Yttakin

Yttakin (pronounced as ee-ta-keen)^[1] are a xenotype, genetically engineered to live on ultra-cold planets.

Lore

Yttakin descend from colonists engineered to thrive on ultra-cold planets. Their great size and fur make them hardy in frozen environments.^[2] Yttakin share a psychic connection with the wildlife,^[2] with whom they can communicate both vocally and psychically,^[3] and they can summon animals to their side during battles.^[2] They are not fast or energetic or precise, but can keep going when others would have collapsed long before. ^[2]

Since they migrated off their icy birthworld of Yttak, Yttakin settlements live on many planets,^[2] where they now pursue their traditional lifestyle.^[4] Their fur, roaring voices, and aversion to urban living sometimes leads naive outsiders to believe they are simple-minded animals. Quick-minded Yttakin are happy to make good use of such wrong beliefs, whether at the negotiating table or on the battlefield.^[2]

Yttak itself is referred to elsewhere as ice-moon prison.^[5] For more information, see the Yttak lore entry.

Yttakin pirates are close-knit bands of yttakin that choose to be isolated, and refuse to deal with outsiders.^[1]^[4] They are quick to call their animal warriors against those who disrespect them - or whose wealth they intend to take.^[4] These animals are referred to as "wild",^[1] implying that they are not tamed and may simply be rounded up and psychically called by the band before raids, rather than being kept. Also notable, is that the pirate faction is implied to be their traditional lifestyle^[4] - whether this refers to to their isolationism, internal clan traditions, piracy, or all of the above is unclear. The use of terms such as roarclan, tribe, clan, pack, family, and kinroar to describe the faction imply at least that a traditional cultural structure is maintained however.^[6]

Yttakin seem to also have their own language or at least their own naming structure for people and places.^[6]^[7]

Occurrence

The table below describes the chance for a given pawn from each faction being a yttakin. Note that this value does not account for chances in xenotype chance from ideoligion or from pawn kind, it only shows the base value before those factors.

Faction		Chance
	Gentle tribe	0%
	Fierce tribe	0%
	Savage tribe	0%
	Cannibal tribe	0%
	Nudist tribe	0%
	Fierce neanderthal tribe	0%
	Savage impid tribe	0%
	Civil outlander union	0%
	Rough outlander union	0%
	Rough pig union	0%
	Pirate gang	2.5%
	Cannibal pirate gang	2.5%
	Yttakin pirates	100%
	Waster pirates	2.5%
	Shattered empire	0%

As raiders, yttakin have a x1.3 combat power multiplier, meaning they count as 1.3 of a raider.^[Verify] A raid consisting of all yttakin would be 77% as large as the same raid with baseliners.

Summary

Genes

This table has been collapsed due to length. Click to expand Click to collapse

Name	Description			Exclude
Animal warcall	Carriers of this gene can perform an animal warcall, using a powerful bellow and psychic connection to call an animal to fight for them. Adds ability: Animal warcall With a powerful bellow and psychic connection, call an animal to fight your enemies for a few hours. Turns the target berserk against all factions hostile to the caster for 12 in-game hours/30,000 ticks (8.33 mins). -75 base goodwill when used on a friendly faction's animal. Target: Any single animal or wildman. Does not require LoS ^[Detail] Range: 49.9 tiles Warmup Time: 120 ticks (2 secs) Cooldown: 900,000 ticks (15 in-game days) per charge. Charges: 2 AI Can Use: True	−2	1	-
Slow wound healing	Carriers of this gene heal from wounds half as fast as normal. Injury healing factor ×50%	+2	1	WoundHealingRate
Psychically dull	Carriers of this gene are less psychically-sensitive than others. Forced trait: Psychically dull	+1	1	PsychicAbility
Naked speed	Carriers of this gene move slower while clothed, and faster while naked. Move speed: −0.20 c/s (clothed) Move speed: +0.10 c/s (unclothed)	+2	1	-
Aggressive	Carriers of this gene are quick to anger. They are twice as likely to start social fights. When they have mental breaks, they are twice as likely to choose an aggressive kind of break. Effects: Social fight chance factor ×200% Chance mental break is violent ×200% Prison break interval factor ×60%	+2	1	Aggression Aggressive
Strong melee damage	Carriers of this gene do more damage in close-quarters combat. Extra-strong fast-twitch muscle fibers make their strikes accurate and powerful. Melee damage factor ×150% This also affects melee AP when calculated from damage. It does not affect weapons whose AP has been set independently of damage. Examples include: Spears, Monoswords, Persona monoswords, Knee spikes, Hand talons, and Venom talons.	−2	1	MeleeDamage
Sleepy	Carriers of this gene get tired somewhat faster than others. Sleep fall rate ×140%	+2	1	Sleep
Robust	Carriers of this gene take less injuries than others from the same damage. They have thickened, densified bones, nearly-solid ribcages, and strengthened binding factors in joints and flesh. Incoming damage multiplier ×75%	−2	1	Toughness
No hair	Carriers of this gene grow no hair on the head.	0	0	HairStyle
Unisex beards	Carriers of this gene always have thick facial hair, even women.	0	0	BeardStyle
Roar voice	Carriers have an animal-like roaring voice.	0	0	Voice
Hulk body	Carriers can have large bodies. A person can have more than one body type gene; one body type will be chosen among those that are allowed.	0	0	BodyType
Furskin	Carriers of this gene grow thick fur all over their body, which protects them from cold temperatures. Minimum Comfortable Temperature: −10 °C (18 °F) Non-furskin romance chance ×20% Removes mood: Naked: -6 Removes mood: Uncovered (body part): -4	−1	1	HairStyle Fur BeardStyle
Furry tail	Carriers of this gene grow a fluffy tail which partially protects them from cold temperatures. Minimum Comfortable Temperature: −10 °C (18 °F) Adds an aesthetic only tail to the pawn's sprite Note: Does not add a targetable or damageable body part	−1	1	Tail
Great Animals	The carrier's aptitude in Animals is increased by 8. Aptitude acts like an offset on skill level. Additionally, one level of passion is added to Animals. Animals: +8. Note: Experience gain and decay applies as if this offset did not exist. Adds one additional passion for Animals	−3	2	-
Awful Mining	The carrier's aptitude in Mining is reduced by 8. Aptitude acts like an offset on skill level. Additionally, all passion is removed from Mining. Mining: −8. Note: Experience gain and decay applies as if this offset did not exist. Removes all passions for Mining	+2	1	-

