RimWorld Nutrient Paste Expanded guide: pipes, feeders and animal food
Set up Vanilla Nutrient Paste Expanded in RimWorld: grinders, vats, feeders, animal diets and power failures, plus the separate nutrient pellet add-on.
Vanilla Nutrient Paste Expanded is a RimWorld mod that lets you make paste in one place and deliver it through pipes to the parts of your colony that need it. Instead of arranging every eating area around a dispenser and its hoppers, you build a grinder, store the paste in vats, then connect the appropriate outlet.
For animals, the important distinction is what comes out. The main mod's nutrient paste feeder produces ordinary nutrient paste meals. Nutrient kibble or pellets are a separate add-on, with their own compatibility and storage questions. Installing the main mod doesn't turn your hay crop into piped kibble.
What Vanilla Nutrient Paste Expanded changes
You still have to grow, obtain and haul food. The change is where you process it and how you distribute the result. Feedstock goes into hoppers beside a nutrient paste grinder; the grinder supplies a connected paste network, and vats hold a reserve for its outlets.
That separates a central processing room from the places where food gets eaten. You choose where ingredients enter, how pipes run and which branches serve the colony. An outlet beside the barn is useful only if the network contains paste and the animals can reach its food.
How it differs from the vanilla nutrient paste dispenser
A vanilla dispenser processes food from adjacent hoppers at the place where it serves meals. The mod separates those jobs. Paste grinders take raw food at the input end, pipes carry it, and paste vats hold it for outlets elsewhere. You can supply a dining room and an animal feeding point from central processing rather than putting a complete dispenser setup at each destination.
That extra network is the trade-off. Your current nutrient paste dispenser may already serve one room perfectly well. The mod becomes useful when you want to separate ingredient storage from several eating areas. It doesn't grow food, replace hauling to the grinder hopper, or make incompatible food edible for an animal.
Separate prison cells, Hospitality and vending machines
I particularly like this setup for prisons. Being able to keep each prisoner in their own cell and still supply them through the same paste network makes feeding them much easier. It's a practical reason to build the network even if you aren't using it for a herd.
It also fits nicely into my setup with Hospitality. I use both Hospitality's paste-dispenser selling feature and the separate Hospitality: Vending machines add-on.
Requirements and the right Workshop item
The main item is Vanilla Nutrient Paste Expanded, Workshop ID 2920385763, by Oskar Potocki and Kikohi. Its metadata declares Harmony and Vanilla Expanded Framework as dependencies. The inspected buildings are unlocked by the Nutrient Paste research project. The pipes use the network system supplied by Vanilla Expanded Framework.
Use the authors' Workshop page to identify it. A similarly named pellet add-on isn't a replacement for the main system. Check the dependency list and intended game version before changing a save.
The authors say the main mod can be added to an existing game. That doesn't establish safe removal or compatibility with every modpack. Keep a separate save when checking a changed setup.
Connect nutrient paste pipes, grinders and outlets
Start with a simple chain before extending it across the base:
- Put suitable raw food in hoppers adjacent to the grinder.
- Connect the grinder so it can pipe nutrient paste directly into a storage vat.
- Connect the outlet you need and supply the powered buildings.
- Confirm that paste reaches storage and that the outlet produces or serves food.
- Watch the intended eater use it before relying on the arrangement.
The grinder's definition explicitly excludes rough plant matter such as hay. A warehouse full of hay therefore isn't a supply of grinder ingredients. This matters if you're converting livestock that previously ate harvested hay directly.
| Building | Role | Check before relying on it |
|---|---|---|
| Nutrient paste grinder | Processes feedstock from adjacent hoppers into the network | Ingredients, hopper placement and power |
| Nutrient paste vat | Stores the network's paste | Actual contents, power and temperature |
| Nutrient paste tap | Can serve prisoners and colonists with paste meals | Reachable interaction position and supplied network |
| Nutrient paste feeder | Outputs paste meals at its feeding/storage position | Output, access and compatible diet |
| Nutrient paste dripper | Feeds an occupant of a linked bed | Position facing the bed's head, connection, power and paste |
The nutrient paste dripper is a bedside device for bed-bound colonists and prisoners, not the general answer to feeding a moving herd. Place it directly beside and facing the head of the bed. Adding another dripper to the same bed doesn't increase its effect. The feeder is the relevant outlet when you want meals available at a feeding point.
DLC use: Growth Vats
The authors also document connecting pipes to Growth Vats to supply their required nutrients. Growth Vats belong to Biotech, so that use needs the DLC; you don't need Biotech just to feed animals through the feeder. This is a documented integration, not a new compatibility test with your other mods.
The feeder still produces a normal nutrient paste meal. Don't assume installing a pipe network removes a colonist's food preferences or the usual mood penalty for paste. Keep those choices separate from the question of whether the outlet has food.
