Ostranauts Rooms Guide — Requirements, Sizes, Value Mods

✔ Last checked: 2026-08-04

Rooms in Ostranauts are auto-detected: seal a space, meet a room type’s required items and minimum size, avoid its forbidden items, and the game labels it — then multiplies the value of everything installed inside when you sell the ship. That last part is why room knowledge is money knowledge.

Room requirements table

From the official wiki’s room table (EA-era data, structure confirmed, exact values being re-verified for 1.0):

Room Needs Min tiles Value mod
Luxury Quarters Bed, 2x storage bin, light, chair 12 2.0
Wellness Room 2x wellness items 4 1.9
Recreational Room Table, fridge, recreation items 10 1.9
Basic Quarters Bed, storage bin, light 8 1.8
Galley Table, 4x chairs, fridge 6 1.8
Bathroom Toilet, sink 4 1.8
Reactor Room IC reactor 4 1.6
Towing Room Towing brace 2 1.6
Passenger Room (medium) 8x chairs 32 1.6
Bridge (closed) Nav station 4 1.5
Airlock Docking system 3 1.5
Engineering Canister/charger/battery/RCS distributor 4 1.4
Passenger Room (small) 4x chairs 16 1.4
Bridge (open) Nav station 4 1.3
Cargo Room 6x cargo containers 6 1.2
Gas Cargo Room 6x canisters 12 1.2

Forbids matter as much as needs. A toilet voids quarters and galleys; reactor canisters void most living spaces; a closed bridge tolerates almost nothing but the nav station. If a room stubbornly reads as generic, hunt for the contraband item.

Zones: the other grid

Zones (drawn from the PDA’s Zones app) do three jobs, per the wiki: they target haul orders, define trading areas (what’s sellable, where purchases land), and mark no-go areas for NPCs. A cargo bay usually wants both: a Cargo Room for value, a zone so your crew actually hauls into it.

Building toward a sale? Pair this table with the ship flipping workflow — install expensive gear in high-modifier rooms before listing. And mind that airlocks forbid beds; every veteran has tried the airlock-bedroom once.

FAQ

How do rooms get assigned in Ostranauts?

Automatically. The game checks a pressurized space's contents against each room type's required items ('needs'), banned items ('forbids') and minimum tile size — no manual room painting.

Why isn't my room being recognized?

Four usual suspects: the space isn't pressurized, it's under the minimum tile count, a required item is missing or broken, or a forbidden item (often a toilet, battery or reactor canister) is inside.

What are room value modifiers for?

They multiply the sale value of equipment installed in that room when you sell the ship. Luxury Quarters (2.0x) and Wellness/Recreation rooms (1.9x) are the big ones — the backbone of ship flipping.

What are zones, and are they the same as rooms?

Different system. Zones are AI instructions: where haul orders drop items, what's for sale in trading, and where NPCs are forbidden to go. Rooms are about layout; zones are about behavior.