Pokeshell

This article has not been revised for the current version (***U50-587362***). It was last updated for *U47-562984*. It may contain inaccuracies.
This article has not been revised for the current version (***U50-587362***). It was last updated for *U47-562984*. It may contain inaccuracies.

## Pokeshell

Pokeshells are sometimes hostile critters that eat Polluted Dirt and Rot Piles.
The shells they leave behind after molting can be crushed into Lime.

### Reproduction Rate

wild: 60 cycles
groomed: 6 cycles

### Incubation Time

base: 20 cycles
lullabied: 4 cycles

## Oakshell

Oakshells are nonhostile critters that eat Polluted Dirt, Slime and Rot Piles.
The shells they leave behind after molting can be crushed into Lumber.

### Diet

Polluted Dirt, Slime or Rot Pile 70 kg/cycle

### Reproduction Rate

wild: 60 cycles
groomed: 6 cycles

### Incubation Time

base: 20 cycles
lullabied: 4 cycles

## Sanishell

Sanishells are nonhostile critters that thrive in Water and eliminates Germs from any liquid it inhabits.
They eat Polluted Dirt, Slime and Rot Piles.

### Diet

Polluted Dirt, Slime or Rot Pile 70 kg/cycle

### Reproduction Rate

wild: 60 cycles
groomed: 6 cycles

### Incubation Time

base: 20 cycles
lullabied: 4 cycles

**Pokeshell** is a critter that lives in the Tide Pool Biome. They can live in both air and liquid and can be domesticated. They will consume both Rot Piles and Polluted Dirt at 70 kg/cycle, with Oakshells and Sanishells also consuming Slime.

## Behavior

Pokeshells drop a Molt when they die, which can be turned into Lime or Lumber with the Rock Crusher. This is the primary renewable source of Lime for Steel production. Normally, they are as non-hostile as other critters. However, once they are subjected to a room with finite size and laid an egg in their reachable path, they will turn red and aggressive. When this happens, they will forage without producing material, attack any Duplicant or critter in their way (shown as "protecting" in status tab), and beat them to death without exceptions if left unattended. They calm down and return to pink and innocent eyes again when they are timely wrangled and relocated to a different room, their eggs are extracted, or they hatch.

## Variants

Pokeshells have 3 variants, determined by what liquid they live in. Each Pokeshell has a different drop upon growth and death, but all consume polluted dirt and produce sand.

### Pokeshell

 →  →

The default Pokeshell consumes Polluted Dirt or Rot Pile and excretes Sand, and sheds shells that can be processed into Lime. There is no way to increase the chance of Pinch Roe eggs.

### Oakshell

 →  →

Any Pokeshell variant living in Ethanol will have increased odds of laying a Oak Pinch Roe, which hatches into an Oakshell.

The Oakshell produces shells that can be processed into Lumber instead of Lime and can also consume Slime, in addition to Polluted Dirt and Rot Piles but execretes half as much Sand as other morphs.

The primary reason for ranching Oakshells is to produce lumber, especially when water for arbor trees is in short supply. Oakshells can consume polluted dirt, a byproduct of the ethanol distillery, and are therefore a "free" addition to an existing arbor tree - ethanol distillery- petroleum generator - polluted water loop. Oakshells are an alternative to wild arbor trees to make the ethanol loop water positive. Each arbor tree requires 7kg/cycle of polluted water to become water neutral (63 kg/cycle of water is produced by processing the tree's own lumber). An oakshells water contribution can be calculated by =(Oak pinch roe cahnce)\*18.75 kg/cycle. An Oakshell with 76,8% chance of oak rinch roe eggs can support water for two domestic arbor trees, when all the lumber from both trees and the oakshell is burned as ethanol in the petroleum generator. The leftover polluted dirt after feeding the oakshells will be more than enough to provide dirt for the trees, and feed a small number of extra critters.

Each Oakshell lays and egg once every 6 cycles, and each egg will produce a small oakshell molt (100kg lumber) and an oakshell molt (500kg lumber). If oakshells could have 100% chance to lay oakshell eggs, their lumber production would be 100kg/cycle. However it is impossible for groomed oakshells to get 100% oakshell egg chance, because grooming station (or the critter fountain) cannot be placed underwater, and oakshells will slowly revert to laying pokeshell eggs when outside of ethanol. It is possible to get between 67-90% chance for oakshell eggs depending on the ranch design.

