Children

This article is about children of age 3 and up. For pregnancy and babies, see Reproduction.

Children are added by the Biotech DLC. They are smaller, slower, and less capable of work when compared to adult pawns, but gain skills as they age.

Acquisition

Summary

A child is a human that is from ages 3 to 13. Humans below 3 are babies. Humans above 13 are considered adult, for most purposes: they gain access to adult clothing and all work types, but still recieve some penalties from being underdeveloped. At age 18, teens become full adults, and all penalties are removed. Children up to 13 will age 400% as fast, though this can be altered by using a growth vat or in the storyteller settings.

Children as young as 3 can wield weapons, but are limited to child-sized clothing like the kid pants and kid parka, and can only do certain types of work. Younger pawns recieve penalties to Global Work Speed, Move Speed, and more scaling with age. Due to their body size, they can store less nutrition and recieve stronger effects from drugs. Finally, children (below 13) are vulnerable to the Fleeing Fire mental break when seeing fire. See #Stats for a full breakdown of stat penalties.

Children recieve growth moments at ages 7, 10, and 13. These give the pawn access to more work types, as well as the choice of traits and passions. Giving a child access Learning increases the possible choices. See #Development for more details.

Mood

Children up to 13 recieve a moodlet for simply being young: at age 3, +16 Childlike joy, at age 6, +12 Childlike wonder, age 8, +8 Childlike enthusiasm, and at age 10, +4 Childlike confidence. Children are happy when their parents are happy, and parents are happy when their children are. Other than that, most regular moodlets apply to them.

Adult colonists recieve a +2^[??] Happy youngsters for having children with high mood in the colony. Most recieve a −6 moodlet for killing an innocent child.

Development

Learning

Children have a Learning need, which replaces Recreation. Children scheduled to do Anything or Recreation will satisfy their Learning need. Not only does a fulfilled Learning give mood buffs, analogous to Recreation at the same level, but it can also increase their growth score.

Learning Tasks

At any one point, Learning will consist of 1 or 2 of the following tasks, which may not always be possible:

Floor drawing: Children draw pictures on the floor in various places. This does not require any additional supplies and can occur on anywhere within or near home area. The drawings can be cleaned up the same way as any other dirt.
Lessons: The child(ren) sit together at a school desk. If an adult is present, they will instruct the children in a random, currently usable skill (e.g., when age 4 this can be Shooting, Melee, or Social), increasing the child's respective skill level. The speed at which the child learns can be increased by up to 60% by adding up to 3 blackboards near the school desks at which the lesson takes place. It also trains the adult's Social skill.
Nature running: Children run around outside, similar to the adult "Going for a walk" activity. Care must be taken as nearby predator hunt or potential raid can occur near them, as they tend to run outside the safe zone near the edge.
Radio talking: Chat with people over the radio, which requires a powered comms console. This can interfere with the usage if required to contact another faction or a nearby Trader Ship orbiting above the colony.
Sky dreaming: Children lay on the ground and watch the sky, much like adults that are cloud watching.
Work watching: Children that are work watching will follow an adult, who does standard work. If the children is at a suitable age for the skill the adult is doing work on (i.e: Treating injury with medicine or attempting to recruit/convert prisoners), said skill will slowly be gained.

Growth score

Each day, children will raise their growth score (shown at the bottom of the screen when a child is selected) proportionate to their Learning need. The growth score can pass through 8 tiers of learning, and each will grant more rewards during a child's growth moment. Tiers give you more flexibility in choosing a child's next trait and gives more passions. Once a growth moment has passed, the child's growth tiers will reset to 0, and you'll need to keep them learning to gain more rewards.

A child with constantly fully-satisfied Learning need would achieve a hypothetical maximum of 180 growth points, but 162 is the highest value displayed. Changing the child aging rate in storyteller settings adjusts the growth point gain proportionately. Therefore, average Learning need can roughly predict the final growth tier of a child, assuming the child completes the entire growth stage within the colony.

