The Last Caretaker eventually hands you its strangest responsibility: growing new humans in the Lazarus Complex and firing them into orbit. It looks intimidating at first, but the loop is consistent: secure a Human Seed, keep it alive in a Lazarus Rack, feed it water, food, and memories, then choose what kind of person you are sending to the stars.
Bring a Human Seed safely to the Lazarus Complex
Human Seeds are found in Seed Vaults around the map, stored in wall-mounted pods. As soon as you pull one out, a timer starts: you have about an hour of in-game time to get that seed into a powered, watered Lazarus Rack inside the Lazarus Complex. Leaving it too long kills the seed permanently.
The safe way to move a seed is:
- Remove the Human Seed from the Seed Vault.
- Place it immediately into a portable Lazarus Pod for protection.
- Transport the pod back to the Lazarus Complex and into a functional Lazarus Rack in the Hall of Humanity.
Putting the seed back into its original Seed Vault pod will reset the timer if you need to delay the trip.
Wire power and fresh water to the Lazarus Rack
A Lazarus Rack only grows a human if it has three things: power, fresh water, and an intact pod with a seed inside. The basic setup in the Lazarus Complex looks like a small infrastructure puzzle.
| Requirement | What to do |
|---|---|
| Electricity | Run an electrical line from the main supply through the door opposite the save/vitality stations, down the left ladder, and into the lower chamber. Split it to power both the salt water pump and the water purifier, then extend the line to the Lazarus chamber. |
| Salt water feed | Lay water pipes down to the pump and purifier chamber. Connect the purifier’s salt water input port to the pump’s output. |
| Fresh water feed | Connect the purifier’s fresh water port to a pipe that runs up to the Lazarus chamber and into the Lazarus Rack’s fresh water input. |
| Repairs and flow | Repair the pump and purifier, then confirm water pipes point up and power cables are feeding down into the machines. |
Each full growth cycle consumes roughly 10,000L of fresh water and about 10 kWh of power per human. If you plan to grow multiple humans in parallel, expanding your tanks and battery storage around the complex makes the process smoother.
Unlock and place a Food Processor
A bare Lazarus Rack can keep the seed alive, but you need nutrient canisters to reach the minimum physical stats and push into specific roles. Those canisters are made in the Food Processor.
To get a Food Processor online:
| Step | Details |
|---|---|
| Unlock the station | Spend two skill points at level 10 to unlock the Food Processor in the skills tree. |
| Craft parts | Build: Conduit Wiring x1, Connector Ports x2, Alloy Frame x2, Filtering System x1, Display Screen x1 in a Fabricator, then pick them up. |
| Place it | Assemble the Food Processor wherever is convenient; most players put it near the Lazarus racks instead of leaving the default canteen unit in place. |
| Connect utilities | Wire it into your electrical network and run a water pipe into its water input. |
There is a repairable Food Processor in a canteen room inside the complex, but repairing and dismantling it returns only some of its components. Building a dedicated unit next to the Hall of Humanity simplifies the loop when you are crafting lots of food.
Turn biomaterials into nutrient ingredients
Nutrient canisters are made from basic biochemical ingredients: fat, protein, carbohydrate, omega-3, vitamin D, calcium, and a set of rarer compounds. Those do not come directly from enemies as finished items. Instead, you gather biomaterials and recycle them.
| Biomaterial | Recycled output | Where to find it |
|---|---|---|
| Bio Organic | Omega-3 | Drops from Crawlers |
| Bio Seaweed | Protein, Carbohydrate | Caught in the ocean with the ship’s net |
| Bio Waste | Fat | Ship’s net, dismantling Bio Waste canisters |
| Bio Dark | Calcium | Harvested from red slime nests |
| Bio Light | Vitamin D | Harvested from pink slime |
| Bio Flesh | Bioregulator, Nanite Nutrient, Mitochondrial Amplifier | Drops from Talon Sharks |
Run stacks of these biomaterials through a Recycler. The output cubes (Fat, Protein, Carbohydrate, Omega-3, Vitamin D, Calcium, and the three red compounds) become the inputs for high-end nutrient canisters.