On first glance, Oakshells seem to be inefficient in producing sand from polluted dirt, considering that they only produce half the sand as the other variants. However depending on chance of laying eggs, an Oakshell can produce close to 100 kg/cycle of lumber, and one third of that can be returned as polluted dirt from the ethanol distillery. Therefore, when part of an ethanol loop, the net polluted dirt consumption of any given oakshell is actually lesser than the other variants. Oakshells net consumption depends on the oakshell egg chances and would be 58 and 40 kg/cycle of polluted dirt for 66 and 90 percent chance of laying an oak pinch roe, respectively. So an oakshell with 66% oak pinch roe production will have worse conversion rates compared to other variants at 39% percent, however an oakshell with 90% chance of laying oak pinch roe eggs will actually have a better conversion rate at 56%. The breaking point for reaching 50% sand efficiency is 75% oak pinch roe chance, which is reasonably achieveable with the right ranch setup. However they still produce half the sand on a per critter basis, and if large amounts of sand production is needed, other variants may be preferable.

Oakshells can be a way of providing a small amount of renewable power but they are generally worse than sage hatches. 100% oak pinch roe chance would mean 50kg/cycle of ethanol, and a net of 26kj/cycle of power (since ethanol distillery uses up 24kj for that amound). So their net power production is 26kJ\*(oak pinch roe chance)/cycle. Even consdering the net consumption reduction from recycling the polluted dirt, sage hatches are a more efficent way of providing power, and they produce more per critter. Oakshells should not be use used solely for power, but their power production is very useful when they are ranched for their other products (sand and polluted water).

Oakshells, like other pokeshell variants can make use of the underwater water fort, and using this building seems to help their egg chances by making them spend more time underwater (under ethanol in this case).

### Sanishell

 →  →

Any Pokeshell variant living in Water will have increased odds of laying a Sani Pinch Roe, which hatches into an Sanishell.

The Sanishell does not produce any shells, but instead removes germs around it (for example in polluted water). It can consume Slime, like the Oakshell, but produces 50% mass as Sand which is double the amount of the Oakshell, the most efficient way to turn Slime into Sand.

Upon death the Sanishell drops 4,000 kcal of Raw Shellfish, which can be cooked into 6,400 kcal of Cooked Seafood. This is equivalent to the drops of 4 Pacu, therefore farming Sanishell for Surf'n'Turf production is a good option. A wild unfed Pacu reproduces once during its 25-cycle lifespan, so a ranch of unfed Pacu will produce 1 Cooked Seafood every 25 cycles per Pacu in the ranch. A fed and groomed Sanishell can reproduce every 6 cycles, producing 4 Cooked Seafood at that time, so a single fed and groomed Sanishell provides the equivalent meat output of 16.67 wild Pacu (less whatever percentage of the Sanishell's offspring are not themselves Sanishells). A fed Pacu generates an egg every 1.5 cycles, so a fed and groomed Sanishell is the equivalent of 1 fed Pacu in terms of meat output. However, a fed Pacu require 140 kg of Algae per cycle, while a Sanishell requires only 70 kg of Polluted Dirt, Slime, or Rot Pile. If the Pacu's Algae diet is sourced from an Algae Distiller, that Pacu would require 420 kg of Slime per cycle, 6 times as much as the Sanishell, so Sanishells are substantially more resource-efficient for a given level of meat output, at the cost of rancher labor (and potentially, injuries, depending on timing and automation).

### Breeding Morphs

The volume of liquid required to change a Pokeshell's reproduction chance is 350 kg. The is the same level at which buildings flood. To operate, the Grooming Station must be placed out of the liquid, meaning the Pokeshells spend some of their time not in liquid. If an Oakshell or Sanishell spends less than 3300 seconds (5.5 cycles) of their first 6 cycles as an adult out of liquid, they have a chance to produce default Pinch Roe eggs.

As a result, all groomed Oakshell/Sanishell ranches will produce some Pokeshells, and automated systems should account for this. On the other hand, Pokeshell ranches can be setup to never produce Oakshell or Sanishell roe, since they live outside liquids, and a small layer of liquid to prevent any offgassing will not change their reproduction chance if kept under 350 kg.

