Creepjoiner

Creepjoiners are an exclusive event for the Anomaly DLC. They are pawns who will randomly arrive at your colony offering to join, often providing great benefits however potentially bringing a hidden downside. You can encounter creepjoiners even if you have not yet activated the monolith.

Summary

A random human pawn appears that wants to join your colony. The pawn waits on the edge of your map for someone to be sent to talk to them. They usually have some great benefit, but come with large risks too.

If rejected, they can either depart peacefully or become hostile.

Joiners have a specific list of upsides and possible downsides. Not all combinations below are possible. For some options there is a minimum raid point requirement (e.g. metalhorror or fleshbeast emergence), and some types will be limited in their downsides and benefits (e.g., blind healer will always have unnatural healing, or someone with joybringer cannot have disturbing).

Creepjoiners can be studied for if taken prisoner, as can some of their side effects such as entities. Creepjoiners are studied for Advanced Anomaly Research and give 2 Advanced Research with a cooldown of 2 days. The Creep joiner must be walking to be possible to be studied.

The monolith does not need to be active for creepjoiners to appear.

Types

Main creepjoiner types (each has its unique backstory and equipment):

Leathery stranger
Dark scholar
Deal maker — Has the Beautiful trait in addition to their other benefit
Drifter
Blind healer — Usually missing both eyes, which can be replaced with surgery
Timeless one — Usually a very young adult
Cult escapee - Usually has many surgical scars and/or removed body parts
Lone genius - Always has the Too smart and Abrasive traits.

Benefits

They can have one of the following benefits:

Perfect human — Has the perfect memory and industrious trait and 14 to 18 in all skills. The perfect memory trait prevents their skills from degrading.
Occultist — Has a bonus to research
Shambler overlord — Has an ability to create friendly shamblers through a release deadlife dust cloud power.
Fleshcrafter — Has a Shape Flesh ability with a 1 hour cooldown, which converts a corpse into a fleshbeast that is hostile to all humans. The Fleshbeast created depends on the size of the corpse.
Alchemist — Has a Transmute Steel ability with a 20 hour cooldown, which randomly converts one stack of steel or a steel slag chunk into plasteel, uranium, gold, bioferrite, or twisted meat; or a stuffable item or building made from steel into plasteel, uranium, gold, or bioferrite.
Joybringer — Has the Joyous trait, which provides a passive +3 joyous presence mood buff to all pawns in your colony anywhere within the same map
Death refusal — Has the ability to self-resurrect themselves up to 4 times, healing lost limbs and organs each time. Scarring and resurrection sickness are possible.
Body master — Has the body mastery trait, which completely removes the pawn's need for food, sleep, and comfort.
Psychic butcher — Has an ability that can instantly kill pawns, turning them into twisted flesh.

Name	Description	Effects	Target	Range	Warmup Time	Cooldown	Charges
Unnatural healing	Use dark psychic influence to heal someone. The process will stop bleeding, restore blood loss, and can even heal significant injuries. However, it may also have unexpected side effects. Has ability: Unnatural healing	Replicates the effect of a healer mech serum. 25% chance to also replace one of the pawn's arms with a flesh tentacle. At time of writing, this ability stuns its target for 4.5 seconds while being applied, the stun lasts for the full duration even when the ability is cancelled. This allow the user to stun an unlimited number of pawns indefinitely by repeatedly applying and cancelling the ability	Single non-mechanoid pawn. Cannot target self.	Touch	270 ticks (4.5 secs)	360,000 ticks (6 in-game days)	1
Psychic slaughter	Use dark psychic power to induce chaotic reconfiguration of flesh. This kills a flesh creature in seconds and converts its body into a pile of twisted flesh. Has ability: Psychic slaughter	On cast, instantly kills target. Generates Twisted meat where target once stood.	Single non-mechanoid pawn in LoS.	4.9 tiles	120 ticks (2 secs)	60,000 ticks (24 in-game hours)	1

Drawbacks

Creepjoiners can have one downside applied to them upon spawning as well, which occurs after a 3-30 day delay while living with your colony, These downsides include:

