Building

Spice mine

Spice is fuel, a research material and the most valuable resource. The colder your planet, the more your spice mine produces.

No spice, no flights: every flight burns fuel, including every save flight. On top of that come research, many buildings and units, and the Thermosolar plant, which burns spice continuously. At the merchant spice is the most expensive resource.

Production depends on the planet's temperature: the colder the planet, the more spice. The temperature comes from the planet's position on the map – the farther it is from the sun, the colder it gets. You can find it in the planet info. Set your planet's temperature in the level table to see the matching values. More under Planets.

The Spice mine has the highest energy demand per level of all mines, so plan for more energy than with the other mines. Warm planets, on the other hand, suit Solar cells better, since they deliver more energy there. That makes for a sensible division of labour between your colonies.

At level 6 the Spice mine unlocks the Thermosolar plant and the Particle shield. Like the other mines, it benefits from Mining technology and from production bonuses.

Background

Spice is harvested directly in its elemental form and the production of this ressource is dependent on the development of the mining facility and the planets orbit around the sun. Only in colder regions of the solar system, this otherwise rather volatile commodity can be effectively stabilised in a solid form. Essential to the imperial trading it is needed as fuel for military operations and civilian transports. Based on its complexity in combination with other materials, this material bears unforeseen possibilities, so that huge quantities of this material go into research. This material also has a dense packed high energy structure, therefore it is used in weapons and power plants.

