This update lets you grow fungus and obtain various useful materials from it! :)
Fungus spores will now change into the static fungus pixels when they settle on a material that fungus is able to grow through. Here is the current list: Dirt, Loam, Limestone, Limestone Wall, Apatite, Olivine, Compacted Dirt, Wood, Wood Wall.
The static fungus pixels grow hyphae (collectively: mycelium) into the material when they receive Water or Sugar Water (fungus consumes Sugar Water much more rapidly). Pulses of energy move through the mycelium, extending it, whenever the fungus consumes something.
When the mycelium breaks through the bottom of something and encounters open air, continued growth causes it to form streamers, which will keep growing in response to the growth signals when the fungus consumes pixels.
This all makes it possible to form fungus farms, or to grow the fungus that already exists in biome 3.
Mining the mycelium gives a variety of materials, including Fat, Sugar, Citric Acid, some number of Spores (the streamers mine into only Spores), and the new enzymes Cellulase and Lipase.
Cellulase breaks down Wood into Sugar, and Lipase breaks down Fat into Glycerin (both require Water). Be careful not to heat the Cellulase and Lipase too much, though, as they will denature. :) (In the future, it will be possible to further break them apart into amino acids, but that isn't implemented yet, so the denatured proteins are a dead-end for the moment). There will be more materials harvestable from fungus in the future, including unique materials from the different fungus types, as I continue building the biochem pathways.
Let me know what you think here and in the Discord community, and there will be more updates coming soon! :)
and if you haven't already please leave me a Steam review, it really helps me a lot!
-Triplejump