Growth Tiers and Rewards
Tier	Points	Traits	Passion	Min Av Learning
0	0	1 from 1 options	-	-
1	30	1 from 2 options	-	17%
2	55	1 from 3 options	-	31%
3	80	1 from 4 options	-	44%
4	100	1 from 4 options	1 from 1 options	56%
5	120	1 from 4 options	1 from 2 options	67%
6	135	1 from 4 options	1 from 3 options	75%
7	150	1 from 4 options	2 from 4 options	83%
8	162	1 from 6 options	3 from 6 options	90%

Growth moments

Babies become children at 3, and children experience growth moments at 7, 10, and 13, allowing them to gain traits and passions. When a child hits the biological age for a growth moment, a notification will pop up that lets you pick new traits and passions. The selection is randomized, and increased by the growth tier. You can choose their traits/passions within 48 hours of the birthday, and view their bio/health from the selection screen.

Age 3

 Baby <BABY NAME> has grown up and become a child! (S)He is now old enough to do the following work: <LIMITED WORK> Children do various type of work. As they get older, they become able to do more work types. They also do various child-specific recreational activities. Children need to wear specific child-size apparel.

At this age, now your baby is a child! They can now walk and talk, and do activities for skills like melee, shooting, or social. Their Play need is also replaced with a new Learning need.

Capable work types
Firefight	Patient	Doctor	Bed Rest	Childcare	Basic	Warden	Handle	Cook	Hunt	Construct	Grow	Mine	Plant Cut	Smith	Tailor	Art	Craft	Haul	Clean	Research
-	✓	-	✓	✓	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	✓	✓	-

Learnable skills
Shooting	Melee	Construction	Mining	Cooking	Plants	Animals	Crafting	Artistic	Medical	Social	Intellectual
✓	✓	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	✓	-

Ideology

 <BABY NAME> has decided to become a follower of the ideoligion <MAJOR COLONY IDEOLIGION>. By tradition <BABY NAME>, born to <MOTHER NAME> of <COLONY> (and) <FATHER NAME> of <COLONY> / unknown parents, is a colonist/tribesman, but exceptions can be made... Should <BABY NAME> remain a colonist/tribesman?

With Ideology, the child will now follow the major ideoligion your colony currently believes in (assuming your colony has one). By default, they will remain as a colony child, but you can make an exception and enslave them instead. This can be postponed for up to 12 hours.

Age 7

Capable work types
Firefight	Patient	Doctor	Bed Rest	Childcare	Basic	Warden	Handle	Cook	Hunt	Construct	Grow	Mine	Plant Cut	Smith	Tailor	Art	Craft	Haul	Clean	Research
✓	✓	-	✓	✓	✓	-	✓	✓	✓	-	✓	✓	✓	-	✓	-	✓	✓	✓	-

Learnable skills
Shooting	Melee	Construction	Mining	Cooking	Plants	Animals	Crafting	Artistic	Medical	Social	Intellectual
✓	✓	-	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	-	-	✓	-

Age 10

Capable work types
Firefight	Patient	Doctor	Bed Rest	Childcare	Basic	Warden	Handle	Cook	Hunt	Construct	Grow	Mine	Plant Cut	Smith	Tailor	Art	Craft	Haul	Clean	Research
✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	-	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	-

Learnable skills
Shooting	Melee	Construction	Mining	Cooking	Plants	Animals	Crafting	Artistic	Medical	Social	Intellectual
✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	-

Age 13

When a child turns 13, you will receive the notification: "Child" became an adult. They are not full adults yet, but are now considered adults (or teenagers) throughout the game, and have access to all work types.

They wear adult clothing, dropping their too-small child's clothes if wearing any. Their Learning need is immediately replaced by Recreation, removing any mood effects from learning, and teens no longer have the +4 childlike confidence' moodlet. Drug dependency genes take effect at this age, as if they last took the drug on their birthday.

