Last week we covered what’s available (and not available) on the surface of Io. The schedule says this week we’re going to have a special journal entry for OTC’s anniversary. That’s still coming in a couple of days, but for now we’re going to talk about all the new buildings available on Io and how you can use them to survive on this truly barren rock.

- Water -

Finding water on Mars is not easy. Buried far underground or in ice that has to be melted, special structures are needed to extract this precious resource. But, at least it can be extracted. On Io there is no such luxury - you’ll have to create the water you need yourself. Thankfully, some new buildings have recently been developed to help you thrive in your new home.

Ion Collector - This building can be placed anywhere and will passively gather Fuel (hydrogen) from the Io Plasma Torus for your corporation, shipping it back to your HQ for whatever use you might require.

Solar Condenser - While not truly a new building, the Condenser has been refined to work with the Oxide Ice found on Io, extracting pure Oxygen to support your workers.

Water Processor - Once you’ve got your Collectors and Condensers online, it’s time to finally get some Water production started. The Water Processor consumes both Fuel and Oxygen, but will convert these resources  into the Water you need for life-support and Food production. It even provides a small trickle of power in the process, easing some of the strain of maintaining the power-hungry Ion Collectors.

- Basalt - 

Basalt Platform - This building is how you’ll manage to get resources out of those dangerous lava flows all over the surface of Io. An incredibly potent structure, Basalt Platforms breakdown the lava into two parts Iron, one part Silicon, and one part Uranium, before sending it back to you. Despite the exceptional output of these structures, take care when building them, as the Basalt you place them on won’t be usable for anything else.

- Advanced Buildings -

While the Hacker Array, Pleasure Dome, and Optimization Center will all be familiar on Io, the Patent Lab has been adjusted to be more useful on this new moon. Also, the Offworld Market has been replaced altogether.

Space Elevator - The Launchpads of Mars have been replaced with a massive tower on Io, allowing easier transport of resources off-planet. By default, the Space Elevator costs 200 Aluminum, 200 Steel, and 200 Glass, making it significantly easier to construct than the typical 400 Steel, 100 Glass, 100 Electronics Offworld Market. In addition, the Elevator consumes power rather than fuel to send its shipment, and combos well with some of the Patents that aren’t available on Mars.

Patent Lab - The Lab now has a few new Patents available that we haven’t seen before, as well as a couple that were only available to those companies that have ventured to Ceres. We’ll cover the entirely new Patents first.

• Nuclear Engine: Allows your Ships to use Uranium if it is cheaper than their standard resource.

• Geothermal Borehole: Buildings on or adjacent to a Geothermal Vent produce +0.2 Power. This also eliminates their standard Power consumption, if the building has any. In addition, Geothermal Vent tiles no longer have building restrictions, meaning you can place any building you’d like on them.

• Synthetic Meat: Greenhouse Farms ignore input if built on Oxide Ice. Clearly a powerful tool as claiming an Oxide Ice tile is significantly easier than producing Water to make Food on Io. Still, best not to think too long about how this one works.

Patents previously exclusive to Ceres include:

• Transparent Aluminum: Build with Aluminum instead of Glass. Potentially far more powerful on Io with the new Elevators.

• Liquid Batteries: Solar Panels and Solar Condensers are always on. Given that Condensers are your only way to get oxygen, this one is sure to be sought after.

Other available Patents:

• Superconductor, Energy Vault, Financial Instruments, Virtual Reality, Nanotechnology, Slant Drilling, and Thinking Machines (That’s right - no Teleportation or Carbon Scrubbing here).

With that, we’ve covered what you'll need to know about the buildings available on Io to turn a profit. Next week we’ll be taking a break to recap what's been happening in the first year of OTC with OTC's Anniversary, an Update for Returning Players.

Offworld Trading Company: Jupiter’s Forge is now available on Steam!