Polux seed

Polux seed

The seed of a polux tree. It can be planted to create a new polux tree which will absorb pollution from nearby terrain.

Base Stats

Type

Resources – Plant matter

Market Value

1200 

Stack Limit

5

Mass

0.3 kg

HP

50

Deterioration Rate

1

Technical

defName

PoluxSeed

thingCategories

ItemsMisc

Polux seeds can be planted to become a polux tree.

Acquisition

Polux seeds can rarely be acquired from orbital traders, specifically exotic goods traders (which require a Comms console), obtained from quest rewards or looted from hermetic or sealed crates.

Summary

Polux seeds can be used in order to grow a Polux tree. These seeds can be planted on any tile with a fertility stat, but cannot be planted closer than 4 tiles to another polux tree, or within 1 tile from any other tree or cactus. It also cannot be placed within 1 tile of a growing zone. Polux seeds, unlike most other growable plants, can be planted in areas with high pollution. Polux trees clear pollution in a radius around them, at a rate of 1 polluted tile every 10 hours (1 wastepack worth of pollution is cleared in 2.5 days). Note that this requires toxic wastepacks to decay and pollute the ground; the trees cannot destroy wastepacks, only the pollution they generate.

Polux trees also require a small area around them (slightly larger than a sunlamp's radius) to be kept clear of buildings.

Analysis

Polux seeds allow you to plant polux trees, which are a cheap way to clear pollution in an area, without having to fight an Apocriton, research ultra mechtech, and build a wastepack atomizer. Polux trees are a slow but otherwise very easy way to clear pollution, working at 20% of the speed of a Pollution pump.

1 polux tree is able to clear 2.4 tiles of pollution per day (1 wastepack generates 6 tiles of pollution, which takes 2.5 days to fully clean). At this rate, a single polux tree should be able to consume all the pollution created by a toxifier generator. However, due to the fact that wastepacks must decay (which can take several days) for the pollution to be destroyed by the tree, in practice the tree is never able to fully decontaminate an area assuming the toxifier generator continues running -- a small amount of pollution will linger. That said, a polux tree, toxifier generator, and pollution pump (to bag up the waste for delivery to the tree) will still net 1200 watts of power with no additional costs besides hauling labor. This amount of power is slightly greater than that offered by a fueled generator (chemfuel or wood) or vanometric power cell.

Alternatively, polux trees can be used as a cheap way to consume some of the waste generated by mechanoids. However, the slow rate of pollution clearing means that even with only a single small mechanoid (producing 5 pollution every 10 days), the polux tree will only reduce the wastepacks generated, not remove them entirely.

Assuming the polux tree is used to clear pollution from a toxifier generator, we can calculate the time it takes to "break even" on the investment of 1200 silver to purchase the seed, and the cost of building the generator and pollution pump. A chemfuel generator consumes 4.5 chemfuel per day to generate 1000 watts. This translates to a market value of 10.35 silver per day to operate a chemfuel generator. The toxifier generator and pollution pump together cost an additional 100 steel and 1 component more than the chemfuel generator, a market value of 222 silver.

At this rate, it would take approximately 2 years (116 days) for a toxifier generator, pollution pump, and polux tree to equal the (fuel) cost of the chemfuel generator, and a little over 2.25 years (137 days) to offset the additional costs of the toxifier generator and pollution pump. It is important to note that the toxifier generator does produce 20% more power than the chemfuel generator, so about a 2-year return on investment is a good rule of thumb. Any power generated beyond that point is done more efficiently (in terms of market value) than a chemfuel generator.

Gallery

• 

  One Polux seed

• 

  Partial stack

• 

  Full stack

Version history

• 1.4.3555 - Added.
• 1.4.3641 - Fix: Polux seeds can be planted in hydroponics basins and plant pots.