Lower-tier food canisters you loot in the world can also be recycled back into ingredients if you are chasing specific recipes.
All nutrient canister types and what they do
Each food type nudges the human’s physical stats in a different direction. Some are efficient specialist boosts; others are broad all-rounders. Unlocks are spread across skill tiers 10–15.
| Food | Tier / Cost | Main stat effects | Ingredients |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nutri-Core | T10 / 1 point | +3 Height, Intellect, Life Expectancy, Strength, Weight | Fat x3, Protein x3, Carbohydrate x3 |
| High-Fat | T10 / 1 point | +8 Weight, minor boosts to others | Fat x8, Protein x5, Carbohydrate x5 |
| Physique Fuel | T11 / 1 point | +5 Height, +5 Strength, minor others | Fat x2, Protein x4, Carbohydrate x2 |
| Mind Surge | T11 / 1 point | +6 Intellect, +6 Life Expectancy, small all-round | Fat x2, Protein x10, Carbohydrate x1 |
| Muscle Fortification | T13 / 1 point | +15 Strength, +8 Weight, modest others | Calcium x1, Vitamin D x12, Omega-3 x12 |
| Bone-Fortify | T14 / 1 point | +8 Height, +14 Strength, modest others | Vitamin D x3, Calcium x10, Omega-3 x2 |
| Endura-Growth | T14 / 1 point | +8 Life Expectancy, +2 to other physical stats | Vitamin D x4, Calcium x3, Omega-3 x4 |
| Immune Boost | T15 / 1 point | +6 across all five physical stats | Fat x1, Protein x2, Carbohydrate x3, Vitamin D x3, Calcium x3, Omega-3 x3 |
| Neuro-Boost | T15 / 1 point | +15 Intellect, +10 Life Expectancy, small others | Calcium x3, Vitamin D x3, Omega-3 x10 |
In practice, one or two all-rounders like Nutri-Core or Immune Boost, plus one or two targeted cans (Mind Surge, Physique Fuel, or the calcium/vitamin-heavy options), are enough to hit minimums and lean toward a profession.
High-end recipes are water-hungry. Running a ship’s net constantly and recycling bio waste keeps ingredient stocks healthy without having to farm specific creatures all the time.
Loot memories to define mental traits
Memories are physical objects: toys, books, instruments, tools, artwork, and other small items scattered across the world. You never craft them; you only find them.
Typical memory spawn spots include:
- On desks and shelves
- Inside vents and small alcoves
- In containers and lockers
- Near furniture or tucked into dark corners
Each memory item adds points to one or more mental traits when placed in a Lazarus Rack:
- Empathy
- Communication
- Patience
- Discipline
- Leadership
- Adaptability
- Creativity
- Focus
- Logic
- Wisdom
Hovering over a memory in the interface shows which traits it affects and how strongly. Quality tiers roughly map to their impact: poor items give low single-digit bonuses, while rare objects can add well over ten points to a trait.
Some junk objects — sports balls in particular — often have no useful traits at all. Always check the tooltip before hauling them back to the boat.
Use the Lazarus Rack interface to shape a human
Once the seed is in place, the rack is powered and watered, and you have nutrient canisters and memories in your backpack, you can start designing a human.
Interact with the Lazarus Rack to open its interface. The layout is always the same:
| Area | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Upper left | Inventory list of eligible items (food and memories) in your backpack. |
| Center | Details of the highlighted item: stat changes or trait bonuses. |
| Bottom left | Items currently loaded into the rack for this human. |
| Upper right | Human summary: physical stats, mental traits, and predicted profession matches. |
Drag items from the inventory area into the rack, or right-click them and choose “Add to rack.” Clicking an item lets you move just one canister or memory out of a stack instead of the whole stack. Removing an item is the reverse: pull it back to your backpack.
