Proliferator Mk.I

Proliferator Mk.I is a consumable crafting material used to apply proliferator points to items through a Spray Coater placed over a conveyor belt. Sprayed items carry those points into later production steps, where they can grant either extra products or increased production speed, at the cost of higher power consumption. It can be applied to recipe ingredients, fuels, and even Proliferator itself, and the effect is tracked by the proliferator points on the item or stack.

When used on materials that become inputs for a building, the bonus only applies if all ingredients have been proliferated. If even one input has a lower proliferation level than the others, the lowest level among the inputs is used. Proliferation does not work on the Icarus replicator. When used on fuels, it increases their energy content, which means it is also valid as a fuel item itself, though burning it is generally inefficient compared with using it to boost production. Spraying Proliferator on Proliferator output increases the spray content of the next batch, making it worthwhile to proliferate its own production.

Proliferator Mk.I is the simplest proliferator tier to craft, with the lowest additional energy cost and the easiest early-game production. Its bonuses are modest compared with higher tiers, but it is convenient to unlock and use as soon as it becomes available. A common early use is to spray Coal for Energetic Graphite production and the fuel supply for Thermal Power Plant, both to learn the Spray Coater workflow and to get immediate value from the item.

Its standard effects are:

• Number of sprays: 12
• Extra Products: +12.5%
• Production Speedup: +25.0%
• Energy Consumption: +30.0%

A practical point is that Proliferator Mk.I is itself worth proliferating. Doing so increases the amount of spray content each unit can provide, improving the efficiency of its own production chain. In that sense, even the first-tier proliferator can be used as part of a self-sustaining proliferator network once production is established.