## Feeding troubles

Rot Piles, Slime and Polluted Dirt are messy food sources, sublimating into Polluted Oxygen and thus naturally uncommon and transitory. Which makes feeding domestic Pokeshells quite a task. Note, however, that if *groomed*, Pokeshells will live long enough to reproduce once even if not fed. As their lay rate is the same whether fed or not (as long as they're tame and groomed), ranches of unfed, but groomed, Pokeshells can be quite efficient (though you'll need to feed them to increase the size or quantity of those ranches)

### Water Sieve

The most basic source of Polluted Dirt would be Water Sieve hooked up to a bathroom or an appropriate geyser. However, it makes Pokeshells compete for your dirt income and ties their population to your colony size. What is worse, one constantly running Water Sieve can't quite completely feed one Pokeshell.

### Ethanol Distiller

Ethanol Distillers provide a reliable source of Polluted Dirt. Since each Pokeshell needs 116 g/s of Polluted Dirt, an Ethanol Distiller running can feed nearly 3 domesticated Pokeshells.

The Oakshell's molt can be directly processed into Lumber to supply the Ethanol Distiller, so it's worth examining if this can be self-sustaining. An adult Oakshell reproduces every 6 cycles if kept fed and groomed. While some of these will be other types of roe, if kept in Ethanol, most will be Oakshell. If retained until adulthood and then killed, these offspring's molts can be converted into 500 kg of Lumber each (or 83.33 kg Lumber per cycle per breeding adult). An Ethanol Distiller will process that 500 kg Lumber into 166.67 kg of Polluted Dirt (1 Ethanol Distiller can handle the lumber output of the offspring of 7.2 breeding Oakshells), in addition to 83.33 kg Carbon Dioxide and 250 kg Ethanol (it would require at least 28.8 breeding adults to power a single Petroleum Generator full time on this Ethanol). This is 27.78 kg of Polluted Dirt per cycle, with the breeding adult in question consuming 70 kg per cycle. As such, an Oakshell's own molt can provide at most ~40% of its own Polluted Dirt diet.

### Rotting food with Polluted Water

Pokeshells can be kept in Polluted Water, which increases spoiling time of submerged food. Therefore any unedible, but abundant food items can be thrown (via Automatic Dispenser or Conveyor Chute) into the pool to rot and feed the crabs.

* However, since most food items only weigh a kilo and they take time to be obtained, this method is not feasible without devoting a lot of space for farms.

### Pacu cleanup

Due to their ability to live underwater Pokeshells can augment a Pacu farm, serving as the second stage of processing. Each Pokeshell will require 2 Pacus to satiate it. Needless to say they will go through Algae reserves even faster.

* However, the Pokeshells would leave their molts underwater, which can be problematic to retrieve. In addition, if kept in normal (clean fresh) water, over time the Pokeshells will turn into Sanishells, losing their Lime output but increasing the amount of seafood produced.

### Outhouse Cleanup

Pokeshells can be used to eat up polluted dirt emptied from outhouses to supply sand for deodorizer, serving as a medium for temporary clean oxygen solution in remote regions, or during early game. For each cycle, all Outhouses in a room needs to be visited by Duplicants at least 8 times in sum and emptied timely to satiate a Pokeshell. They can be kept in their innoctous mode for decacycles before laying an egg (Critters typically lay eggs by 2/3 of their life. Check age to avoid putting a egg-laying prone crab in dupe's frequent outhouse). However, once a Pinch Roe is laid, it's imperative to send dupes to attack the angry pokeshell in protecting mode to prevent harm.

### Keeping crabs wild

A reasonable alternative to domesticating Pokeshell is simply to wrangle all the wild Pokeshell in the map to a single room of decent size where they will remain a perpetual source of Pokeshell Molt for a supplemental amount of Lime. Be careful to disallow access to this room using door permissions so duplicants do not accidentally run into a mass of murderous Pokeshells if there are any Pokeshell eggs in the room.

Once domestication time comes, it is still better to start with one Pokeshell, and keep the rest of wild population self-sustaining.

## Tips

* The roof or floor segments made out of unpassable Pneumatic Doors can help with the safe egg extraction.
* Feeding Pokeshells with Polluted Dirt is easier in the DLC, due to the existence of asteroid types that have a lot of Polluted Dirt seams.