Mechanoid hive

Basics

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Gameplay

Pawns

Character Types

Mechanoids - Autonomous intelligent robots built for domestic, industrial or military purposes. Only available to advanced cultures because such complex AI is needed to control them.
— RimWorld Universe Quick Primer

Mechanoids are deadly autonomously intelligent robots that form a faction called a Mechanoid Hive.

Agrihand

A small mechanoid designed to sow and harvest crops. While it is better suited to labor than combat, it can fight with built-in cutting blades if necessary.

Apocriton

A mechanoid commander designed to coordinate and motivate other mechs during long extermination campaigns. Its most obvious power is its ability to resurrect recently-killed mechs by supercharging their self-repair processes. Less obviously, it is intelligent and psychically present, radiating hatred into the minds of anyone in a wide radius. It can also move quickly with its built-in jump launcher.
While all mechanoids have a dim psychically-present intelligence, only the apocriton and a few others truly feel hatred for their victims and understand the suffering they inflict.

Centipede

Heavy combat mechanoids that glide on dozens of tiny legs. Their thick carapace and firepower makes them very effective against bunched-up static defenders. They are somewhat vulnerable to mobile hit-and-run tactics.

Centipede blaster

Heavy combat mechanoids that glide on dozens of tiny legs. Their thick carapace and firepower makes them very effective against bunched-up static defenders. They are somewhat vulnerable to mobile hit-and-run tactics.

Centipede burner

Heavy combat mechanoids that glide on dozens of tiny legs. Their thick carapace and firepower makes them very effective against bunched-up static defenders. They are somewhat vulnerable to mobile hit-and-run tactics.

Centipede gunner

Heavy combat mechanoids that glide on dozens of tiny legs. Their thick carapace and firepower makes them very effective against bunched-up static defenders. They are somewhat vulnerable to mobile hit-and-run tactics.

Centurion

An ultraheavy mech with a built-in shield bubble generator. The centurion carries a point-defense bulb turret capable of firing while the mechanoid is moving.

Cleansweeper

A light mechanoid designed for cleaning. Lacking a ranged weapon, it can make only weak melee attacks.

Constructoid

A small mechanoid designed to perform construction tasks. It can perform blunt melee attacks if necessary.

Diabolus

An ultra-heavy mechanoid with an ultra-powerful hellsphere cannon. Made for siegebreaking, its hellsphere cannon takes time to charge up a shot, but can melt concrete and vaporize bone. The diabolus dissipates the hellsphere cannon's waste power in a heat column mounted on its back, which can pulse to ignite flammable objects nearby.
This mech's name comes from a thousand-year-old poem written by a Haspian monk who survived the erasure of his monastery. His religiously-tinged work describes a razor-bodied fiend pulsing with flesh-searing heat as it crushed scorched bodies under massive claws. The few who have faced a diabolus and survived tend to agree with this depiction.

Fabricor

A small work mechanoid designed to craft all manner of manufactured objects.

Lancer

Fast human-sized combat mechanoids built for medium and long-range combat. Their bodies are light, making them vulnerable targets at close range - especially in melee combat.

Legionary

A combat support mechanoid with a wide-range bullet shield and mid-range needle gun. Designed to support other mechanoids, the legionary is vulnerable to anyone who can get inside its shield.

Lifter

A small mechanoid designed for hauling. Lacking a ranged weapon, it can make only weak melee attacks.

Militor

A small combat mechanoid armed with a low-powered mini-shotgun. Roughly four feet tall, militors lack the power, range, and toughness of more senior combat mechs. However, it is cheap to gestate and maintain, and so is often used as a rear guard or swarm attacker.
In war, mech armies are known to send militors into urban ruins to hunt down survivors after breaking the human defenses. For this reason, they are considered by some to be the most cruel of all mechanoid patterns.

Paramedic

A small mechanoid designed for non-violent emergency situation management and medical care. The paramedic can rescue the wounded, fight fires, treat the sick, and even perform surgery when a more-qualified human is not available. Its built-in jump launcher allows it to jump into, and out of, emergency situations, and its built-in firefoam popper can quickly extinguish fires.

