Mood
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Template:Tocright A colonist's mood is the sum total of the effects of their thoughts and traits. If a colonist's mood falls below their mental break threshold for a period of time, they may have a mental breakdown - with severities and 'frequency' depending on how far below their threshold they are.
Colonists have a base mood of 50%, and their mood threshold changes according to difficulties. Each difficulty has the following impacts on colonist mood:
| Difficulty | Mood Offset |
|---|---|
| Peaceful | +10 |
| Base builder | +10 |
| Some challenge | +5 |
| Rough | 0 |
| Intense | −3 |
| Extreme | −8 |
With the offsets; it's reasonably easy to keep people from breaking on the Rough and Intense difficulties, but it's much more difficult to keep colonists from breaking on Extreme (as the baseline mood offset for Extreme is effectively Rough, but with colonists constantly having the 'Feeling Terrible' thought)
With a sufficiently high mood, Colonists will be more inclined to work harder if they are in high spirits; with global work speed starting to improve when they are 'Content' (mood at or above 60%), with as much as a 20% increase in global work speed if their mood is at 100%. As of Alpha 15, colonists retain their full work speed if in poor moods.
As of version 0.15.1279 (29 August 2016) mood is subtly drawn behind the pawn on the colonist bar at the top of the screen.
Mental Breakdowns
A mental breakdown occurs when a colonist's negative thoughts outweigh their positive thoughts enough to push their overall mood below their mental break threshold. As aforementioned: a colonist will experience a mental breakdown if their mood is at or below their mental break threshold - and the severity of a mental break depends on how far below their threshold they are. Once a colonist composes themselves and brings themselves out of their broken frame of mind; they'll get the 'catharsis' thought, granting a +25 mood for the next 2 days. This will generally prevent a colonist from entering a spiral of mental breakdowns in all but the worst of the worst scenarios.
While a colonist is experiencing a mental break, you have no direct physical control over them - but you can draft another colonist, right click on the broken colonist, and attempt to arrest said colonist. The broken colonist will either go berserk, or they'll come quietly and be escorted to the nearest available prison bed - immediately ending their mental breakdown afterwards. You can then open their 'Prisoner' tab and set them for release, and then anybody assigned to wardening will 'release' the broken colonist back into your colony. However: this eliminates the catharsis bonus, and instead yields a 'was imprisoned' thought.
The following is a list of all possible mental breakdowns a colonist may experience at appropriate severities as of Alpha 16, and the durations they can last (1 day is 60,000 ticks):
Minor break
Sad wander
Like the dazed and wandering event, only shorter. The only difference is that those in a Sad Wander is that, as opposed to a daze; they won't strip off clothing, weapons, or inventory.
Mean time between Recovery: 0.3 days
Minimum time until Recovery: 30,000 ticks (8.33 mins)
Maximum time until Recovery: 60,000 ticks (16.67 mins)
Hide in room
Colonists who hide in their room will wander about in their room, refusing to come out and refusing to satisfy their needs. This event is relatively short (but is also still capable of lasting multiple days) and - barring insect hives - does not put the colonist in harms way. The worst that one can come off with from this sort of mental break is mild starvation and possibly exhaustion.
Mean time between Recovery: 0.6 days
Minimum time until Recovery: 30,000 ticks (8.33 mins)
Maximum time until Recovery: 60,000 ticks (16.67 mins)
Food Binge
If a colonist is stressed, they may decide to pig out on whatever meals they can get their hands on. During this time, you have absolutely no control over the affected pawn other than getting another pawn to arrest them - which could cause the binging pawn to go berserk.
A binge will end as soon as the affected colonist gets back to bed, or after a certain amount of time has passed.
Mean time between Recovery: 0.3 days
Minimum time until Recovery: 20,000 ticks (5.56 mins)
Maximum time until Recovery: 40,000 ticks (11.11 mins)
Major break
Psychotic Wandering (Daze)
Colonists who become dazed will wander around and will eventually recover on their own. Dazed colonists can also be arrested, which can be useful if they are in imminent danger. Your colonist must be in combat stance (hotkey R) to bring a dazed colonist to a cell (just like a prisoner). Once imprisoned they may immediately be set for release. When released by a warden they will revert from a prisoner back to a colonist, with a mood debuff. Dazed colonists may resist arrest, at which point they will go berserk.
Prior to Alpha 16, dazed colonists will gradually strip off their clothing, weapons and inventory.
Mean time between Recovery: 0.8 days
Minimum time until Recovery: 30,000 ticks (8.33 mins)
Maximum time until Recovery: 80,000 ticks (22.22 mins)
Social Drug Binge
If a colonist gets very stressed, they may drink or smoke their problems away by binging on social drugs (i.e. beer, smokeleaf joints. Do note that this type of mental break can only happen if you have social drugs present in your colony, otherwise colonists that are very stressed will only go into a state of psychotic wandering.
Social drug binges will also occasionally happen for those with the chemical interest trait regardless of mood, and still gain the catharsis thought afterwards.
