Water Logistics Planner
Turn a clean-water reserve target into the required tainted-water input, purification workload, and container-capacity check. The planner uses documented capacities and conversion ratios instead of estimating thirst over time.
Clean-water deficit
3,500 mL
Tainted water required
14,000 mL
Processing cycles
14 full pot batches
Storage shortfall
0 mL
Conversion result
- Clean water produced
- 3,500 mL
- Conversion loss
- 10,500 mL
- Extra from final batch
- 0 mL
Entered storage
- Total capacity
- 5,500 mL
- Capacity after target
- 1,000 mL
Each cycle assumes one full 1,000 mL Cooking Pot and produces 250 mL of clean Water.
How the planner calculates
The clean-water deficit is the target reserve minus the clean water already on hand, with a minimum result of zero. Boiling is counted in full Cooking Pot batches: each 1,000 mL input produces 250 mL of clean Water. The planner rounds the batch count up, then reports any clean water left over from the final batch. Water Filter planning uses a 1:1 conversion and divides the deficit into full or partial 10,000 mL fills.
Storage is a separate check. Each entered Water Cooler contributes 4,500 mL and each Water Bottle contributes 1,000 mL. The result compares that total with the target reserve, not only with the new water being produced. This catches a plan that can purify enough water but has nowhere to keep the intended reserve.
Conversion diagram for version 1.4. It explains capacity and yield only; it is not a map or a processing-time estimate.
Method comparison
| Method | Input | Output | Planning use |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cooking Pot | 1,000 mL Tainted Water | 250 mL Water | Early fallback with explicit 75% volume loss |
| Water Filter | Up to 10,000 mL per fill | Same amount of Water | Bulk conversion after the filter is available |
Worked examples
Fill an early-game cooler
A 4,500 mL target with 1,000 mL already stored leaves a 3,500 mL deficit. Boiling requires fourteen full-pot batches. Those batches consume 14,000 mL of Tainted Water, produce exactly 3,500 mL of clean Water, and lose 10,500 mL during conversion.
Build a larger filtered reserve
A 12,500 mL deficit needs 12,500 mL of Tainted Water through a Water Filter. The planner reports two fills: one full 10,000 mL fill and one partial 2,500 mL fill. Two coolers and four bottles provide 13,000 mL of storage, leaving 500 mL of spare capacity.
Turn the result into a base task
- Count only clean Water that is currently available, not an expected future refill.
- Choose boiling only when full-pot batches are the method you can actually operate; otherwise select the Water Filter.
- Collect the reported Tainted Water before starting, so the final batch is not interrupted by a missing input container.
- Compare the storage result with the target and add containers before processing if the planner reports a shortfall.
- Keep carried drinking water separate from the reserve allocated to soup or agriculture.
What this planner does not calculate
- It does not predict how long a reserve lasts. Thirst demand can change with traits, sandbox settings, route length, party size, cooking, and agriculture.
- It does not estimate boiling time, stove availability, travel time to a water source, or the number of containers needed to move Tainted Water to the base.
- It counts only the Water Coolers and Water Bottles entered. Pots, barrels, placed filters, and other liquid containers are not silently added to storage capacity.
- It does not treat a Water Cooler as an infinite source or assume that passive water generation will arrive before an expedition.
Source scope
The capacities and conversion ratios were checked against the current community-maintained Abiotic Factor Wiki pages for game version 1.4. The calculation intentionally excludes timing and consumption assumptions that those pages do not establish. Check the source pages again after a major game update before using the result for a large shared base.
Related guide
Use the water and thirst management guide for the staged base strategy, trait limits, recovery checklist, and decisions that should remain outside a deterministic calculator.