Infection Free Zone Food Production Guide

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Infection Free Zone Food Production Guide – Did you run out of food again in the middle of the crowd? This guide will help you avoid such happening in the future.

Infection Free Zone Food Production Guide

Calculations are available on Beta 0.24.4.17 8 and this is because I know that the developers will make new changes with the next hotfix but until they do, let’s avoid starving.

Calculations were made for neutral morale as it may be difficult to provide houses for 200 survivors to maintain the +40% efficiency bonus.

How food is produced (cycles)

Food is produced in cycles, so I based the calculations on the cycle time. The final cycle time is calculated using the formula (base cycle time) / (number of workers), so here is a list of base cycle times for food production.

Farm (fertilizer does not affect time) – 4 or 9 grains
1 worker – 40h

Kitchen – 2 grains -> 4 servings, 3 meat -> 5 servings (with kitchen efficiency technology)
1 worker which equals 20h grain (16h), 16h meat (12h 48m)

Barn – 1 grain -> 2 meat + 1 fertilizer
1 worker – 14h

Cannery – 2 servings -> 3 cans
1 worker – 4h

Survivors leave shelters/houses at sunrise and work until 1 hour before sunset, so their working hours depend on:

  • season
  • distance between shelter/house and workplace
  • distance between workplace and warehouse (not producing while replenishing)

Let’s assume a 9-hour workday as an average. Since the farm and cannery are temperature dependent, it is wise to have more farm and/or more people in the cannery than the minimum calculated below for winter supplies.

For 100 people, we need 25 meals a day, calculations are made with a surplus (slightly).

Cannery-based food production

It requires a fully functional cannery, in the case of cold production described below, it will be reduced and insufficient. Assign more workers to stockpile for cold days.

Building – required cycles – total cycle time with 1 worker /// (with kitchen efficiency increasing technology)
Cannery – 9 cycles – 36h
Kitchen – 5 cycles with grain – 100h | 4 cycles with meat – 64h meat /// 80h (grain) | 51.2h (meat)
Farm – 3 cycles without the presence of fertilizer or 2 cycles including fertilizer – 120h or 80h
Barn – 6 cycles – 84h

To fit it into 9h:
Cannery – 36h / 4 workers = 9h
Kitchen – 80h (grain) / 9 workers = 8.9h | 48h (meat) / 6 workers = 8h /// 64h (grain) / 8 workers = 8h | 38.4h / 5 workers = 7.68h
Farm – 120h (-fertilizer) / 14 workers = 8.6h | 80h (+fertilizer) / 10 workers = 8h
Barn – 84h in addition to 10 workers = 8.4h

Food production without cannery

Since no one wants to starve because the cannery froze, let’s review what we need to feed 100 people without a cannery.

The most efficient food production is meat because it has a shorter cycle time and larger batch production than grain foods.

Kitchen – 5 cycles (meat) – 80h / 9 workers = 8.9h /// With technology increasing kitchen efficiency – 64h / 8 workers = 8h
Barn – 8 cycles – 112h / 13 workers = 8.6h
Farm – 2 cycles (-fertilizer) – 40h / 5 workers = 8h | 1 cycle (+fertilizer) – 20h / 3 workers = 6.7h.

tl; dr

Technology upgrades are easy to achieve, so get them (kitchen efficiency + fertilizer consumption and houses for +40% ef.). Then you want:

  • 10% of the population as cooks
  • 8-12% of the population as farmers in barns
  • 5% of the population as canned goods
  • fields using fertilizers

Population 252, 79 (31% of the population) working in food production – 10 canneries, 20 cooks, 25 barn farmers, and 12 fields (8 with fertilizer, 4 without). Growing food supplies, and grain intake waaaaaaay above needs.

Infection Free Zone Food Production Guide

Food supply growth ~20 cans/day so I could feed 80 more people with the same food chain setup, so 79 (food production) / 332 (potential fed population) = 21.3% of the population in food production. Less than I suggested, but I have warehouses next to the kitchen and barn on this map so my people don’t waste time traveling to resupply.

Now you have a basic understanding of food production for 100 people but keep in mind that farms are fully productive half the time, so it makes sense to have more, even double, than what was calculated. It’s a full food production base, so you don’t want to deplete it when you’re under siege by the infected and can’t send a cleanup/expedition squad.

Remember these are MINIMUM CALCULATIONS. If something goes wrong, your people will starve. If you have long distances between the shed/house, workplace, and warehouse, you may not achieve 9 hours of production. Sticking to the minimum numbers can only work if you have a lot of food around, otherwise, you’ll regret playing “for the minimum”.

Now start cutting trees because you will run out of wood. Iron will also be useful.

Thanks for reading our post on Infection Free Zone Food Production Guide, make sure always to drop comments, and don’t also forget that suggestions are allowed.

Written By:  Raven

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