Levels at a glance

Development centerMicrosystem acc.Universe

Planet temperature

Level	Metal	Kryptonite	Build time	Spice / hour	Energy needed
1	220	80	27 s	6	-9
2	333	121	41 s	14	-21
3	502	183	1 min 2 s	25	-36
4	758	276	1 min 34 s	38	-55
5	1,144	416	2 min 22 s	55	-80
6	1,728	629	3 min 34 s	76	-111
7	2,608	949	5 min 23 s	102	-148
8	3,938	1,432	8 min 7 s	134	-195
9	5,947	2,163	12 min 16 s	174	-253
10	8,979	3,265	18 min 31 s	222	-323
11	13,558	4,931	27 min 58 s	281	-409
12	20,473	7,445	42 min 13 s	353	-513
13	30,914	11,242	1 h 3 min	439	-639
14	46,680	16,975	1 h 36 min	544	-792
15	70,486	25,632	2 h 25 min	671	-976
16	106,434	38,703	3 h 39 min	823	-1,197
17	160,715	58,442	5 h 31 min	1,006	-1,463
18	242,679	88,247	8 h 20 min	1,225	-1,782
19	366,445	133,253	12 h 35 min	1,487	-2,163
20	553,331	201,212	19 h 1 min	1,800	-2,618
21	835,530	303,829	1 d 4 h 43 min	2,173	-3,162
22	1,261,650	458,782	1 d 19 h 21 min	2,619	-3,809
23	1,905,091	692,761	2 d 17 h 28 min	3,148	-4,580
24	2,876,687	1,046,068	4 d 2 h 52 min	3,778	-5,496
25	4,343,796	1,579,563	6 d 5 h 18 min	4,526	-6,583
26	6,559,132	2,385,139	9 d 9 h 26 min	5,413	-7,874
27	9,904,290	3,601,560	14 d 4 h	6,464	-9,403
28	14,955,477	5,438,356	21 d 10 h	7,710	-11,214
29	22,582,770	8,211,917	32 d 8 h	9,183	-13,357
30	34,099,983	12,399,994	48 d 20 h	10,924	-15,890
31	51,490,974	18,723,991	73 d 17 h	12,982	-18,883
32	77,751,370	28,273,226	111 d 8 h	15,411	-22,416
33	117,404,568	42,692,571	168 d 3 h	18,277	-26,584
34	177,280,898	64,465,781	253 d 21 h	21,655	-31,498
35	267,694,156	97,343,330	383 d 9 h	25,636	-37,289
36	404,218,175	146,988,427	578 d 21 h	30,324	-44,107
37	610,369,444	221,952,525	874 d 3 h	35,841	-52,132
38	921,657,859	335,148,313	1,319 d 22 h	42,331	-61,573
39	1.39 B	506,073,952	1,993 d 2 h	49,962	-72,672
40	2.10 B	764,171,668	3,009 d 14 h	58,929	-85,716
41	3.17 B	1.15 B	4,544 d 12 h	69,463	-101,038
42	4.79 B	1.74 B	6,862 d 5 h	81,831	-119,027
43	7.24 B	2.63 B	10,361 d 22 h	96,347	-140,141
44	10.93 B	3.97 B	15,646 d 13 h	113,375	-164,910
45	16.50 B	6.00 B	23,626 d 6 h	133,345	-193,956
46	24.91 B	9.06 B	35,675 d 16 h	156,754	-228,007
47	37.62 B	13.68 B	53,870 d 7 h	184,187	-267,908
48	56.80 B	20.65 B	81,344 d 3 h	216,321	-314,649
49	85.77 B	31.19 B	122,829 d 16 h	253,952	-369,385
50	129.51 B	47.09 B	185,472 d 19 h	298,005	-433,462
51	195.56 B	71.11 B	280,063 d 22 h	349,560	-508,452
52	295.29 B	107.38 B	422,896 d 13 h	409,877	-596,184
53	445.89 B	162.14 B	638,573 d 19 h	480,423	-698,797
54	673.29 B	244.83 B	964,246 d 10 h	562,911	-818,779
55	1.02 T	369.70 B	1,456,012 d 2 h	659,335	-959,033
56	1.54 T	558.24 B	2,198,578 d 6 h	772,022	-1,122,941
57	2.32 T	842.94 B	3,319,853 d 4 h	903,679	-1,314,442
58	3.50 T	1.27 T	5,012,978 d 8 h	1,057,463	-1,538,128
59	5.29 T	1.92 T	7,569,597 d 7 h	1,237,050	-1,799,345
60	7.98 T	2.90 T	11,430,091 d 21 h	1,446,719	-2,104,319
61	12.05 T	4.38 T	17,259,438 d 18 h	1,691,456	-2,460,300
62	18.20 T	6.62 T	26,061,752 d 13 h	1,977,062	-2,875,727
63	27.48 T	9.99 T	39,353,246 d 9 h	2,310,293	-3,360,427
64	41.49 T	15.09 T	59,423,402 d	2,699,009	-3,925,832
65	62.65 T	22.78 T	89,729,337 d 1 h	3,152,358	-4,585,249
66	94.61 T	34.40 T	135,491,298 d 23 h	3,680,985	-5,354,160
67	142.86 T	51.95 T	204,591,861 d 11 h	4,297,271	-6,250,576
68	215.71 T	78.44 T	308,933,710 d 20 h	5,015,621	-7,295,449
69	325.73 T	118.45 T	466,489,903 d 8 h	5,852,787	-8,513,145
70	491.85 T	178.85 T	704,399,754 d 1 h	6,828,252	-9,932,003
71	742.69 T	270.07 T	1,063,643,628 d 15 h	7,964,668	-11,584,972
72	1.12 Qa	407.81 T	1,606,101,879 d 6 h	9,288,373	-13,510,362
73	1.69 Qa	615.79 T	2,425,213,837 d 17 h	10,829,986	-15,752,706
74	2.56 Qa	929.84 T	3,662,072,894 d 22 h	12,625,093	-18,363,772
75	3.86 Qa	1.40 Qa	5,529,730,071 d 8 h	14,715,058	-21,403,720
76	5.83 Qa	2.12 Qa	8,349,892,407 d 18 h	17,147,947	-24,942,469
77	8.80 Qa	3.20 Qa	12,608,337,535 d 17 h	19,979,615	-29,061,258
78	13.29 Qa	4.83 Qa	19,038,589,678 d 22 h	23,274,954	-33,854,479
79	20.07 Qa	7.30 Qa	28,748,270,415 d 5 h	27,109,353	-39,431,787
80	30.31 Qa	11.02 Qa	43,409,888,326 d 23 h	31,570,386	-45,920,562

Values without speed-up and assistants. Costs are for upgrading to the given level. Set your development center and microsystem accelerator above and the build times adjust.

Spice mine

Levels at a glance

Read more