Corpse

A corpse is the dead body of a human, animal or mechanoid.

Organic corpses begin in a fresh state, but will eventually rot after some time.^{[What time?]} All corpses, mechanoid or organic, will also deteriorate as normal items.

Organic corpses can be butchered, buried, or burnt depending on need. Those that rot completely will leave distinctive skeletons in their place. Fresh corpses can also be consumed raw, even by humans. Any human that consumes a corpse will suffer negative thoughts, however a human with the Cannibal trait will have this offset by a positive thought, Raw cannibalism. They also have a flat 5% chance to give food poisoning.

Mechanoid corpses can be destroyed by burning, or be smashed or shredded for a small return in resources.

Corpses produce negative beauty, and pawns will suffer negative thoughts on seeing human corpses, with worse debuffs inlficted if the corpses are rotten. Pawns with the Bloodlust, Cannibal or Psychopath, or those with an ideoligion with the "Corpses: Don't Care" Precept, are immune to these debuffs.

Disposal

Corpses can be disposed in three ways: Butchering, Burying, and Burning. Generally, burning with incendiary weapons is the best way to dispose of human and rotten corpses, and butchering is the best way of disposing of animal corpses. Butchering can also be alternatively used for disposing of human corpses, but gives a negative moodlet.

Butchering

Corpses can be butchered at a butcher spot or butcher table by a pawn assigned to cooking.

Butchered corpses produce meat and leather.

Butchering a human corpse places a negative We butchered humanlike thought over the entire colony, and the butcherer will also suffer a I butchered humanlike thought. Pawns with the Bloodlust, Cannibal or Psychopath, or those with an ideoligion with any of the positive Cannibalism precepts, are immune to these debuffs. See Human resources for details.

Burying

Human corpses can be buried in a grave or sarcophagus. Corpses can be hauled to finished resting places after construction.

Burning

Corpses can be burnt in an electric crematorium.

A cheaper way of burning corpses is to use weapons that produce fire, such as molotov cocktails or incendiary launchers. These can be manually-targeted at corpses to set them on fire. A walled-off corpse stockpile can dispose of multiple corpses at once. If the temperature outside is low, one can build a small fireproof room somewhere inside and burn unwanted corpses or tainted apparel there to create some heat in addition to corpse disposal. The door can be left open for faster heat transfer, but make sure that no one is allowed to enter and that there is nothing flammable close to it. A colonist with the appropriate trait (e.g. psychopath, bloodlust) should handle human corpses to avoid negative mood effects.