Refinement and phase transfer

Solid pair ladders used to return only about a quarter of the input mass at level 1 while still cycling every couple of minutes - so mines looked busy and stock still vanished.

Level 1 solid jobs now keep about 70% of the input as the next tier (2 in → about 1.4 out) on a cycle of roughly six minutes. Higher building levels still improve yield and speed.

Liquid, gas, and plasma ladders were already in that efficiency band and are unchanged.

A liquid phase bath used to finish a convert much faster than one solid refinery could produce solid T1. The bath ate every unit of solid T1 and liquid alloy consumers could not keep up, so liquid T1 stacked up.

Bath and press cycles are now about four times slower (tier-1 bath on the order of three-plus minutes). Conversion yield is still near 90%. Solid T1 can sit for a T2 solid ladder or feed the bath without disappearing instantly.

Keep the bath on when you need liquid T1 for alloy - just expect it to match the mill instead of racing ahead of it.

If a cost requires a specific matter state, and you only have the same resource+tier in a different matter state, the planner will show the shortest converter path.

This is intentional - it makes phase requirements visible instead of silently failing.

Raw resources keep their canonical matter state across tiers. Compounds inherit their matter state from the refinement recipe that produces them.

If you need a different matter state, you convert the stack explicitly.

Mixing two different materials in a refinery without matching a named explicit recipe creates a custom discovery compound (often with a player-chosen or generated name). That stack is real, but it is not alloy-pig-crystal.

Pig-crystal alloy is a fixed liquid-phase recipe: liquid pig-iron at tier 1 plus liquid crystal at tier 1, run in a liquid refinery. The output is liquid alloy at tier 2.

If the preview looks like a simple tier-up and the saved formula looks different afterward, you almost certainly saved a discovery mix or a same-resource pair ladder - stop that job and pick the Pig-crystal alloy target once liquid T1 inputs exist.

Launchpad unlocks (Orbit logistics, Component factory, Construction center) are not enough. Level 1 also spends liquid pig-crystal alloy T2 (about 66 units) plus raw pig-iron, crystal, and frurozin.

Step 1 - Solid refinery: raise pig-iron and crystal to tier 1, then make solid crystal T2 (crystal T1 + crystal T1). Crystal T2 is needed to build the Solid phase press.

Step 2 - Build the Solid phase press. Research phase-transfer-solid and Tier 2 processing must already be unlocked.

Step 3 - In the liquid refinery, raise frubin to liquid T2 (frubin is liquid-native). In the press, convert that liquid frubin T2 into solid frubin T2 - the Liquid phase bath build cost needs solid frubin T2.

Step 4 - Build the Liquid phase bath (needs an operating Solid phase press plus solid and liquid refineries).

Step 5 - In the bath, convert solid pig-iron T1 → liquid pig-iron T1 and solid crystal T1 → liquid crystal T1. Phase converters keep tier; they only change matter state.

Step 6 - In the liquid refinery, select Pig-crystal alloy (or slot liquid pig-iron T1 + liquid crystal T1). Stock roughly 66 units of liquid alloy T2, then place the Orbital launchpad from Core and tech on a free surface pad.

The colonization path doc marks the same launchpad gate: /docs/colonization-path

The named alloy target only appears when the colony already holds liquid pig-iron T1 and liquid crystal T1. Without those stacks, the panel still lets you pick other liquid jobs (for example frubin pair ladders) and free-form mixes.

Build and run the Liquid phase bath on solid T1 pig-iron and crystal first. After the liquid stacks exist, reopen the liquid refinery and choose Pig-crystal alloy from the output list.

You also need Liquid processing research and Tier 2 processing research for the alloy recipe itself.

Only until you have liquid T1 stocks. Once the bath has produced liquid pig-iron T1 and liquid crystal T1, the liquid refinery consumes those liquid stacks directly for each alloy cycle.

Keep the bath available when you top up liquid T1 from solid reserves. Do not try to feed solid T1 into the liquid refinery - slots are filtered to the building's matter state.