Psychic rituals

This article is about the group activities added by the Anomaly DLC. For the individual abilities added by the Royalty DLC, see Psycasts. For other rituals such as those from the Ideology DLC, see Rituals.

Psychic rituals are rituals like those in Ideology DLC but with the psychic side of Royalty DLC. They are performed at an Psychic ritual spot and can be improved with stuff like void sculptures and shard beacons and Apparel like ritual masks and ceremonial hoods.^[Verify] They allow to psychically induce an insane Archotech machine-god who can distort reality.

Mechanics

Each ritual requires one pawn to be the Invoker, with up to four or six additional colonists able to participate as Chanters, depending on the ritual. All rituals except for Void Provocation also require either Bioferrite or a Shard which is consumed at the completion of the ritual, and rituals targeting a specific pawn require the pawn to able to walk or be carried to the ritual site, though they do not need to be conscious. Pawns with 0% Psychic sensitivity such as Ghouls, psychically deaf pawns and psychically dead pawns, cannot be a participant nor the target of a ritual.

Children may participate in rituals in any position as long as they are not babies. The only exception is the Chronophagy ritual, where they cannot be the Invoker.

Slaves and temporary pawns such as refugees and guests may also participate in rituals so long as they meet the requirements for psychic sensitivity and age.

The quality of any ritual is based on the following factors.

• The Psychic sensitivity of the Invoker. An Invoker with 100% Sensitivity will grant a +12% bonus, this increases proportionally up to a maximum of +25% at 281%^[282%?] sensitivity.^[Penalty?] The Psychic Sensitivity of any Chanters do not affect the outcome.
• The number of Chanters. filling all spots (whether there are four or six) grants a +20% bonus, with each pawn contributing an equal portion of the bonus.
• The number and Quality of any nearby Void Sculptures, up to six sculptures. Normal and Good give +2% each, Excellent and Masterwork gives +3% each and legendary gives +5%.
• The number of nearby Shard Beacons. Each beacon provides an +8% bonus, to a max of +32% at four Beacons.
• Psychic ritual quality offset from the Psychic Ritual Precept. Invokers and Chanters with Exalted Psychic Rituals will increase the quality by +10% * (Number of pawns with precept/Number of pawns participating), while pawns with the Disapproved precept will reduce it by −10% * (Number of pawns with precept/Number of pawns participating)

