Resources

Resources are necessary to build and maintain a colony. All resources can be stored in dedicated buildings or storages.

Metals, Rare metals, Concrete and Water are directly extracted from ground deposits, all others must be manufactured or imported.

Concrete, Power, Water, Fuel, Oxygen and Waste Rock can be produced without any need for colonists, while Metals, Rare Metals, Food, Polymers, Machine Parts and Electronics are unavailable to produce in-depth without sufficient population.

Exotic Minerals are used to construct underground buildings, as well as upgrades for buildings both under and above the ground.

Resource Overview[edit | edit source]

Basic Resources
Resource	Uses	Source	Resupply	Description
Metals	Construction and maintenance Machine Parts Factory use	Surface Deposits (harvested by Drones and RC Transports) Underground Deposits (harvested by Metals Extractors and RC Drillers) Deep Deposits (harvested by Metals Extractors) Refined from Waste Rock at Metals Refineries Mohole Mine Wonder Underground Asteroid Deposits (harvested by Micro-G Auto Extractors)	yes	Since very early human history, metals play a vital role in the art of creation. From simple copper tools and nails, to iron decorations to entire structures made out of steel. It would seem their role is not exhausted on Earth, but will continue to serve as an accessible and vital resource for all our needs on Mars as well.
Concrete	Construction and maintenance	Surface Deposits (harvested by Concrete Extractors and RC Harvesters) Refined from Waste Rock at Waste Rock Processors Refined from Fuel at Concrete Plants The Excavator Wonder	yes	On Mars, water is a rare and difficult to obtain commodity. As such, turning the Martian regolith into traditional, water based concrete was deemed unpractical very early on during the planning stages. Luckly, Mars is rich in another element with which a different type of concrete can be made - sulfur. Sulfur-based, waterless concrete is literally the foundation for every aspiring Martian city. Concrete Extractors placed on spots rich is sulfur in the Martian Soil, dig up the sulfur-rich regolith and store it as ready to use mix.
Rare Metals	Funding (Exporting) Electronics Factory use	Underground Deposits (harvested by Rare Metals Extractors and RC Drillers) Deep Deposits (harvested by Rare Metals Extractors) Refined from Waste Rock at Rare Metals Refineries Mohole Mine Wonder Underground Asteroid Deposits (harvested by Micro-G Auto Extractors)	no	After millennia of acting as a status symbol, in modern times rare metals are widely used in electronics and for medical procedures. Still, although one of the vital on the Information, and subsequently the Space Ages, precious metals still retain their monetary value.
Food	Keeping Colonists alive Each colonist consumes 0.2 Food per Sol	Farm crops Hydroponic Farm crops Fungal Farm	yes	Making the Martian soil fit for farming, even with the protection of Domes, takes heavy alternations. First, toxin removers are applied to rid the martian regolith of toxic substances like perchlorates. Then, the use of chemical decompressors to break down common Martian compounds and make nutrients out of them is employed. And finally, specifically designed bacteria to further modify all nutrients made into a more plant-use friendly form, is introduced.
Waste Rock	Landscaping Waste Rock Processor use Metals Refinery use Rare Metals Refinery use Carbonate Processor use	Landscaping Extractor buildings Mohole Mine Wonder The Excavator Wonder	no	Extractors produce Waste Rock as a by-product. Waste Rock can be stored in Dumping Sites or disposed around the Extractors. Extractors will temporarily stop working when there are not enough Drones to carry out the Waste Rock.
Seeds	Growing Plants in Forestation Plants Growing Crops in Open Farms	Seed Crops Advanced Plants in Forestation Plants	yes	The Martian soil is utterly un-hospitable for plants to grow, but simple lichen may eventually take hold and will begin to improve the soil quality - paving way for more sophisticated plants which will hasten the whole process.
Exotic Minerals	Constructing certain asteroid buildings Constructing certain underground buildings Solar Panel upgrades	Surface Asteroid Deposits (harvested by Drones and RC Transports) Underground Asteroid Deposits (harvested by Micro-G Auto Extractors)	no	One thing that both Mars and Earth have in common is that they lack certain mineral compositions that are beneficial to the development of our colony. It has long been known that there are Asteroids rich in these Exotic Minerals, however mining them from Earth has always been problematic. Luckily Mars is much better suited as a base for these mining stations, allowing us to gain access to resources and technology that were out of practical reach before.
Advanced Resources
Resource	Uses	Source	Resupply	Description
Fuel	Launching Rockets Polymer Factory and Shuttle Hub use Fueled Extractor upgrade use GHG Factory use	Refined from Water at Fuel Refineries	no	Using the CO2 from the Martian atmosphere and hydrogen (from water) we can produce fuel to fly our rockets back to Earth. The process uses a series of relatively simple chemical reactions to produce methane and oxygen which are used as propellant for both our rockets and shuttles.
Polymers	Construction and maintenance Building Shuttles Art Store use Art Workshop use	Surface Deposits (harvested by Drones and RC Transports) Refined from Fuel and Water at Polymer Factories Surface Asteroid Deposits (harvested by Drones and RC Transports)	yes	Some of the most important and widely used materials on Earth are made from polymers. While the dependency on such materials on Mars is artificially circumvented as much as possible due to the scarcity of the molecule, their importance cannot be avoided all together. Plastics, rubber and more advanced insulation have a fundamental role to play in creating and maintaining pressure differentials between habitats and external areas.
Electronics	Construction and maintenance Building Drones, Shuttles and Biorobots Electronics Store use VR Workshop use	Refined from Rare Metals at Electronics Factories	yes	Technology and electronics go hand in hand on Mars the same way as they have, and will continue to for centuries to come, on Earth.
Machine Parts	Construction and maintenance Biorobotics Workshop use	Refined from Metals at Machine Parts Factories	yes	Back on Earth, we humans are dependant on machines to sustain our advanced way of life; to power our industries and make possible our vast transportation systems. Here on Mars machines are also tasked with making life possible to begin with, on top of potentially maintaining all of their previous obligations.