Nothing
Desertion — The colonist will suddenly depart. ^[Enslaved?]
Traitor — The colonist will suddenly become hostile, accompanied by a message about their evil expression.
Metalhorror — The colonist is infected with a metalhorror (requires level 2 Monolith).
Crumbling mind — The colonist will experience a severe health effect that renders them incapable of most tasks within a few days. The crumbling can be healed with a healer mech serum or by having another joiner use Unnatural Healing.
- Can be diagnosed early with a surgical inspection.
Void fascination — The colonist will have a Entity Liberator mental break regularly and attempt to free all of your contained entities. this is immediately apparent due to being a trait. ^{[No entities?]}
Psychic agony — The colonist emits a psychic pulse, on average once every 30 days, inflicting a large amount of psychic pain on nearby pawns. The pain is often enough to down your other colonists temporarily, and then lingers for multiple days at lower levels. Psychic sensitivity applies to this effect.
- If a surgical inspection is made on a Human who does this, this will be the results: "(human) detected a faint but painful psychic presence emanating from (human) but failed to understand what was causing it"
- This Event is very rare, and seems to only trigger when humans are grouped up, though it could be random.^{[Detail needed]} When it happens, all nearby humans will gain 100% pain for a few seconds,^{[Exact duration?]} reduced to 25% soon after, which last between 2-5 days. This can be sufficient to kill pawns.
Organ decay — The colonist will suddenly develop severe organ decay, requiring you to replace their heart, liver, kidneys, and/or lungs.
Disturbing — The colonist upsets other colonists, giving them a −2 [name] rambling moodlet when interacting with them, which can stack up to −12 mood. this is immediately apparent due to being a trait.

Separate from the downsides listed above, Creep joiners will become hostile if they receive friendly fire damage. This aggressive state on friendly fire damage can only occur once. If a Creep Joiner receives friendly fire, becomes captured, and then joins the colony, they will not respond to friendly fire with aggression. When recruiting creep joiners, it's recommended to sedate them, punch them once to trigger their initial friendly fire hostility, and proceed to capture and recruit them like any other hostile pawn.

If they become aggressive, they can react in various ways:

Basic assault
Fleshbeast emergence — A fleshbeast emerges from the joiner, killing them in the process.
Sightstealer attack — The joiner will scream and summon sightstealers.

Also they are not able to romance ordinary pawns, but they can romance another creepjoiner, or form relationships to pawns with the psychic bond gene (such as Highmates). ^[verify].

Creep joiners initially start as Unwaveringly Loyal. If they are allowed to join your colony, the Unwaveringly Loyal aspect is removed permanently. They have 0 resistance and roughly around 80 will when imprisoned this is reset by their friendly fire hostility which can even occur during prison breaks.

Pawn Kinds

Leathery stranger

Letter Label: A ragged stranger with leathery skin is approaching your colony.
Letter Prompt:
The leathery stranger stares into space and speaks in a monotone, as though {PAWN_pronoun} hardly sees anyone or anything. {PAWN_pronoun} refuses to leave, insisting {PAWN_pronoun} is only interested in your colony. {PAWN_pronoun} says that {PAWN_pronoun} can help.

Dark scholar

Letter Label: A dark scholar covered with twisted scars is approaching the colony.
Letter Prompt:
The dark scholar slouches in place, lifeless and silent. Only {PAWN_possessive} eyes seem alive, as if {PAWN_pronoun} could look inside you.

{PAWN_pronoun} says that this is where {PAWN_pronoun} belongs and asks to stay for a while. {PAWN_possessive} tone indicates that {PAWN_pronoun} will not take 'no' for an answer.

Deal maker

Letter Label: A stunningly good-looking stranger is approaching the colony.
Letter Prompt:
A stunningly good-looking stranger stands in front of you. {PAWN_possessive} face beams with confidence as {PAWN_pronoun} opens {PAWN_possessive} hands in a gesture of fellowship.

{PAWN_pronoun} says {PAWN_pronoun} is here to make a deal and will help you in exchange for simple hospitality. This is {PAWN_possessive} purpose and {PAWN_pronoun} always fulfills {PAWN_possessive} purpose.

