Corpse

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

Acquisition

Corpses are obtained whenever something dies. They reflect what they had in life; missing limbs will affect a corpse's yield.

Certain means of death may destroy the corpse, or deal so much damage that there is nothing left to see.

Summary

Corpses provide negative beauty while on the ground, worse than most items. All corpses have a Missing Body Parts value.

Organic Corpses

The corpses of organic life (e.g. non-mechanoids) can be used for food. When eaten directly, corpses will gain Missing Body Parts until there is nothing left. Animals don't mind, but colonists will recieve the -12 Ate corpse moodlet and have a flat 5% of food poisoning when directly eating corpses. Corpses can instead be butchered, which is a more efficient way of gaining food - see the below section for details.

Organic corpses will quickly rot^{[What time?]} if left above freezing temperature, 0 °C (32 °F). Animals with scaria also have a chance to rot immediately on death, as does toxic buildup. Rotten corpses cannot be eaten or butchered. Rotten corpses will produce corpse bile, which is ugly to look at and also dirty.

Colonists who see a human corpse will recieve negative thoughts, which are worse if the corpse is rotten. Colonists with the Cannibal, Psychopath, or Bloodlust traits are immune, as does an Ideoligion with the "Corpses: Don't Care" precept.

Butchering & Shredding

Organic corpses without rot can be butchered at a butcher spot or the superior butcher table for meat and leather, which can be processed further. How much is determined on the Meat Amount and Leather Amount, which considers a variety of factors, including Cooking skill, the animal butchered, and whenever a spot or table is used.

Mechanoid corpses can instead be smashed at a crafting spot or shredded at a machining table, which produces steel and plasteel. The amount depends on which mechanoid you're shredding, as well as Mechanoid Shredding Efficiency, itself reliant on Crafting skill, whenever a machining table is used, and other factors.

When butchering human corpses, colonists will get a -6 We butchered humanlike moodlet, and the butcher gaining a further -6 Mood#I butchered humanlike#I butchered humanlike mood. For the former penalty, it doesn't matter how many corpses you've butchered, it will remain at -6. Colonists with the Cannibal, Psychopath, or Bloodlust traits are immune, as does an Ideoligion that finds Cannibalism acceptable.

In both cases, having more missing parts means less yield.

Disposal

The following methods can dispose of corpses:

Butchering & Feeding

Non-rotten corpses can be butchered by a pawn assigned to cooking. Butchering requires 450 ticks (7.5 secs) of work, modified by the butchery speed of the cook and up to two nearby tool cabinets. Mechanoids can be scrapped by a pawn assigned to crafting and requires 300 ticks (5 secs) of work from a table, or 450 ticks (7.5 secs) from a crafting spot.

As butchering human corpses incurs a mood penalty, you may want to feed corpses directly to your carnivorous and omnivorous animals. Otherwise, butchering yields more food and useful leather; the former can be further converted into meals or kibble. Converting human meat to more processed food has no extra penalty.

As corpses and their meat will rot over time, it is recommended to use a cooler to preserve them.

Manual Destruction

Molotov cocktails or incendiary launchers will create fire. Placing a pile of corpses in a fireproof room (such as using stone for walls and floors) and lighting them on fire is the least work-consuming method of disposing corpses. It requires a pawn to be drafted, move to the place in question, and fire a single shot. Make sure that the room is fireproof, as a large fire can destroy much of your progress. Regardless, fire tends to be the best and least time-consuming way to dispose of human and rotten corpses.

Alternatively, you can use frag grenades, which can destroy any item. As multiple grenades are needed to destroy items, it uses more work, but you don't have to mess with fire. Grenades can also destroy walls, so give a little space when throwing them.

Burying

Corpses can be buried in a grave or sarcophagus, where the corpse is hauled to its location. Graves are much better for general disposal, costing no resources and 800 ticks (13.33 secs) of work to make. Sarcophagi are more beautiful, so are useful if placed inside.

They can be useful for preserving corpse in a freezer, preventing both rot and overzealous cooks from destroying them. This helps if you're waiting for a resurrector mech serum to revive the corpse in question. Up to 5 buried coprses can be used for meditation of the Morbid type. They will also improve the Funeral ritual. Finally, either building acts as solitary recreation. However, this type of recreation is always available, and colonists may visit graves that are far away.

Having a buried human allows the Corpse Obsession mental break to occur. Everybody who sees the corpse will recieve the normal Saw (Rotten) Corpse penalty, but this is one of the least immediately harmful of the major breaks.

The main problem with burying is space - large raids can quickly consume a lot of time and area. And as you need to go further, the longer it takes to bury. It is recommended to swap to another form of corpse disposal, once available, for your enemies.

Burning

Corpses can be burnt in an electric crematorium. Each cremation requires 180 ticks (3 secs) of work ^{[Fact Check]}, and the crematorium itself requires 250 W of power to function.

If a way to start fire manually is available, then it is typically more efficent. Cremation is automatically done by haulers, so is largely for convienence's sake, or if fire isn't available.