How do I trigger my first fungal bloom?

[jez9999]

I've been reading through some of the strategy on this forum, and it seems like you don't want to start building tree farms until you've had the first fungal bloom of the game, as said by people like CEO Aaron in this thread.

However, I can't get it to happen! I've been playing a game for a while now, have quite a few bases, and have been building one up in mineral production to try and trigger a fungal bloom. I even build a thermal borehole next to it, but absolutely no response from Planet:

base.jpg

This thing is mining 19 mins per turn and causing 21 ecodamage; why no fungal bloom yet?? Is Planet just being nice to me? How can I annoy it a bit more?

[Hagen0]

Yeah, it's just bad luck, 21 ecodamage should be sufficient to get a funguspop within a few turns. If you want to force it build another borehole.

Your base looks nice with one exception. Your crawlers should work something better than tiles which only produce 1 mineral. Try a mine on rocky ground (also needs a road) or a solar collector on a high altitude tile. If you have too few formers plant a forest each for your crawlers.

[jez9999]

Yeah, it's just bad luck, 21 ecodamage should be sufficient to get a funguspop within a few turns. If you want to force it build another borehole.

The lack of a definite way to trigger it is really frustrating. I think I'm just gonna go all-out and go crazy with eco-damage. It feels like a bug in the game that I haven't gotten a fungal bloom yet, so if it is, I guess I can cause as much eco-damage as I want and nothing will happen.

Your base looks nice with one exception. Your crawlers should work something better than tiles which only produce 1 mineral. Try a mine on rocky ground (also needs a road) or a solar collector on a high altitude tile. If you have too few formers plant a forest each for your crawlers.

Yeah, I know, I was purposely pushing up mineral production 1-by-1 to see whether there were a certain number of minerals that caused a fungal bloom. Looks like there isn't - there's a nasty element of randomness. Might a base's location have an effect too? This base is between the ocean and Mount Planet; are there only certain places where fungal blooms can happen?

[Hagen0]

As far as I know the ecodamage number is roughly the probability of a funguspop happening at this base this turn.

The are lots of random elements in the game: combat (most important one), pod results, native life behaviour. One more that doesn't change anything.

[jez9999]

Aha, now what I did just get at that base was my first "Fungus grows near..." which only took out one square, with a solar collector, and also triggered the Book of Planet excerpt about lying in the tank with the liquid gurgling away. Was that what I was waiting for? I was expecting a full-blown fungal bloom with several squares affected but maybe I was waiting for the wrong thing?

[Lord Avalon]

Aha, now what I did just get at that base was my first "Fungus grows near..." which only took out one square, with a solar collector, and also triggered the Book of Planet excerpt about lying in the tank with the liquid gurgling away. Was that what I was waiting for? I was expecting a full-blown fungal bloom with several squares affected but maybe I was waiting for the wrong thing?

Yes, typically one square. Barring more than one base showing ecodamage.

[Hagen0]

It's always one square. However, you can have multiple pops ber base and turn if your eco damage is very high.

[BlackCat]

There are probably a bug in the game - I call your 21 in ecodamage and raises to 190