Gaming How-To

Once Human: How to Find the Irrigation Facility

A rooftop pickup in Iron River's East Blackfell Junction gets you the Automatic Irrigation Facility recipe through Reverse Engineering.

A rooftop pickup in Iron River’s East Blackfell Junction gets you the Automatic Irrigation Facility recipe through Reverse Engineering.

Image: Starry Studio

Watering crops by hand in Once Human gets old fast. The Automatic Irrigation Facility fixes that by spraying water over everything in a circle around it. To get the recipe without the memetic route, you first have to find a physical Irrigation Facility out in the world, break it down, and bring it back to your base for Reverse Engineering.

Quick answer: Go to East Blackfell Junction in Iron River. Climb to the roof of the central hospital, recycle the yellow tripod device with [R], then research the Automatic Irrigation Facility at a Tech Research Workbench.


Irrigation Facility location in Iron River

Only one spot matters here. East Blackfell Junction is a point of interest in the Iron River region, and the device sits on the abandoned hospital at its center.

DetailValue
RegionIron River
Point of interestEast Blackfell Junction
Recommended level25
Exact spotRoof of the central hospital building
What to look forYellow device on a tripod

Open your world map and zoom into Iron River to find the East Blackfell Junction marker. The area’s recommended level is 25, so come prepared for enemies around that level.

Map location: East Blackfell Junction00:21Map location: East Blackfell Junction
East Blackfell Junction on the Iron River map, where the Irrigation Facility spawns. Shown at 00:21 in HeRo Survival Guides’s video. Image: Starry Studio

How to collect the Irrigation Facility from the hospital roof

Travel to East Blackfell Junction and head for the large abandoned hospital in the middle of the area. That’s the building you need to climb.
Get up to the hospital’s rooftop and search among the equipment up there. The device is easy to miss if you’re only scanning the edges of the roof.
Exploring the hospital rooftop00:28Exploring the hospital rooftop
Searching the hospital rooftop, where the Irrigation Facility sits among the roof equipment. Shown at 00:28 in HeRo Survival Guides’s video. Image: Starry Studio
Find the yellow tripod-mounted unit labeled Irrigation Facility. If it isn’t on top of the roof, check the level just under it.
Aim at the device and use the Entity Recycle prompt by pressing [R]. This breaks it down and moves it into your inventory.
Collecting the Irrigation Facility00:43Collecting the Irrigation Facility
Recycling the Irrigation Facility tripod adds it to your inventory. Shown at 00:43 in HeRo Survival Guides’s video. Image: Starry Studio

You’ll know the pickup worked when an “Irrigation Facility +1” notification appears on screen. From there, you can head back down through the hospital and return to your base.


Unlock the Automatic Irrigation Facility recipe

Carrying the device around doesn’t unlock anything on its own. You have to turn it into a recipe at your Tech Research Workbench.

Go back to your territory and interact with the Tech Research Workbench. Keep the Irrigation Facility in your inventory.
In Reverse Engineering, open the Construction tab. Recovered facilities appear there as research options.
Select the Automatic Irrigation Facility entry. Its description says it helps keep the right humidity for crops in your territory.
Choose Unlock Tech or Join Research Queue to start the research. Once it finishes, the crafting recipe is yours permanently.
Unlocking recipe at Tech Research Workbench01:05Unlocking recipe at Tech Research Workbench
The Automatic Irrigation Facility entry under Reverse Engineering at the Tech Research Workbench. Shown at 01:05 in HeRo Survival Guides’s video. Image: Starry Studio

A “Recipe Unlocked” message confirms it worked. After that, the Irrigation Facility becomes available to place in Build Mode.

The Irrigation Facility can also be unlocked through memetics, so you may already have it if you’ve invested in the farming and water nodes.


What the Irrigation Facility needs to run

A placed sprinkler does nothing until it has both power and water. Make sure your setup covers each of these:

  • A power source supplying at least 2 Watts, such as a generator or solar panels.
  • A water hose connected from a source of Dirty Water, Purified Water, or Boiled Water.
  • Planter Boxes inside its circular watering area, which appears while you place it.

If you turn off the area preview, keep Planter Boxes within three boxes of the facility horizontally or vertically and within two boxes diagonally. Hovering over the unit also shows a Target Irrigation setting. Set it to a level that works for every plant in range, since different crops need different amounts of water.