Cultivators and Sub-Slots
The passive ingredient generators you place in your kitchen are now called Cultivators (you may still see "Producer" in a few older surfaces — they're the same thing). Everything below uses the new name.
Your Kitchen has up to 6 cultivator plots. Each plot holds one Cultivator; each cultivator has a number of sub-slots — set by its tier and its level — and you plant one ingredient seed per sub-slot. The cultivator drips those ingredients (plus RSNC) into your Inventory on its frequency timer.
This page helps you decide which tier of cultivator to plant, whether to level a cultivator you already own or buy a new plot, and whether the Signal 6th plot is worth it. It walks each plot one by one, then the sub-slot and harvest math.
The cultivator system was rebuilt into a refinery. If you remember the old model, the big shifts are:
- Sub-slots hold a seed or an avatar worker. You plant ingredient seeds and commit avatars to the same cultivator. Seeds are the feedstock and the timer; avatars do the upgrading. See Committing avatars.
- Output quality (rarity) comes from your avatars — nothing else. Seed rarity no longer raises output rarity, and neither do cultivator tier, equipment Elegance, or Kitchen Level. With no committed avatars, every output is Standard, no matter what you planted. See Harvest rarity.
- Seed rarity buys lifespan only. A Standard seed lasts 1 harvest, Rare 2, Mythical 3 — that's the whole benefit of a premium seed when planted. It does not make outputs rarer or larger.
- Quantity is flat — 1 unit per producing slot per tick, every tier. More units come from more slots (level/tier) and from committed avatars (they amplify volume too), not from seed or cultivator rarity.
- Sub-slots come from level. A cultivator starts with a few (by tier) and gains one more per level, up to 12. See Sub-slots.
- Ascension is a cook (A0 → A5). It adds a small yield bonus and an extra Forge gear-part drop roll per harvest (gear converts to Avatar Essence) — it does not add sub-slots. See Ascension.
The cultivator RSNC drip is 5 RSNC per ingredient harvested.
Mental model
A cultivator is a refinery. You mint one, plant ingredient seeds in its sub-slots, commit avatars to work it, and walk away. It drops ingredients (plus RSNC) into your Storage on its frequency timer. You come back and click Claim. Seeds set how much and how long; avatars set how good; empty cultivators make nothing.
Cultivation lines — how your cultivators are grouped
On the Cultivators surface, every cultivator you've placed is sorted into a cultivation line by what it grows. There are two lines by default, and a third appears once you place a world-tied cultivator:
| Line | What lives here | What it grows |
|---|---|---|
| 🌱 Kitchen Garden | Food cultivators (the five ingredient families below) | Seeds replicate into cooking ingredients each tick. |
| ⚒️ Workshops | Material & essence cultivators (foundry, smithy, mystic, extractor, mine, and the like) | Materials & essence — ore, spark, refined goods. |
| 🌍 World Cultivation | World-tied cultivators (volcanic · storm · tidal · sonentius) | A world's element-specific yield. Appears only when you have at least one world cultivator placed. |
The lines are a display grouping — they don't change any cultivator's mechanics. A cultivator's line is decided by its type, not by the plot you put it in. The rest of this page's math (sub-slots, seeds, avatars, leveling, ascension, harvest) applies to every cultivator regardless of line.
Plot unlocks at a glance
| Plot | How you get it | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tune-In L1–4 | Free |
| 2 | Tune-In L5–14 | Free |
| 3 | Tune-In L15+ | Free (Tune-In cap) |
| 4 | Paid permanent unlock | 5,000 RSNC / $5 USDSC |
| 5 | Paid permanent unlock (needs plot 4 first) | 15,000 RSNC / $15 USDSC |
| 6 | Signal subscriber bonus — free, not buyable | — |
Tune-In gates plots 1–3; plots 4 and 5 are one-time paid unlocks; plot 6 comes only with an active Signal subscription. The hard ceiling is 6 plots.
Each cultivator plot, walkthrough
Plot 1 — your first cultivator (Tune-In L1, free)
The plot you start with. Unlocked the moment your account exists.
What to put here: Your first Standard cultivator. Cost: 5,000 RSNC or $5 USDSC. Pick a family that matches a Permanent recipe you want to cook:
- Want to run Pulse Bread (the easiest beginner recipe)? You need Pulse Eggs + Harmonic Herbs → mint a Photon Aquarium OR a Frequency Garden.
