Guide/Mutant agriculture (Spaced Out!)
Plant mutation is a mechanic introduced in the Spaced Out! DLC. Plants exposed to Radiation have a chance of dropping mutated seeds, which alter the plant's yield and requirements.
Mutation Efficiency
Mutation stats are presented as additive modifiers, which can be deceptive when determining efficiency. A non-mutated plant produces yield Y after it consumes F units of fertiliser per cycle for L cycles. In other words, a plant produces Y/FL units of output per unit fertilizer consumed - in particular, this means that decreasing plant life cycle essentially decreases fertiliser consumption, as it consumes for fewer cycles.
A mutated plant has a modifier applied to each ofthese values: for instance, a Wildish plant has the yield remain the same, but increases life cycle by 350% (Lm=4.5L) and decreases fertiliser by 90% (Fm=0.1F). This gives us Y/(4.5L * 0.1F) = Y/(0.45LF) = 2.22 Y/LF; in other words, the Wildish plant produces about 2.22 times as much as the base plant does per unit time and fertiliser/irrigation.
The following table calculates these mutant efficiency factors for each of the mutations. Note that these calculations do not include temperature and lighting changes, Licey or Exuberant additional products, or impact on harvest time - all of these have crop-specific implications and qualitiative design concerns that don't lend themselves to a single table comparison.
| Mutation | Yield Multiplier | Life Cycle Multiplier | Fertilizer Multiplier | Fertilizer Efficiency (Y/LF) | Time Efficiency (Y/L) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Blooming | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Easygoing | 0.75 | 1 | 0.5 | 1.5 | 0.75 |
| Juicyfruit | 1 | 1 | 1.25 | 0.8 | 1 |
| Wildish | 1 | 4.5 | 0.1 | 2.22 | 0.22 |
| Licey | 1 | 1 | 1.25 | 0.8 | 1 |
| Exuberant | 1 | 0.25 | 1.5 | 2.67 | 4 |
| Leafy | 1 | 0.5 | 1.25 | 1.6 | 2 |
| Bountiful | 2 | 1 | 1.2 | 1.67 | 2 |
| Specialized | 1.5 | 1 | 1 | 1.5 | 1.5 |
| Superspecialized | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 |
As such, the best general-purpose yield bonus comes from Exuberant - however, its additional yield of 10000 Food Poisoning germs can be a limiting factor on food supply crops (albeit nothing a cook or chlorine room can't solve). The 4kg Rot Pile can also complicate farming environments if pressures are low enough for it to offgas. If Exuberant crops are undesirable for any of these reasons, Wildish crops provide the best fertiliser efficiency (albeit over a very long time period), while Bountiful or Leafy crops can balance time and efficiency.