Grid Resources[edit | edit source]

Grid Resources cannot be imported and require their own storage buildings. They are transported via Pipes or Power Cables, which can suffer leaks during Disasters. Each grid network can be highlighted by clicking on it in the Command Center. Unlike basic resources, grid resources are measured in units per hour.

Resource	Uses	Source	Transport	Notes
Power	Operating buildings Recharging Drone batteries	Power buildings RC Generators	Power Cables	The Superconducting Computing Breakthrough will convert excess Power into Research
Water	Used by Domes to provide life support Used by Farms, Hydroponic Farms and Fungal Farms to produce Food Used by Fuel Refineries to produce Fuel Used by Polymer Factories to produce Polymers Used by the Artificial Sun to start Used by Subsurface Heaters and Lakes to function	Moisture Vaporators Water Extractors	Pipes	If excess Water is produced Water Extractors will wind down production to avoid draining the Water deposits
Oxygen	Used by Domes to provide life support Used by Fungal Farms to produce Food	MOXIEs	Pipes	In Green Planet Oxygen becomes unnecessary after sufficient Atmosphere and Temperature terraforming

Funding[edit | edit source]

Funding represents a colony's bank account on Earth. While money is useless on Mars it is used to buy Spacecraft, order Resupply and Outsource Research from Earth. Additional Funding can be obtained by exporting Rare Metals, accomplishing Mission Goals, researching the Martian Patents and Martian Copyrights repeatable technologies and accommodating colonists with the Celebrity or Tourist Trait. Certain Anomaly and Mystery choices can also lead to additional Funding.

The USA Sponsor provides additional Funding periodically, the Europe Sponsor provides additional Funding every time a technology is researched and the Brazil Sponsor provides additional funding each time a colonist lands. With Space Race DLC enabled the sponsors Blue Sun Corporation and Paradox Interactive each grant a unique building that gives Funding.

Deposits[edit | edit source]

Almost all raw resources are harvested from Deposits. Deposits are discovered by Scanning a sector and hovering over an unscanned sector reveals what resources it is rich in.

Surface Deposits[edit | edit source]

Surface deposits can be seen from the surface of Mars and are the easiest deposit type to harvest.

Metals and Polymers deposits can be harvested by Drones and RC Transports, Harvesters and Constructors. They are harvested automatically once a building requires them or an appropriate storage building is constructed. Additional surface deposits can be created by meteor impacts. Dust geysers also create Polymers surface deposits when they erupt.

Concrete deposits can be found as large hex patches on the ground, which requires Concrete Extractors or RC Harvesters to extract. These extractors differ from other extractors in that they can be seen visibly deforming the terrain. Besides that, concrete deposits are handled as underground deposits: the extracting buildings has to be close enough, does not have to be exactly on top of the marker and one building is able to mine the entire deposit!

Underground Deposits[edit | edit source]

Underground Deposits appear as blue hexes with the deposit's resource's icon. These can be exploited with extractors. Unlike Concrete Extractors, these extractors consist of the mining building surrounded on all sides by 2-3 hexes seen in light blue when placing the building. All extractors need is an appropriate blue resource hex to be within that reach, which means multiple extractors can be placed around the same single deposit.

Water extractors are automatic, while both Metals and Rare Metals extractors require workers unless the Extractor AI Breakthrough has been researched. All extractors produce Waste Rock as a byproduct.

Additional underground deposits can be discovered by certain Breakthrough technologies.

With Space Race DLC enabled the sponsor Russia grants access to the RC Driller, which can mine underground deposits of Metals and Rare Metals but wastes 50% of the deposit's resources.

Deep Deposits[edit | edit source]

Deep Deposits can only be discovered by Deep Scanning a sector, which requires the Adapted Probes technology. The Blue Sun Corporation Sponsor can also discover deep Metals deposit from the start. On the map they appear like underground deposits but surrounded by a red ring. Each resource type that is available in deep deposits then requires its own research before extractors will be able to mine them.

Resource grade[edit | edit source]

The size of the deposit determines the amount of the resource that is available to be extracted. The grade is a representation of quality and determines the ratio of resource to waste rock. Because the maximum extraction rate refers to the ore (resource + waste rock) not just to the resource, higher quality deposits yield higher resource extraction rates.

The lowest grade produces the most waste rock. The resources extracted by grade are shown below: