Biome

Each planet is made up of a combination of Biomes, that each have their own appearance, color palette, and resources that spawn. Biomes can combine to create unique terrain for the player to explore.


 * Purple Forests: Sylva's Purple Forests scatter the surface of the planet, marked with blue and purple Soil and tall trees that can sometimes contain Research Items. They are also a good source for early Ammonium.


 * Grey Plains: Desolo is covered in these flat plains that are situated above the craters, the soil is grey as the name suggests, and there are occasional spikes and rocks dotting the landscape. There are generally Compound and Resin and rarely Ammonium deposits located near to or next to the small craters, but apart from this there are very few other resources.This is the arguably the best biome to set up solar power, as there are no crater walls to obstruct the sun at certain angles, which is important as Desolo has an extremely short Day-Night cycle. The Apollo Lunar Module is also commonly found in this biome.


 * The Great Desert: The Great Desert is the largest biome on Calidor, and is the best place to find Resin, and Compound. It has a light orange soil, similar to Earth's desert sand. There are many cacti and other desert plants scattered about, with many dunes that vary in height and shape. This is the best biome to build a rover in, as the land is smother than any other biome. The only disadvantages to building a base here are that there are a few Hazardous Flora living in this biome, (such as the one in the foreground of the second picture) and that the mesa's sometimes obstruct the sun at certain angles, blocking off the best power source.


 * Bubble Tree Forest: This forest is known for it's interesting trees that look vaguely like the blue colored trees that used to be found exclusively underground before patch 1.0, and appear to have a fruit resembling bubbles. There is also a flora that appears to be a variant of this plant found much more rarely in this biome, which has a thinner stem, is a bit smaller, and has the same fruit, which has a curious flashing pattern when it falls. The soil is a deep fuchsia color, with some darker shades of purple mixed in (very rarely orange soil forms as well on the absolute highest terrain). This forest has a decent amount of underbrush, but not as much as the asparagus forest, being a more open type of forest. It is almost always located on the highest elevated land on the planet, and as such is relatively rare. This is also the biome that the probe scanner will direct you to on this planet.


 * The Great Polka-Dot Craters: These large craters are fairly rare on Novus' surface, and generally contain a decent amount of resources such as Resin and Compound. It's soil is primarily colored light pink, and because of their circular shape can look like large pink polka dots from a great height or orbit. At least one Gateway Chamber is generally located in this biome, due to it being pretty flat overall
 * The Pink-Tipped Mountains: This is some of the most dynamic terrain in the solar system, with extremely steep mountains and canyons, The soil is generally a light pink, with small patches of fuchsia on the peaks. Most valleys are very thin and have almost no driveable terrain, some valleys are slightly larger, and are generally more flat, and these areas also generally have more resources, however it is not advised to make any major base here due to the terrain surrounding them. This is also the biome that emits the signal for the Probe Scanner on Novus.
 * The Foggy Forest: This biome covers most of the moon, and has a purple colored soil. The forest is actually more of a woodland, with small patches of more dense vegetation scattered around what could be very small water reservoirs. This is a relatively good biome to build a base, with there being good resources such as Resin, Compound, and occasionally some graphite or ammonium, as well as wind power working very well here. As long as you are careful to avoid the small craters, this is one of the best areas to drive a buggy as well.
 * Lesser Polka-Dot Craters: These craters are quite similar to the small craters biome on Desolo and also has a pink colored soil. They generally contain few resources, but sometimes you may find resin and/or some compound. They often function similarly to potholes, keeping your rovers from going as fast as they normally would.


 * Tundra: Broad plains of snow, broken into a jigsaw of very flat areas separated by stair-step minor elevation changes, with occasional giant ramps leading to cliffs. Features large amounts of wreckage and deposits of Hematite, but few other resources. Clusters of Volatile Cataplants make some areas dangerous. Bases here should be dug into the ground or cliffs to avoid the constant howl of wind.
 * Thermal Valleys: Broad, deep depressions with dark gray and red soil, dotted with geysers. Features lush plant growth, frequent Resin and Compound deposits, and lots of EXO Research Aids. May be deep enough to cut into cave-layer resource deposits. It's a good idea to make a base here, due to the flat terrain and easy access to resources.
 * Black Buttes: Small rugged mountains with dark grey soil. Watch out for possible hostile plants such as Boomalloons, which can frequently spawn here. This is also the biome that the Probe Scanner points to.
 * Cage Tree Caverns: A biome in the mantle layer of Glacio, filled with a forest of angular polyhedral cage-like trees with pulsing spheres inside. The ground here is dotted with glowing cyan Research Items, which have a high Byte value.


 * The Pits: Steep-walled lowlands with hard yellowish soil, forested with funguslike trees with bulbous rootballs and tall glowing-green stalks. This biome is very smooth making it easy to explore with small rovers. The main hazards here are clusters of Daggerroots, which are easy to spot due to their white coloration. Resin and Compound can be found here, but there is little Organic cover. This is a good area to build a base, given the low value of Solar Panels on Atrox.
 * Mud Plains: Flat grassy highlands littered with bulky acorn-shaped flora. The ground here is black, liberally splotched with shallow green depressions resembling scummy ponds. Volatile Attacti are common here, making exploration quite dangerous even by Rover.
 * Yellow Hills: Steep but smoothly rounded rolling hills with yellow soil. Few dangerous flora, but hard to drive on and lacking resources.
 * Shattered Peaks: The nastiest terrain anywhere in the solar system, bar none. Great sheets and swirls of hard yellow rock, so heavily shot through with tunnels that it resembles swiss cheese. Floating shards of rock are common, though resource deposits are not. This biome is almost impossible to navigate, short of boring a tunnel through it with a Paver/Drill Rover or flying right over it with a VTOL. This is the biome that the Probe Scanner points to.
 * Cauldron Caves: This biome is located in the mantle of Atrox, and is scattered with large Flora resembling giant cauldrons full of yellow tendrils.