Feeding animals: meals first, pellets only with an add-on
The inspected feeder definition and output code use the normal nutrient paste meal item. For animals that can eat that meal, it offers a way to provide food without repeatedly hauling finished meals to the barn. The ingredient supply upstream still needs work.
Place the feeder where the animals can actually eat. Penned livestock still need access inside their enclosure; animals managed through allowed areas need the feeding spot included. A pipe crossing a wall doesn't give an animal a route through it.
Check each species' diet. Wargs are an important exception to general meal-feeding advice: their documented diet is raw meat and corpses. Paste doesn't remove that restriction.
Paste and other meals deserve a closer look with small animals, which can eat a whole meal without using all its nutrition. Convenient output and efficient consumption are different questions. No new consumption comparison has been measured for this article.
Nutrient pellets are a separate mod
Nutrient Paste Expanded – Nutrient Pellets, Workshop ID 3285099404, is an add-on by ThatHitmann. Its description adds a toggle for the feeder to output nutrient kibble pellets instead of meals. It also says the pellets expire like nutrient paste; don't store them as ordinary long-lasting kibble.
Check the pellet add-on's compatibility separately from the main mod before adding it to your save.
For choosing livestock and working animals, use the RimWorld animals guide and tier list.
Store nutrient paste safely in vats
Vats put the reserve inside a powered system. The authors warn that stored paste can spoil rapidly after a power cut and recommend refrigerated vat rooms as protection. A full vat isn't the same storage arrangement as a protected pile of kibble.
Keep reachable backup food for the animals you intend to support. Choose it by diet and include it in the food budget. It must be usable without waiting for the same failed processing chain.
The authors also warn that unwanted meat entering a shared supply affects the ingredients recorded for meals from that supply. If human meat doesn't belong in your colony's meals, exclude it before processing. Food policies at the eating end are not a way to separate an already mixed reserve back into its original ingredients. Filter the input before it enters. Don't use the purge control casually: the documented remedy discards the stored supply.
Why is the nutrient paste feeder not working?
| Visible problem | Inspect | Next action |
|---|---|---|
| Feeder has no meals | Power, switch, pipes and stored paste | Restore the broken part of the route, then confirm output |
| Paste is available but an animal stays hungry | Diet, pen boundary or allowed area | Make compatible food reachable; don't just add vats |
| Grinder isn't supplying paste | Hopper contents and power | Deliver accepted feedstock; hay isn't a substitute |
| Dripper doesn't feed the occupant | Bed linkage, position, power and contents | Correct the bedside setup |
| Meals keep appearing around the feeder | Installed mod version and other patches | Check the authors' feeder fix and reproduce in a separate save |
The September 2026 change notes record a fix for feeders repeatedly dropping meals. Check your installed version before rebuilding the whole network. That doesn't prove every later report has the same cause, or that a particular modpack is fixed.
Before you report errors
If the error persists, note your RimWorld build, the installed mod version and any add-ons that change paste, feeding or storage. Compare the change notes with the authors' GitHub repository rather than assuming an old report describes your setup. Record where the chain stops: no grinder input, no stored paste, no output or food that the intended eater ignores.
A separate save with a small working network gives you a clearer comparison than rebuilding every pipe in the colony. Keep your main save intact while checking which change causes the failure, then use the authors' linked support route for the report.
Is Nutrient Paste Expanded worth using?
The useful decision is whether you want central processing and distributed outlets enough to maintain the network. Several separate food destinations can make that separation useful. A small hay-fed pen may already have a simpler working arrangement.
For a barn, check the whole route: accepted ingredients, working grinder, stored paste, powered outlet, compatible diet and animal access. If the problem is a closed door or an expanding herd, fix that too. Pipes distribute the supply you have; they don't set a sustainable herd size.
Nutrient Paste Expanded FAQ
Can Vanilla Nutrient Paste Expanded use hay?
The grinder excludes hay. Keep suitable grinder feedstock separate from hay intended for direct animal feeding.
Does the main mod produce nutrient kibble?
The inspected main-mod feeder outputs ordinary nutrient paste meals. Nutrient pellets require a separate add-on, whose version support must be checked independently.
Does this replace winter food planning?
No. You still need enough compatible ingredients or backup feed. Power loss, storage conditions, animal access and herd growth remain part of that plan.
Can prisoners eat from feeders in separate cells?
Yes. Connect a feeder inside each cell to the paste network and keep the supply running. The prisoner must be able to reach and eat the meal; prisoners who cannot feed themselves still need care.
Sources
Opened October 24, 2026: main Workshop item, change notes, authors' repository, metadata, building definitions, storage, feeder output, pellet add-on, warg diet.