Events/Incidental

Main article: Events

Incidental Events are those not triggered by the storyteller. Instead, these are results of other game mechanics.

For purposes of the wiki, these are divided in good, bad, faction, informational, and social events.

Good

Good Incidental events are generally positive or neutral in nature.

Show Good Incidental Events

Friendlies

This event can only occur if you are allied with at least one other faction and have enemies on screen. Allied factions may send around fighters to assist you when mutual enemies appear, such as pirates, manhunters or insectoids. They won't assist against factions that they aren't hostile to. Keep in mind that friendly fire will damage your relations with the aiding faction. On the other hand, rescuing their downed people will improve relations.

There are two versions of the friendlies event. The first is sent by an allied faction at 0 cost. These friendlies are raiders who are allied with you. They can arrive via any method and use the usual raid points system to determine their size.

The second can be called in instantly via comms console, at the cost of -25 goodwill. The faction must be allied with you, and have an Industrial tech level or higher. These allies will always arrive through drop pod, and can use any arrival method with drop pods. Unlike the random event, these friendlies are set with a strength between 150 - 400 raid points, instead of using the raid points of your colony.

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  Friendlies vs Pirates

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  Friendlies vs Thrumbo

Masterwork

For more details, see Quality#How quality is determined.

One of your colonists has produced an object of masterwork quality.

Legendary work

For more details, see Quality#Legendary items.

One of your colonists has produced an object of legendary quality.

Man in Black

When your colonists are no longer able to defend themselves, a stranger may join the colony to help. As their name indicates, men in black come in a full set of black clothing. They also come wearing a flak vest and always carry a revolver. Their skills and traits are fully randomized, but they will always be capable of Violence and Caring, and their favorite color will always be black.

This event is triggered only when all of your colonists are downed at your base, but almost always happens when this is the case. This event can only happen if your colony has ever had at least 3 colonists, which prevents it from appearing in solo colonist starts. This event also has a cooldown of roughly 1 year.

The man in black will not appear on the temporary maps generated for world quests. However, if all your surviving pawns are downed elsewhere, it is possible for the man in black to appear at your base. (Testing is needed to see how these events are affected by allowing multiple colonies in the scenario editor.)

Pawn Type	Image	Combat Power	Gear Health (%)	Avg. Gear Quality	Clothing Budget	Weapon Budget	Available Weapons	Age Range	Additional Info [edit]
Man in Black		55	100	Good	-	500-500	Revolver	20-55	Always has a black pants, button-down shirt, flak vest, duster, and cowboy hat. Always carrying 10 nutrition worth of food.[Verify] and 5 medicine.[Verify] Always has Shooting skill between 8 and 16. Is never incapable of Violence or Caring. 5% chance of spawning addicted to a drug.

New recruit

You'll get this notification whenever a Warden has succeeded in recruiting a prisoner. It also appears if a transport pod crash victim chooses to join your faction.

Meteorite

A large meteorite has struck ground in the area. It has left behind a lump of material. During daylight, a large shadow will project on the ground which shrinks as it closes in.

The meteorite will severely damage or kill anything that is below it. Any colonists beneath the meteorite has a small while to escape before they are crushed by it. The map tile will read: Meteorite (incoming).

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  Flying meteorite

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  Crashing meteorite, with explosion

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  Landed meteorite

Outpost destroyed

R.I.P. some pirate faction, nobody will remember you.

This is the notification that triggers when you successfully defeat all humanlike hostiles in an enemy base after invading them (not counting turrets, which need to be neutralized separately). After this you have a while to capture any prisoners (there is usually at least one building suitable to turn into a cell), treat the wounded, pack up and leave before enemy reinforcements arrive in the form of a raid.

Faction defeated

Should you destroy all bases of a faction, the notification will say that since you just destroyed the last faction base, the faction no longer exists.

