Episode 2 of Season 3 is another stream, and it picks up the BasketCase3 colony where Episode 1 left it, with the big water tank dug out and empty. The tank finally fills, coal generators go in, and polluted water turns into the problem of the stream: where to keep it, how to move it, and in the end how to clean it. Seven more duplicants are printed along the way. When the stream ends, thirteen duplicants are alive and the oxygen alerts have finally cleared.
A crowded colony
The stream opens on a new duplicant to print. The pick is Travaldo, a technician the commentary calls "really good at fixing stuff and cleaning things. Not very good at moving." Storage is full again almost at once, so more storage goes in. Four planter boxes start a farm up top, and more cots go down for the duplicants still sleeping on the floor. "Toilet is clogged," the commentary reads out, and another oxygen machine is set up and powered on a lower floor where the air is poor.
Research finishes: "So now we have better batteries and a couple extra wires." Power is still short, and the Jobs screen shows why. "I had two hamster wheels but I've only told one person that they're allowed to do power." A new runner is printed, and a second duplicant is allowed to run.
The tank fills
Once the last junk is swept out of the tank, the pump is switched on. "This thing is slowly filling up with the water from there." A Compost, which its tooltip says breaks polluted dirt down into fertilizer, goes in next to the polluted dirt storage. Then comes the next question: "So now I guess polluted water, we need a place for that. So maybe we should make another tank, right? Tanks are cool."
Coal power and a second tank
Coal Generator shows up in the research, so three of them go in a row, with two carbon dioxide machines beside them that take in clean water and give out polluted water. That water is piped to a small new tank next to the big one. The commentary admits three generators may be "overkill," and later says it plainly: "We're not actually generating a lot of power from the coal because we don't have a lot of coal."
A duplicant gets stuck and makes a mess of polluted water, and it turns out to be the only duplicant allowed to cook, just as a food shortage comes up. The commentary is glad that "all this gas is heavy, this chlorine," so it sinks into the polluted water. A Bottle Emptier, set "for polluted water only," gives the duplicants a way to carry bottled polluted water over to the new tank.
Food, plumbing and more hands
The farm does better than expected: "Usually don't have a lot of success with the planting stuff, but so far so good." Research on cooking unlocks an Electric Grill, which can make Mush Bars "a little better," and the food machines are set to make Mush Bars and Liceloaf. A second duplicant is allowed to cook, then a digger and a cook are printed. Plumbing research brings a Lavatory, showers and a sink, and the toilets are replaced one at a time so the duplicants are never without one.
Then the air runs short. "Low Immunity" and "Insufficient oxygen generation" sit in the alerts, and Ren's immunity is "really low." Algae is running out, so an Algae Distiller, which "converts slime into algae," is built and piped to drain into the polluted water. Oxygen gets priority 7 and power priority 8.
The Water Distiller
The fix for all that dirty water is a Water Distiller, which "uses sand to filter polluted water" and produces polluted dirt. It goes on a ledge above the two tanks, with a liquid pump in the bottom of the polluted tank. The first hookup goes wrong: "I'm screwing up everything. Stop it, everybody stop." The pipes come out, go back in a different way, and this time it works: "Okay good, clean water coming up at the top." A little polluted water did get into the clean tank, though.
The farm floor's air pressure is too high, so a gas pump goes in to move the air somewhere else for now. Refrigeration is picked as the next research, "so we actually don't lose all this food."
Where it ends
The Cycle 30 report comes up. "We don't have errors about oxygen, which is awesome." One last duplicant is printed, Stinky, a physician, which makes thirteen. The game is saved, and the stream ends on the pause menu.