Producers and Sub-Slots

Updated 2026-05-21.

The Harvest Area has up to 6 producer slots. Each slot holds one Producer NFT. The Producer NFT in turn has 2–7 sub-slots depending on tier + ascension, and each sub-slot holds one ingredient seed.

This page walks through each slot one by one, plus the sub-slot mechanic.

What's new (2026-05-21)

Seeds are now consumable. A planted seed lasts a fixed number of harvests by rarity (Standard = 1, Rare = 2, Mythical = 3) and then burns up. Sub-slots hold a FIFO queue of seeds so you can plant several at once and let them auto-rotate. The levels you put into a sub-slot (Q/F/R picks) persist forever — only the seed inventory turns over. See Seeds are consumable below.

Also rebalanced this week: the producer RSNC drip is 5 RSNC per ingredient (2026-05-25 operator retune; cut from the 2026-05-21 rate of 13 to slow the supply curve). Quality stat-picks still add 1 to the harvest on a 33% Bernoulli per pick per tick (probabilistic since 2026-05-20). The single-harvest payout cap is 15,000 RSNC — only binds at the maxed Mythical L10 + heavily-stat-picked supply-runaway tail; typical organic farms aren't affected.

Mental model

A producer is a passive ingredient-and-RSNC faucet. You mint one, plant ingredient seeds in its sub-slots, and walk away. It drops ingredients into your Storage on its frequency timer. You come back and click Claim.

Each producer slot, walkthrough

Slot 1 — your first producer (Tune-In L1, free)

The slot you start with. Unlocked the moment your account exists.

What to put here: Your first Standard producer. 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 80%-success 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 producer has 2 sub-slots and a 7–12 hour frequency. Plant one ingredient seed per sub-slot (must be the same family).

Slot 2 — Tune-In L5 (free)

Unlocks automatically at Tune-In level 5.

What to put here: Your second family. If Slot 1 is Sweet, make Slot 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.

Slot 3 — Tune-In L15 (free, cap on free)

Last free producer slot. Unlocks at Tune-In level 15.

What to put here: Your third family. With 3 producers 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 producers to Rare (5–9h frequency, 8–25% rarity) instead of adding a third Standard. A Rare in slot 1 + Standards in slots 2/3 often out-produces three Standards.

Slot 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 producer covering a family you haven't yet, or your first Mythical producer ($50 USDSC / 50,000 RSNC) if you're chasing Ascension. Mythicals start with 4 sub-slots and accept Ascension up to A3 (7 sub-slots, ×1.9 stat multiplier, ×0.55 frequency).

Why pay for Slot 4 instead of just leveling Tune-In?

• Tune-In to L15 takes weeks of consistent AS. Slot 4 is one click.
• You're not limited to one Tune-In path — paying for Slot 4 doesn't block your free L15 unlock for Slot 3.

Slot 5 — paid permanent unlock

Cost: $15 USDSC or 15,000 RSNC. Same shape as Slot 4, more expensive.

What to put here: A second Mythical or a specialist Rare that complements your existing four. By Slot 5 you usually have a clear strategy — Slot 5 is the role-player slot.

Slot 6 — Signal Subscription only

Slot 6 is not buyable as a one-time unlock. It comes only with an active Signal Subscription.

What to put here: Anything. Slot 6 is +1 on top of all your other slots — at Tune-In L15 + Slot 4 + Slot 5 + Signal, you have 6 producers running concurrently.

Other Signal benefits that compound with Slot 6:

• +1 rarity bias on every mailbox roll
• Quest Pack discovery feed

If you're treating the Kitchen seriously, Signal pays back through the producer slot alone.

The five producer archetypes

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

The three producer stat axes

Every producer rolls within a tier-specific band at mint:

Axis	What it controls
Rarity %	Chance each harvest drops at a higher rarity tag
Frequency (h)	Hours between harvests (lower = faster)
Quantity	Items produced per sub-slot per harvest

Stat bands per tier (at mint, base)

Tier	Rarity %	Frequency (h)	Quantity per sub-slot
Standard	3–12%	7–12	1–2
Rare	8–25%	5–9	2–3
Mythical	20–45%	4–7	2–4

Ascension stack (Mythical only)

Ascension	Rarity ×	Frequency ×	Sub-slots
A0 (base)	×1.0	×1.0	4
A1	×1.3	×0.85 (faster)	5
A2	×1.6	×0.7	6
A3	×1.9	×0.55	7

Sub-slots — what they are, how to use them

Each producer is a container with 2–7 sub-slots. You plant an ingredient seed in each sub-slot; the producer generates that ingredient per its stats.

Same-family rule. All sub-slots within a single producer must accept the same family — a Photon Aquarium can hold any mix of Pulse Eggs and Photon Fish, but it can't hold Stellar Honey.

Sub-slot levels persist forever. When you spend RSNC to level up a sub-slot (Quality / Frequency / Rarity picks), those points are a permanent investment in that sub-slot. They survive seed consumption, family swaps, and producer ascension. Only the seed inventory turns over (see below).

The three sub-slot picks (Rare+ producers). Each sub-slot can be biased toward one of:

• Quality — favors higher-rarity drops on that sub-slot's output (each pick adds a 33% Bernoulli +1 per tick)
• Frequency — slightly faster cadence on that sub-slot
• Rarity — distinct from Quality; raises the upper end of the rarity band

Multi-stat increment leveling. The level-up modal lets you allocate multiple stat points across Q/F/R in a single action — no more single-stat-then-commit. Spend a few levels of Yield, two of Speed, one of Quality, hit Commit once.