You can still view the defeated faction in the menu, and it will show 'Defeated' below it. They won't send any raids, nor will they send caravans. It should be noted that this does not actually decrease the total frequency of raids you will get, as whether a raid happens or not is determined separately and before a faction is chosen. It just means that the raids will not be from this faction and will be from other factions, and with fewer human factions to choose from the game will start sending more mechanoid raids, which can inadvertently make the game harder if you find mechanoids more difficult.

Destroying and/or befriending all factions will make mechanoids the only remaining threat for all future raids.

Ransom (Time remaining)

This event can only occur if a colonist of yours was captured by another faction.

Another faction captured one of your downed colonists somehow and will release that colonist to you... for a price. Common methods for capturing your colonists include grabbing downed colonists while retreating from a raid or downing an entire caravan.

The offer will be good for 24 game hours. If paid, the colonist will immediately appear on your map border or be sent via drop pod.

Rare thrumbos

Two to six thrumbos will spawn at the edge of the map, staying around for a while to eat anything they can, including your crops, but not including anima trees. The player can attempt to hunt or tame them, both of which are very difficult. If no action is taken, they will leave on their own after a few days. It will not reoccur for 13 days.

Reactor ready

You have completed the 15 day warm up period for starting a ship reactor. If the rest of the necessary ship parts have been built, it may now be launched. Raids and sieges will drop considerably after this period is over.

Ship chunks

This event doesn't have an envelope, but rather appears in the notification bar up top, assuming these chunks don't strike your colony or pawns. One or more ship chunks fall onto the map. They can be deconstructed for 5-6 components and 20 steel. Rarely they can punch through roofs, damaging structures near it. Extremely rarely, they can land right on top of a colonist, killing them.

In Beta 18 the ship chunk creates an explosion upon landing. The falling chunks cast shadows on the ground, giving a little time for colonists to move out of the way.

Trauma savant

This event only has a 12% chance to trigger upon one of your colonists receiving a brain injury.

A colonist has suffered a brain injury and has gained great abilities from it at the cost of others, gaining 50% extra manipulation while losing the ability to speak, hear, and have any social relationships. It also restores the brain to full functioning, despite the injury.

Quest completed

You've done what was requested by other factions and will receive the reward at your nearest(?) base via pods very close to your buildings, along with an improvement in relations. While they attempt not to, the pods may also crash through your roof, so be prepared to repair them.

Anima tree sprout

If an anima tree was killed by any means, this event can occur within a few days from the last death of the tree, appearing at random places that are unaffected by its radius.

Bad

Bad Incidental events are either negative or cautionary in nature.

Show Bad Incidental Events

Ancient danger

Main article: Ancient shrine

As (Colonist name) draws near the ancient wall a sense of foreboding overcomes him(her). (S)He isn't sure why, but (s)he feels this dusty structure may contain great dangers

— Message that appears when the first colonist walks near.

This event is related to map generation and may not appear on every map. It may occur more than once per map. While listed as a danger, they are usually harmless until disturbed.

A colonist approached a walled out area of the map partially or completely under a mountain. It contains one or more of the following: ancient cryptosleep caskets, bugs with hives, mechanoids or treasure. Open at your own risk, by blowing a hole or deconstructing a section of the wall.

First, you'll need to deal with hostiles outside. Then, opening or attacking any casket will cause all the others to open instantly. The cryptosleep caskets usually contain humans, but may also contain megascarabs or be empty. The Spacers inside the caskets may or may not be dead. If alive, they may or may not be wounded, or armed and hostile. It's even possible for pawns incapable of violence to melee attack. If they are not hostile and can walk, they will try to escape. Any alive Spacers inside may be captured and recruited, usually with a low recruitment difficulty percentage.

Ancient structures may include other treasures like psychic lances and pulsers. Luciferium can be found in these buildings. Pod people sometimes carry plasteel, components, and gold. The caskets can be claimed and used or deconstructed by the colony.

Animal revenge

An animal that was harmed will go mad and become manhunter. When you select an animal to be hunted, the game will notify you if it has a chance for revenge and what the percentage is. Occasionally, all nearby pack members of that animal's species may start attacking their attacker.

