Flulu's Sacrifice in I Was a Teenage Exocolonist
Screenshot via Northway Games

How to End the Famine in I Was a Teenage Exocolonist

Save your mom!

There’s no denying the fact that things can get brutal fast in I Was a Teenage Exocolonist. If you’re not careful, you can lose your childhood friend, your teacher, the governor, and even your own mom and dad! There are methods to saving them all (except for Kom, Kom is the only one you can’t save), however, including your parents. If you don’t save her, your mom (Flulu) will die of starvation during the famine, so the only way to save her is by ending the famine. Ending the widespread famine of an entire planet may sound difficult, but it’s actually easier than you think. Use this helpful guide to end the famine in I Was a Teenage Exocolonist!

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How to End the Famine in I Was a Teenage Exocolonist

Ending Vertumna’s famine seems monumentally difficult, but it actually doesn’t require that much effort to accomplish, once you know what you’re doing. Thankfully, you’ve got this guide to help you end the famine and save your mom in the process! You don’t have to wait until the famine has already begun, there are numerous things you can do prior to the famine’s beginning to help end it (you can never prevent the famine entirely, but you can make it easier to end once it begins). All you have to do is follow these steps:

Level Up Your Biology Skill

This can be done at a very early age, way before the famine even has a chance to start. All you have to do is stay in school (seriously)! For the first few cognizant years of your life on Vertumna, try to dedicate as much time as you can to improving your Biology skill by studying Life Sciences in Engineering (the school). Keep studying until your Biology skill is at least up to 20. Once your Biology skill reaches 20, you’ll be able to unlock Farming in Geoponics (once you’re 12 years old).

Studying Life Sciences in I Was a Teenage Exocolonist
Screenshot via Northway Games

Don’t stop leveling up your Biology skill just because you’ve unlocked Farming though! You’ll want to keep improving your Biology skill until you get your first Biology perk: The Native Botany perk. The Native Botany perk unlocks Xenobotany Research in Geoponics, which is very important for ending the famine later on. Once you’ve unlocked Farming and Xenobotany, you’ll be one step closer to ending the famine in I Was a Teenage Exocolonist.

Unlock Foraging (Famine Begins)

When you turn 14, you’ll be invited by your parents to a council meeting (you’ll definitely need to agree to go when they invite you). During this meeting, you’ll listen to a grim conversation between Governor Eudicot and the other council members (Marz is also there, but neither of you contributes to the conversation since neither of you is a member of the council).

Map of Vertumna in I Was a Teenage Exocolonist
Screenshot via Northway Games

During this council meeting, it will be revealed that the colony will completely run out of food by the end of the year (Wet Season), and if nothing is done about it immediately, you’ll all starve to death. This is understandably shocking news to everybody, though Utopia thankfully pipes up with a solution: forage in the Valley of Vertigo for food! This will unlock the option to Forage in the Valley while you’re on Expeditions; foraging is an extremely vital part of stopping the famine.

Farm, Forage, and Study

Once you’ve unlocked Farming in Geoponics and are able to able to Forage in the Valley and Research Xenobotany, it’s time to get to work! You only have until Wet Season to end the famine, so choose how you spend your time wisely! Start by spending a few months Farming in Geoponics, until you get at least one Colony Food. After that, you can begin to Forage in the Valley. Foraging for food in the valley isn’t difficult, just tedious at times. Challenge every event you see and try your best to gather food from every source, even if it doesn’t always sit right with you morally (there are chances for you to bring back meat. You’ll have to get it the hard way).

Flulu in Geoponics in I Was a Teenage Exocolonist
Screenshot via Northway Games

Always be on the lookout for special events (exclamation point events), as they have a better chance of giving you extra Colony Food. There will be opportunities for you to find strange plants on your foraging expeditions, such as the “Spongecake” fungus. If you happen to stumble across this fungus during an event, bring it back to the Xenobotany Lab in Geoponics, study it, and then plant it to get a reward of +5 Colony Food. Try to alternate seasons between foraging and farming especially, with some xenobotany thrown in there too every once and a while, especially if you find strange plants on your expeditions.

Keep an Eye on the Supply

You’ll be able to monitor your progress with the famine by keeping an eye on the colony’s food supply. To do this, all you need to do is View the Notice Board in Command. You don’t actually have to wait until the famine begins to begin checking this, it just makes more sense to monitor it once the famine has already begun.

Viewing the Notice Board in I Was a Teenage Exocolonist
Screenshot via Northway Games

For every Colony Food you gather, the Colony Food reserve will increase by 10%. If you being to notice the Colony Food reserve stagnating or dipping even lower, try doing something different for a few months. For example, if you were exclusively researching xenobotany, try switching to farming for a while. Be sure to gather as much Colony Food as you can, as fast as possible!

Hungry No More

If you followed all these directions during (and prior to) the famine, congratulations! You should have successfully ended the famine in I Was a Teenage Exocolonist! Not only will you have saved your mother’s life, but you’ll also be rewarded with the Hungry No More achievement/trophy for your troubles. Totally worth it!

Related: How to Save Uncle Tonin in I Was a Teenage Exocolonist

Nothing in I Was a Teenage Exocolonist is easy, but that doesn’t mean it’s not worth fighting for! I Was a Teenage Exocolonist is a tremendously detailed game with some of the most exclusive, unique features ever seen in gaming; if you haven’t played this game in its entirety yet, you’re definitely missing out, big time.

Author
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Allysen Pierce
Allysen Pierce is a freelance writer with a passion for gaming who has been a part of the Gamer Journalist team since May 2022. Her main passions are horror games and dating sims (especially combinations of the two), but she has been known to play literally anything that is put in front of her. Her current favorite games include Skyrim, I Was a Teenage Exocolonist, Cult of the Lamb, Slaughter Horse, and Dragon Age: Inquisition. When she's not playing games (or writing about them), she can be found reading, baking, watching horror movies, or playing with her cat.