When players begin terraforming in The Planet Crafter, they have three numbers to worry about: heat, pressure, and oxygen. However, these numbers are eventually joined by a fourth figure called "biomass."
Biomass in The Planet Crafter refers to the amount of plant and animal life that's growing out in the wild on the planet's surface. This means the isolated Vegetubes that produce oxygen don't add to the biomass score, but fortunately players will eventually get a set of machines that do have an effect. The only trouble is that these machines don't say directly that they're producing biomass.
Grass and Flower Spreaders
The very first machine players get that adds biomass is the Grass Spreader. This device unlocks when oxygen reaches 150 ppt, or parts per trillion. To make it, players need two water bottles, one magnesium, one aluminum, and one Lirma seed. The Lirma seed may be tricky to find, but it shows up often in random crates and wrecks.
Players may notice that the menu entry for the Grass Spreader doesn't say that it increases biomass. Instead, it says "Plants: 0.19/s." This is because "plants" is its own type of biomass, and so the Grass Spreader contributes both to the plant biomass and the total biomass. Later on, other machines and buildings will contribute to the insect biomass instead.
The next big upgrade after the Grass Spreader is the Flower Spreader, which unlocks at 2.5 mPa. Not only does the Flower Spreader contribute 9.2 plant biomass instead of 0.19, players can insert any type of flower seed rather than just Lirma seeds. However, players should be aware that, much like Vegetubes, players have to add a seed for the machine to start working.
Other machines that contribute to biomass include:
- Algae Generators
- Biodome T2
- Butterfly Dome
- Tree Spreaders
- Beehives
- Outdoor Farms
- Butterfly Farms
The Biodome
The big reason why players want to start boosting biomass is found in the Biodome, which unlocks when heat reaches 100 nK. While the basic Blueprints screen shows players what heat, pressure, oxygen, and overall terraformation levels unlock, the Biodome has its own screen with three more sets of blueprints: one for plant biomass, one for insect biomass, and one for total biomass. There's also space for an animal biomass, but as of the Lore and Automation update there's no way to increase this score.
Something else players should know is that they can view the Biodome screen using the Blueprints screen and vice versa. Simply click on one of the two symbols on the left side of the screen to switch between each set of information. Players can do this even if they deconstruct their Biodome, and they won't lose access to any blueprints.
The Planet Crafter is available now in early access on PC.