List of rituals

Ritual	Ritual Effect	Ritual Duration	Ritual Cooldown	Ritual Cost	Required Research
Void provocation	Psychically commune with the void, attracting an entity which can be captured and studied. There’s a chance that the invoker will fall into a coma for several hours. Triggers an entity related event to occur, outside of the normal storyteller timing, but with a quality dependent chance to render the invoker comatose.	5,000 ticks (2 in-game hours)	300,000 ticks (5 in-game days)	None	Void provocation
Draw animals	Create a psychic pulse which will draw a distant herd of animals into the local area. You can then hunt or make use of them as you choose. If not done correctly, this may attract scaria-infected manhunters. Causes a herd of animals to enter the map, but with a quality dependent chance for the herd to be manhunters infected with scaria.	10,000 ticks (4 in-game hours)	600,000 ticks (10 in-game days)	10 Bioferrite	Draw animals
Draw shamblers	Create a psychic pulse which will draw a distant horde of animated corpses towards your local area. While they attack any humans that they see, they won't attack your colony directly. You can capture them for study. Causes a horde of shamblers to enter the map, with the combat power of the horde being quality dependent.	5,000 ticks (2 in-game hours)	300,000 ticks (5 in-game days)	20 Bioferrite	Draw shamblers
Chronophagy	Induce a distant archotech to transfer entropy from one person to another. This causes the target to age rapidly while the invoker becomes younger, potentially healing scarring or age-related illnesses. The target will suffer brain damage, causing them to fall into a coma for several days. De-ages, and removes some age related ailments from, the invoker while aging the target.	10,000 ticks (4 in-game hours)	300,000 ticks (5 in-game days)	20 Bioferrite	Chronophagy
Psychophagy	Consume the psychic sensitivity of a target. The invoker will increase their psychic sensitivity for a period of time. The effect does not stack. The target will suffer brain damage, causing them to fall into a coma for several days. Provides a buff to the invoker's psychic sensitivity with a quality dependent duration, at the cost of rendering the target permanently psychically dead.	10,000 ticks (4 in-game hours)	300,000 ticks (5 in-game days)	20 Bioferrite	Psychophagy
Skip abduction	Abduct a random hostile person from anywhere in the world, prioritizing those nearby. The ritual induces a dark archotech to warp space, teleporting a distant person to the center of the ritual circle. The process causes the target to fall into a short coma. Skips a random, comatose hostile pawn to the psychic ritual spot.	5,000 ticks (2 in-game hours)	600,000 ticks (10 in-game days)	60 Bioferrite	Skip abduction
Draw fleshbeasts	Create a psychic pulse which will draw fleshbeasts to dig upwards and emerge near your enemies. They will attack anyone they find, including your enemies and allies. The fleshbeasts can be captured and studied, or butchered for twisted meat. Causes a horde of fleshbeasts to enter the map, with the combat power of the horde being quality dependent.	5,000 ticks (2 in-game hours)	300,000 ticks (5 in-game days)	50 Bioferrite	Summon fleshbeasts
Provoke pit gate	Use a psychic pulse to provoke underground fleshbeasts into opening a massive pit gate in the ground somewhere in the local area. The massive sinkhole will lead down to a fleshbeast-infested cavern which can be explored for resources. Causes a pit gate to form on the map, with the combat power of the defending fleshbeasts being quality dependent.[Verify]	15,000 ticks (6 in-game hours)	2,700,000 ticks (3 quadrums)	75 Bioferrite	Provoke pit gate
Imbue death refusal	Link a target with a distant archotechnological engine that can bring them back from the dead in seconds. This process is not without side-effects. Grants the target charges[How many?] of the death refusal ability, allowing them to resurrect from death, at the cost of reducing their skills by a quality dependent amount.	15,000 ticks (6 in-game hours)	950,000 ticks (15.83 in-game days)	1 Shard	Death refusal
Philophagy	Psychically draw experiences from the victim's mind and transfer them to the invoker, targeting the victim's highest skill. The target will suffer brain damage, causing them to fall into a coma for several days. Transfers a quality dependent amount of skill experience from the target's highest skill to the invoker.	10,000 ticks (4 in-game hours)	300,000 ticks (5 in-game days)	1 Shard	Philophagy
Pleasure pulse	Emit an intense psychic pulse that makes any psychically sensitive individual in the region happier but reduces their desire to work. This will replace the effect of other active pulses. Improves the mood and libido of pawns on the map at the cost of slowing their global work speed, with duration of the effect dependent on quality.	10,000 ticks (4 in-game hours)	300,000 ticks (5 in-game days)	30 Bioferrite	Pleasure pulse
Neurosis pulse	Perform a psychic ritual that makes everyone in the region work faster but become more irritable. Improves global work speed and reduces recreation loss of pawns on the map at the cost of their mood and mental break threshold, with duration of the effect dependent on quality.	10,000 ticks (4 in-game hours)	300,000 ticks (5 in-game days)	30 Bioferrite	Neurosis pulse
Blood rain	Cast a ritual which causes blood-like psychofluid to fall from the sky. The fluid will slowly drive exposed humans and animals into a berserk frenzy. Traits and psychic sensitivity modulate the effect. Causes the blood rain weather event, which inflicts slowly increasing melee damage factor buffs and mood penalties on those exposed to it before finally driving them berserk, for a quality dependent amount of time.	5,000 ticks (2 in-game hours)	1,500,000 ticks (25 in-game days)	70 Bioferrite	Blood rain
Brainwipe	Erase a person's memories. Traumatic events will be forgotten. Prisoners will forget their allegiance and become easier to recruit, even if they were unwavering before. Inhumanized individuals will forget their connection to the void. Unfortunately, the disruptive effect of the ritual will induce a coma that could last a long time, especially if the ritual is of poor quality. Eliminates a variety of thoughts, and opinions, reduces Resistance, Will, and Certainty to 0, and removes unwaveringly loyal and inhumanized at the cost of rendering the target comatose for a quality dependent amount of time.	15,000 ticks (6 in-game hours)	1,200,000 ticks (20 in-game days)	1 Shard	Brainwipe

NPC rituals

NPCs have their own similar, but mechanically unique psychic rituals

Analysis

Intentionally bad rituals

Some psychic rituals have effects from low qualities that can be valuable. For example, a low quality Draw animals has a very high likelihood of drawing manhunters. Like normal manhunters, these animals will then proceed to attack any raiders on the map, essentially acting as a substitute psychic animal pulser for the cost of  10 bioferrite. Similarly, low numbers of shamblers or fleshbeasts might be preferable when attempting to safely capture them. Shamblers hordes will frequently have a single member carrying a Shard, which is likewise easier to get hold of from a smaller group. As many stats (noticeably Global Work Speed) are lowered for human pawns under the age of 18, not having the best possible Chronophagy ritual to prevent the Invoker from becoming too young might be preferable as well. Finally, ritual quality only increases the number of defenders^{[Detail needed]} for a pit gate but does not affect the loot inside the pit itself - as such, if the gate is generated for looting and not for using the fleshbeasts it spawns, then a lower quality is best.

As such it can be beneficial to have two psychic ritual sites - one with as many of the buffs as possible, and another with no buffs at all, and selecting which site to use depending on the desired outcome. This can be taken further by an invoker with low, but non-zero psychic sensitivity. A psychically deaf pawn equipped with a single item of prestige armor has one the smallest non-zero psychic sensitivities with absolutely minimal equipment.

Offensive Use

Draw Shamblers is a ritual for raids you anticipate to happen, i.e through quests, toxic wastepack dumping, or Mechanoid bosses , it is important to have a fully sealed base with no colonists or tamed animals exposed to the outside. The raid now prioritizes the shambler horde which will usually overwhelm mech bosses including Diabolus due to shamblers ignoring being set on fire, netting free chips.

Note due to the inconsistency of where the horde spawns, the ritual will not be ideal for sieges or horax cultists unless they are provoked through other means, this is where draw fleshbeasts is most helpful as their spawn targets a enemy's location however they often have far less numbers combined with worse health and will most likely not deal with large raids on their own.

Version history

• Anomaly DLC Release - Added.