In Subterrain crafting items is integral to your survival. Reactor cores, guns, armor and melee weapons all degrade with usage, and will eventually need to be swapped out, repaired or upgraded.

To create items in Subterrain, you first need to do research. Researching items is fairly easy: sacrifice an item to learn how to create it, plus develop a slightly better version if available.

Every researchable item will tell you it is when moused over; the tool tip's orange text will indicate that it can be researched (or has yet to be if it's sitting in the queue at Herbert Research). Keep in mind that even "broken" equipment is researchable (and repairable - more on that later), so don't recycle it if you haven't researched it yet!

Sometimes you will find a blueprint, green for a bio blueprint, blue for a tech blueprint. These can both be researched just like items can.

If Herbert Research is powered, both of the research systems can be used to "learn" how to create items with the 3D printer. Both of the following systems start at level 1, and can be upgraded by finding better software.



The Bio Research System will allow you to break down biological technologies, such as drugs, oxygen sensors and temperature fuses. Research can be queued up, so be sure to set up as much as possible to make efficient use of energy spent on Herbert Research. Some items require a higher software level to research.



The Tech Research System breaks down equipment such as armor, weapons cores and components, throwables and packs. Like Bio Research, items can be queued up for research, and some items require better software before they can be researched.

In order to craft, components need to be harvested and broken down.

Throughout your exploration of the space base, you'll collect piles of junk that can be recycled into components. These components can be anything from precious stones to raw materials for crafting new weapons and equipment. It's always worthwhile to scavenge materials from containers and dead enemies, as plenty of materials will be needed to maintain your gear. Keep in mind: some items you find are actually materials, and thus need to be added to shared storage.

If Nilson Engineering is powered, the included recycling systems are available for use, and all items recycled will end up in the shared storage.



Most of the garbage you find around the station will be fed into this machine. Things will be broken down into raw materials, so things like jewelry and pieces of technology are fairly valuable once processed. Jewelry, in particular, will recycle into materials that can be added into your shared storage for further processing. In addition to this, equipment can be broken down. This includes "broken" equipment with zero durability and weapon mods. If the 3D printer has level 2 software installed, the recycling system is accessible at Central Control via a remote control terminal.



The infected enemies of the space base will drop materials fairly often, and the Bio Recycle System is where they are processed into materials for drugs and fuses and the like. In addition to this, broken regulators, drugs and broken filters can be broken down into materials. If the bio combiner has level 2 software installed, the recycling system is accessible at Central Control via a remote control terminal.

Crafting components can also be harvested using the space base's facilities. When powered, they are able to produce raw materials for crafting, and loads of these materials can be queued up for continual production.

Both MPO Mine and MPO Biosphere need power in order to function. Once powered, they will begin to process materials queued up.



The Mine Extractor will collect ores for refinement at Nilson Engineering. The level of software the Extractor has determines the yield and quality of materials that can be extracted from the mine, the speed at which it is mined, and how many orders can be queued up. All extracted materials are sent to the shared storage at Nilson, and are automatically available for refining. At level 2 software or above, it can be accessed remotely via the refinery in Nilson Engineering or Central Control.



Plants can be harvested from the Biosphere and can be queued up for production much like the Mine Extractor. Fruits and veggies will be sent to the shared storage, which can be either refined into materials for crafting drugs and other equipment, or taken out to be used for hunger and thirst management. Software also is important to the functionality of the Biosphere: the quality of produce and speed at which it is produced is determined by the level of software installed, and remote access management is available in Nilson and Central once software level 2 or above is installed.

Once you harvest materials from the Biosphere and Mine, those materials will go into shared storage. From here, they can be processed at the following systems once powered at Nilson Engineering. Any material you find and pick up will need to be added to this storage manually.



Keep in mind that materials you find in the field, such as hunks of Mars Nickle ore, need to be added to shared storage manually by interacting with the left panel on the yellow machine in the center of the room.



Ores can be refined at this system. The ore is processed in chunks, so if you queue some ore up to refine and another pile of raw ore is processed after you've started, that new ore will need to be separately processed (it won't be included in the batch that's processing). The time it takes to process ore depends on the amount and quality of the ore being processed.

Near this system is the remote access for the Mine System.



Like the Ore Refine System, the Bio Refine System processes bio matter in chunks. The time it takes to process bio materials depends on the quantity and quality of plant matter being processed.

Near this system is the remote access for the Biosphere System.

Finally, crafting! From these systems, all researched items can be created. These systems, when powered at Nilson Engineering, will pull from materials in shared storage to create items from materials you've gathered. The level of software installed both speeds up build times and expands access to the quality of items available to print.



This 3D Printing System will produce the majority of West's worn equipment. All gun parts and armor are fabricated here, along with reactor cores, power cells, packs, lights and grenades. Things produced here, such as medium power cells, can be used to research better items. This allows you to steadily increase your survivalist with a little patience and planning, so long as you find software upgrades for your stations. At level 2 software or above, a remote control terminal is available in Central Control.



The Bio Combine System allows West to create drugs, canisters, filters and fuses. Just like the 3D Printing System, software upgrades allow you to produce better items, so long as you have them researched. At level 2 software or above, a remote control terminal is available in Central Control.



Once items have been crafted, they will be awaiting West's retrieval in Production Storage, which is the right panel on the yellow machine in the center of the room in Nilson Engineering. There is also another one at Central Control in the lower right corner of the map.

West can assemble guns on the field using parts he has found or created at the 3D printer. Guns are composed of a core part, a barrel and a radiator. Pistol cores are silver colored, SMGs are purple, shotguns are red. All barrels and radiators work on all gun core types. To assemble or disassemble a gun, click on the wrench icon near it in your inventory.


From here you can drag on or off the barrel or radiator of your choosing, so long as the parts of the gun don't require more link capactiy than is available for the core gun part. For example, the base gun parts both require 50 link pins, and the lowest core gun part has 100 link capacity, so using those two parts with that core is acceptable. Those parts can be used with better gun cores, but the better gun cores will have more link capacity, meaning you can fit in better parts if you wish.

Core gun parts will need radiators and barrels attached and installed before they can be used, and fully assembled guns will need parts to be uninstalled before they can be removed. Dragging the items over or right clicking them with the crafting interface open will move them from gun to inventory, and hitting install or uninstall will toggle the status of the gun.

Radiators will affect heat capacity and cooldown rate, and barrels will affect critical rating. Keep in mind a core part requires both a radiator and a barrel to be usable, including pistols!

West can repair any equipment with durability, like weapons and armor, using the Nano Reconstruction Bay, which is tucked away in the remote control room in Central. The Nano Reconstruction Bay will accept two items and refill them back to 50% durability over a short period of time while they are sitting in the unit.

This station can be improved with research software. With each level, the nano reconstruction bay repairs faster and more effectively. Each level increases the max it repairs by 5%, and by level 3, it will repair 3 items at once.

When maxed, you can repair three items at once to 65%.


Gun cores, fully assembled weapons and armors can be placed in here, helping reduce the need to make new weapons and armors that begin to fall apart after prolonged battles. In the beginning it takes a while to repair, which can prolong downtime quite a bit, so it may be wise to have weapons on rotation until your nano reconstruction bay can keep up with your pace. It should also be noted that generator cores can be repaired this way, too, should the need arise.