundation is removed; they do not die from age, drowning, or extreme temperatures.