Lifter

A lifter is a mechanoid added by the Biotech DLC.

Acquisition

Lifters can be gestated by a mechanitor at a Mech gestator once the Basic mechtech research project has been completed. They require 50 Steel, 1 Basic subcore and 1 gestation cycle taking 1,800 ticks (30 secs) each to initiate. They take up bandwidth from their linked mechanitor.

Dead, friendly lifters can also be resurrected at the mech gestator using the "Resurrect light mechanoid" bill. This requires the corpse of the friendly Lifter, 25 steel, and 1 gestation cycle taking 1,800 ticks (30 secs) to initiate.

Summary

As mechanoids, every lifter is immune to fire, Flame and Heat damage, and temperature extremes, despite having Comfortable Temperatures defined. They have 100% Toxic Resistance and Toxic Environment Resistance, making them immune to toxic buildup, rot stink and other toxic effects. They do not need to eat, rest, and have no mood. They will be stunned by EMP attacks for a time proportional to the EMP damage inflicted and will "adapt" and rendered immune to further EMP strikes for 2,200 ticks (36.67 secs).

Combat

Lifters can only make melee attacks. They have a melee hit chance of 62%, equivalent to a pawn with a Melee skill of 4.

As a labor-focused mech, lifters are never found in mechanoid raids.

As an ally

Mechs under player control require power: lifters use 10% of their power per day while active. If set to dormant self-charging, they instead recharge for 1% power / day, without pollution. They recharge in a mech recharger (200W), for 50% power/day, creating 5 wastepacks whenever the recharger's waste is filled up.

Work

Lifters will do all tasks under the Haul tab. Other than bringing items to other places, Lifters can also re-arm turrets, reinstall buildings, and more. Lifters move at 2.8 cells/s, which is roughly 61% as fast as a baseline human.

Analysis

Lifters have the benefits of being a mechanoid - they aren't human, and will constantly haul until they run out of power. While lifters move slower than colonists or animals, they spend the entirety of their time hauling. At minimum, mechs will work for 83% of the time (5 days of work, 1 day recharge, minus travel time), and they can be turned off when not required. Their lack of mood is useful for picking up far away items and cremating human corpses.

Finally, they are cheap to produce and amass. Their disposability is a unique benefit - you can have lifters pick up items near the map edge, and won't lose much if Randy decides to drop a pack of manhunters right on top of them.

Comparison to dryads

Compared to the Carrier dryad, lifters move faster and are created faster. Carriers need to sleep, so lifters can work for longer before needing to charge. Carriers require active pruning, while lifters are autonomous from their master. You can turn off a lifter when hauling isn't required, but you need to keep pruning the gauranlen tree every day. However, lifters require Electricity and a mechanitor to function, and create pollution. Meanwhile, carriers are available from the neolithic era.

Health

Specify body type when known.

Body part	Health
Head	25
Skull	25
Brain	10
Nose	10
Neck	25
Jaw	20
Eye ^[1] (left, right)	10
Ear (left, right)	10
Body	40
Kidney^[2] (left, right)	15
Lung^[2] (left, right)	15
Liver^[2]	20
Heart^[2]	15
Spine^[2]	25
Stomach^[2]	20
Limbs (left, right, fore, hind)	30
Appendage (left, right, fore, hind)	20