Spice

Spice is the primary commodity of the Spore Universe. It is used for power, building, consumption, and occasionally as a floor polish or sleep aid. There are many different types of spice which vary in rarity and price. Spice can be collected from the player's own mining colonies, stolen from other civilizations and empires, or bought from other empires for Sporebucks. The spice is then sold to other empires for a profit, and, depending on play style, may be one of the primary sources of income for a player.

Note: On this page, costs in italics have not yet been verified in-game, but are instead calculated based on what is known about Spore's "economy". These values should not be off by more than a Sporebuck or two, but please correct or de-italicize any you can verify.

Spice Types
There are 6 different colors of spice available in the space stage:


 * Red spice is described as "rare," when in fact it is one of the most common forms in the game.

Planet Types
Each planet produces one color of spice. According to the strategy guide, the color of spice that it produces is determined by the color of its star and the temperature of it's planets' surface (indicated by the color of their orbit trail). Moons do not need to match the spice color of their parent planet.

Sometimes, white spice, a glitch resulting from the rules which Spore uses to determine spice colors, can be found on gas giants with alien colonies.

Note: The player's homeworld orbits a yellow star, but it typically produces red spice. (Occasionally, it is yellow Spice, instead.)

Selling Spice
When the player first make contact with an alien colony, a price will be presented to him or her remains the same, as long as he or she does not visit any colonies of another empire besides his or her own. (i.e. the player sells spice to Empire A and then collects more from his or her colony to sell to Empire B. Empire A's price will change. If the player does not visit Empire B, however, Empire A's price will not change.) However, depending on the player's spice production and the speed at which the player can produce each variety of spice, the player may want to reset on occasion to sell more expensive spice. For instance, red spice may be the primary source of income (selling for as much as 1.2 million Sporebucks per 99). But if the player has more than six colonies producing other spices as quickly as they can, he or she can sell for as much as 2.4 million Sporebucks per 99. Also, it is important to note that the player's selling his or her colonies will not affect the asking price of alien colonies. A colony never wants to purchase the color of spice it produces and will only pay a very tiny fraction of its value. Additionally, two other colors are chosen at random and also purchased at minimum price. Of the three colors that remain, each is randomly assigned a price between one and five times the "buy price" of that color, as per the charts below. Finally, the Normal and Hard difficulty levels have buy prices reduced by 20%.

Other than colonies never wanting the same color of spice they produce, there does not appear to be any weighting to the randomization. That is, the desire for all spice colors seem to be equally likely and all potential prices seem to be equally likely. Early in the game, if the player has a system which contains both a colony paying premium prices for a particular color and another which produces it, he or she can keep flying back and forth indefinitely with less time wasted on zooming in and out. (However, this ceases to be a good use of time once he or she has a large enough empire.)

Gaining Spice
There are a number of ways to obtain spice. The player's ship's cargo hold can contain up to 99 units of each color at a given time, after which no more can be picked up.

Friendly colonized planets can produce spice that the player can purchase from shopping or trade routes. The places where spice is produced often offer the spice for a low price; the player can sometimes re-sell the spice to nearby systems for much more. Trading spice is a nice way to start making the player's first Sporebucks fast. This is highly recommended for all empires to grow and prosper.

Setting up trade routes with neighboring empires is a good way to get a variety of spice that may otherwise be hard to obtain. Trade is collected when the player visits endpoint of the trade route (typically the closest planet in his or her empire, but not always).

Once the player has cash to spare to place colonies, terraform, and build factories, his or her empire can begin its own spice mining operations. The amount of spice storage space available depends on the number of colonies on the planet. Each colony can hold 5 units; however, placing a Spice Storage doubles the amount each colony can hold. Except for the homeworld of each empire, each planet can hold up to a maximum of 3 colonies (one per T-Score level). The amount of spice generated is rated in each colony by spice produced per hour, based upon the number of factories and the links between factories and housing. For example, a planet with three colonies, each listing a production of 120 spice per hour, will generate approximately 6 units of spice per minute. For a fully equipped colony planet (with maximum colonies and a Spice Storage device) this equates to reaching maximum capacity in 5 minutes. It is very important to place colony buildings as effectively as possible- it can make the difference between 200 spice an hour(on the very high end) and 70.

There are methods for acquiring colonies that have a spice storage capacity of greater than 30 in a star system. There are two common methods, depending upon the player's species' philosophy. The start of this is the same for both. First, the player should raise the planet he or she wants to a T-Score of 3. Next, place a monolith on the planet to uplift one of the species on that planet to be a space-faring species. (Note: It is significantly faster to uplift a planet that already has a sentient species, but it is not mandatory, especially if the player is going for the Brain Surgeon badge.) Once the species is space-faring, the player has two methods of acquiring the planet for his or her empire. For Trader species, the most common method of obtaining the colony for the player's empire is to establish a Trade Route and then use the Cash Infusion ability to enable the player to buy the alien's star system immediately. For all other species, it is usually quicker to simply militarily take over the alien's planet. (Note: It is advisable to save before attempting to take over their planet militarily, because an accidental overuse of force can destroy a colony, which will then lower the colony's spice storage capacity after the player has taken over the entire system.) Done properly, this can result in a spice storage capacity of 100! Also, buying the homeworld of a friendly empire and using a Spice Storage increases the amount to 100.

