Boomalope

Boomalopes are herbivores with a high hunger rate. They produce 11 chemfuel per day, and explode on death.

Acquisition

Boomalopes can be found in temperate forests, temperate swamps, tropical rainforests, tropical swamps, arid shrublands, and deserts. They can either be tamed by a Handler or self-tame in a random event.

Boomalopes can be bought and sold in other faction bases and from bulk goods traders. Boomalopes purchased from traders will be already tamed.

Summary

They produce 11 chemfuel per day when fed, but production decreases as saturation drops. Production drops to half when the animal is hungry, one third when urgently hungry and completely stops when starving.

On death, boomalopes explode, doing 10 flame damage in a radius that depends on the age stage of the animal. Baby boomalopes explode in a 1.9 tile radius, juveniles in a 2.9 tile radius, and adults in a 4.9 tile radius. This explosion does not itself set fires nor provide chemfuel puddles to burn but the flame damage might ignite surrounding objects and pawns.

Note: This explosion will still occur if the boomalope is slaughtered or dies of natural causes; boomalopes have a life expectancy of 15 years, so have a plan to deal with your older livestock. Creating a pen that only encloses a natural stone floor area, moving them there, and then drafting a colonist and targeting them from a distance is one solution.

Analysis

An adult boomalope consumes 17.2 hay per day. In 100% fertility soil, this would require 12.4 tiles of haygrass to grow. In order to produce the same 11 chemfuel per day in a biofuel refinery, 21 tiles of corn plant would be needed.

This advantage is further increased if the boomalope is allowed to graze instead of requring pawn-grown crops. This can partially or totally negate the ongoing resource costs of boomalopes, which the refinery cannot replicate.

Lastly, milking at its base value requires 400 ticks (6.67 secs) of work for 11 units of chemfuel, or 36.4 ticks (0.61 secs) of work per chemfuel, while the refinery requires 2,500 ticks (41.67 secs) for 35 units, or 71.4 ticks (1.19 secs) of work per chemfuel. Milking time is dependent on the animal gather speed of the pawn, while refining time is dependent on their general labor speed. Notably, both stats have the same factors except that of the Animals skill of animal gather speed - thus, milking is more work efficient than refining for any pawn with a Animals skill of 4 or above and has a much greater potential for further reduction at higher skill levels.

Strategies

While relatively weak, when dying they cause a large fiery explosion, igniting nearby flammables. Killing them using ranged weapons is recommended, especially during rainfall to prevent fires from devastating the area. Boomalopes spawn in areas with long and year-round growing periods. A herd of man hunting boomalopes can destroy a base, but they are susceptible to chain explosions.

While it is always risky to handle them as tamed animals due to potential collateral damage, their fuel production can be a vital part of a colony's manufacturing and power infrastructure. They can also find niche use against tribal raids by transport poding them in to raids as biological bombs or using them as bait, though more conventional methods like mortars should replace them long term. While boomalopes will sleep outside, one should also have separate animal sleeping spots in a nearby safe area to avoid bringing an injured boomalope to your other tamed animals or inside your base. Killing a tamed boomalope will still cause it to explode, but they can be butchered afterward without issue.

Training

This animal can be trained as follows:

Guard:
Attack:
Rescue:
Haul:

*As of version 1.1.2610, all animals can be tamed. The percentage of likelihood of success depends on factors such as the Animals Wildness Percentage, Pawn Handling Skill, and others. More information can be found on the animals page.

Health

Body part	Health
Head	16
Skull	16
Brain	7
Nose	7
Neck	16
Jaw	13
Eye ^[1] (left, right)	7
Ear (left, right)	7
Body	26
Kidney^[2] (left, right)	10
Lung^[2] (left, right)	10
Liver^[2]	13
Heart^[2]	10
Spine^[2]	16
Stomach^[2]	13
Limbs (left, right, fore, hind)	20
Appendage (left, right, fore, hind)	13

↑ Located inside of Head.
↑ ^2.0 ^2.1 ^2.2 ^2.3 ^2.4 ^2.5 Located inside of Body.

Version history

0.12.906 - Added
Beta 18 - gained the ability to produce chemfuel, at a rate of 20 fuel per 2 days.
Beta 19/1.0 - chemfuel production reduced by 40%, hunger rate 1.0 -> 1.3
1.3.3066 - Trainable Intelligence reduced from Intermediate to None.

Animals