Mechanics wiki / Survive the Storm / Sponsors

Sponsors

Every mission sponsor as the mod sets it. All twelve start with the same Funding, Research, Rare Metals price and Rockets, and no sponsor grants a free starting technology. What tells them apart is one applicant or colonist trait, their unique vehicle and building, and one perk. The one table below has all of it. For the unchanged base-game values (each sponsor's own funding, research, goals and so on), see the vanilla Sponsors page; vanilla differs on almost every number.

Shared for all sponsors: 4,000 M Funding, 100 Research per Sol, 25 M Rare Metals price, 1 starting Rocket. (In the full Survive the Storm overhaul the Rocket map condition sets the actual starting fleet; the 1 above is the setup-screen value.)

All sponsors

The applicant pool starts at 50 for every sponsor; only China raises it (by 30%), shown in the Applicant trait column. That column holds each sponsor's one applicant or colonist effect; the Perk column holds its one general perk. The one exception is Japan, which carries two perks: its intrinsic Rovers -50% (hardcoded to the sponsor) plus the sector-scan research it holds in vanilla. Russia is not in this lineup: it is dropped from the mod (see below).

SponsorApplicant traitVehicleBuildingPerk
International Mars Mission Colonists never get Earthsick Zeus Rocket (70,000 kg payload instead of 50,000 kg) Advanced Stirling Generator (double electricity) Rockets synthesize Fuel (20% per day)
USA Celebrity applicants are 2 times more likely Advanced Orbital Probe (scans five sectors at once) Mega Mall (one service building that covers most interests) Every revealed tech lowers tech cost in the same group by 1%
Blue Sun Corporation Can buy 50 Applicants for 500 M RC Harvester (rover that harvests Concrete from surface deposits) Corporate Office (employs workers and generates Funding) 20% cheaper advanced resources
China 30% more applicants, generated 30% faster RC Generator (RC Commander that generates power like a solar panel) Tai Chi Garden (small garden; visitors regain some Health and may turn Fit) Passenger Rockets carry 10 more Colonists
India Birthrate increased by 50% RC Constructor (rover that constructs buildings) Metals Refinery (slowly turns Waste Rock into Metals) Residential buildings house 50% more Colonists
Europe Scientist applicants are 50% more likely RC Seeker (RC Commander that acts as a sensor tower when parked) Low-G Lab (outside-dome research building that cuts Biotech and Physics tech cost) 100 M Funding per researched technology
SpaceY Colonists become Martianborn after 10 Sols on Mars (except Founders) Dragon Rocket (40,000 kg payload instead of 50,000 kg; faster and needs less Fuel) Solar Array (large solar cluster with low upkeep) Additional Rockets cost 1500 M instead of 3000 M
Brazil Colonists suffer no penalties using passages Large Supply Pod (supply pod that carries more cargo) Rare Metals Refinery (turns Waste Rock into Rare Metals) Generate 50% more Food
Terraforming Initiative All Colonists have the Hippie trait RC Dozer (importable from the start at half cost and half weight) Forestation Plant (plants vegetation and does not require Power) All Terraforming techs are 30% cheaper to research
Church of the New Ark All Colonists have the Religious trait Ark Pod (supply pod that can carry passengers) Temple Spire (service spire; covers Social interests and restores Sanity) Get warned about disasters 1 Sol earlier
Paradox Interactive Researching a Breakthrough Tech grants 30 Applicants Jumper Shuttle (faster shuttles on parabolic hops) Game Developer (makes games that pay Funding based on how well they do) Map has 2 to 4 more Breakthrough Anomalies
Japan All specialists gain +10 Performance Wasp Drone (faster, flying drone) Automatic Metals Extractor (Metal Extractor that needs no workers) Sector scan grants 250 research, additional 250 for deep scan

Russia is dropped from the lineup: the RC Driller is unbalanced, the Concrete Plant is useless, and the Fuel mechanic is not interesting.

Applicant generation

Every sponsor but China shares one setup: a pool of 50 applicants that tops up by one new applicant per Sol, of which a flat 10% become Tourists. China alone has a pool and generation each 30% higher (65 applicants, one every 18 h). For the full picture - the per-sponsor rate table, the Tourist share, how applicants leave the pool, and the "Live From Mars" tech - see the dedicated Applicant generation page.

Rocket payload capacity by sponsor

A resupply Rocket's maximum payload is set by the sponsor, not the rocket. The standard capacity is 50,000 kg. Two sponsors differ:

This is one per-sponsor cargo-capacity value fixed at colony start, so it holds for whatever rocket that sponsor flies and for every resupply order the whole game. The Dragon Rocket's smaller capacity and its effect text live on the SpaceY sponsor (Space Race DLC), not on the rocket building - which is why the reduced capacity never shows on the rocket itself.

The USA Celebrity and Europe Scientist biases are global levers in the base game (there is no per-sponsor trait weight or specialist chance), so the mod applies them only while that sponsor is the one backing the colony; with one sponsor per game they are effectively sponsor-only. The SpaceY Martianborn conversion is per colonist, counted from arrival on Mars (the game's own "Sols on Mars" counter), and grants the full trait once it reaches 10.

Sources

Base game plus every DLC. The mod patches the live sponsor presets at load and adds a few per-colonist hooks; the vanilla values it starts from are on the vanilla Sponsors page.