Pikeman

A clunky multi-legged combat mechanoid specialized as a long-range weapons platform. While effective at distance, it is weak in close-range fights and in melee combat.
Veterans of mechanoid wars know that often, the safest place to be around a pikeman is touching it.

Scorcher

A close-approach war mechanoid that specializes in incendiary attacks. Its flame burst attack has little reach, but once it closes on a group of defenders it can ignite and disrupt them with blasts of searing flame.

Scyther

Fast, spindly, human-sized combat mechanoids specializing in rapid approach and close-range combat. Their bodies are covered in points and blades, but they mostly use their two arm blades to lop off limbs or gut their victims alive.

Termite

A medium-sized mechanoid. Termites specialize in burrowing, digging, and breaking through defensive structures. Defenders need to decide whether to try to eliminate the termite before it can dig through their defenses, or take it where it emerges.

Tesseron

A medium-range combat mechanoid. While it is fairly vulnerable to attacks, the tesseron's sweeping beam graser attack is so deadly that few opponents can get shots off against it.

Tunneler

A heavy mechanoid built for mining in treacherous locations. While intended for excavation, the tunneler's gigantic power claws and ultra-thick armor makes it a dangerous force in combat.

War queen

An ultra-heavy mech with a built-in mech gestator. Fed with appropriate resources, the war queen can form small war urchin combat mechs within its massive carapace and deploy them into combat. Even more than other mechanoids, the war queen resembles a giant, living insect. All war mechs can be terrifying, but humans tend to find the war queen disturbing on a deeper level.

War urchin

A small, deployable combat mechanoid usually manufactured inside an ultra-heavy war queen mech. War urchins are expendable fighters designed to swarm-attack enemies. They are mounted with short-ranged spiner guns and have a non-rechargeable power source.

Summary

All mechanoids are permanently hostile to the colony. They do not eat and are immune to toxic fallout and temperature extremes, despite having a Comfortable Temperature range. As machines, they are vulnerable to EMP attacks, though will "Adapt" for 2,200 ticks (36.67 secs) (regardless of source), making them immune to all further EMP strikes.

Mechanoids can be found sealed in ancient ruins in all biomes, which spawn inside mountains or outside on the landscape. They may also raid the player's base through events and can also be found in most poison ships and psychic ships. They may sometimes appear dormant in Ancient Complex and guarding any relic with Ideology DLC.

Biotech

In the Biotech DLC, more mechanoid types are added. Mechanoids, including all the vanilla mechanoids (barring Termites) can be gestated in a Gestator and controlled by a Mechanitor with enough bandwidth to prevent them defecting. These gestated variants require power and have to be recharged, which creates Pollution.

Mechanoid Types

Mechanoid forces are specialized by their unit types, with each unit performing a single role. Basics summaries are available here, see the individual pages for further details and analysis.

Scyther

Main article: Scyther

The melee boogeymen of Mechanoids. As they're fast and extremely dangerous up close, large numbers can and will surround and overwhelm single enemies. Melee blocking, use of chokepoints, and focus fire while they close are useful tactics. Mechanoid raids consisting entirely of large numbers of scythers are fairly common - this can be a boon to prepared colonies as significantly simplifies defensive needs, but devastating to the unprepared.

Lancer

Main article: Lancer

Armed with charge lances, they make up for modest DPS with the chance to insta-kill pawns by destroying body parts. This is fairly rare, but long term presents a significant risk. Thus exposure should be limited and lancers eliminated with extreme prejudice. As they fight best against pawns at medium to long range and cannot fire when engaged in melee, melee combat is very effective if the distance can be safely closed.

Pikeman

Main article: Pikeman

Acting as the sniper, they aren't terribly powerful. Their main role is to allow mechanoids to engage at range - use bends in chokepoints to force them into range, or simply advance and kill them.

Centipede

Main article: Centipede

Centipedes are tanks and crowd controllers. They are extraordinarily durable and their heavy charge blasters do respectable damage in massive bursts, while inferno cannon light fires and force ignited pawns out of cover. Having your pawns spread apart and behind cover is a great strategy to dealing with their blaster. Mortar Fire and melee combat are decent options for actually damaging the centipede due to it's slow movement speed and large size. Alternatively, a psychic insanity lance against a charge blaster centipede turns a danger into a significant asset, likely to both get killed itself and take several other mechanoids down with it. Don't target inferno cannon wielders for this however, as they will not be able to damage their fire-immune brethren.