- Want Echo Espresso for daily mailbox boosts? You need Echo Spores + Stellar Honey → mint an Echo Mushroom Cluster OR an Astral Beehive.
A Standard cultivator starts with 1 sub-slot and gains more as you level it (see below). Plant one ingredient seed per sub-slot; all sub-slots on a cultivator must be the same family.
Plot 2 — Tune-In L5 (free)
Unlocks automatically at Tune-In level 5.
What to put here: Your second family. If Plot 1 is Sweet, make Plot 2 Vegetal or Earth — coverage across families opens up more recipes. By L5 you've cooked a few rounds; you know what ingredient your bottleneck is.
Plot 3 — Tune-In L15 (free, cap on free)
Last free cultivator plot. Unlocks at Tune-In level 15.
What to put here: Your third family. With 3 cultivators in 3 different families, you can complete most Permanent recipes without buying ingredients.
If you've started running Flash or Limited recipes, consider upgrading one of your Standard cultivators to Rare instead of adding a third Standard. A Rare starts with more sub-slots, has a faster frequency, and gives a small yield kicker — so a Rare in plot 1 + Standards in plots 2/3 often out-produces three Standards.
Plot 4 — paid permanent unlock
Cost: $5 USDSC or 5,000 RSNC. Permanent — once paid, you keep it forever regardless of Tune-In level.
What to put here: A cultivator covering a family you haven't yet, or your first Mythical cultivator ($50 USDSC / 50,000 RSNC) if you're chasing Ascension. Mythicals start with 3 sub-slots, gain more per level (up to 12 at L10), and can Ascend A1 → A5 for extra yield and Forge gear-part drops.
Why pay for Plot 4 instead of just leveling Tune-In?
- Tune-In to L15 takes weeks of consistent AS. Plot 4 is one click.
- You're not limited to one Tune-In path — paying for Plot 4 doesn't block your free L15 unlock for Plot 3.
Plot 5 — paid permanent unlock
Cost: $15 USDSC or 15,000 RSNC. Same shape as Plot 4, more expensive — and you must own plot 4 first before plot 5 can be bought.
What to put here: A second Mythical or a specialist Rare that complements your existing four. By Plot 5 you usually have a clear strategy — Plot 5 is the role-player plot.
Plot 6 — Signal Subscription only
Plot 6 is not buyable as a one-time unlock. It comes only with an active Signal Subscription.
What to put here: Anything. Plot 6 is +1 on top of all your other plots — at Tune-In L15 + Plot 4 + Plot 5 + Signal, you have 6 cultivators running concurrently.
Other Signal benefits that compound with Plot 6:
- +1 rarity bias on every mailbox roll
- Quest Pack discovery feed
If you're treating the Kitchen seriously, Signal pays back through the cultivator plot alone.
The five food cultivator archetypes
These are the Kitchen Garden cultivators — each archetype accepts exactly one ingredient family. Different archetypes for different families:
| Archetype | Accepts family | Standard name | Rare name | Mythical name |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Astral Beehive | Sweet (Stellar Honey, Astral Apple) | Astral Beehive | Astral Hive Cluster | Solar Orchard Hive |
| Frequency Garden | Vegetal (Harmonic Herbs, Lunar Lettuce) | Frequency Garden | Tideway Greenhouse | Resonance Biodome |
| Echo Mushroom Cluster | Earth (Echo Spores, Void Truffle) | Echo Mushroom Cluster | Subsonic Fungarium | Mycelium Choir |
| Photon Aquarium | Protein (Pulse Eggs, Photon Fish) | Photon Aquarium | Tidal Hatchery | Genesis Spawn Pool |
| Crystalline Reactor | Crystal (Resonant Crystals, Quantum Salt) | Crystalline Reactor | Tectonic Refinery | Singularity Geode |
Beyond these five food archetypes, Workshop cultivators grow materials and essence, and World Cultivation cultivators grow a world's element-specific yield — see Cultivation lines above. They share the same sub-slot, seed, leveling and harvest rules.
Cultivator stats
Each cultivator rolls a Frequency stat at mint, within a tier-specific band. Higher-tier cultivators tick faster:
| Tier | Frequency (h) |
|---|---|
| Standard | 7–12 |
| Rare | 5–9 |
| Mythical | 4–7 |
Quantity is flat — 1 unit per producing slot per tick, at every tier. Cultivator tier does not scale how many units a slot grows. You get more by unlocking more sub-slots (level/tier) and by committing avatars (they amplify volume — see below). Each tier also adds a small yield kicker to the RSNC drip: Standard +0%, Rare +5%, Mythical +10%.
