Work

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Work is the various tasks that a colonist can do to keep a colony running, and perform almost all non-combat related tasks. The Work Menu allows the player to set the types of work you want your colonists to perform, though some colonists cannot perform all tasks. For example, nobles can only access research and firefighting whilst a settler can access all skills.

By default, the Work tab can be opened with F1.

Example of work priorities and the different work types.

Manual priorities

The 'Manual priorities' mode toggles the interface between 'standard mode' (red X) and 'manual mode' (green check).

• Standard mode: Colonists only do work types they're assigned to, noted by a green check. Tasks on the left rank more importantly than tasks on the right.
• Manual mode: Each colonist's work type can be prioritized from 0 (blank) to 4. 1 is the highest priority, 4 is the lowest, and blank tasks will not be performed. For tasks with the same priority, tasks on the left will be performed first.

Assigning work

An efficient colony depends on colonists doing work they're proficient at. Boxes on the work menu are used to assign work, and each box has a visible outline. The higher the colonist's skill, the brighter the outline, ranging from red (worst), to white, to bright yellow (best). Also, hovering over a skill box displays the colonist's skill level.

Each box will also show a colonist's passion for that skill indicated by one or two flames. This will help you decide who you want doing each task.

It is a good idea to study your colonists' skills and apply them to their strengths. Using the wrong people will slow down your progression. To help keep you from using the wrong colonist for a job, a crunching sound is made when you assign a pawn to a work type which they won't do well due to low skill. Some colonists may not have a box for one or more work types; they are incapable of that work.

Incapable of work types

Some characters are incapable of certain work and/or certain categories of work (i.e. violent, dumb labor). Incapabilities are listed under Incapable Of in the character tab - mouse-hovering over the listed prohibition will show the source of the incapability. Pawns that are incapable of one or more of these activities will never, with a few exceptions, perform a task related to those work types. This is distinct from characters with a skill level 0 in a skill which still capable of performing the relevant task, they will just be extremely slow, ineffective and/or inefficient. Where an expection exists, pawns incapable of a task are treated as having level 0 in the relevant skill, even if they had a higher skill before becoming incapable. For example, an exception is that characters who are incapable of plant work can still cut down trees - if it is under blueprints as part of construction work.

What a pawn is incapable of is determined by their traits, backstories, title , status as a slave, or ideoligious role. Typically, incapabilities from multiple sources stack. Though rare, it is quite possible that, given a perfectly wrong combination of backstory limitations, a pawn may be so limited that they are incapable of practically everything. Slavery is unique in this regard, in that it removes all other incapabilities and replaces them with its own. See that page for details.

Occasionally, incapabilities have interactions with other mechancics, such as the limitation of traits; for example, a "non-violent" colonist will never have the brawler trait.

A pawn can be "incapable of":

Animals Artistic Caring1

Cleaning Cooking Crafting

Dumb Labor2 Firefighting Hauling3

Intellectual4 Mining Plants5

Skilled Labor6 Social7 Violent8

Notes:

1. Caring prohibits any medical tasks, including Doctoring, Nursing, and Surgery, on humans or animals.
2. Dumb Labor prohibits Hauling, Cleaning, Rearming, Refueling, Loading, and Cremating.
3. Hauling is identical to Dumb Labor, except allows Cleaning.
4. Intellectual prohibits Research, Drug Production, Scanning, Computer Hacking, etc.
5. Plants prohibits Growing, Sowing, Harvesting, and Plant Cutting (including cutting trees).
6. Social prohibits Trading - including while on caravans or at faction bases, Recruiting prisoners, and all Wardening.
7. Skilled Labor prohibits a long list: Brewer, Butcher, Cook, Constructor and Deconstructor, Miner, Grower, Harvester, Plant Cutter, Crafter, Smith, Tailor, Repairer, Driller, Fabricator, Machinist, Refiner, Smelter, Stonecutter, and Apothecary (i.e. drug production).
8. (non-)Violent is exactly that, prohibiting all Ranged and Melee combat, as well as the Hunting, Warden, and Executing prisoners tasks. A pawn that is incapable of Violent cannot defend themself in any way, period. This includes a prohibition against equipping even "non-damaging" weapons such as smoke launchers or EMP grenades, or weapons equipped only for their buffs, such as the eltex staff . A "non-violent" colonist can still be drafted, and can still use psycasts .