Termite

Main article: Termite

While not particularly dangerous on their own, their thump cannon can destroy most walls in a single shot, leaving your colonists open to damage from other mechanoids. Depending on the exact strategy employed against the raid as a whole, these might be the highest priority, or of negligible concern.

Biotech Mechanoids

Militor

Main article: Militor

A small combat mechanoid armed with a low-power mini-shotgun. Roughly four feet tall, militors lack the power, range, and toughness of more senior combat mechs. However, it is cheap to gestate and maintain, and so is often used as a rear guard or swarm attacker. In war, mech armies are known to send militors into urban ruins to hunt down survivors after breaking the human defenses. For this reason, they are considered by some to be the most cruel of all mechanoid patterns.

Lifter

Main article: Lifter

A small mechanoid designed for hauling. Lacking a ranged weapon, it can make only weak melee attacks.

Constructoid

Main article: Constructoid

A small mechanoid designed to perform construction tasks. It is equipped with a small slug gun for light defense. It can also perform blunt melee attacks if necessary.

Fabricor

Main article: Fabricor

A small work mechanoid designed to craft all manner of manufactured objects. It is equipped with a small slug gun for light defense.

Agrihand

Main article: Agrihand

A small mechanoid designed to sow and harvest crops. While it is better suited to labor than combat, it can fight with built-in cutting blades if necessary.

Cleansweeper

Main article: Cleansweeper

A light mechanoid designed for cleaning. Lacking a ranged weapon, it can make only weak melee attacks.

War Urchin

Main article: War urchin

A small, deployable combat mechanoid usually manufactured inside an ultra-heavy war queen mech. War urchins are expendable fighters designed to swarm-attack enemies. They are mounted with short-ranged spiner guns and have a non-rechargeable power source.

Paramedic

Main article: Paramedic

A small mechanoid designed for non-violent emergency situation management and medical care. The paramedic can rescue the wounded, fight fires, treat the sick, and even perform surgery when a more-qualified human is not available. Its built-in jump launcher allows it to jump into, and out of, emergency situations, and its built-in firefoam popper can quickly extinguish fires.

Legionary

Main article: Legionary

A combat support mechanoid with a wide range bullet shield and long-range needle gun. Designed to support other mechanoids from long range, the legionary is vulnerable to anyone who can get inside its shield.

Tesseron

Main article: Tesseron

A medium-range combat mechanoid. While it is fairly vulnerable to attacks, the tesseron's sweeping beam graser attack is so deadly that few opponents can get shots off against it.

Scorcher

Main article: Scorcher

A close-approach war mechanoid that specializes in incendiary attacks. Its flame burst attack has little reach, but once it closes on a group of defenders it can ignite and disrupt them with blasts of searing flame.

Apocriton

Main article: Apocriton

A mechanoid commander designed to coordinate and motivate other mechs during long extermination campaigns. Its most obvious power is its ability to resurrect recently-killed mechs by supercharging their self-repair processes. Less obviously, it is intelligent and psychically present, radiating hatred into the minds of anyone in a wide radius. While all mechanoids have a dim psychically-present intelligence, only the apocriton and a few others truly feel hatred for their victims and understand the suffering they inflict.

Tunneler

Main article: Tunneler

A heavy mechanoid built for mining in treacherous locations. While intended for excavation, the tunneler's gigantic power claws and ultra-thick armor makes it a dangerous force in combat.

Centurion

Main article: Centurion

An ultraheavy mech with a built-in shield bubble generator. The centurion carries a point-defense bulb turret capable of firing while the mechanoid is moving.

War Queen

Main article: War queen

An ultra-heavy mech with a built-in mech gestator. Fed with appropriate resources, the war queen can form small war urchin combat mechs within its massive carapace and deploy them into combat.\n\nEven more than other mechanoids, the war queen resembles a giant, living insect. All war mechs can be terrifying, but humans tend to find the war queen disturbing on a deeper level.