Mean time between Recovery: 0.6 days
Minimum time until Recovery: 20,000 ticks (5.56 mins)
Maximum time until Recovery: 60,000 ticks (16.67 mins)
Extreme break
Berserk
When a colonist goes berserk, they become a danger to themselves and anyone nearby. They will melee attack the nearest living creature until their target is either subdued or killed. Due to the risk of death or permanent injury for both the psychotic colonist and any that happen to be nearby, a psychotic colonist is a very real threat. If the berserk colonist poses a direct danger or is in direct danger, one or more bare-fisted colonists work best to quickly subdue them with the least risk of killing them. Once a berserk colonist is subdued they do not need to be arrested, rather they can and should be rescued to recover from their injuries.
If the berserker is not in danger and can be safely avoided, it's best to leave them to rampage by themselves until their berserk rage wears off to avoid injuries and the associated pain mood debuff.
Mean time between Recovery: 0.3 days
Minimum time until Recovery: 10,000 ticks (2.78 mins)
Maximum time until Recovery: 60,000 ticks (16.67 mins)
Fire-Starting Spree
Colonists with the pyromaniac trait can go on a fire-starting spree. They will attempt to ignite any flammable material. Do note that those with the Pyromaniac trait will go on fire-starting mental breaks anyway, regardless of mood, and get the Catharsis thought afterwards - even if well above their minor break threshold. Fire-starting sprees are a very short mental break, and can easily be dealt with by having somebody else 'babysit' the broken pyromaniac.
Mean time between Recovery: 0.1 days
Minimum time until Recovery: 4,000 ticks (1.11 mins)
Maximum time until Recovery: 15,000 ticks (4.17 mins)
Hard Drug Binge
Colonists on a hard binge will binge on hard drugs (i.e. psychite (flake and yayo), go-juice and wake-up). Hard drug binges are considerably more dangerous for the affected colonist's health than soft drug binges, as hard drugs contribute towards overdoses which are potentially lethal. As with soft binges: hard binges will either end when the affected colonist goes back to bed, or after a certain amount of time has passed. Colonists taking penoxycyline and luciferium have nothing to do with the drug binge they are on.
Colonists with the chemical fascination trait will occasionally have a hard drug binge regardless of mood, and still gain the catharsis mood afterwards (if they don't die from an overdose).
Mean time between Recovery: 0.6 days
Minimum time until Recovery: 20,000 ticks (5.56 mins)
Maximum time until Recovery: 60,000 ticks (16.67 mins)
Special
These mental states aren't mood-related, and have certain circumstances required to trigger them.
Confused Wandering
Similar to the 'Sad Wandering' mental state, except confused wandering only occurs on a pawn with Alzheimer's and/or Dementia. This mental state bears a similarity to psychotic wandering in the respect that confused pawns are prone to wandering into dangerous situations, they do not strip off their equipment. This mental state ends after a certain period of time, or when the affected pawn is downed or killed. All normal thoughts are blocked during this time frame.
Mean time between Recovery: 0.2 days
Minimum time until Recovery: 3,500 ticks (58.33 secs)
Panic Fleeing
This sort of mental break happens when half (rounded up if applicable) of a group of humanlikes are killed; whether it be hostiles, traders, or the likes. Pawns affected by this mental state will attempt to leave the map by any means possible as soon as they realise that they're not going to win whatever battle they got caught up in.
This mental state will end once the affected pawn leaves the map, or when they're killed.
Manhunter
Animals may suffer a manhunter mental break, similar to berserk. A manhunter animal will seek out and attack any humans on the map it can reach. The mental break can be triggered by the death of their bonded master (only applies to tamed animals), via a random event (mad animal or psychic wave), or being injured by any humanlike pawn. A player should take care about what animals they hunt, because although most species rarely turn manhunter, others have no tolerance. If one animal in a herd is angered, the entire herd may turn manhunter. Since alpha 14, manhunter animals will break down structures and doors, so colonists are not safe behind them.
An animal's manhunting rampage will end after a certain amount of time, or once forcibly subdued..
Mean time between Recovery: 0.3 days
Minimum time until Recovery: 10,000 ticks (2.78 mins)
Manhunter Permanent
Permanent manhunter only applies to animals that are part of a manhunter pack. Affected animals will never snap out of this mental state under normal circumstances, and completely neglect their own needs. Manhunter pack animals will generally leave the area within a few days.
Manhunter boomrats will typically starve to death due to their hunger rate combined with the typical manhunter animal duration.
Mean time between Recovery: 0.3 days
Minimum time until Recovery: 99,999,999 ticks (27,777.78 mins)
Social Fighting
Social fighting is triggered when one pawn slights or insults another (significantly more likely with insulting than slighting), and the affected pawn gets angered. While very brief and usually only resulting in minor-moderate injury, social fighting can also end up with much worse results including a pawn getting downed, disfigured, or uncommonly even outright killed. Social fighting ends after a very short time, or when one of the fighting pawns gets downed or killed.
Mean time between Recovery: 0.02 days
Minimum time until Recovery: 420 ticks (7 secs)
Images
The following images document our Volunteer and 'Break Savant' Stingray's decline of sanity as she undergoes a journey not of the physical kind, but of mentality:
Mood is a stat: How happy or stressed someone is. Its default value is 100%.