After spending over 200 hours in Once Human, this all-in-one guide delivers everything you need to thrive—from DPS optimization to acid AFK oil farms, controller farming, blueprint upgrades, and what actually transfers after seasonal resets. Whether you’re new or seasoned, this is your go-to manual for long-term progress and short-term domination.

1. Mimetic Specializations and Cradle Mechanics

The mimetic cradle determines specialization effects like enhanced disassembly. Important tip: when you upgrade something like the disassembly bench, you must destroy and rebuild it to apply the new effect. The upgrade icon appears, but without reconstruction, the bonuses won’t activate—this applies to power plants, benches, and other specialized constructs.

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2. Weapon Calibration and Replacements

To dramatically increase weapon power, use the Replace Calibration Attributes function. Recalibrate weapons with better attributes—like switching from stability to 25% increased attack—and chase high-value effects like Rapid Shoot Style for sniper rifles (+50% bolt pull speed, -10% damage).

These calibrations have randomized stats within a range, unlocked through 10x weapon upgrades at levels 4, 7, and 10. Break down weapons with the green page icon to extract calibrations. Loot weapon crates in the open world or do Pro mode silos for more weapon drops and Stardust.

3. Fuel, Permits & Prime Wars

Weapon crate runs not only yield gear but also permits, allowing participation in wave-based fuel farming events (e.g., Blackfell Oilfield). These drop Barreled Premium Fuel, Eclipse Cortex, and more. With fuel, you can craft missiles(e.g., biomass or red plasma fusion) to take down Prime Wars. These battles grant huge Star Chrome rewards:

• Easy: 800+ Star Chrome
• Hard: 1,000+
• Professional: 1,200+

Bring missiles with two friends to easily farm bosses.

4. Iron and Sticky Digby Boys

Need steel for ammo and missiles? Get at least three Digby Boys. The first is easily obtained near Deadsville by looting tin ore. Others come from quests, such as Lowe’s quest in Thurlwell for the Deviation Expert.

Each silver node and quest can give you more Digbys. Digbys gather iron passively, letting you craft steel and ammo consistently.

5. Quests and Stellar Planula Farming

Quests and side tasks reward Stellar Planula, used to buy:

• Star Chrome Crates (100 Planula = 500 Star Chrome)
• Controllers (needed to get full loot from bosses)

Everything you buy with Stellar Planula carries over after the season reset.

6. Mod Mechanics & Damage Optimization

Mods affect more than build bonuses—they hold rarity-based substats that directly boost your damage. The best stats include:

• Weak Spot Damage
• Weapon Damage
• Crit Damage / Crit Rate

Avoid misinterpreting damage vs. elites and great ones. Great ones = monolith bosses, elites = silo bosses. These are separate and don’t overlap.

Enhancing mods upgrades substats, and Pro mode silos drop enhanced legendary mods. Mods persist after season resets, so invest in the best ones now.

7. Blueprint Upgrades and Weapon Stars

Every blueprint belongs to a family (e.g., Huntsman, Operator, Juggernaut). Use same-family blueprint parts to gain XP and increase star level. A 1-star rifle can be upgraded to 2-star, raising base damage significantly. Blueprint fragments drop from mystical crates—loot them all.

You can also gamble for blueprints using Star Chrome at the Wish Machine. For guaranteed pulls, spend 10,000 Star Chrome to get both the item and its fragments.

8. Sets and Gear Synergy

Some armor sets give massive bonuses:

• Besti Set: +40% weapon damage when crouched (works on all weapons)
• Lone Wolf Set: Crit stacking (great for consistent output)
• Renegade Set: Weak spot bonus (situational)

Choose sets based on your build type. Weapon damage sets won’t help status builds like Icy Vortex or Power Surge, which scale with elemental effects.

9. Acid AFK Oil Farm Setup

To build a passive acid farm:

• Polluted areas like Blackfell Oilfield provide crude oil and polluted water.
• Use Water Pumps and Generators in polluted zones.
• Send polluted water to Osmosis Purifiers to make Impure Acid.
• Feed Impure Acid to Brewing Barrels to auto-produce acid.

Crude oil goes to refineries > super refinery > Barreled Premium Fuel. Automate pumps, purifiers, and refineries with a switchable pylon. Clean, modular, and efficient.

10. Tower Defense Placement & Automation

Use a Tier 1 Cortex in your Stardust Resonator to reveal base spawn points. Enemies always spawn at fixed points. Place your tower accordingly, isolate production with walls, and use multiple defense towers:

• Gravitational pools slow enemies.
• Tower levels target air/flyers.
• Modular setup keeps defense separate from production.

11. Ammo & Crafting for Extreme DPS

High-end bullets like Tungsten LMG Ammo can be crafted with enhanced components (e.g., Platinum Crystals) to boost perk scaling by up to 40%. Combine this with:

• Living Armor (deviation that heals under 20% HP)
• Steel ammo for bossing
• Status scaling ammo for builds like Power Surge

Result: 60,000+ DPS potential in top-tier loadouts.

12. Deviants: Combat vs. Territory

• Combat Deviants need high skill rating (affects damage scaling).
• Territory Deviants benefit more from activity rating (mood/power recharge).

Optimize based on their roles. You can boost material output or your damage scaling depending on the build.

13. Controllers, Nissa, and Public Events

If you’re out of controllers, you can farm them from:

• Weekly commissions
• Vendor Nissa (also sells mods and fuel)
• Public Crisis Events (e.g., Cargo Scramble, Manabus)

Check multiple worlds and rotate if one doesn’t have events. Get sproutlets and materials from Jellyfish Helmet farming. You’ll also collect acid, cortexes, and mods this way.

14. Food Buffs: Last Touch for Max Damage

Food buffs boost stats:

• Deviated Sausage: +15% boss damage
• Bone Meat: +Shrapnel or elemental damage
• Stardust Ratatouille: +20% move speed, less stamina use

Farm meat easily using the Lethal Rabbit deviation (obtained in Graywater Industrial Zone) and set up Grocer Shrooms + Buzy Bee to auto-grow mutated mushrooms for food buffs.

15. What Carries Over After the Season Reset

Following items and progress stay with you after seasonal reset:

• Star Chrome
• Blueprints & fragments
• Gear and weapons (including stars & upgrades)
• Mods and their enhancements
• Cosmetics, building blueprints, saved layouts

What resets:

• Level
• Map and settlement exploration
• Energy links
• Seasonal progress

This is a soft reset with strong RPG carry-over mechanics—use all your remaining resources before reset for maximum value.

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With this guide, you can now build damage-focused setups, optimize your territory, farm smarter, and prepare for seasonal progression without setbacks. If you’re ready for sniper builds, crafting flowcharts, or automation blueprints, you’ve got the tools to elevate every play session. Go dominate the world of Once Human.