Mix picks across sub-slots per producer to balance steady throughput against high-rarity hunting. Detailed strategy in Advanced — Sub-Slot System.

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 (and its leveled picks) stays.

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 head seed plus a queue of waiting seeds. The head seed is what's actively producing; when it's consumed, the next seed in the queue auto-promotes to head.

• Multi-select planting. Drop multiple same-family seeds into a sub-slot at once. They all stack into the queue in the order you added them.
• Stack indicator. The producer card shows the head seed icon + a small "+N queued" pill if more seeds are waiting.
• Empty sub-slot. When the queue empties (the last seed is consumed and nothing's queued), the sub-slot displays its leveled picks (the Q/F/R points you bought) + a Plant seed CTA. The sub-slot stops yielding until you plant something.

Swap head seed (no level loss)

If you want to replace the seed that's actively producing — for example to upgrade Standard Pulse Eggs to a Mythical Pulse Egg you just minted — open the sub-slot and use Swap head seed:

• Same-family swap. One-click side-by-side compare (current seed vs candidate). Confirm and the new seed takes head; the old one drops back into the queue or is returned to your storage.
• Cross-family swap. Routes through a "Switch family?" confirm dialog (because this affects what the whole producer can hold).

The sub-slot's leveled picks (Q/F/R points) don't change in either path. You only swap the seed sitting in the slot.

Why it works this way

This is the supply discipline for the kitchen. Producers used to drip ingredients indefinitely from a one-time seed plant; now they drip until the seed runs out, then politely stop. You stay in control: queue lots of cheap Standard seeds for steady throughput, or load a single Mythical for a 3-harvest burst.

Pricing (producer 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.

Leveling — Reforge via Cook

Producer levels 1 → 10. Higher level shifts the per-tick yield curve (smoothstep from L1 to L10).

Producer level-ups flow through a dedicated cook recipe — the same Reforge pattern equipment uses. Open the producer'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 seed-family ingredients matched to that family.

Auto-redeem at claim

The cook is bound to the specific producer you started it from (target_producer_token_id). 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 producers can be in flight simultaneously. Cook A targets your slot-4 Crystal producer; cook B targets your slot-5 Crystal producer. The auto-redeem reads each cook's binding and bumps the right slot — no cross-contamination.

Max-level refund

If you try to redeem an upgrade charge against a producer already at L10, the cook auto-refunds: the charge consumes (becomes "dead"), 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 slot.

In-flight halt is per-slot

While a producer-upgrade cook is in flight for a specific producer, that slot's harvest is halted and shows an UPGRADING overlay. Other producers — including same-family ones — keep harvesting normally.

Harvest claims

When your producer hits its frequency window, a Claim button appears on the producer card. Claiming:

• Mints the ingredients per the formula below (rebuilt 2026-06-06).
• Drops an RSNC payout from the producer's intrinsic faucet — currently 5 RSNC per ingredient minted (2026-05-25 operator retune; cut from 13 to slow the supply curve).
• Counts toward your daily Streak.
• Decrements one seed per tick per slot. Each harvest tick consumes 1 from the head seed's remaining-harvest counter; when it hits 0 the seed burns and the queue advances.

Caps. Harvests accumulate up to a 24-hour ceiling. The RSNC payout per harvest is capped at 15,000 RSNC. See Reference — Harvest Accumulation Caps.

Harvest economy (2026-06-06 rebuild)

The "one bag of one ingredient regardless of seed" model is retired. Each active sub-slot now grows independently per tick.

Base output

Every active sub-slot grows at the Standard tier of its seed's family by default. So a sub-slot holding a Mythical Pulse Eggs seed produces Standard Pulse Eggs on a miss — the seed's tier no longer gates the base output, it influences the Elegance roll instead (see below).

Yield per slot per tick

Producer tier	Ingredients per slot per tick
Standard	2
Rare	2.5 (floored per output-tier each harvest)
Mythical	3

So a Mythical producer with 5 active sub-slots and 2 ticks accumulated yields 5 × 3 × 2 = 30 ingredients (split across the rarity outcomes below).

Per-tick Elegance roll — DOUBLE IMPROVE

Each tick on each slot rolls Elegance twice independently. Each roll uses the same rarityUpgradeChance curve the cook backend uses (gear + variant Elegance, plus your seed-tier modifier).

Procs (out of 2)	Output tier
0	Standard
1	Rare
2 (DOUBLE IMPROVE)	Mythical

Higher gear Elegance shifts the distribution toward Rare and Mythic outputs. The proc curve is capped at 75% per roll.

Seed tier amplifies Elegance

The seed in a sub-slot adds a flat modifier to the gear+variant Elegance pool before the curve is computed:

Seed tier	Elegance modifier
Standard	+0
Rare	+5
Mythical	+10

So planting Mythical seeds gives every slot a meaningful Mythic-roll chance, even with modest gear.

Where producers come from

• Marketplace. Mint a new producer directly via the kitchen perk grid.
• Mailbox. Daily mailbox rolls can drop low-tier producers (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 producers as outputs.
• L60+ Producer Genesis chain. Burn 3 Standard producers → 1 Rare producer of that family. See Advanced — Recipe Chaining.

See also

• Kitchen Quickstart — your first walkthrough
• Equipment — the rack that boosts your cook odds
• Recipes and Cooking — what to do with your ingredients
• Mailbox — other ways producers drop
• Advanced Guide — sub-slot picks, recipe chaining, stat math