The Shrooms update for Schedule 1 quietly turns temperature into one of the most important stats in your entire operation. The AC unit sits at the center of that change, controlling whether your mushroom grow ever gets off the ground and how efficiently your plants develop.
What the AC unit does in Schedule 1
The AC unit is a placeable device that can both cool and heat indoor spaces. Its primary job in the current version is to create the cold environment mushrooms need to fruit, but the wider temperature system also affects other plants, with warm rooms able to speed up growth.
Each AC has three simple controls on the front panel: a Heat button, a Cool button, and an On/Off toggle. You place it like any other piece of equipment, then use those buttons to push the room’s temperature in the direction you need.
How to unlock the AC unit in Schedule 1
The AC is not available at the start of the game. It’s tied to progression in the Shrooms content and only appears in hardware store inventories after you meet a few conditions.
Step 1: Reach the Hustler 1 rank. The shroom path is locked behind this early-game milestone, so focus on your usual operations until you hit Hustler 1.
Step 2: Befriend Elizabeth or Kevin in Downtown. Build enough rapport with either of these NPCs to unlock new opportunities in that area.
Step 3: Unlock Fungal Phil as a supplier. Progress your Downtown relationships until Fungal Phil becomes available. He is the key contact for mushroom-related items.
Step 4: Wait for Fungal Phil’s message and start “Vibin’ on the ’Cybin.” Once Phil is in play, he will contact you with an offer to teach mushroom production. Accepting this kicks off the mandatory shroom quest.
Step 5: Complete the Vibin’ on the ’Cybin quest objectives. You need to walk through the basic mushroom pipeline using items from Phil and Oscar. The core tasks are:
- Buying a grain bag from Fungal Phil.
- Buying a spore syringe from Fungal Phil.
- Buying a mushroom spawn station from Oscar.
- Using the spawn station to inoculate the grain bag.
- Buying a mushroom bed from Oscar.
- Buying mushroom substrate from Fungal Phil.
- Mixing the shroom spawn into the mushroom bed.
Step 6: Visit a hardware store after turning in the quest. Once Vibin’ on the ’Cybin is finished, the AC unit is added to hardware store inventories across Hyland Point. Each unit costs $1,500, so plan your cash flow before buying several at once.
Where to buy the AC unit
After the shroom quest is complete, AC units can be purchased from any hardware store. That includes Dan’s Hardware near the starting motel, which is usually the most convenient early option once you are ready to expand into mushrooms.
You can buy multiple ACs if you want to climate-control several rooms or fine-tune temperatures across larger properties. For a first mushroom bed, one unit is usually enough if you position it correctly.
How to get the AC unit instantly with console commands
There is a direct console command that grants an AC unit without going through the quest flow.
Step 1: Open the in-game console. Use the standard keybinding for your platform to bring up the command console.
Step 2: Enter the give command for the AC.
give acunit 1Step 3: Close the console and check your inventory or placement menu. One AC unit will be available to place immediately.
Using the command skips the intended progression, so it is best treated as a sandbox or testing option rather than a first playthrough solution.
How to use the AC unit for shrooms
Mushrooms are far more sensitive to heat than your weed plants. Their fruiting stage requires a cold room, and they will not grow if the temperature stays too high.
Step 1: Place the AC near your Mushroom Bed. Position the unit close to the bed you are using for shrooms. Distance matters because the climate effect is localized, and you want the coldest zone to overlap the bed.
Step 2: Turn the unit on and select Cool. Use the On/Off button to power up the AC, then press Cool to start dropping the temperature.
Step 3: Watch the room temperature indicator. Mushroom fruiting requires a temperature below 15 °C. Let the AC run until the room dips under that threshold, and keep an eye on it so it does not creep back up if you open doors or adjust the layout.
Step 4: Maintain the cold environment while shrooms develop. As long as the bed stays in a zone below 15 °C, the mushrooms can grow. If the temperature rises above that, growth will stall until the AC brings the room back down.
Note: The Shrooms update adds a temperature heatmap view that helps visualize cold and warm pockets across your properties. Use it to confirm that the Mushroom Bed sits in the correct temperature band.
Using the AC unit with weed and other plants
The AC is introduced for mushrooms, but the temperature system reaches across the rest of your grow operations as well.
Weed plants prefer warm rooms rather than cold ones. You can use AC units in Heat mode to create those conditions, nudging a room’s temperature upward and improving growth speed. That gives temperature an ongoing role even outside the shroom pipeline, turning the AC into a more general optimization tool once your operation scales.
At the moment, shrooms are the only substance that strictly requires AC-level temperature control to function. Other drugs grow without it, but benefit when you manage warmth intelligently.
Basic AC controls and placement strategy
The AC interface is intentionally minimal, but a few habits make it much easier to live with as your empire gets more complex.
- Use one clear role per unit. Decide whether an AC in a given room is a cooler for shrooms or a heater for plants and leave it in that mode. Constantly flipping between Heat and Cool makes it harder to keep temperatures stable.
- Center units on the critical crop. Whether it is a Mushroom Bed or a dense cluster of weed plants, align the AC so its strongest effect covers that high-value area. Use the heatmap to confirm coverage.
- Avoid overbuying early. At $1,500 per unit, ACs are a meaningful cost during Hustler-level play. Start with a single shroom-focused room and one AC until your mushroom income justifies larger climate-controlled facilities.
The Shrooms update turns the AC unit from a background decoration into one of the key levers in Schedule 1’s late-early game. Unlock it through Vibin’ on the ’Cybin, buy a first unit from Dan’s or any other hardware store, then treat temperature as seriously as watering or lighting if you want reliable mushroom harvests and faster plant cycles across the rest of your empire.