Meet the minimum physical requirements
Before anything else, the human must reach three baseline physical thresholds:
| Stat | Minimum |
|---|---|
| Life Expectancy | 10 years |
| Height | 30 cm |
| Weight | 20 kg |
Intellect and Strength have no hard minimums, but become critical for certain job tracks later. The interface highlights any stat that is too low or too extreme in red, so you can quickly see which direction you need to adjust with additional food or by swapping out heavy specialist canisters.
Raise mental traits and pick a profession
Mental traits have no universal minimums. You can technically grow a human with zero points in all of them, but that person will not qualify for any meaningful role. The real depth appears when you press H in the Lazarus interface to open the profession panel.
Professions are grouped loosely into tracks:
- Engineer (Maintenance Engineer, Systems Engineer, Energy Engineer, Quantum Engineer)
- Culture roles (Visual Technician through to Existential Expressionist)
- Educators (Manual Holder through to Existential Chancellor)
- Food and biosphere management
- Logistics (Basic Supplier through Logistics High Command)
- Military security (Door Jammer through Guardian of Humanity)
- Research (Lab Technician through Quantum Physicist)
- Healthcare (Health Assistant through Neural Architect)
- Leadership (Room Supervisor through Colonel of Humanity)
- Exploration (Station Roamer through Frontier Explorer)
Each job has hidden physical and mental thresholds. Once you produce a human in a given role at least once, the game reveals those requirements for that track. For example:
- A Room Supervisor needs a modest life expectancy and small amounts of Leadership, Empathy, and Communication.
- A Lab Technician leans heavily on Intellect, with extra points in Wisdom, Logic, and Patience.
- High-tier roles like Quantum Physicist or Guardian of Humanity demand extremely high intellect or strength plus strong supporting traits such as Logic, Discipline, and Focus.
To steer toward a profession:
- Open professions with
Hand select one to track. - Use the filter with
Jto show only memories or food that boost a specific trait you are short on (for example, Wisdom or Leadership). - Add targeted memories until the growth prediction percentage for that profession reaches 100% or higher.
The tracked profession panel also shows when you are meeting or exceeding each required trait. Extra points beyond the threshold do not hurt, but they do consume scarce memories that could support other humans later.
Start the growth cycle and handle bugs
Once you are confident in the stat spread and a target profession is at 100%, you can begin the incubation:
- Confirm that the rack shows positive growth predictions and no red physical stats.
- Press
Eon the Lazarus Rack to start the process. - Stay nearby for about 10 real-time minutes while the power and water counters tick down.
The rack model visually fills and eventually spits out “waste” — human byproduct that can itself be reused in fuel production or recycled. At the end of the countdown, the pod finishes, and you can remove it from the rack. The grown human’s summary panel will show final stats and their assigned job, such as Maintenance Engineer, Visual Technician, or Room Supervisor.
Move Lazarus Pods to Exodus Station and launch
After growth, nothing is time-sensitive anymore. You can carry Lazarus Pods with humans around the world like any other container and stage them for the final run. The end of the arc happens at Exodus Station’s Departure Hall.
The launch sequence is an infrastructure exercise similar to the Lazarus Complex, but with oxygen, methane, power, and the rocket itself instead of water:
- Fuel methane and oxygen tanks and connect them to the rocket’s intake ports.
- Provide sufficient electrical power to the launch systems, often via a mix of solar, wind, diesel, or petrol generators.
- Load up to three Lazarus Pods into the rocket’s capsule.
- Complete launch checks at the control console and trigger liftoff.
After a successful launch, a white capsule eventually returns from orbit. Its contents reflect the “quality” of humans you have sent so far, tying the colony’s feedback to your choices of jobs and trait distributions across all launches.
With the infrastructure in place and a good stock of biomaterials and memories, growing and launching subsequent humans becomes a repeatable loop: seed vault dives, nutrient crafting, personality assembly, and quiet trips back to the rocket. The Last Caretaker turns human creation into another long-form system to optimize, right alongside power grids and fuel chains.
