Berrymaker

Berrymaker are a caste of Dryads, a type of animal added by the Ideology DLC, that produces berries.

Summary

All dryads, including the berrymaker, are produced by a gauranlen tree. They have no need to eat, are immune to disease events, and have 100% Toxic Resistance, rendering them immune to Toxic fallout and Toxic buildup. Dryads cannot die from blood loss, so in practice will survive virtually any damage that doesn't immediately kill them. Dryads can retreat to a healing pod in order to regenerate wounds; this takes 3 days and heals all permanent injuries and bad conditions.

This caste generates 40 berries every two days. This is enough for 2 simple meals per day, or 8 simple meals per 4 dryads. One tree of dryads can thus feed 4.5 people consistently. Eating the raw berries is enough to feed 2.5 people consistently. This takes between 8.2 and 3.6 hours per day, depending on Plants skill and tree connection.

Analysis

Berrymakers do not require light, soil, and are much more resistant to temperature. This makes them useful in biomes where winters are harsh, or there isn't much growing space. A single pawn can maintain about 2 trees with plants 10+, meaning each pawn can support itself and seven others, year-round.

Comparison to rice in soil

More work per nutrition than rice plants, at any amount of Plants skill past 1.
- With a Plants skill of 3, it takes 7.2 hours of work to create 160 berries. It takes 5.57 hours to plant and harvest 160 rice. Rice gets faster the more Plants skill you have.
- Tree Connection meme makes pruning faster, but also gives the Plants Specialist role, which dramatically increases crop speed and harvest.
- Rice is the worst crop for nutrition/work. Potatoes and corn are even more efficient.
Much more efficient for space. 4 dryads have a 0.444 nutrition/day/tile. Rice has .054 nutrition/day/tile, and other crops are slightly worse.
Work speed not affected by most pawn stack factors, just Plants skill and Manipulation
Other benefits of dryads: grows up to -50 °C (-58 °F), no light or soil required, immune to blight, easier to secure.
Max 4.0 nutrition per day (80 berries/day w/ 4 dryads).

Comparison to hydroponics

Hydroponics does not increase work/nutrition, but makes plants grow much faster, giving an even greater yield.
- Plants skill 12: Hydroponics gives 13.1 nutrition a day for 8.6 hrs of work. Maintaining 8 dryads gives 8.0 nutrition a day for 10.4 hours of work.
Dryads are still more space efficient; hydroponics has max .136 nutrition/day /tile.
Hydroponics requires Electricity researched, and both basins and a sun lamp require a lot of it in particular.
- Also requires major resource investment (at max efficiency, 1 tile of hydroponics requires 18 steel, .25 components, and 47.7 watts)
Dryads are not prone to power outages, solar flares, etc. Additionally resistant to fire (dryads put fire out)

Conclusion

Gauranlen trees are incredibly work-intensive, but are prone to much fewer issues that would impede crops. Their one weakness is toxic fallout, where hydroponics or a large storage is required to avoid builup. Space calculations assume that trees only take 9 tiles, as grow zones can be made around their border. If it's just trees, each tree becomes much worse for space.

Pruning is not directly affected by plant work speed, so a lazy or joywire-induced pawn can work through a tree faster. However, virtually any means of increasing plant work speed makes any crop a less work-intensive alternative.

Berrymakers may also be good in tribal scenarios, where you do not have access to hydroponics, but don't have as much space.

Version history

Ideology DLC Release - Added.
1.3.3076 - Produces 40 berries every 2 days instead of 32 berries every 2 days. Fix: Dryads are affected by disease incidents.

Animals