Drifter

Letter Label: A visitor is approaching the colony.
Letter Prompt:
The weary-looking drifter stretches {PAWN_possessive} legs. {PAWN_pronoun} seems very tired.

{PAWN_pronoun} asks to stay in your colony for a while - at least until {PAWN_pronoun} has recovered {PAWN_possessive} strength.

Blind healer

Letter Label: A blind healer is approaching the colony.
Letter Prompt:
A small, withered {PAWN_genderNoun} stands in front of you. Where {PAWN_possessive} eyes should be, there are only scar-crusted holes in {PAWN_possessive} flesh. Yet, even without eyes, {PAWN_pronoun} somehow looks at you with kindness. {PAWN_pronoun} says that {PAWN_pronoun} knows that {PAWN_possessive} skills are needed here and wants to stay for a while.

Timeless one

Letter Label: A teenager is approaching the colony. {PAWN_pronoun} has a strange air of confidence around {PAWN_objective}.
Letter Prompt:
{PAWN_nameDef} is barely more than a child but in {PAWN_possessive} thoughtful eyes you sense an ancient wisdom. When {PAWN_pronoun} speaks, the words seem to come from an unnatural knowledge of endless time. {PAWN_pronoun} says that the stars brought {PAWN_objective} here to fulfill {PAWN_possessive} destiny. {PAWN_pronoun} wants to stay with you and help.

Cult escapee

Letter Label: A mangled figure is approaching the colony.
Letter Prompt:
The mangled stranger stares at you with empty eyes and speaks in a broken voice. {PAWN_pronoun} claims to have escaped from a terrible cult and begs to join your colony.

Lone genius

Letter Label: A lone figure is approaching the colony.
Letter Prompt:
The strange figure keeps muttering about some scientific breakthrough. All {PAWN_pronoun} needs is a laboratory. If you let {PAWN_objective} stay, {PAWN_pronoun} will share {PAWN_possessive} vast knowledge with you. It's hard to tell whether {PAWN_pronoun}'s insane or a genius - or both.

Shared Parameters:

Race: CreepJoiner
Backstories: Unknown (Childhood) and Unknown (Adulthood)
Is Fighter: false
Pregnancy Chance: 0%
Initial Will Range: 80~90
Initial Resistance Range: 0~0
Can Be Scattered: false
Studiable As Prisoner: true
Accept Arrest Chance Factor: 80%
Base Prison Break MTB Days: 30
Show In Debug Spawner: false
Weight: 1

