Biome

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Biomes, occupying the surface Layer (and sometimes the subsurface layer as well) are the environment of a planet. Each biome determines what the surface will look like in their area, how many hills and mountains can generate, what plants will grow there, if any, and the weather and temperature.

Which Biomes Can Appear on a Planet?

Planets are defined by Major Biomes and each planet has a Dominant Biome (also referred to as the Primary Biome) - this biome is the one you see on the navigation console when first looking at a planet in your ship. The Dominant Biome defines the planet overall, including the background details, decides which Dungeons and Villages can spawn on that world and what other Major Biomes can be generated. Some Dominant Biomes do not allow any other biomes to appear. An example of this is the Arctic biome - when it is the dominant biome, no other biomes can appear on the surface or in the subsurface of the planet (the subsurface is occupied by the Arctic ocean floor).

Major Biomes have the most impact on the overall makeup of each planet: each has their own unique features and monsters, although not all creature spawns are determined by the biomes available; some are random. Planets can have several Major Biomes so long as the Dominant Biome lets them appear - the larger a planet is, the more Major Biomes it is likely to have. Major Biomes that are not Dominant are also known as Secondary Biomes.

All Major Biomes can also have Minor Biomes associated with them, also known as Mini-Biomes. Minor Biomes have unique characteristics to add diversity to the planets and frequently have their own unique treasure and items to find as well. If a Major Biome is present on a planet, any Minor Biome dependent on that Major Biome could appear on that world, even if that biome is not normally generated by the Dominant Biome. However, the biome has to be the Dominant one to allow the appearance of other Major Biomes.

This allows for a very wide variety of possible environments on different planets, and also means that you can find sometimes find features of low-Tier worlds on high-Tier worlds and vice versa - Garden biomes are occasionally found on Volcanic worlds, for example, which allows Volcanic worlds to sometimes have Spring biomes when they cannot do this normally.

Major Biomes

These biomes are the possible Dominant Biomes of a generated planet. The temperature, enemies, additional biomes and weather of a planet are dependent on the biome reported in your navigation console on your ship.

Depending on the size of the planet, it can have several Major Biomes, if this is allowed on this particular planet type.

Notes

The Unknown threat level is meant to be ambiguous, in that no threat exists whatsoever until you acquire Erchius Fuel or bring some with you. It is actually registered in the game files as Tier 1 but does not strictly fit any Tier classification beyond this technicality.

As The Ruin is a custom boss encounter planet, the biome type does not have a defined Tier at all. The encounter is set manually to Tier 6 as it is expected to be taken on at that stage of player progression.

TIER 0*: UNKNOWN

MOON TENTACLE (THE RUIN) EARTH (BUGGY)
V1 0 biome moon.png V1 0 biome theruin.png Earthheader.png

TIER 1: LOW

ASTEROID FIELD GARDEN BARREN
V1 0 biome asteroid.png V1 0 biome garden.png V1 0 biome barren.png

TIER 2: MODERATE

DESERT FOREST
V1 0 biome desert.png V1 0 biome forest.png

TIER 3: RISKY

SAVANNAH OCEAN SNOW
V1 0 biome savannah.png V1 0 biome ocean.png V1 0 biome snow.png

TIER 4: DANGEROUS

MUTATED JUNGLE TOXIC
V1 0 biome mutated.png V1 0 biome jungle.png V1 0 biome toxic.png

TIER 5: EXTREME

ARCTIC TUNDRA MIDNIGHT
V1 0 biome frigidocean.png V1 0 biome frozen.png V1 0 biome dark.png

TIER 6: INCONCEIVABLE

MAGMA VOLCANIC DECAYED
V1 0 biome magma.png V1 0 biome volcanic.png V1 0 biome scorched.png

Minor Biomes

These Mini-Biomes cannot be the dominant biome of a planet. Instead, these smaller biomes are generated within one of a planet's Major Biomes. These environments can have unique characteristics such as plants, monsters and blocks that are distinct from the main biome and are unique to that specific area.

ASTEROIDS ALPINE BIOLUMINESCENCE
Asteroid Space View.png Alpine Biome Banner.png Bioluminescence Biome Banner.png
BONES COLOURFUL EYEPATCH
Arid Bones Biome Banner New.png 280px-Colorful Biome Banner.png Eyeball Biome Banner.png
FLESH FOUNDRY GEODE
Flesh Biome Banner.png Foundrybanner.png Geodebanner.png
GIANT FLOWERS HIVE MUSHROOM PATCH
Giant Flower Biome Banner.png Hive Biome Banner.png Giant Mushroom Biome Banner.png
OASIS PRISM SPRING
Oasis Biome Banner.png Geometric Biome Banner.png Spring Banner.png
STEAMSPRING SWAMP TAR
Steamspring Biome Banner.png Swamp surface.png Tar Biome Banner.png

Underground Caves

Underground Caves are smaller biomes which can be found below the surface of a planet in place of a generic underground Layer. These environments can have unique characteristics such as plants, monsters and blocks that are distinct from the main biome, unique to that specific area. They can vary greatly from the biomes on that planet's surface, allowing you to discover materials that would otherwise be impossible to find there. All of these biomes may generate on any planet type except Moon, Barren, and Tentacle.

(The game will often refer to cave biomes as "<name> Caves", mainly to distinguish them from any similar surface biomes.)

BONE CAVES CELL CAVES FLESH CAVES
Bone Cavern Banner.png Cell underground.png Flesh Cavern Biome Banner.png
ICE CAVES LUMINOUS CAVES MINI VILLAGE
Ice Caves Banner.png Bio light underground.png Gnomevillage underground.png
MUSHROOMS SLIME CAVES STONE CAVES
Mushroom Cavern Biome Banner.png Slime Biome Banner.png Stone Caves Biome Banner.png
TARPIT WILDERNESS
Underground tarpit Biome Banner.png Wilderness Banner.png

This Underground Cave is not found normally in the universe and exists only as part of The Ruin boss encounter.

BRAIN (THE RUIN'S BRAIN)
Nobiome.png V1 0 biome ruin brain.png Nobiome.png