Colonies with few colonists and most colonists incapable of Dumb Labor can be a problem because of Infections. At some point, there must be a janitor in the colony.

Prioritizing a task

A colonist can be directed to immediately perform a task, but only if it's a work type they're assigned to. Select the colonist, right-click a target (such as a blueprint, object, or pawn) and choose an option from the context menu. If no menu appears, then the colonist can't do anything with that target - try another colonist. Multiple tasks can be chained together by holding the Shift key. Queued jobs are shown on the colonist's inspect pane.

Notes

• For improved efficiency, colonists do cleaning and harvesting in batches.
• Colonists will only perform work in their allowed area.
  • If an allowed area is made up of two parts, colonists may still traverse the unallowed area to perform tasks in another zone.

Work types

Note: Within each work-type, there are a number of tasks performed as part of that work type. Tasks with a higher priority value will be prioritized over tasks with a lower value in the same work-type.

Work type	Description	Relevant skill	Category
Firefight	Firefighters extinguish fires in the home area. Firefighters can't extinguish fires outside the home area	none	none
Patient	Patients go to a medical bed to receive treatment for life-threatening health conditions (e.g. a treatable illness). It is not advisable to ever disable this or severely lower the priority. See the 'bed rest' task to set the priority for non-disease injuries.	none	none
Doctor	Doctors bandage wounds, treat the sick, and perform operations. Doctors also automatically rescue downed colonists. Doctors tend to colonists, rescued allies, prisoners and colony animals, but they must be resting in a bed or sleeping spot. Tend to patients with urgent needs. Priority: 110 Tend to patients. Priority: 100 Tend to self. Priority: 90 Feed patients. Priority: 80 Operate on humanlikes. Priority: 70 Rescue downed allies to bed. Priority: 60 Tend to animals. Priority: 50 Feed animals (patient animals only). Priority: 40 Operate on animals. Priority: 30 Take patients to bed for operations. Priority: 20 Visit sick people . Priority: 10	Medical	Caring Social (Visiting only)
Bed rest	Colonists assigned to bed rest will rest in a bed to heal injuries. This is separate from a colonist's need to sleep to replenish rest.	none	none
Basic	Colonists will complete tasks that are unskilled and easy to complete. Flick switches - toggle power on appliances and switches, or open/close vents. Priority: 500 Release prisoners. Priority: 100 Open containers marked to open: graves, cryptosleep caskets, and sarcophagi. Priority: 50 * Note: Even when not assigned to Basic work, colonists can still be directed with right-click to open a container not marked to open.	none	none
Warden	Wardens feed prisoners, chat with them, and try to recruit them, as chosen by the player. Wardens also carry out prisoner releases and executions. Execute prisoners. Priority: 110 Release prisoners. Priority: 100 Take prisoners to bed. Priority: 90 Feed prisoners. Priority: 80 Deliver food to prisoners. Priority: 70 Chat with prisoners. Priority: 60	Social	none
Handle	Handlers tame, train, feed, milk, shear and slaughter tamed animals. Handlers also rescue wounded animals. Note: Slaughtering animals is a violent act and will not be carried out by pawns incapable of violence. Take roaming animals to pen. Priority: 160 Feed sick animals. Priority: 150 (animal patients - sick or injured animals resting in an animal bed or sleeping spot designated as medical) Take to pen. Priority: 130 (presumably this one is for moving animals from a hitching spot to a pen) Slaughter animals. Priority: 100 Release to wild. Priority: 100 Milk animals. Priority: 90 Shear animals. Priority: 85 Tame animals. Priority: 80 Train animals. Priority: 70 Rebalance animals in pens. Priority: 60	Animals	Animals
