Kinds of planet and terraforming.

The old kinds

These are the basic kinds of planet. Each world takes its kind's gravity, air and temperature, and the seed varies them within a range.

Kind	Gravity (g)	Air	Breathable?	Heat range (C)	Seas
Barren	0.16 to 0.3	None	No	-170 to 110	None. Dead, grey, with craters.
Desert	0.6 to 0.9	Thin	No	-20 to 70	None
Ice	0.5 to 0.85	Thin	No	-120 to -20	Water
Volcanic	0.7 to 1.1	Thick	No	30 to 160	Lava
Jungle	0.9 to 1.3	Rich	Yes	15 to 50	Water
Ocean	0.9 to 1.2	Humid	Yes	5 to 35	Water, deep and wide

The home planet is a temperate world of 1 g, with breathable air, water seas and a warm, comfortable climate. Gas giants are huge worlds that you cannot land on.

The new kinds

In a harder universe, worlds can be dressed as one of these kinds, each with its own ground, sky, sun, moons and shapes of land:

• Bone Desert and Blood Desert: deserts of bone-pale or blood-red dunes and mesas.
• Crystal Forest: a forest of crystal trees under aurora curtains.
• Sky Isles: islands floating over a sea of cloud, with balloon trees.
• Canyon: painted canyon walls with green river floors.
• Glow World: dark woods and marshes lit by neon plants.
• Fungal World: giant mushroom forests and spore marshes.
• Shattered Moon: slag, shards and the ash of a broken world, under a giant planet.
• Aurora World: frost and tundra under rippling curtains of light.
• Salt Flat: a flat white salt pan, a hand deep in water.
• Storm World: slate spires under near-constant storms.
• Banded World: painted, striped mesas and flats.
• Violet Sea: violet meadows and plum-dark woods.
• Gas Moon: a moon under a great banded giant that fills half the sky.

Each new kind is a dressed version of one of the old kinds, so creatures and ores of that old kind still turn up on it.

Terraforming

A hostile world can be made livable with three machines, each set down as a block in the world:

• Atmosphere Processor: thickens the air and turns it toward something you can breathe.
• Water Seeder: brings moisture to the ground, and the first moss and grass grow round it.
• Climate Regulator: warms or cools the day toward a comfortable 15 C.

Each machine moves its measure a little each voyage day (about 22 minutes of play). It moves more quickly at first and more slowly as the world gets nearer to good. Days you are away from the world count at half pace, for up to a week.

• The air becomes breathable once the atmosphere is 60 per cent of the way along.
• A world is settleable from a livability score of 55 out of 100, and livable from 70.
• To found a colony you need a breathable world with a score of 55 or more, a machine set down, and a charter that costs 500 marks.

Colonies

A colony starts with six settlers and a beacon, a tall lit pillar that you can see from a distance. It grows with its population and pays taxes into a treasury of up to 3,000 marks. Each settler pays about a third of a mark a day. You collect the marks from the treasury at the beacon. A colony grows through five levels:

Level	Settlers
Outpost	0
Hamlet	20
Settlement	45
Town	90
City	160

As the colony grows, simple huts go up round the beacon, one for each level past the outpost.

Tips

• Check a world's readings on the Star Chart before you land. They tell you its air, warmth and water.
• Set down the machines first, then wait. Terraforming works while you are away, at half pace.
• Watch the readout at any machine. It shows how far the air, warmth and water have come.

← Back to the wiki · Last updated 25 October 2026. Mantlenaut is in alpha, so things change.