Death

One of your pawns has died unintentionally. Slaughtering an animal or euthanizing a colonist or prisoner will not produce this event.

Drug addiction

A colonist has taken too much of a drug and is now addicted. They will now need to regularly take that drug or suffer the withdrawal effects. See here for advice on fighting addictions.

Heart attack

A character or tamed animal suffers a heart attack. Characters will seek out a medical bed or their assigned bed for treatment. Animals will return to the nearest empty animal bed or sleeping spot. Doctors will then proceed to attempt to resuscitate the victim, using medicine if allowed and available.

During a heart attack, people or animals can fall unconscious or even die if not treated in time.

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  Heart attack notification

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  Health tab

Mental Break

Main article: Mental break

One of your colonists or prisoners has had it and has a mental break. During this time, the afflicted colonist will be effectively unavailable, will not do colony work and can not be drafted. They will use forbidden doors and items. They will also attend to their needs such as sleep, recreation, and eating.

Depending on the nature of the mental break, there are several ways to handle the situation:

• Wall the person in – this is only possible if they wander to a suitable location.
• Try to arrest them. They will possibly resist and need to be beaten down, causing injury. This will also give them a fairly long-lasting mood debuff ("I was arrested!") after you release them from jail. Arresting temporary members will immediately cause their faction to become hostile.
• Wait out the situation - This takes a while for most minor breaks.

Overdose

Main article: Overdose

One of your colonists or animals has overdosed. There is a risk of overdose when taking any hard drug, as well as when taking too many non-social drugs in general. This can cause permanent damage or even death.

Predator hunting

A wild, hungry predator has targeted one of your colonists or tamed animals for killing and eating. This will only be triggered if a hungry predator is on the map. This means if there are few wild animals near it, or if it's dangerously close to your base or pen, in some cases it can be a good idea to put out food to feed the predator so this event does not trigger. A hunting predator is different from normal enemies in a couple of ways. While regular enemies will tend to avoid targeting noncombatant children, predators will target them the same as a regular pawn. Predators will also not stop attacking once a pawn is downed, and will keep attacking until the pawn is dead and then eat the corpse. Predators don't change targets, even if a different pawn is closer, unless the targeted pawn becomes inaccessible, such as by entering the door to your base. As of version 1.4, colonists and turrets will not automatically identify predators hunting a pawn as hostile. Attacking the predator will trigger "animal revenge," which gives the predator the ability to change targets and all colonists and turrets will recognize it as a hostile. Version 1.5 patches this and they will be immediately identified as hostile by all colonists and turrets once they start hunting a pawn.

Prison break

Prison break

"Prisoners have staged a breakout! They've somehow defeated the door lock and are making their way out. They may seek weapons, fight, or try to escape."

Prisoners can escape via opens doors or gaps in the walls in their cell. In addition, prisoners also have a small chance to actively break out and escape. This is affected by the following factors:

• The number of doors in their cell.
• The Moving capacity of the individual prisoner.
• Genes relating to aggression.
• Number of prisoners. Prison break instances are rolled per prisoner, meaning that the more prisoners you have, the more likely a prison break is to happen in a given period, despite not directly affecting each individual prisoner's mean time between prison breaks.

Once it happens, all rooms within 20 tiles of the prisoner who started the prison break have a chance to join it. The original room will always join. Other rooms have a 50% chance to join. If a room does join, all prisoners in that room are affected too.

During a prison break, prisoners are able to open all doors. They will attempt^{[Under what conditions?]} to equip and use weapons and weapon-like utility items such as orbital bombardment targeter.^[Which?] Because of this, it is recommended to set armories far away from your prisons and watch out for any weapon dropped by your own pawns. Additionally, placing the exits away from the edge of the map will increase the time it takes for the escapees to exit the map.

