Fleshmass heart

Fleshmass heart

Base Stats

Type

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The fleshmass heart is a structure, entity, and event added by the Anomaly DLC.

Occurrence

When the "Something From Below" event triggers, a random 2x2 area will begin to shift and crack apart. Two in-game hours later, a fleshmass heart will emerge at this location. This cannot occur until after you've attuned the void monolith.

Summary

The fleshmass heart is a large immobile entity which attempts to overwhelm your base with its unnatural growth. Immediately after erupting from the ground, the heart will begin spreading fleshmass around itself, as well as spawning a pack of fleshbeasts for defense. Over time, it will continue to grow and periodically release more fleshbeasts. While these fleshbeast packs may be easy enough to fight off, this is not a threat that can be survived passively; the fleshmass heart will engulf large sections of the map in a matter of days if not violently pruned back. This growth spreads unevenly as the fleshmass sends out tendrils of flesh in random directions, then fattens these tendrils until they merge before repeating the process. Growth occurs in spurts, with the heart resting to gather biomass before aggressively spreading anew. The time between these phases seems random, but you can expect multiple growth spurts each day.

The only way to stop this entity's growth is to destroy the heart itself, but it is immune to all forms of damage, simply regenerating from any attack instantly. This makes it impossible to defeat upon arrival. Instead, you need to wait for it to generate nerve bundle structures within its fleshmass. These green-veined structures drop neural lumps when destroyed, which can be analyzed to reveal the heart's weakness. After analyzing three lumps, any pawn which is able to reach the heart directly can use the "Trigger Tachycardiac Overload" action to destroy it. One nerve bundle is generated upon the fleshmass heart's arrival, and additional clusters generate at random over the next few days.

Complicating matters, the fleshmass will occasionally respond to the destruction of fleshmass tiles by spawning more fleshbeasts. These can emerge from any tile of fleshmass which borders unclaimed territory. If you allow tendrils to spread near your base, these spawned entities can show up dangerously close to your non-combatants. Additionally, the fleshmass heart will generate spitter structures as well, extreme long-range mortars that vomit acid balls at your pawns every three hours. These attacks ignore walls and roofs, so try to destroy them before they have an opportunity to act. Unfortunately, they can appear anywhere within the fleshmass; a spitter that generates well within the entity's interior is very difficult to defeat without mortar fire of your own.

The spreading fleshmass can be contained in a variety of ways. Most player-made structures prevent new flesh from growing, with the exception of doors which are destroyed instantly. Pawns that are in the way of new growth are pushed aside and can be trapped if not careful. If fully walled in, a fleshmass heart will grow until it fills the entirety of its confines, preventing it from overtaking the map. However, it will continue to produce fleshbeasts and spitters until properly dealt with.

Upon defeat, the heart will burst and the remaining fleshmass on the map will gradually die off. However, any remaining fleshbeasts will be unaffected. The heart will drop several stacks of twisted meat and a fleshmass nucleus, which can be captured and suppressed to steadily produce more twisted meat. However, if not suppressed, the nucleus will eventually regenerate into a new fleshmass heart. Alternatively, you can destroy the nucleus for shards.

Analysis

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Version history

• Anomaly DLC Release - Added.

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