Ice Block

Ice Block is a solid item found in frozen biomes and interstellar cargo from Ice Planet missions. It represents a mined chunk of ice/snow/solidified gases and serves primarily as a raw material that can be processed or stored. Ice Blocks appear naturally as Ice, Polluted Ice, Snow and Solid Carbon Dioxide in cold biomes and as cargo items returned by rockets from Interstellar Ice (Ice Planet) missions.

Ice Block stacks as a solid in storage and cargo bays and can be melted or mined for liquid resources. Melting Ice Blocks yields water; melting frozen gases yields their corresponding liquids or gases where applicable. Melting or venting heat into frozen terrain will convert ice/snow tiles to water and will produce twice as much liquid water when melting ice/snow tiles directly compared to mining and then melting the mined block. Because frozen biomes contain useful volatiles, Ice Blocks returned in cargo can include Water, Oxygen, Methane and Carbon Dioxide stored in the ship’s Cargo Bay and can be an efficient way to import these resources early- to mid-game.

Ice Blocks interact with base thermal management: introducing heat to frozen biomes or to stored Ice Blocks can thaw them and release liquids and gases, so placement and heat routing must be planned to avoid unwanted flooding or gas release. Frozen biomes commonly host Sleet Wheat and Wheezeworts; melting the surrounding terrain can disrupt these plants and change biome behavior. Some frozen variants include Liquid Carbon Dioxide pockets or Solid Carbon Dioxide; the Solid variant of frozen biomes can contain frozen oxygen and frozen carbon dioxide as different solids.

Practical notes and usage:

• Melting ice tiles in-place yields twice the water compared to mining then melting the block; prefer in-situ heating when you need maximum liquid yield.
• Ice Blocks returned from Interstellar Ice are a renewable source of Water, Oxygen, Methane and Carbon Dioxide when gathered from mission cargo, and missions to the Ice Planet are fuel-efficient in cargo yield when configured properly.
• Rocket mission optimization: missions to the Ice Planet favor cargo-heavy configurations; a common efficient configuration uses multiple cargo modules and several liquid fuel tanks to maximize return per kilogram of Petroleum fuel.
• Ice Blocks do not have quality tiers like Art objects; there is no Masterworks variant for ice sculptures, so no Art skill is required to obtain maximum decor from ice carvings.
• Storing Ice Blocks in insulated or cold storage prevents premature melting; avoid placing them adjacent to heat sources or insulated tiles that trap heat unless intentional melting is desired.
• Frozen biomes often contain useful structural rocks (Granite, Wolframite) with high thermal conductivity; mining Ice Blocks in those regions may expose veins beneficial for heat management or construction.
• Be aware of biome variants: CO2 Lakes and Solid frozen variants may contain liquid or solid carbon dioxide respectively; handling these Ice Blocks can release CO2 into nearby rooms when thawed.