The game Oxygen Not Included is already a deep and complex game designed to keep players occupied for a long, long time. But at some point, the quirks of gameplay, lack of customization, or the difficulty (or lack thereof) will become a problem for most players.
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That’s why it’s important to start utilizing mods before the limitations of the game become too overbearing. The fan base has created a number of mods that make it easier to track gases, increase the game’s difficulty, and make building a breeze. So if you’re looking to improve your gameplay, consider downloading some of these mods.
Updated on August 4, 2021 by Ben Baker: The game has seen a steady release of updates that adds new mechanics and features to help or hinder the colony’s survival. Even with all of these changes, there are some features that players wish were included and require mods in order to obtain. A few more mods have been added to the list that make survival a bit easier or introduce helpful game mechanics to minimize micromanagement. There is also a brief guide on how to install mods with or without using Steam’s Workshop where most of these mods are located.
How To Install Oxygen Not Included Mods
If the mods were obtained through Steam, which most of these are, then it’s incredibly simple to install. Simply subscribe to the mod from the workshop and then in-game activate the mod through the Mods menu in the Main Menu.
If the mods were installed manually then it will require manipulating the correct files within the game folders. It’s highly recommended to make a backup of the entire game in a separate file or flash drive in case something goes wrong. This is typically much more complicated and most mods will include instructions on how to install themselves into the right place properly.
15 Infinite Gases & Liquids
Many players will use sandbox mode to experiment with different builds to use in their main game. This is a great way to get a handle on more efficient processes to avoid wasting resources. At the same time, it can be a bit tedious to collect the necessary resources to test out a large-scale build, even in sandbox mode.
Infinite Gases & Liquids by test447 partially solves this problem by adding four new buildings to the game; infinite liquid source, infinite gas source, infinite liquid sink, and infinite gas sink. This of course can be used in regular gameplay, but it’s for all intents and purposes a cheat.
14 Sharing Is Caring
The Sharing is Caring mod by Romen introduces a subtle mechanic change that can have a dramatic impact on the game. It causes Beds and Mess Tables to be unassigned from Dupes after they’re done using them. This means that a Dupe can sleep in a bed and when they leave it’s no longer their bed so anyone can now sleep in it.
Players can now micromanage their dupes to share the same bed to conserve resources and space. With staggered sleeping and eating schedules the player needs fewer bed and tables to keep everyone satisfied. Of course this doesn’t solve the problem of multiple Dupes needing a bed at the same time when there aren’t enough, but it does mitigate the problem quite a bit.
13 Full Miner Yield
Another subtle mod is the Full Miner Yield by bertoo. This one causes all tiles mined to drop the full yield that was present before mining. Typically when something is mined only 50% of it will be obtained, likely to adhere to some form of realism in that resources would be lost in the process and for game balancing purposes.
But with this mod, the player will get 100% of whatever their dupe is mining. This 50% increase in resources with every tile mined will result in huge gains over time. It effectively returns the game to how mining used to be and will let players amass resources much faster.
12 Wounded Go To Med Bay
Interestingly in the vanilla version of the game if a Dupe is injured they need to be manually assigned a Triage Cot in order to be healed. Otherwise, the Dupe will continue going about their day as best as they can in spite of their injuries.
The Wounded Go To Med Bed mod by Cairath solves this problem by automatically assigning injured Dupes to an available Triage Cot. It also includes a feature to select how injured a Dupe must be before they’ll seek out a Triage Cot. It’s a little bit of automation that goes a long way towards minimizing the micromanagement of keeping Dupes alive in spite of their best efforts.
11 Butcher & Fishing Stations
The Butcher & Fishing Stations mod by Sanchozz introduces two new buildings; the Butcher Station and the Fishing Station. The Fishing Station simply allows Dupes to drop a hook in water of a depth of two to four tiles to catch aquatic creatures.
The Butcher Station allows Ranchers to slaughter any critters in the room for the Extra Meat. The mod was designed to integrate to the game as balanced as possible so the two buildings require Animal Control research and consume power. The Extra Meat obtained is also contingent upon the Husbandry attribute and yields 2.5% of meat for each level.
10 Bigger Camera Zoom Out
As your base starts to encompass the entirety of the asteroid it can become a hassle to navigate. The game does provide you the ability to look at the whole of your base, but you have to exit out of the HUD. Closing this HUD can be annoying, especially if you're checking gas levels or giving directions.
