Ingredients

Overview
Ingredients are important resources in Nom Nom Galaxy; any two ingredients are needed to make Soup in a Soup Machine. Ingredients are typically either harvested from plants or collected from defeated monsters. Additional and sometimes rare Ingredients may be found on some planets in pre-existing Storage Units.

Cultivating Ingredients
Plants which produce ingredients can be harvested with any weapon, but preferably with the Buzzsaw. Fully-grown plants typically yield two ingredients, with some exceptions noted below. Ingredients may be carried by the player one at a time, with a technology upgrade later allowing two to be carried at once. The player may plant some ingredients in soft earth to produce seedlings, which will eventually mature and allow farming of the ingredient. Some plants only grow under certain conditions, but most will grow more quickly if they are planted in an oxygenated space.

Destroying the ground under a plant, either directly or through a landslide, will only yield one ingredient regardless of the plant's maturity.

There are many Robots which can help the player farm and process Ingredients automatically. Charlie and Charles robots will pick up and carry ingredients they find, and deliver them to Soup Machines requesting those ingredients. They will also pass ingredients to Freddy robots, which throw ingredients upwards or downwards. Clarence will harvest any fully-grown plants it finds, leaving the ingredients on the ground, and Ben will bury and replant loose ingredients.

Ingredients From Creatures
Some ingredients may only be obtained by defeating monsters. The most common of these are obtained from small monsters which constantly spawn from nests. Therefore these ingredients are renewable (as long as the nest is not destroyed) but are difficult to harvest automatically. Some rarer ingredients may be obtained from larger monsters which do not respawn.

Monster nests are difficult to destroy, and are best attacked with a Shotgun or Sword. Destroying them will prevent their child monsters from spawning, but will yield huge quantities of their respective ingredients. However, since loose ingredients decay over time this is rarely a useful strategy.

Ingredient Decay
Ingredients left on the ground for too long will decay and begin to flash. If they can be planted and are on suitable terrain they will be replanted automatically. Non-plantable ingredients will be destroyed. If the player or a robot picks up an ingredient its lifetime will be reset. Ingredients stored in Soup Machines or Storage Units may exist indefinitely, as can ingredients currently being carried.

At the end of the day, any loose ingredients will be destroyed, and plant ingredients will not be replanted. Ingredients being carried by the player or robots, as well as any ingredients in machines, are safe. The player should be careful only to harvest ingredients they can carry, and replant any excess.