Creepjoiner
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Creepjoiners are an exclusive event for the Anomaly DLC. You can encounter creepjoiners even if you have not yet activated the monolith.
Summary
A random 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 if taken prisoner,[Detail] as can some of their side effects such as entities.
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
- 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 trait and a high value in all skills. The trait prevents their skills from degrading.
- Occultist — Has a bonus to research
- Shambler overlord — Has an ability to create create friendly shamblers
- 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 and butcher pawns/animals/entities, turning them into twisted flesh.
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
Unnatural healing
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Psychic slaughter
|
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Drawbacks
They can come with a downside as well, which occurs after a 3-30 day delay while living with your colony:
- Nothing
- Desertion — The colonist will suddenly depart. Capturing and re-recruiting may only delay the desertion again.
- Traitor — The colonist will suddenly become hostile, accompanied by a message about their evil expression.
- Metalhorror — The colonist is infected with a metalhorror.
- Crumbling mind — The colonist will experience a severe health effect that destroys their brain in a number of days. The crumbling can be healed with a healer mech serum or by having another joiner use Unnatural Healing.
- Entity jailbreaker — The colonist will suddenly attempt to free all of your contained entities.
- Psychic agony — The colonist occasionally “explodes”, 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.
- Organ decay — The colonist will suddenly develop severe organ decay, requiring you to replace their heart, liver, kidneys, and 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.
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. [verify]
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.
If a creepjoiner is planning to become hostile somehow, they can be downed and recruited normally afterward. At this point, they are not planning anything further and become a "normal" colonist. Players can preempt most hostile plans and still keep the creepjoiner by immediately anesthetizing and arresting them. [verify]
Performing a medical inspection surgery right after recruiting a creepjoiner can sometimes reveal their downside early.
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.