Rarity isn't a cultivator stat, a seed stat, or a Kitchen-Level thing. What rarity your harvested ingredients come out at is decided entirely by the avatars you commit to the cultivator. See Harvest rarity below.
Sub-slots — how many you get
A cultivator is a container for seeds. Its sub-slot count is set by tier + level:
- Starting sub-slots by tier: Standard 1, Rare 2, Mythical 3.
- Each cultivator level adds one sub-slot, up to a hard cap of 12.
| Tier | At L1 | At L10 (max level) |
|---|---|---|
| Standard | 1 | 10 |
| Rare | 2 | 11 |
| Mythical | 3 | 12 |
So leveling a cultivator is how you grow it — more sub-slots means more seeds planted, which means more yield. See Leveling.
Same-family rule. Every sub-slot on a single cultivator holds the same family — a Photon Aquarium can hold any mix of Pulse Eggs and Photon Fish, but it can't hold Stellar Honey.
Seeds are consumable: the FIFO queue
Seeds aren't a permanent fixture — they're an ingredient you plant, and they burn up over a few harvests. The sub-slot itself stays; only the seed turns over.
Seed harvest counts (by rarity)
| Seed rarity | Harvests before consumed |
|---|---|
| Standard | 1 |
| Rare | 2 |
| Mythical | 3 |
So a Mythical Stellar Honey seed planted in a sub-slot produces honey across 3 harvest ticks and is then gone.
The FIFO queue
Each sub-slot holds one active seed plus a queue of waiting seeds. The active seed is what's producing this harvest window; when it's used up, the next seed in the queue auto-promotes.
- Multi-select planting. Drop multiple same-family seeds into a sub-slot at once. They stack into the queue in the order you added them.
- Stack indicator. The cultivator card shows the active seed plus a small "+N queued" pill if more are waiting.
- Empty sub-slot. When the queue empties, the sub-slot shows a Plant seed CTA and stops yielding until you plant something. (Empty sub-slots produce nothing.)
A seed earns from when it's planted
Yield accrues per seed, from the moment that seed becomes active. A seed you plant mid-window only earns the ticks since it was planted — not the whole window. The practical upshot: a last-second swap earns almost nothing that window, while a long-standing seed earns its full share.
Swap active seed (no slot loss)
If you want to replace the seed that's actively producing — for example to swap Standard Pulse Eggs for a Mythical Pulse Egg you just minted — open the sub-slot and use Swap:
- Same-family swap. One-click compare (current seed vs candidate). Confirm and the new seed takes over; the old one drops back into the queue or returns to Storage. The queue is preserved.
- Cross-family swap. Routes through a "Switch family?" confirm, because it changes what the whole cultivator can hold — the existing queue is returned to Storage (no mixed-family stacks).
Why it works this way
This is the supply discipline for the kitchen. Cultivators used to drip ingredients forever from a one-time plant; now they drip until the seed runs out, then politely stop. You stay in control: queue lots of cheap Standard seeds for steady, hands-off throughput, or load Mythical seeds so a slot runs three windows before it needs replanting. (Seed rarity is purely lifespan — it doesn't change the quality of what comes out; your committed avatars do that.)
Committing avatars — who sets the quality
Every cultivator — including the food cultivators above — has sub-slots that hold a seed or an avatar worker. Seeds are the feedstock; committed avatars are what upgrade your output.
To commit an avatar: open an empty sub-slot and choose Commit an avatar instead of planting a seed. The avatar goes to work on the cultivator and shows up on the card as a worker tile. Avatars lock while committed (they're not consumed like seeds) and return to your roster the moment you release them.
What committed avatars do:
- Set output rarity. This is the only thing that upgrades quality — see Harvest rarity. No avatars ⇒ 100% Standard.
- Amplify quantity. They add up to +100% volume (double) at 1,000 aligned stats.
Element match matters. An avatar whose element matches the cultivator's family counts 1.5× toward both effects. Family → element:
| Family | Matching element |
|---|---|
| Sweet | Radiant |
| Vegetal | Verdant |
| Earth | Umbral |
| Protein | Tide |
| Crystal | Mystic |
Because a sub-slot holds either a seed or an avatar, there's a trade-off — an avatar slot isn't growing a unit itself, but it lifts the quality (and volume) of every seed slot. Leveling a cultivator (more sub-slots) is how you run plenty of both at once.