Bigger Camera Zoom Out allows players to view the entire asteroid without closing their HUD. It’s a simple mod that doesn’t do a whole lot, but it’s such an awesome feature it’ll make you wonder why it wasn’t a part of the game to begin with.
9 Improved Gas Overlay
As you start exploring various biomes and incorporating different gases into your base it becomes important to keep track of oxygen levels and make sure your Duplicants have breathable air wherever they travel.
Improved Gas Overlay gives you the ability to see the quantity of any given gas and separates them with a helpful color-coding system. Again it’s another small tweak to the systems already in place, but it’s a big help when you have a hydrogen leak or other problem.
8 Storage Bigger Capacity
Once your agriculture, mining, and general production systems start churning out resources you’re going to need a place to stash it all. Many players have complained about the limiting storage systems in the game and find themselves dedicating entire wings of their base to hold all their stuff.
Storage Bigger Capacity simply adds inventory space to all storage items in the game. It cuts down significantly on the amount of space you need reserved and allows you to dramatically increase production without fear of letting anything go to waste.
7 Grace Period
Many beginners have a tough time getting into this game and understanding all the mechanics before the Duplicants die and they have to start over. As a result, it can be incredibly frustrating and many will quit or cheat before they get very far.
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The Grace Period mod makes things easier by increasing the amount of food you get in the beginning and other small tweaks to make starting out easier. This extra time is often enough for struggling players to get a hang of things and start having a little fun before they die.
6 Tubular Colony Challenge
Conversely, some veterans have developed such an understanding of the game and its mechanics that it’s no longer a challenge. To add a new dynamic and make the game interesting again some fans have started using the Tubular Colony Challenge mod.
Basically, it makes new regions in the asteroid only accessible by tubes. These areas are necessary for advancement and survival which makes navigating the tubes a challenge that needs to be overcome. It’s a fun twist on gameplay and a great way to milk out the replayability a while longer.
5 Generate More Geysers
Other players are less interested in survival and more interested in creating different systems to test the limits of the game or come up with creative solutions to problems. Generate More Geysers does exactly what the title says, it adds Geysers of all types to the game world.
The number and variety of Geysers are customizable so it can be used to make the game easier or give builders the additional resources they’ve been wanting. Try not to go back to the early days of the game where everyone was inundated by too many water geysers though.
4 Chained Deconstruction
Players will often need to relocate elements of their base or clear out old construction to make way for bigger projects. The game is a little buggy and the Duplicants will often deconstruct the ladder they’re currently using, make walls unreachable before they’ve deconstructed them and so on.
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Chain Deconstruction is a mod that will eliminate all building elements in one chunk. Whatever you assign the Duplicants to deconstruct they’ll destroy it all at once, it prevents any accidents, pieces going untouched, and saves you a lot of time.
3 Extra Large Map
If you like creating big intricate systems or if you’re the kind of player who likes expanding out and establishing a huge base, then Extra Large Map is the mod for you. It increases the map size by about 150%.
With so much additional space there’s lots more to explore and a huge area to get creative and build something spectacular. The Bigger Camera Zoom Out mod will be a necessity with such a large area and Generate More Geysers couldn’t hurt either.
2 Plan Buildings Without Materials
One frustrating game mechanic is the inability to plan a build until you have all of the materials necessary to build it. This results in players waiting impatiently for duplicants to gather enough materials before being able to plan out builds.
To circumvent this the Plan Buildings Without Materials mod simply removes this restriction and allows you to set the plans even if you don’t have enough materials. It’ll then sit their idly until enough materials are gathered and the Duplicants will swoop in to build it. It’s great if you have big builds and want to lay out multiple plans before construction.
1 Blueprint Mod
The best mod for Oxygen Not Included has to be the Blueprint Mod. In the vanilla version of the game, you were only allowed to create blueprints for singular objects. With a massive system, you’d have to copy and paste it piecemeal which can result in mistakes and it takes forever.
With the Blueprint Mod, you can copy the entire system, all the machines, the room sizes, the piping, everything and paste it over. Your Duplicants will still need to gather the raw materials and build it by hand of course, but being able to click and drag an entire water purification system or convoluted coolant scheme is far too powerful and helpful to pass up.