A player visiting his or her colony in the solar system view will automatically pick up any spice if there is no current crisis (pirates or an enemy empire raiding the planet, etc). While the player is in orbit or in the atmosphere, spice will continue to be refined. The player can collect it by leaving the planet or system and then re-entering orbit; opening communications and 'purchasing' it (there is no charge for the spice that a colony produces) through the trade option; alternatively, the player can hover over a colony and 'abduct' the crate.

If the player does not particularly care what his or her neighboring empires think of him or her, he or she can steal spice from them by hovering over the empire's colony and using the Abduction Beam on their spice crates and fly away. Stealing from a space stage empire will give the player negative Relation Bonus. Stealing from a pre-space or non-spice collecting (cell, creature, tribe) civilization does not give a negative relation bonus. Stealing 50 crates (not 50 spice) in any number of games grants the player the Thief Achievement.

Pirate Attacks
Occasionally Pirates will try and loot spice on one of the player's colonies, with as few as three squadrons. When this happens, the player cannot automatically pick up spice, or "buy" the spice in the trade menu. However, while on the planet the player can 'abduct' the spice and therefore stop the pirate raid (pirates cannot loot the spice if it is not on the planet). In some instances, as is the case with the tribe stage and raided food, addressing a more pressing issue may be worth more than the price of the spice lost. Interestingly enough, fully upgrading a colonies defenses (especially Uber Turret) will entirely prevent pirates from plundering, but not from attacking (it takes a couple of seconds for the Uber Turret to destroy them). This may convert some of the "Spice plundering" missions into full-fledged attacks by the pirates with two or three more attack squadrons.

The player should not bother responding to these spice calls. The pirates only take 1 spice unit, which (at max) is refilled in 2 minutes.

Farming Spice
There are three ways to do this.

Method #1


 * First, the player must have the Monolith tool, all Terraforming tools, the Wildlife Sanctuary, and the Spice Storage colonizing tool, beforehand. Also, he or she should be sure to have Bio Protectors, Uber Turrets, etc. for his or her future super-producing colonies.
 * The player must find planets with valuable Spice and terraform them to T3 and use the Monolith to promote the inhabiting race to space as quickly as possible.
 * Then, the player must buy the solar systems. It helps to have Cash Infusion here. The Homeworlds will have between 6-10 colonies and, with spice storage, can produce 60-100 spice, sometimes maximizing production in less than ten minutes.
 * The player may also chose to take the colony by force, although this will mean having to rebuild the destroyed factories and homes.
 * If the player contacts his or her new colony before landing on the planet and witnessing the huge number of colonies, the game will automatically reduce the number of colonies to 3, so the player should be on the planet when the he or she buys the solar system. The player should then place bio protectors, spice storage, uber turrets, and anything else he or she desires on the planet (Uber turrets are highly recommended). Homeworlds come with maxed out turrets by default, and along with the Uber turret the player should never have to visit to defend the planet.
 * Then, the player should terraform another planet to T3 and make it a zoo planet, so that he or she can store an unlimited quantity of Spice in it without it disappearing. Placing spice crates on a zoo planet (created with the wildlife sanctuary tool) will cause them to stay there and not disappear as they would if placed on a colony.

A homeworld with maxed cities and the spice storage will have an output of roughly 900 spice an hour, maxing out about every 6.7 minutes, depending on the type of cities (military, religious, economic)

Method #2


 * The player using Method #2 should purchase these items:


 * 1) Colony Incredi-pack x3 at 75,000 each (from Shaman)
 * 2) Spice Storage: 250,000 (from Bard)
 * 3) Uber Turret: 375,000   (from Warrior)
 * 4) Bio Protector: 150,000 (from Shaman or Ecologist)
 * 5) Bio Stabilizer: 150,000 (from Shaman or Ecologist)
 * After Terraforming the planet to T-3, the player should place all Colony tools on the planet. He or she should then build each colony with the layout shown here and place all 8 turrets
 * The total cost if the tools are purchased from the cheapest vendors is 2,225,200 Sporebucks
 * Storage: 30 spice
 * Output per colony: 132 per hour
 * Total Output: 396 spice per hour (fills up in 4.6 min)
 * Total Happiness: +6 (+2 per colony)

If done with green spice sold at an average rate, it will pay for itself in 14.4 minutes (just over 3 sales of 30 spice, in easy mode) Purple spice at max cost will pay for itself in one transaction of 30 spice.(again, in easy mode) At the end of the day, if done with Green, Pink or Purple, although the initial cost is high, it shouldn't take the player any more than 30-40 min. to pay it back and begin making profit. The player does not need visit the system to defend it from attacks (full turrets and Uber turret will wipe out anything), Eco Disasters are rare, but are still a threat. The player does not need loyalty or happiness boosters since each colony has an implicit happiness of +2.