Cook	Cooks butcher animals, prepare meals, and brew beer. Cook meals at stove. Priority: 100 Cook meals at campfire. Priority: 97 Butcher creatures. Priority: 90 Fill food hoppers. Priority: 50 Brew liquors. Priority: 30	Cooking	Skilled labor
Hunt	Hunters hunt animals marked for hunting, but will require a ranged weapon to do so (you will be notified via message of colonists with the Hunting job without one).	Shooting and Animals	Violent
Construct	Constructors build things, smooth floors, repair damaged buildings and structures, and fix broken-down equipment with components. Fix broken-down buildings. Priority: 120 Uninstall structures. Priority: 110 Build roofs. Priority: 100 Remove roofs. Priority: 90 Construct placed frames. Priority: 80 Deliver resources to frames. Priority: 70 Deliver resources to blueprints. Priority: 60 Deconstruct structures. Priority: 50 Repair damaged things. Priority: 40 Remove floors. Priority: 30 Smooth floors. Priority: 20 Smooth walls. Priority: 10	Construction	Skilled labor
Grow	Growers plant and harvest domestic crops. Harvest crops. Priority: 100 Replant trees. Priority: 60 Sow crops. Priority: 50	Plants	Skilled labor
Mine	Miners dig out marked sections of stone or minerals, as well as operating deep drills. Mine. Priority: 100 Drill at deep drill. Priority: 50	Mining	Skilled labor
Plant cut	Plant cutters harvest food from wild plant and cut down marked plants. Extract trees. Priority: 110 Cut plants. Priority: none	Plants	Dumb labor
Smith	Smiths create weapons at the smithing bench and the machining table Make weapons (at smithy). Priority: 115 Make things at machining table. Priority: 75 Fabricate things. Priority: 50	Crafting	Skilled labor
Tailor	Tailors craft clothing at a tailor bench (electric / hand tailor bench).	Crafting	Skilled labor
Art	Artists make sculptures at the sculptor's table.	Artistic	Artistic
Craft	Craftsman do general low-skilled labor at work like stonecutting and smelting. Make things at crafting spot. Priority: 100 Work at refinery. Priority: 97 Synthesize drugs. Priority: 95 Make stone blocks. Priority: 90 Smelt items. Priority: 80	Crafting Cooking (Drug Cooking only) Intelligence (Drug Synthesis only) None (Stone Cutting and Smelting only)	Skilled labor Intellectual (Drug Synthesis only)
Haul	Haulers do a number of things, including: Rearm turrets. Priority: 150 Refuel fuelable buildings (Torch lamps, generators, Fueled stoves etc.). Priority: 140 Unload carriers. Priority: 130 Load caravan. Priority: 120 Load transporters. Priority: 110 Strip corpses. Priority: 100 Haul corpses. Priority: 90 Do cremation bills. Priority: 40 Do bills at campfire (such as burning drugs). Priority: 30 Empty egg boxes. Priority: 20 Take beer out of fermenting barrels. Priority: 20 Fill fermenting barrels. Priority: 19 Haul general things. Priority: 15 Deliver resources to frames. Priority: 10 Deliver resources to blueprints. Priority: 9 Merge things. Priority: 5	none	Dumb labor
Clean	Cleaners remove filth such as dirt, blood, and vomit, which would otherwise negatively affect the beauty of a room. Clear snow. Priority: 10 Clean filth. Priority: 5	none	Dumb labor
Research	Study thing. Priority: 110 (unclear) Research work at a simple research bench or hi-tech research bench to unlock new items and building options. Priority: 100 Scanning at the Long-range mineral scanner. Priority: 50 Scanning at the Ground-penetrating scanner. Priority: 50	Intellectual	Intellectual

Tips

• Consider rising priorities of Firefight during Zzztt..., relevant raids as quite important...
• Consider lowering priorities of Firefight during rain and rainy thunderstorm as not so important...