Production Buildings

Production buildings sit on your asteroids and run recipes. Each one needs assigned dwarves to produce anything, draws build/upgrade costs from the asteroid’s stockpile (plus global Credits), and scales its throughput with level. This page documents every production-category building.

Related: Stations are sector-wide hubs (not per-asteroid buildings); defense buildings are covered under Combat; the Armory is a defense building that also crafts goods and is summarised at the end.

Reading the tables #

• Build cost is the one-time cost to place the building (Level 1).
• Unlock is the prerequisite that makes the building available.
• Build time is the Level-1 construction time; each upgrade multiplies the previous time by the listed time × factor.
• Upgrade costs are paid from the asteroid’s resources; Credits are global.

All figures come from data/structures/buildings.json and are flagged first-pass / balance-TBD.

Summary #

Mine Shaft #

Extracts raw ore from the asteroid’s active deposit. The output resource depends on which deposit the shaft is allocated to (set per-shaft worker allocation). Unlocks the Mining Burst active ability at Level 3. At Level 6 it requires a Refinery Lv3 on the same asteroid.

• Build cost: 200 Credits · Unlock: none (available from start) · Max level: 10 · Build time: 30 s (×1.8 per level)

The base rate is split across the shaft’s deposit allocation and multiplied by workforce, station and research bonuses. Ice is additionally melted 1:1 into Water. See Production Chain.

Refinery #

Converts raw ore into Tier 2 refined materials (Iron → Steel, Iron+Copper → Alloys, Ice → Fuel, and the gold/titanium/carbon/silica/ceramic/rare-earth lines). Higher levels increase throughput, output ratio, and the number of parallel recipes that can run at once.

• Build cost: 500 Iron + 500 Credits · Unlock: Mine Shaft Lv1 · Max level: 8 · Build time: 60 s (×2.0 per level)

Warehouse #

Raises the per-asteroid storage cap for all resources. Without one, an asteroid caps at the default 500 per resource and production halts. Multiple Warehouses on the same asteroid stack (their caps sum).

• Build cost: 200 Iron + 300 Credits · Unlock: Mine Shaft Lv1 · Max level: 10 · Build time: 45 s (×1.6 per level)

Fungus Farm #

First link in the sustenance chain. Produces Food from Water + Biomass, or Grain in its alternate mode (used for Ale).

• Build cost: 300 Iron + 200 Water + 400 Credits · Unlock: Warehouse Lv1 · Max level: 6 · Build time: 90 s (×2.0 per level)
• Recipes: recipe_water_food, recipe_farm_grain

Galley #

Cooks Food into Meals — the colony’s primary sustenance, which drives Health/Fatigue recovery and provisions expedition Supplies. Conversion efficiency rises with level.

• Build cost: 400 Iron + 300 Credits · Unlock: Fungus Farm Lv1 · Max level: 6 · Build time: 90 s (×2.0 per level)
• Recipe: recipe_food_meals

Brewery #

Brews Ale from Water + Grain/Food. Different brews (Stout, Firebrew, Courage, Deep Delver’s, Healing Mead) are unlocked through research. Higher levels increase brew batches per hour and concurrent recipes.

• Build cost: 500 Iron + 200 Water + 600 Credits · Unlock: Galley Lv1 · Max level: 6 · Build time: 120 s (×2.0 per level)
• Recipes: all five recipe_ale_*

Cargo Shuttle Dock #

Enables resource transport between asteroids — the logistics backbone — and unlocks the auto-transport automation tier. Building it (2 asteroids claimed) also gates the first Sector Station.

• Build cost: 2,000 Iron + 500 Copper + 2,000 Credits · Unlock: 2 asteroids claimed · Max level: 5 · Build time: 300 s (×2.5 per level)

Component Factory #

Tier 3 manufacturer: Machine Parts, Electronics, plates, lenses, magnets, carbon fiber, ballistic ceramic, electronic parts. Bridges Tier 2 → Tier 3. Throughput multiplier and parallel recipes scale with level.

• Build cost: 5,000 Steel + 1,000 Alloys + 10,000 Credits · Unlock: Refinery Lv4 · Max level: 5 · Build time: 600 s (×2.8 per level)

Assembly Plant #

Tier 4 manufacturer: Components, Station Parts, Optics, Servo Motor, Composite Armour Plate, Reactive Plating. The slowest, highest-value civilian producer. The Orbital Foundry mega project boosts its Component output by up to +60%.

• Build cost: 1,000 Machine Parts + 500 Electronics + 2,000 Steel + 50,000 Credits · Unlock: Component Factory Lv3 and a Runic Engineering research node · Max level: 5 · Build time: 1,800 s (×3.0 per level)

Armory (equipment crafting) #

The Armory is a defense-category building but it also crafts the comp_* combat components used in weapons, armour, turrets and plating, and charges energy weapons before expeditions. Higher levels add crafting-queue slots and reduce craft time.

• Build cost: 1,300 Iron + 500 Steel + 2,000 Credits · Unlock: Refinery Lv2 and Mine Shaft Lv3 · Max level: 4 · Build time: 240 s (×2.2 per level)

Full Armory recipes, weapons and armour live on Combat Equipment. The other defense buildings (Turret Platform, Shield Generator, Garrison, Sensor Array) are covered under Combat.

See also #

• Production Chain & Recipes — what each building makes
• Resource Catalog — every input and output
• Stations — sector-wide mining/refining bonuses & shared storage
• Automation & QoL — auto-collect, auto-transport, chain automation