Pawn Kind	Combat Power	Gear	Apparel	Weapons	Tech	Inventory	Additional Info [edit]
Leathery stranger	55	Quality: Always Normal	Fixed: Poor Bison wool; Duster, T-shirt, Pants Allow Headgear Chance: 0% Ignore Seasons: false Ignore Pollution true Body Type: Leathery Head Type: Leathery BeardTags: NoBeard	Fixed: Bolt action rifle	-	10 Nutrition	Age Range: 35~70
Dark scholar	55	Forced Quality: Poor	Color: Ignore Ideo Apparel Colors: true Required: Robe Allow Headgear Chance: 0% Available: None Ignore Seasons: false Ignore Pollution true Head Type: Dark Scholar BeardTags: NoBeard	-	-	10 Nutrition	Age Range: 40~70 Forced Skills: 14~20 Intellectual Existing Damage: Damage; SurgicalCut, Groups; Legs, Arms, FullHead Forced Traits: Psychopath Favorite Color: Requires: Occultist, DeathRefusal, ShamblerOverlord, Fleshcrafter, PsychicButcher Excludes: Metalhorror, OrganDecay, Assault
Deal maker	55	Forced Quality: Good	Color: Ignore Ideo Apparel Colors: true Required: Top hat , Jacket, T-shirt, Pants Allow Headgear Chance: 0% Available: None Ignore Seasons: false Ignore Pollution true BeardTags:	Fixed: Revolver	-	10 Nutrition	Age Range: 20~40 Forced Skills: 14~20 Social, 14~20 Shooting Forced Traits: Beautiful Favorite Color: Requires: Joybringer, PerfectHuman, BodyMastery
Drifter	55	HP: 20~60% Quality: Poor	Budget: 90~280 Allow Headgear Chance: 20% Available: Tuque, Cowboy hat, Bowler hat, Gas mask , Parka, Button-down shirt, Pants, T-shirt Ignore Seasons: false Ignore Pollution true BeardTags:	Budget: 60~200 Available: Knife, Club	Budget: 50~50 Available: 15% chance of 1x: Denture, Peg leg, Wooden hand, Wooden foot	0 Nutrition 10% chance of: 1x Herbal medicine	Age Range: 20~60
Blind healer	55	Quality: Always Normal	Fixed: Poor Patchleather; T-shirt, Pants Allow Headgear Chance: 0% Ignore Seasons: false Ignore Pollution true Hair: Bald	Fixed: Poor Steel Knife	-	10 Nutrition	Age Range: 55~80 Missing Parts: 2x Eyes Requires: UnnaturalHealing
Timeless one	55	Forced Quality: Good	Color: Ignore Ideo Apparel Colors: true Required: T-shirt, Pants Allow Headgear Chance: 0% Available: Flak jacket, Duster, Jacket Ignore Seasons: false Ignore Pollution true Head Type: TimelessOne BeardTags: NoBeard	-	-	10 Nutrition	Age Range: 13~16
Cult escapee	55	Quality: Always Normal	Fixed: Poor Cloth; Robe, T-shirt, Pants Allow Headgear Chance: 0% Ignore Seasons: false Ignore Pollution true Body Type: Cult Escapee Head Type: Cult Escapee HairTags: Bald BeardTags: NoBeard	-	Starting Hediffs: 50% chance: Flesh tentacle	10 Nutrition	Age Range: 18~70 Missing Parts: 50% chance for each: Arm, Eye, Eye Existing Damage: Damage; SurgicalCut, Chance Per Group; 50%, Groups; Arms, Legs Requires: DeathRefusal, Occultist, ShamblerOverlord, Fleshcrafter, PsychicButcher Excludes: Joybringer
Lone genius	55	Quality: Always Normal	Fixed: Good; Cloth; Lab coat, Button-down shirt, Synthread; Pants Allow Headgear Chance: 0% Ignore Seasons: false Ignore Pollution true	Fixed: Charge lance	-	10 Nutrition	Age Range: 30~80 Forced Skills: 13~18 Intellectual Forced Traits: Too smart, Abrasive Requires: UnnaturalHealing, Alchemist, Occultist

Analysis

Creepjoiners often have many powerful, colony-changing abilities. Evaluate the possible tradeoffs above, and be prepared to deal with sudden turncoat behavior. Inspect the pawn's entire bio and health tab carefully before recruiting them. Some creepjoiners such as the perfect human can be incredible and frankly game-changing if acquired, however one must decide whether the potential risks they may bring are worth it. Additionally, you may also want to consider the potential downsides of not recruiting the creepjoiner (such as a potential aggressive response).

Performing a medical inspection surgery right after recruiting a creepjoiner can sometimes reveal their downside early. However, not all downsides can be revealed with a medical inspection, so even if a medical inspection has no results then it is still necessary to stay vigilant.

Creepjoiners with crumbling minds or organ decay can be paused until you're able to deal with the issue by placing the colonist inside a cryptosleep casket. You will want to be prepared to potentially lose the creepjoiner for a very long time however (especially if they suffer from crumbling mind, which may require something as rare as a healer mech serum to cure), so be prepared if they carry out essential jobs such as cooking or farming.

If a creepjoiner's downsides cannot immediately be determined then it may be useful to keep them isolated from other colonists (such as utilising areas to restrict their movement or using a schedule that isolates them) until the downside either is discovered or reveals itself. This can be beneficial if the downside turns out to be one that can potentially affect other colonists, such as a Metalhorror.

Due to the risk of a recruited creepjoiner suddenly deserting the colony after a few days, you may want to consider whether or not it is worth giving them expensive or rare items (such as high-quality armor, weapons or bionic parts). While this equipment can be recovered if the deserting creepjoiner is arrested, there is always the risk that your colonists will not be able to catch up to them and you will consequently lose the equipment.