Dumping stockpile zone
Dumping stockpile zone
A dumping stockpile zone is a kind of stockpile zone. Colonists assigned to hauling and animals trained to haul will bring items to stockpiles configured to accept them.
It works in exactly the same way as a normal stockpile. The only difference is that there are different default settings. By default, dumping stockpiles allow corpses and chunks and forbid everything else. If you prefer, you can create a regular stockpile zone and manually change the settings yourself. Using this option merely saves a few clicks when you know the stockpile is going to be used for corpses, unwanted gear or chunks.
Dumping stockpiles can be created in the Zone section of the Architect menu.
Creating Dumping stockpiles
To create a dumping stockpile, click the Dumping Stockpile Zone button in the Zone/Area tab of the Architect menu. Next, simply click and drag to draw the area. If the chosen area has parts that cannot be made into a dumping stockpile, like a solid object or another stockpile that had already been placed, it will not expand into those areas.
Doing the same operation on an already existing stockpile/dumping stockpile will expand it, but maintain whether or not it is a dumping stockpile vs a regular stockpile. When creating a dumping stockpile, any movable items currently occupying the designated tiles will automatically be considered part of the dumping stockpile, even if the dumping stockpile settings disallow those particular items. Haulers will remove these items and take them to stockpiles that do allow them.
Configuring
Select a dumping stockpile and click the Storage tab to configure it.
- Priority - Items are brought to dumping stockpiles with higher priority that have available space. Haulers will even move items already in a stockpile that can be moved to a higher priority one.
- Hit points and quality sliders - Set sliders to restrict items based on their hit points and/or quality.
- Item list - Choose what items are allowed.
- Checkboxes at the top for Rotten vs Fresh, and within the Apparel menu for Clean vs Tainted.
It's generally all right to set a dumping stockpile zone's priority to Low. Since none of your other stockpiles allow these items, they will be brought to the dumping stockpile anyway.
How you configure a particular dumping stockpile depends on how you intend to use it.
Using dumping stockpiles
Once a dumping stockpile has been allocated, haulers will automatically move items to the stockpile when they are available as long as the dumping stockpile allows that item and has available space.
Garbage dump
These zones are often used to collect junk that is neither useful nor beautiful, somewhere outside the base where colonists don't have to look at it. Rotting corpses, low quality weapons and tainted clothing will eventually deteriorate and vanish if exposed to the elements. Items which are outdoors, unroofed and in marsh or water deteriorate more quickly.
If your dumping stockpile zone is filled to capacity and you are unable or unwilling to expand it, you may not want to wait until the items deteriorate on their own. These are some ways to destroy your garbage faster:
- firing an incendiary weapon at it
- throwing Molotov cocktails or frag grenades at it
- placing chemfuel in the center of the pile and shooting at it
- leaving a mortar shell or other explosive in the center of the pile until it degrades and explodes on its own
For an early game dumping stockpile, you may want to make sure it is set to not allow fresh corpses and to not allow clean apparel. This will ensure that only items you can neither use nor sell will be placed here. Later on, you can change the settings to include other kinds of items you do not need.
Perimeter defense & storage
A dumping stockpile that contains only chunks can provide some cheap cover. This is a handy tactic in the early game, as the chunks only need to be hauled into place rather than constructed like sandbags or walls. It also saves time for your stonecutters and smelters. If they can grab chunks out of the stockpile rather than having to travel across the map to find stone or steel slag, they will work much more efficiently.
Warg bait
A dumping stockpile zone set to accept both fresh and rotten stranger corpses can be a convenient place to deposit defeated human raiders.
If your biome has winter, these corpses can remain fresh for weeks at a time. This is especially beneficial for indirectly keeping predators fed. When wild predators have free corpses to snack on, they are much less likely to hunt your colonists and tamed animals for food. Once your colony is strong enough to be able to hunt these predators, the dumping stockpile can instead lure them into a location which is convenient for your hunters.
If you use this method, it's a good idea to set most of your colonists to an allowed area which does not include the "warg bait" stockpile. Hauling animals and pawns with Psychopath, Bloodlust or Cannibal can be allowed there, since the sight of fresh corpses does not bother them. But multiple stacked "Observed corpse" and "Observed rotting corpse" mood penalties can be brutal for a colonist who does not have any traits to ameliorate them.