Lifter

A lifter is a mechanoid added by the Biotech DLC.

Acquisition[edit]

Lifters can be gestated by a mechanitor at a mech gestator once the Basic mechtech research project has been completed. Each requires 50 Steel, 1 Basic subcore and 1 gestation cycle taking 1,800 ticks (30 secs) to initiate and lasting a duration dependent on the Mech Gestation Speed of the mechanitor. They take up 1 bandwidth from their linked mechanitor.

Dead, friendly lifters can also be resurrected at the mech gestator using the "Resurrect light mechanoid" bill. This requires the corpse of the friendly Lifter, 25 steel, and 1 gestation cycle taking 1,800 ticks (30 secs) to initiate.

Summary[edit]

As mechanoids, every lifter is immune to fire, Flame and Heat damage, and temperature extremes, despite having Comfortable Temperatures defined. They have 100% Toxic Resistance, Toxic Environment Resistance, and Vacuum resistance making them immune to toxic buildup, rot stink, other toxic effects, and vacuum exposure. They do not need to eat, rest, have no mood and do not feel pain. They do not seek cover in combat. They will be stunned by EMP attacks for a time proportional to the EMP damage inflicted and will "adapt" and rendered immune to further EMP strikes for 2,200 ticks (36.67 secs).

Dead lifters may be shredded at the machining table or crafting spot for 10 steel. However, these values are affected by mechanoid shredding efficiency, as well as missing parts on the lifter.

As an enemy[edit]

As a labor-focused mech, lifters are never found in mechanoid raids, however they can go feral after time spent uncontrolled.

As an ally[edit]

Mechs under player control require power: lifters use 10% of their power per day while active. If set to dormant self-charging, they instead recharge for 1% power / day, without pollution. They recharge in a mech recharger (200W), for 50% power/day, creating 5 wastepacks whenever the recharger's waste is filled up.

Work[edit]

Lifters will do all tasks under the Haul tab. Other than bringing items to other places, Lifters can also re-arm turrets, reinstall buildings, and more. Lifters move at 2.8 cells/s, which is roughly 61% as fast as a baseline human.

You can also have them cut down trees when there's a construction blueprint on top, so if you don't have an Agrihand, but have to get trees, you can place some concrete blueprints on top of trees. Same can be done with Constructoids.

Combat[edit]

Lifters are never equipped with any weapons, and instead exclusively use their body part attacks.

Lifters have a 62% melee hit chance, equivalent to a pawn with a Melee skill of 4.

Analysis[edit]

Lifters have the benefits of being a mechanoid - they aren't human, and will constantly haul until they run out of power, will never be hunted by local predators, are indifferent to temperature, vacuum, and immune to fire. While lifters move slower than colonists or animals, they spend the entirety of their time hauling. At minimum, mechs will work for 83% of the time (5 days of work, 1 day recharge, minus travel time), and they can be turned off when not required. Their lack of mood is useful for picking up far away items and cremating human corpses.

Finally, they are cheap to produce and amass. Their disposability is a unique benefit - you can have lifters pick up items near the map edge, and won't lose much if Randy decides to drop a pack of manhunters right on top of them.

Comparison to dryads[edit]

Lifters will be more productive than carrier dryads, but require Electricity, create toxic wastepacks, and are worth more raid points.

Lifters need to recharge, but their recharging cycle (83%) is shorter than the time dryads sleep. The gestation time of lifters for both initial creation and resurrection is faster than the time it takes a new dryad to spawn. Dryads require a lot of colonist pruning to keep, lifters require colonist time only through repairs, and resurrection cycles. Dryads take a short break between hauls like animals, while lifters act like colonists and continue hauling. Lifters can contribute towards caravan carrying capacity, dryads cannot.

Lifters may go feral if their mechanitor dies or lacks enough bandwidth for the number of mechs under their control, a downside not shared by dryads. Dryads also do not create toxic wastepacks. Wastepacks require freezers to store without causing pollution, require a lot of electricity to atomize, create addition hauling work in the colony, and consume resources to dispose of via transport pods, shuttles, or summoning pit gates.

Overall, lifters are much more efficient for their job, as they haul both faster and longer, but dryads could see use for serious wealth management purposes.

Health[edit]

Body parts[edit]

The body part table is collapsed due to length. Expand to view.

