Fleshmass nucleus

The fleshmass nucleus is an entity added by the Anomaly DLC that will occasionally produce twisted meat.

Acquisition[edit]

This Entity is found after killing a fleshmass heart. The heart will leave this as a dropped item, and it can be captured as you would any downed Entity.

Summary[edit]

The fleshmass nucleus can be contained on a holding platform or holding spot. It does not have a minimum containment strength, but must be contained to be studied and suppressed.

The nucleus will constantly gain activity (base 10% a day) as new flesh grows across its surface. A warden will need to suppress it to reduce its activity. The speed of suppression scales with psychic sensitivity. If its activity reaches 100%, the flesh will reach critical mass and form a new fleshmass heart. This will occur wherever the nucleus is contained and spread across the map like before. The new fleshmass heart will have a unique biosignature, requiring you to collect new fleshmass neural lumps to kill it.

The nucleus will also produce 3-6 piles of twisted meat around itself at periodic intervals with an MTB of 60,000 ticks (24 in-game hours) and a minimum time of 15,000 ticks (6 in-game hours). The amount of meat produced is random but is strongly influenced by activity level, producing on average of 96 meat each time at 0% activity and on average of 220 meat at 90%.

If it is not needed, a nucleus that is not in containment can be disposed of by ordering a pawn to attack it until it is destroyed. A captured nucleus can be destroyed in the same way by releasing it first.

Yield[edit]

The fleshmass nucleus yields 3 bioferrite per day and 200W of power. Note that its daily activity gain rate will increase by +15% when it is connected to an electroharvester, for a total of 25% activity gained per day.

When destroyed, a nucleus yields 2 shards and 1-2 stacks of twisted meat.

Analysis[edit]

Compared to other entities, the fleshmass nucleus is much less dangerous when the colony does not have a strong containment cell. It can be held at no risk on any holding spot in any room; the only way a nucleus can ever pose any danger is if it is allowed to reached full activity and reform into a fleshmass heart. It will otherwise never escape on its own, never cause adverse effects, and not fight back when attacked.

Similar to the nociosphere, at least one colonist should be available at any given time to keep the fleshmass nucleus's activity suppressed.

The nucleus's comparatively paltry power output makes the use of an electroharvester largely inadvisable, as even weak entities such as gorehulks will produce more power while being far less dangerous in the event of an escape.

Keeping the nucleus at high activity can facilitate the farming of large amounts of twisted meat, which has many uses. Most colonists will receive a painful −10 Ate twisted meat mood for 1 day when eating twisted meat, but ghouls and animals have no such reservations. Every animal type in the game (even herbivores like horses) will happily consume meals that contain twisted meat; wargs are the sole exception to this rule, but they can simply eat it raw. Colonies settled in biomes with low grazing potential - or that simply have cooks with time to spare - can comfortably ranch pack animals on an exclusive diet of simple meals that use twisted meat as their only ingredient.

Twisted meat can also be refined into chemfuel. The twisted meat produced by one nucleus kept at high activity can fuel over 24 chemfuel powered generators, assuming average luck and sufficient pawn-hours for refining.