Diabolus

Main article: Diabolus

An ultra-heavy mechanoid with an ultra-powerful hellsphere cannon. Made for siegebreaking, its hellsphere cannon takes time to charge up a shot, but can melt concrete and vaporize bone. The diabolus dissipates the hellsphere cannon's waste power in a heat column mounted on its back, which can pulse to ignite flammable objects nearby. This mech's name comes from a thousand-year-old poem written by a Haspian monk who survived the erasure of his monastery. His religiously-tinged work describes a razor-bodied fiend pulsing with flesh-searing heat as it crushed scorched bodies under massive claws. The few who have faced a diabolus and survived tend to agree with this depiction.

Lore

References

↑ ^1.0 ^1.1 Cryptosleep Revival Briefing
↑ Backstory of Markus 'Keuneke' Keuneke
↑ Backstory of Ang 'Codex' Gao
↑ Quest descriptions
↑ Orbital mech cluster targeter description
↑ Ship part (defoliator) description
↑ Megascarab description

Pawns

Pawn Type	Combat Power	Armor (S/B/H)	Gear Health (%)	Avg. Gear Quality	Weapon Budget	Available Weapons	Age Range	Move Speed	Additional Info
Scyther	150	40% / 20% / 200%	100	-	-	Melee (Blades)	Any	4.7 c/s	-
Lancer	150	40% / 20% / 200%	100	Normal	9999	Charge lance	Any	4.7 c/s	-
Centipede	400	72% / 22% / 200%	100	Normal	9999	Heavy charge blaster / Inferno cannon	Any	1.9 c/s	-
Pikeman	110	40% / 20% / 200%	100	Normal	9999	Needle gun	Any	2.5 c/s	-
Termite	110	56% / 22% / 200%	100	Normal	9999	Thump cannon	Any	2.1 c/s	-
Militor	75	20% / 10% / 200%	100	Normal	9999	mini-shotgun	Any	3.8 c/s	-
Lifter	75	20% / 10% / 200%	100	Normal	9999	Melee (headbutt)	Any	2.8 c/s	-
Constructoid	75	20% / 10% / 200%	100	Normal	9999	slugthrower	Any	3.4 c/s	-
Fabricor	75	20% / 10% / 200%	100	Normal	9999	slugthrower	Any	3.4 c/s	-
Agrihand	75	20% / 10% / 200%	100	Normal	9999	Melee (arm blade)	Any	3.4 c/s	-
Cleansweeper	75	20% / 10% / 200%	100	Normal	9999	Melee (headbutt)	Any	3.4 c/s	-
War urchin	75	20% / 10% / 200%	100	Normal	9999	spiner	Any	4.2 c/s	-
Paramedic	75	20% / 10% / 200%	100	Normal	9999	Melee (headbutt)	Any	3.8 c/s	-
Legionary	150	40% / 20% / 200%	100	Normal	9999	MechanoidGunLongRange	Any	4.3 c/s	-
Tesseron	150	40% / 20% / 200%	100	Normal	9999	beam graser	Any	4.7 c/s	-
Scorcher	110	40% / 20% / 200%	100	Normal	9999	mini-flameblaster	Any	4.5 c/s	-
Apocriton	600	75% / 40% / 200%	100	Normal	9999	toxic needle gun	Any	3.2 c/s	-
Tunneler	400	80% / 40% / 200%	100	Normal	9999	power claw	Any	1.9 c/s	-
Centurion	250	75% / 25% / 200%	100	Normal	9999	charge blaster turret	Any	1.6 c/s	-
War queen	600	75% / 25% / 200%	100	Normal	9999	charge blaster turret	Any	1.6 c/s	-
Diabolus	600	75% / 25% / 200%	100	Normal	9999	hellsphere cannon	Any	2.4 c/s	-

Trivia

Although all mechanoid-only weapons are 'Spacer' in terms of tech level; the hidden mechanoid faction itself is actually 'Ultra' tech level - one above 'Spacer', and the second highest tech level in the game, below 'Transcendent'.