Intermediate Building Material

Intermediate Building Material is a construction component used by the Building Tool to set up intermediate structures. It functions as the mid-tier building resource between basic building materials and higher-grade construction components. The item appears in the game's crafting and manufacturing systems and is required both as a direct ingredient for certain build actions and as an input for unlocking higher-tier recipes.

Intermediate Building Material can be produced by multiple recipes and in different production machines. The Basic Item Printer manufactures Intermediate Building Material instantly from basic inputs, while the Fabricator yields larger batches with a short production time. Specific obtainable recipes documented in the game data are:

• Basic Item Printer (instant): 20 Basic Building Material, 1 Inductor, 1 Glass, and 1 Titanium Housing produce 10 Intermediate Building Material with a 0 second duration.
• Fabricator (2 seconds): 40 Basic Building Material, 2 Inductor, 2 Glass, and 2 Titanium Housing produce 25 Intermediate Building Material with a 2 second duration.

Intermediate Building Material also appears in crafting chains that convert or consume it for other materials. One documented crafting entry shows the Basic Item Printer using 1 Quartz Ore and 50 Intermediate Building Material to produce 20 Quartz Building Material instantly. This indicates Intermediate Building Material functions as both a final product for construction and as an intermediate input for further material processing.

Unlocking recipes and production options for Intermediate Building Material requires specific resource and data costs in the Recipe Station. Documented unlock costs include:

• To unlock the Basic Item Printer recipe entry: 1,000 Basic Building Material, 100 Glass, 100 Inductor, 100 Titanium Housing, and 300 Data Points under the Basic Item Printer category.
• To unlock a Mega Press recipe or related production entries: 500 Intermediate Building Material, 10 Meteor Heart, and 500 Data Points in the Recipe Station under the Mega Press category.

Practical notes for use and production:

• Use the Basic Item Printer for instant, small-batch production when components are limited or rapid deployment is needed.
• Use the Fabricator for larger batch output when short production time is acceptable and ingredient throughput is available.
• Keep Intermediate Building Material in production queues if multiple intermediate structures will be assembled, as many building actions consume it directly.
• Unlocking the recipe entries in the Recipe Station requires substantial raw materials and Data Points; plan research and resource allocation accordingly.
• Intermediate Building Material is also a component in downstream crafting (for example, conversion to Quartz Building Material), so prioritize its production based on both construction needs and crafting pipelines.