When are Woodcutters more efficient than refining catnip?
In Kittens Game, you can obtain wood by assigning Woodcutters or refining it from catnip. Is there a simple rule or formula to determine which one is more efficient?
I've heard anecdotes that refining catnip is more efficient up until a certain point in the tech tree, but I haven't been able to find any more details.
Best Answer
Short answer: when you have enough lumber mills.
How many is “enough”? Axes are “tools” and lumber mills are “buildings”, so their bonuses are independent of each other. With no “saw” upgrades, the lumber mill bonus is 1 + LM / 10.
Example: you have Catnip Enrichment and in an average season, assigning everyone as a farmer, you get 250 catnip/sec, convertible to 5 wood/sec. Assigning everyone as a woodcutter (and ignoring the food issue), you get 3 wood/sec. To break even, you need a lumber mill bonus of 1.67, thus, 7 lumber mills.
You will have to smelt a lot of iron to make them, so it’s a good idea to research Gold Ore first.
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