Bliss lobotomy

Bliss lobotomy is a surgical operation that makes the patient happier while rendering them incapable of intellectual and skilled labor.

Acquisition

A Gorehulk must be encountered before the Bliss Lobotomy research option is unlocked as a basic void research project, which requires 25 points of void research to complete.

Once researched, the bliss lobotomy operation can be performed as a surgery. It requires a minimum medical skill of 4 and costs  30 Bioferrite. The surgery has a base 100% Success Rate Multiplier and a 10% chance the patient pawn dies on failure.

Summary

Bliss lobotomy provides the following effects:

• +20 mood bonus
• Global Learning Factor −50%
• The following work types are disabled: Cook, Construct, Grow, Mine, Plant Cut, Smith, Tailor, Craft, Research and Dark Study. Not even slaves can perform these tasks.
• Prison Break Interval and Slave Rebellion Interval increased by x1000%.

Pawns that are bliss lobotomized will remain as such even if turned into ghouls.

Healer mech serum and Unnatural healing can reverse a bliss lobotomy. The biosculpter bioregeneration cycle will not heal a bliss lobotomy.

Analysis

Bliss lobotomized pawns can still serve as Wardens, Artists, Doctors, Animal Handlers, and Haulers/Cleaners. The procedure itself does not reduce Consciousness, meaning that pawns will still work and move at the same speed as before, unlike installing a joywire. Having a dramatically reduced learning speed will restrict pawn growth, making Bliss Lobotomies more useful on pawns who already have high skill in unaffected work types, particularly Yttakin who have the Great animals gene for +8 to animals skill and the Aggressive gene which the mood bonus makes less severe. Alternatively, philophagy can be used to gain skill XP at the same rate even after a lobotomy.

A bliss lobotomy gives a net +10 mood bonus when used on a pawn with the Very unhappy gene, which gives a hefty +5 metabolism.

Bliss lobotomies might be attractive to players looking to cut down on the number of prison breaks. The dead calm gene is a stronger option for keeping prisoners, as it prevents prison breaks and violent mental breaks entirely, with mimial negative effect. However, installing dead calm requires a genepack and replaces any existing xenotype, and it requires Biotech to be installed. Another alternative is installing peg legs and removing them. This requires 4 surgeries prevents movement entirely, thus preventing prisoners from using a nutrient paste dispenser by themselves, but also prevents prison breaks and violent mental breaks entirely.

Bliss lobotomies also may be appealing to colonies with the Inhumanizing: Required meme, specifically on a pawn that isn't already inhumanized. Inhumanization causes a −12 skill reduction on Animals, Social, and Artistic, which are some of the only worktypes that bliss lobotomy doesn't disable. Having the bliss lobotomy will make it less likely for a humanity break to occcur, ensuring your social pawn remains social. An already inhumanized pawn is a poor choice, as inhumanization is already great at regulating mood and nerfs the only skills available to a lobotomized pawn.

A wealthy colony may want to use a bliss lobotomy to improve the mood of a psychic harmonizer pawn. It is recommended to combine this with a joywire and traits that boost mood, such as optimist, and boosts to psychic sensitivity. This can keep a large population in a wealthy colony content without the need for individual bedrooms or high quality meals.