Some kids get special changes upon turning 13. Your child may randomly receive a new nickname, such as John Doe gaining the nickname Johnny (becoming John 'Johnny' Doe). Like other colonists, you can always change their nickname from their bio. They'll also recieve the background of Tribal Child / Colony Child, dependent on scenario, or Vatgrown Child if they spent enough time in a growth vat. Note that even if they are a Tribal Child, any children raised by your colony will not get the Natural meditation focus.

Capable work types
Firefight	Patient	Doctor	Bed Rest	Childcare	Basic	Warden	Handle	Cook	Hunt	Construct	Grow	Mine	Plant Cut	Smith	Tailor	Art	Craft	Haul	Clean	Research
✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓

Learnable skills
Shooting	Melee	Construction	Mining	Cooking	Plants	Animals	Crafting	Artistic	Medical	Social	Intellectual
✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓

Stats

Children and teens have various penalties to speed and effectiveness. Specifically, they have a multiplier to the following stats: Move Speed, Aiming Time & Melee Hit Chance (thus, DPS), Arrest Success Chance, Global Work Speed, Market Value, and Body Size. Each trait is affected differently by age: Move Speed changes in jolts by life stage, whereas Global Work Speed rises steadily until adulthood.

Aiming Time Multiplier by Age

Melee Hit Chance Multiplier by Age

Arrest Success Chance Multiplier by Age

Global Work Speed Multiplier by Age

Move Speed

Age	0-2	3-9	9-13	13-18	>18
Speed Factor	x0.2^[1]	x0.75	x0.85	x0.95	x1

Market Value

Age	0-2	3-9	9-13	>13
Value Factor	x0.5	x0.9	x0.95	x1

Body Size

Certain traits are indirectly affected due to a child's smaller body size. These include drug effectiveness, Carrying Capacity, Meat Amount / Leather Amount, and nutrition capacity. Stats that don't differ for teenagers include food consumption, Maximum/Minimum comfortable temperatures, and Filth rate.

Age	0-2	3-9	9-13	13-18	>18
Size Factor	x0.2	x0.35	x0.58	x0.8	x1

Notes

↑ As defined in the game defs, however in practice not applicable due to babies being unable to move.

Biotech (DLC)

Families: Relationships (Reproduction • Children)
Life stages (Babies • Children • Adults)
Furniture (Crib • Baby sleeping spot • Growth vat • Toy box • Baby decoration • School desk • Blackboard)
Mechanoids: Laborers (Agrihand • Cleansweeper • Constructoid • Fabricor • Lifter • Paramedic • Tunneler)
Combatants (Centurion • Legionary • Militor • Scorcher • Tesseron)
Commanders (Apocriton • Diabolus • War queen • War urchin)
Mechanitors: Control (Mechlink • Band node • Mech boosters • Mech signallers • Control pack • Airwire headset)
Mechanoid creation (Basic subcore • Standard subcore • High subcore • Subcore encoder • Subcore softscanner • Subcore ripscanner • Mech gestator)
Maintenance (Mech recharger)
Genetics: Xenohumans (Dirtmoles • Genies • Highmates • Hussars • Impids • Neanderthals • Pigskins • Sanguophages • Wasters • Yttakin)
Genes Germline • Xenogene • Metabolic efficiency
Genetic Modification Genepack • Gene extractor • Gene bank • Gene assembler • Gene processor • Xenogerm • Archite capsules
Deathrest (Deathrest accelerator • Deathrest capacity serum • Deathrest casket • Glucosoid pump • Hemogen amplifier • Hemopump • Psychofluid pump)
Pollution: Nature (Toxalope • Toxipotato plant • Waste rat • Gray pine tree • Pebble cactus • Rat palm tree • Witchwood tree • Stasis cocoon)
Mitigation (Wastepacks • Atomizers • Pollution pumps • Polux trees)
Adaptation Face mask • Gas mask • Tox grenades • Tox pack • Tox shell • Toxic needle gun • Toxbomb launcher • Detoxifier kidney • Detoxifier lung
Nonchalance Toxifier generator

[1] As defined in the game defs, however in practice not applicable due to babies being unable to move.

[1]