Since output rarity comes only from avatars, feed cultivators inexpensive Standard seeds (for lifespan and volume) and put your strongest, element-matched avatars to work. A Mythical seed spends a 48-value item just for 3 harvests at the same avatar-driven quality three Standard seeds would give — so save Mythical ingredients for recipes, gear, or trade, not for replanting.
Leveling — Reforge via Cook
Cultivators level 1 → 10, and leveling grows a cultivator exactly one way: more sub-slots.
- More sub-slots — each level adds one sub-slot, up to the cap of 12. More slots means more seeds planted (or more avatars committed) working at once, which is how a leveled cultivator out-produces a fresh one. Slots are the level reward — there's no separate per-seed yield multiplier, and reaching max level doesn't change your harvest cooldown.
The cost curve. Each level costs more than the last: 100 × 1.4^(level − 1) RSNC of ingredients, which comes to roughly 4,918 RSNC cumulative to take a cultivator all the way from L1 to L10.
| Level | Level-up cost (RSNC of ingredients) |
|---|---|
| 1 → 2 | 100 |
| 2 → 3 | 140 |
| 3 → 4 | 196 |
| … | ×1.4 each step |
| 9 → 10 | ~1,476 |
| Cumulative L1 → L10 | ~4,918 |
Cultivator level-ups flow through a dedicated cook recipe — the same Reforge pattern equipment uses. Open the cultivator's detail modal and tap Reforge → L+1 to open a pre-targeted Cook Start modal. The recipe is family-specific (Crystal / Earth / Protein / Sweet / Vegetal) and consumes that family's ingredients.
A cultivator level-up cook is a Cultivation-craft cook. So every time you Reforge a cultivator, you also raise your Cultivation Mastery — the per-craft progression that makes all your Cultivation cooks (level-ups and refined materials) stronger over time. Growing your cultivators and growing your Cultivation specialization are the same activity.
Leveling an existing cultivator adds sub-slots for ~4,918 RSNC total — often more throughput per RSNC than a fresh Standard cultivator in a new paid plot (5,000 RSNC for the plot plus 5,000 RSNC for the cultivator). Buy a new plot when you need a new ingredient family; level what you have when you just need more slots on a family you already run.
Auto-redeem at claim
The cook is bound to the specific cultivator you started it from. When you claim the completed cook, the level bumps in the same response — no second redeem step. You'll get a slot-attributed toast: 🌱 Slot N leveled up · L→L+1.
Two same-family cultivators can be in flight simultaneously — each cook is bound to its own cultivator, so the auto-redeem bumps the right plot with no cross-contamination.
Max-level refund
If you redeem an upgrade against a cultivator already at L10, the cook auto-refunds: the charge consumes, and the kitchen mints back RSNC equal to the recipe's ingredient burn value. Toast: 💰 Slot N was maxed · +N RSNC refunded. You won't end up with a stranded charge on a maxed plot.
In-flight halt is per-slot
While a cultivator-upgrade cook is in flight for a specific cultivator, that plot's harvest is halted and shows an UPGRADING overlay. Other cultivators — including same-family ones — keep harvesting normally.
Ascension (A0 → A5)
Ascension is a separate axis from level. It does not add sub-slots — it adds yield and Forge gear-part drops (gear parts convert to Avatar Essence). Every cultivator starts at A0; Mythicals are the ones worth Ascending.
Ascension is a cook. Open the cultivator's detail modal and start the Ascend cook. Each step:
- Requires a Kitchen Level: A1 needs Kitchen Level 10, A2 needs 20, A3 → 30, A4 → 40, A5 → 50.
- Costs Mythical ingredients: 10 of each Mythical family ingredient for A1, then 20 / 30 / 40 / 50 for the later steps.
What each Ascension level gives you:
| Ascension | Yield bonus (added to tier kicker) | Gear-drop rolls per harvest | Weekly gear-drop cap |
|---|---|---|---|
| A0 (base) | +0% | 1 | 6 |
| A1 | +2% | 2 | 12 |
| A2 | +4% | 3 | 18 |
| A3 | +6% | 4 | 24 |
| A4 | +8% | 5 | 30 |
| A5 | +10% | 6 | 36 |
The real prize is the gear-part drops: more Ascension = more chances each harvest to roll a Forge gear part (which converts to Avatar Essence), and a higher weekly ceiling on those drops.
The Gravity Cake dish cooks into a token that skips an A1 Ascension cost on a cultivator of your choice — without paying that step's ingredient cost. You bind the token to a specific cultivator (it must be at cultivator level 10) and it redeems on the next Ascend.