Analysis

Yttakin thrive in cold climates. Even when naked, they have a minimum comfortable temperature of -6 °C (21.2 °F), and only get hypothermia below -16 °C (3.2 °F). Yttakin are good combatants regardless of climate, with both robust and strong melee damage. However, slow wound healing makes them somewhat less effective fighters in practice.

As working colonists, yttakin's main weakness is the Sleepy gene, which causes extra sleep. A yttakin sleeping in a normal bed would spend 63.2% of the day awake, or sleep for 8.83 hours per day. A baseliner in the same bed would spend 70.6% of the day awake, or sleep for 7.05 hours per day. This would result in 89.5% awake time from the sleeping gene. Otherwise, yttakin can do all work, except Mining, reasonably well. (Note that being sleepy does not impact combat performance at all. Until a pawn falls asleep due to exhaustion, a lack of rest only impacts mood.)

Other genes worth noting: Aggressive can cause more social fights, which with strong melee damage, can potentially lead to body part destruction. Animal warcall can be powerful earlier in the game, especially if you have thrumbos around. But, in the late game, even 2 megasloths are unlikely to deal significant damage to a group of raiders. This ability has a very long cooldown, so it can't be used for every fight.

Nudism

Yttakin are geared towards nudism. Naked Speed provides +0.10 c/s move speed when unclothed, but −0.20 c/s otherwise. Robust helps mitigate the lack of armor, furskin and furry tail compensate for lack of cold protection. Pawns can wear the heavy bandolier without impacting nudity, which reduces aiming cooldowns.

This should be compared to the benefits of not being nude. Yttakin don't get any mood penalty for wearing clothes, and the benefits of Robust, furskin, etc. still apply even with clothes. So, compared to a baseline colonist, the only actual penalty is a level of slowpoke. Armor can be very helpful in combat. And in hotter biomes, wearing a duster or other heat-insulating gear can be necessary.

Gene extraction

Some of the more valuable genes yttakin have to extract are:

Robust - Multiplies incoming damage by ×75%, which increases effective health by ×133%. Helps overall combat performance, and prevents instakills from short bows and the like.
Sleepy - Sleepy can be great for pawns that don't work much. Vat-grown soldiers are unlikely to be useful outside of hauling and cleaning.

For dedicated soldiers, you can install Psychite dependency or Go-juice dependency to counteract the extra sleep need. Flake, yayo, and go-juice all increase the Rest stat when taken. Taking these drugs before combat ensures that your soldiers remain awake and happy during combat.

This gene's downsides can be completely eliminated using a circadian half-cycler, which removes the need for sleep, meaning Sleepy is free metabolic efficiency. Note that the half-cycler comes with a −15% Consciousness penalty, which can make pawns less effective at certain jobs (such as combat and social).

Biotech (DLC)