Body Part Name	HP	N°	C^[1]	TC^[2]	Subpart of	Capacity^[3]	Effect if Destroyed/Removed
Thorax	40	1	100%	40%	N/A^[4]	-	Death Will never take permanent injury
Neck	30	1	10%	2%	Thorax	Communication	Death Will never take permanent injury
Head	30	1	80%	4.6%	Neck	-	Death Will never take permanent injury
Artificial Brain	10	1	10%	0.8%	Head	Data Processing	Death Will never take permanent injury
Sight Sensor	10	1	13%	1%	Head	Sight	−25% Sight. −100% if both lost. Will never take permanent injury
Hearing Sensor	10	1	10%	0.8%	Head	Hearing	−25% Hearing. −100% if both lost. Will never take permanent injury
Chemical Analyzer	10	1	10%	0.8%	Head	-	Will never take permanent injury
Leg	30	2	20%	16%	Thorax	Moving	−50% Moving. Will never take permanent injury
Foot	20	2	20%	4%	Leg	Moving	−50% Moving. Will never take permanent injury
Reactor	20	1	6%	6%	Thorax	Power Generation	Death Will never take permanent injury
Fluid Reprocessor	15	1	4%	4%	Thorax	Fluid Reprocessing	Death Will never take permanent injury

↑ Coverage determines the chance to hit this body part. It refers to the percentage of the super-part that this part covers, before its own sub-parts claim their own percentage. For example, if the base coverage of the super-part is 100%, and the coverage of the part is 20%, 20% of hits would hit the part, and 80% the super-part. If the part had its own sub-part with 50% coverage, the chances would be 10% sub-part, 10% part, 80% super part.
↑ Target Chance is the actual chance for each part to be be selected as the target when each part's coverage has been taken into account(I.E. Neck covers 7.5% of Torso but Head covers 80% of Neck so it actually has only a 1.5% chance to be selected). This is not pure hit chance, as different damage types propagate damage in different ways. See that page for details.
↑ Note that capacities can affect other capacities in turn. Only the primary effect is listed. See specific pages for details.
↑ This is the part that everything else connects to to be considered 'connected'.

Armor[edit]

Armor

Attack table

Lifter
Attack (Damage type)	DPS^[1] (Post Hit Chance)^[2]	Dam.	Cool.	AP	Selection chance^[3]
Average	2.31 (1.43)	-	-	9%	-
Head (Blunt)	2.31 (1.43)	6	2.6s	9%	100%

↑ Note: This is the actual base average derived from the melee verb system updated in 1.1.2610, it may sometimes disagree with the listed value in the in-game infobox.
It may also change depending on the stats and the melee verbs available to the pawn.
↑ Assuming a melee hit chance of 62%
↑ Chance for attack to be selected. It may change depending on the melee verbs available to the pawn.

Gallery[edit]

Age 0-99 Lifter facing east
Age 0-99 Lifter facing north
Age 0-99 Lifter facing south

Age 100+ Lifter facing east
Age 100+ Lifter facing north
Age 100+ Lifter facing south

Version history[edit]

Biotech DLC Release - Added.
1.4.3528 - Fix: Lifters can try to haul themselves to a transport pod.
1.4.3534 - Added more allowed work types to lifter mechs. Can now do cremation.

Mechanoids

Mechanoids | Core: Centipede (Blaster, Burner, Gunner) • Lancer • Pikeman • Scyther • Termite
Combat: Centurion • Legionary • Militor • Scorcher • Tesseron • Cyclops
Command: Apocriton • Diabolus • War queen (War urchin )
Labor: Agrihand • Cleansweeper • Constructoid • Fabricor • Lifter • Paramedic • Tunneler
Cluster | Buildings: Condition causer • Count-down activator • Mech assembler • Mech capsule • Mech drop beacon • Mech high-shield • Mech low-shield • Mech node • Proximity activator • Unstable power cell
Turrets: Auto charge turret • Auto inferno turret • Auto mortar • Mini-slugger turret
Creation | Pawn: Mechanitor
Buildings: Band node • Mech booster • Mechband antenna • Mechband dish • Mech gestator • Large mech gestator • Mech recharger • Large mech recharger

[1] Coverage determines the chance to hit this body part. It refers to the percentage of the super-part that this part covers, before its own sub-parts claim their own percentage. For example, if the base coverage of the super-part is 100%, and the coverage of the part is 20%, 20% of hits would hit the part, and 80% the super-part. If the part had its own sub-part with 50% coverage, the chances would be 10% sub-part, 10% part, 80% super part.

[2] Target Chance is the actual chance for each part to be be selected as the target when each part's coverage has been taken into account(I.E. Neck covers 7.5% of Torso but Head covers 80% of Neck so it actually has only a 1.5% chance to be selected). This is not pure hit chance, as different damage types propagate damage in different ways. See that page for details.

[3] Note that capacities can affect other capacities in turn. Only the primary effect is listed. See specific pages for details.

[4] This is the part that everything else connects to to be considered 'connected'.

[Actual-5] Note: This is the actual base average derived from the melee verb system updated in 1.1.2610, it may sometimes disagree with the listed value in the in-game infobox.
It may also change depending on the stats and the melee verbs available to the pawn.

[Hit_Chance-6] Assuming a melee hit chance of 62%

[Selection_Chance-7] Chance for attack to be selected. It may change depending on the melee verbs available to the pawn.

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