Since prisoners are technically part of an enemy faction, any friendlies^{[Same faction?]} on the map will engage them and your own pawns will react to them as specified by their Threat response. These reactions can be helpful if you need to contain a larger break, though the use of higher-powered weapons means they have a higher chance of outright killing the prisoner. Recapturing escaped prisoners from factions that have turned friendly since that prisoner was originally captured will not affect relations with that faction.

To contain a prison break while reducing the risk of killing the escaping prisoners, low damage weapons are recommended. Alternatively, brain implants that cause brain shock can be implanted in long term or particularly unruly prisoners, and EMP weapons used to down them instantly and safely.

Since prisoners are technically part of an enemy faction, any friendlies on the map will engage them. While this is potentially helpful to contain larger breaks, the use of proper weapons leads to a higher chance of outright killing the escapees. Recapturing escaped prisoners from factions that have turned friendly since that prisoner was originally captured will not affect relations with that faction.

Roof collapsed

This event only happens if something is crushed by the falling roof. Otherwise, it's only a notification.

All roofs must be supported by a constructed or rock wall within 6 spaces with contiguous roof sections in between itself and that wall. If either of these conditions changes such as via mining, an explosion or demolition, then the roof will collapse. Damage is dealt to the head and shoulders. Note that falling roofs underneath a mountain will instantly kill any pawn unfortunate enough to be crushed.

If demolishing a building, it's recommended to use the Remove Roof tool to remove the roof first before deconstructing the walls.

Too Deep: Infestation

Insectoid infestations can spawn when actively digging from a deep drill. Insectoids, but not hives, will pop out around the drill's area. These do not have the overhead mountain requirement like regular infestations. However, they are often smaller in number, and are unable to reproduce due to the lack of hive.

Faction

These events are related with changes with other factions, either relations or leadership.

Show Faction Events

Allied: (Faction)

Relations with another faction have risen above +75 and you are now allied with them. They may now assist you against mutual enemies.

Enemy now neutral: (Faction)

This notification will appear once relations have been improved with a Hostile faction enough that they will no longer be hostile. Common ways to improve relations include releasing prisoners from their faction (which must leave the map safely to receive the bonus), having successful peace talks or providing gifts.

Hostile faction

Badwill: Friendly traders face a mechanoid raid, loses members and turns against the player.

You've done something to anger another faction bad enough that they are now hostile to yours. This can happen if you arrest a faction member of theirs, rob one of their caravans or if they take too much friendly fire from your colonists, among other reasons. Rough factions that are neutral/allied will naturally decay goodwill, until they become hostile again.

Leader died

Occasionally, the leader of another faction will die, sometimes through no action on your part. The popup window will also announce his or her successor.

This alert uses the variable title of the leader in question. For example, if the "boss" of a pirate band dies you will see 'Boss died', if the "chief" died, then it will read 'Chief died', and so on.

This will also happen if the leader personally comes to raid your base and is killed in action. Killing an enemy faction leader will give a mood buff for a while to the colonist that accomplished this.

New Leader

Similar to the Leader Died event, except this one occurs only when you've succeeded in both capturing and recruiting another faction's leader. The leader then places first at the colonist bar, instead of last.

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  Raid with Faction leader presence

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  (Boss name) died / The new boss is (name)

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  Defeated hostile leader (name)

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  Chief of a hostile tribe recruited to colony.

Informational Events

These events serve purely to give information about the game, and have no physical gameplay implications.

Show Informational Events

About: Electricity

Appears when you finish researching Electricity. Reminds you of the power of electric appliances, and the power infrastructure required to maintain them.

About: Getting advanced components

Appears when you finish researching Fabrication. Reminds you that you need advanced components to build a fabrication bench, and the potential means of obtaining them.

About: Launching the ship

Appears when you finish researching Starflight Basics. This is a simple reminder about the dangers of powering up the ship reactor once built. Once turned on, the number of raids will greatly increase for the next 15 days.

Persona Core Offer

A non-hostile faction will notify you that they know where an Persona core is located: a critical component for building a ship. They will want 1500 silver for this information. However, you can only make this request at the comms console with factions which have at least +40 goodwill.