Harvest claims
When your cultivator hits its frequency window, a Claim button appears on the cultivator card. Claiming:
- Mints the ingredients per the harvest math below.
- Drops an RSNC payout from the cultivator's faucet — 5 RSNC per ingredient minted.
- Counts toward your daily Streak.
- Consumes one harvest from each active seed. When a seed's remaining-harvest counter hits 0 it burns and the queue advances.
Cap. Harvests accumulate up to a 24-hour ceiling — leave a cultivator longer than a day and the extra time past 24h doesn't bank more. Claim at least once a day to never leave anything on the table. See Reference — Harvest Accumulation Caps.
Harvest economy
Each producing sub-slot grows 1 unit per tick — the same for every tier. The count you get on a claim is, per tick:
producing sub-slots × 1 × (1 + avatar boost)
- producing sub-slots — only sub-slots holding an active seed count; empty ones and avatar-worker slots contribute nothing to the count (avatars contribute the boost instead).
- avatar boost — committed avatars amplify volume by +100% per 1,000 aligned avatar stats, capped at +100% (double). Element-matched avatars count 1.5× toward that total.
- Cultivator tier and seed tier do not change the count. Level raises it only by adding more sub-slots.
Every harvested ingredient also mints 5 RSNC into your balance (with the small per-tier RSNC kicker — Standard +0% / Rare +5% / Mythical +10%). Fractions carry over between claims, so nothing is lost to rounding.
Harvest rarity — your avatars set it
The rarity of each harvested ingredient is decided only by the avatars you commit to the cultivator — not by the seed, the cultivator tier, your gear, or your Kitchen Level. Each unit rolls through a two-step ladder:
- First gate: Standard → Rare.
- Only if that passes, second gate: Rare → Mythical.
Both gates scale with the aligned stat total of your committed avatars (an avatar whose element matches the cultivator's family counts 1.5×). More and stronger avatars ⇒ better odds, up to a ceiling:
| Committed aligned avatar stats | Output mix (Standard / Rare / Mythical) |
|---|---|
| 0 — no avatars | 100 / 0 / 0 |
| ~420 | ~58 / 35 / 7 |
| 1,050+ (max) | ~35 / 49 / 16 |
With no committed avatars, every output is Standard — even a max-level cultivator full of Mythical seeds. That's by design: seeds are feedstock and lifespan; avatars are quality. To harvest more Rare and Mythical ingredients, commit stronger, element-matched avatars — planting rarer seeds does nothing for output rarity.
(Rarity value for reference: 1 Rare = 8 Standard; 1 Mythical = 48 Standard = 6 Rare.)
Forge gear-part drops
Separately from ingredients, each harvest tick rolls for a Forge gear-part drop. The chance rises with the rarity of the seeds you've planted (better seeds → better odds, from a 5% floor up to a 50% ceiling), and the rarity of the gear part depends on the cultivator's tier:
| Cultivator tier | Standard | Rare | Mythical |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard | 90% | 9% | 1% |
| Rare | 67.5% | 30% | 2.5% |
| Mythical | 45% | 50% | 5% |
Each Ascension level adds another roll per tick and raises the weekly cap (see Ascension). Gear parts convert to Avatar Essence — the fuel that forges and deepens Avatars — so this is a key feeder of your Essence supply.
Where cultivators come from
- Marketplace. Mint a new cultivator directly via the kitchen perk grid.
- Mailbox. Daily mailbox rolls can drop low-tier cultivators (Standard most often, with Tune-In-aware rarity bias toward higher tiers at higher levels).
- Recipes. A small number of Limited recipes (e.g., Spectrum Soup) drop random Mythical cultivators as outputs.
Pricing (cultivator mint)
| Tier | USDSC | RSNC (pre-Tune-In discount) |
|---|---|---|
| Standard | $5 | 5,000 |
| Rare | $15 | 15,000 |
| Mythical | $50 | 50,000 |
Pricing follows Pay-or-Play parity — Tune-In discount on the RSNC side only.
See also
- Kitchen Quickstart — your first walkthrough
- Specializations & Mastery — the Cultivation craft, and leveling a cultivator as a Cultivation cook
- Equipment — the rack that boosts your cook odds and Elegance
- Recipes and Cooking — what to do with your ingredients
- Mailbox — other ways cultivators drop
- Progression — Kitchen Level, which feeds your harvest rarity
- Reference — every cultivator number on one page