While this does not produce the long-term endless supply of storable spice that can lead to maxed-out money, it gets the player to the production of Spice much more quickly without waiting for civilizations to mature and trade routes to finish.

Method #3

This method is the same like method 2, but with a few changes to maximize the spice output. The player needs 3 colonies with +2, +3 and -5 happiness. He or she should place the following buildings in clockwise direction starting with the buildplace which is nearest to one of the 4 open gates:
 * Only the total happiness amount is important for strikes. So the player can maximize the spice production by using following Method:
 * for the +2 colony:


 * 1) house
 * 2) factory
 * 3) house
 * 4) entertainment
 * 5) entertainment
 * 6) house
 * 7) factory
 * 8) house
 * 9) factory
 * 10) house
 * 11) factory


 * for the +3 colony:


 * 1) house
 * 2) factory
 * 3) house
 * 4) factory
 * 5) factory
 * 6) house
 * 7) entertainment
 * 8) entertainment
 * 9) entertainment
 * 10) house
 * 11) factory


 * for the -5 colony:


 * 1) house
 * 2) factory
 * 3) house
 * 4) factory
 * 5) factory
 * 6) house
 * 7) factory
 * 8) house
 * 9) factory
 * 10) house
 * 11) factory


 * Storage: 30 spice
 * Total Output: 432 per hour (fills up in 4.16 min)
 * Total Happiness: 0

Pros and Cons of #1 and #2


 * 1) Method 1 produces so much spice that, once the player has finally set it up, it can max out the player's money in about 10 minutes with a good buyer and purple spice and then begin storing spice for later cash needs on the zoo planet (which can be accessed by other game files!). However, setup is very expensive and takes a long time. If the player does not think he or she will be needing obscene sums of cash then it likely isn't worth the wait
 * 2) Method 2 takes very little time and is comparatively cheaper than method #1. Yield is far lower, but is more than adequate to keep most games going with a high rate of production. Running back to collect the spice every few minutes can lead to a quick growth of cash that will keep the average player quite wealthy.

White Spice
There is a rare glitch where a Gas Giant or the Ruined Planet has spice.

White spice cannot be sold, and the actual white spice image has two swords crossing each other, due to the fact is is a glitch. The only description of the spice is ***, and it cannot be sold. Therefore, it does not show in the 'Buy' window.

Fake Spices
People have been starting rumors about spices that Maxis hid inside Spore. These are not true. Some include Black Spice, Orange Spice, Rainbow Spice, Sporty Spice, and Silver Spice. Some people use mods to get these spices by re-coloring the Geyser that spice shoots out of, the icon, the item, and the sell price. These spices are fake and are not meant to be taken seriously.

Reference
Spice may have been inspired by either the spice trade of human history, which involved the trade of edible spices, or Spice Melange, a rare but valuable resource and drug featured in Frank Herbert's Dune series. Also it could be a reference from Star Wars Expanded Universe where "spice" refers to numerous mined materials used as food additives, narcotics and a variety of other uses.

The different spices also seem to be references in themselves to real-world objects.
 * Red: It is used as a flavoring and induces an eye-watering effect. This could be a reference to cayenne or red chili peppers used as seasoning.
 * Yellow: It is sour and used in summertime beverages. This could be a reference to powdered lemonade mixes.
 * Blue: It is used as a viagra This could be a reference to viagra + or hard as brick or any of the various blue-colored willy pills on the market.
 * Green: It is used in making a minty beverage. This could be a reference to the crushed mint leaves used to flavor tea and other beverages.
 * Pink: It is used as a sweetener and as floor polish. This could be a reference to Sweet 'n Low and an unknown floor polish.
 * Purple: It is used in making a purple pudding. This could be a reference to dried plums.

Spice Amounts

 * The player can calculate the number of cities on a planet by using the spice production amount.
 * Spice per city on regular planet: 5 Spice per city
 * Spice per city on planet with spice storage (one of your planets): 10 Spice per city


 * T0 Planets can have 1 city with no spice, with the exception of Grox colonies.
 * T1 Planets can have 1 city with up to 5 Spice
 * T2 Planets can have up to 2 cities with up to 10 Spice
 * T3 Planets can have up to 3 cities with up to 15 Spice
 * Homeworlds Bought by Trade route can have up to 10 cities with up to 50 Spice
 * Homeworlds bought by trade with all cities intact, with the spice storage, can have up to 100 spice.
 * The player's homeworld can have 10 cities and 50 Spice well. However, for some reason, the cities only produce up to 5 spice at a time, unlike a T1 colony which can produce as much as 60 spice for its city.
 * Spice Storage doubles the spice storage on your planet.
 * The player's Space Ship Cargo will allow him or her to hold only 99 of any Spice at one time.


 * On easy mode, if the player sells 99 of all 6 types of spice at maximum Price, he or she will get 24,300,648 Sporebucks. On Normal or Hard difficulty, he or she will get 19,437,561 Sporebucks.

Especia Rohto