You can always request for a persona core location with 100% success, even if this event doesn't trigger, so long as you have the requisite goodwill. It only serves to remind the player that it is possible.

Summer

This event occurs at the beginning of the summer quadrum, if you are lacking suitable apparel for winter's temperatures. It merely informs you that you are ill-prepared for the winter. Grow some more food and get some warm clothing. Plan ahead for any additions to your colony during these seasons, including recruits and born animals.

Unwaveringly loyal

Appears when you first capture an unwaveringly loyal prisoner. They are unable to be recruited as a colonist or be converted, but can be released, enslaved, or used for a variety of human resources.

About: Anima tree linking

Appears when an anima tree has 20 anima grass around it. Reminds you that a colonist with Natural meditation can begin the linking ritual, gaining a level of psycasting in the process.

Baby Prep

Appears when a human's pregnancy is at its third trimester. Labor will happen without warning within the next 6 days, so prepare a clean hospital with a good doctor.

Social

These events cover relationships changes between 2 pawns. Currently, all events relate to marital status.

Show Social Events

New lovers

You receive the announcement that two characters have become lovers, and "now want to sleep together". These are usually colonists, but a pair of prisoners can also become lovers. They will receive mood boosts or debuff proportional to their opinion of their partner, with +/- 1 mood for every 10 opinion above/below zero.

Starting the moment their new relationship is announced, couples will immediately have a -4 mood debuff for "sleeping alone", even if they won't get their first chance to sleep together for hours. This can be remedied by assigning both pawns to a two person bed, such as the double sleeping spot, double bedroll, double bed or royal bed. A double bedroll is preferred when in a caravan. Couples that sleep in the same bed can also perform Lovin' for a mood boost to both partners.

Breakup

A couple splits, complete with the Mood and Social penalties for both colonists. The one initiating the break-up is better off than the other in the couple.

Rejected proposal

After two characters fall in love, one of them proposed marriage but is turned down, which may result in the couple breaking up. The proposing one suffers a mood penalty of -18 for 25 days. They may accept another offer in the future. Note that a later, accepted proposal will not remove the mood effects of the previous, rejected ones.

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  Breakup

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  A character woos another into a romance and she agrees

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  Rejected proposal

Marriage is on!

A couple that has been together for a while will announce their engagement. The wedding will take place some time in the future, at a marriage spot, or any gathering spot (table or campfire) in lieu of one. Both fiancees and married pawns, like lovers, will want to sleep in the same bed. They receive mood boosts or debuffs depending on the relationship with their couple. They can also receive a mood boost from lovin'.

When the day of the wedding arrives, it will take place regardless of the entire colony's attendance. Pawns will sometimes take the family name of their partner upon marriage. After the ceremony takes place, a reception will follow with everyone drinking, smoking and eating if hungry. Getting married, as well as taking part in the marriage ceremony, gives a substantial, fairly long-lasting +40 mood buff to the newly weds, and +20 to attendees.

Colonists who do not reach the meeting point on time, such as those sleeping, fighting fires or lying incapacitated in bed, will not gain the mood buff from the event. A quick "draft" and "undraft" for everybody but the couple should be enough to coerce all capable colonists to attend. Colonists on caravans will not attend.

If the couple happens to be busy at the exact moment the wedding is to take place, for example, because they are drafted or loading a caravan, those who are not members of the trade group will remain waiting at attendance and perform no task at all, except for eating until the couple comes back.

Affair

Somebody who is already married starts an affair with a single person. It is possible for your colonists to cheat on their lovers who aren't members of your faction.

Divorce

A married couple has divorced; as a normal break up, but with worse mood penalties.

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  Susy has accepted Mat's marriage proposal...

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  Affair

Version history

• 0.14.1236 - Fixed many events never firing. Threat cycle event maker will no longer queue events it doesn't have the points to fire.
• 1.1.0 - Pawns now sometimes take the family name of their partner upon marriage
• 1.4.3523 - Fix: Stranger in black can have 0 shooting skill.