Harbinger tree

The Harbinger is a type of tree added by the Anomaly DLC. Harbinger trees can spawn randomly from an event after activating the Void monolith, spawned by the void provocation psychic ritual, or can be planted via a Harbinger seed which can be acquired as a quest reward or bought from traders. The random event that spawns harbringer trees will not trigger if Ambient Horror is selected in Storyteller settings.

Harbinger trees consume corpses and meat placed around them. They can eat both rotten and fresh corpses, as well as all forms of raw meat (insect, human, twisted). When a harbinger tree is selected with the mouse, a UI Button for creating a corpse stockpile will appear. This button will create a dumping stockpile within the consumption radius of the tree, and defaults to accepting all non-mechanoid or unnatural corpses.

When fully grown and harvested, they provide 30 Twisted Meat and a base amount of 15 Bioferrite. Trees that are not harvested and destroyed through other means will drop twisted meat but no bioferrite. The amount of twisted meat dropped is unaffected by difficulty setting and pawn plants skill, but the amount of bioferrite harvested is affected by both. A harbinger tree is not dangerous in any way and despite the flavor text does not cause any events or phenomena beyond consuming corpses.

The growth rate of a harbinger tree will increase up to a maximum 150% during the day while it is actively consuming meat. Each individual harbinger tree tracks the nutrition it has consumed, and upon reaching 100, it will spawn a new sapling, regardless if the original tree is fully grown. Upon reaching maturity, a harbinger tree has a chance to spawn another harbinger tree nearby. A body size 1 human corpse provides a harbinger tree 5.2 nutrition, meaning that ~19.2 corpses are needed to force a second harbinger tree to sprout. A single piece of meat has a nutrition of .05, requiring 2,000 meat total to spawn a new tree.

Analysis

Harbinger trees provide a low-tech, no power method to get rid of corpses without using fire or an Electric crematorium. All gear worn by consumed corpses is destroyed, similar to cremation.

This is vital for tribal or low-tech settlements who want to reduce the number of potential Shamblers on the map during a Death pall or similar event, as there is no limit to the number of times a corpse can be turned into a shambler. Note that shamblers can still reanimate from corpses in the process of being consumed by harbinger trees, however said shamblers will be weakened since non-vital bodyparts digested by harbinger trees will not regenerate on reanimation.

Later on, harbinger trees can be used as a source of Twisted meat for mid and late game recipes like the juggernaut serum without having to fight and butcher dangerous entities like fleshbeasts. It is impractical to farm harbinger trees using meat farmed from ranching or hunting, although colonies experiencing massive raids may be able to meet their serum production needs off the yield from harbinger trees alone. A single Fleshmass nucleus produces significantly more twisted meat in a more consistent manner, but requires regular suppression and defeating a Fleshmass heart to acquire.

Harbinger trees will not consume pemmican or meals of any type.