Sentience catalyst

Sentience catalysts are special mechanite drugs added by the Odyssey DLC that permanently improve the consciousness and trainability of animals.

Acquisition[edit]

Purchasable from exotic goods traders, shaman merchants, slavers, and faction bases.

Also obtained through ancient stockpiles, quest rewards and fishing.

Summary[edit]

Sentience catalysts can be used by colonists on any tamed or wild animal (excluding wild humans) and are consumed on use. Every animal can receive a sentience catalyst injection, but not more than one. The catalyst can applied by selecting "use" on the sentient catalyst, then locating an animal to administer it to. Once used, all effects are permanent. Note that the effects of the catalyst are not inherited by the offspring of the affected animal.

It lowers the wildness of the targeted animal by 25% which subsequently lowers the minimum handling skill of the animal by 2-3 levels in most cases, with the exception of 99% wildness animals like the alpha thrumbo which benefit from a much larger 7 level reduction. Note though this does not affect the revenge chance on failure. The taming pawn still has to meet the new handling requirement to tame it, even with inspired taming.

It also advances the trainability of the animal by at least a step, e.g. a rhinos trainability goes from intermediate to advanced, meaning unlike its unmodified cousins, it can now rescue, and more importantly, haul. Note that animals that are too small for certain training types still won't be able to do be trained for those tasks even after using the catalyst.

For pen animals, they lose their fence-blocked status. This means horses and boomalopes with sentience catalyst treatment can roam the colony freely like a common labrador retriever without the risk of wandering off, and will respect their allowed area.

The animal also gains an additional +10% consciousness, further affecting capacities and stats.

Analysis[edit]

Improving an animal's trainability opens up new skills. If your colony uses a pack of trained wargs in combat, the catalyst can enable them to haul outside of combat. Pack animals such as muffalo can be trained to fight, which is useful for defending your colony, or to protect a caravan when it's ambushed.

Reducing wildness can be useful. If used on a tame animal, it improves the chances of successful training, which can save your animal handler time and food. If used on a wild animal, it may enable a sub-par animal handler to tame that animal. It may be worth keeping a Sentience catalyst around specifically for when a rare thrumbo visits your colony: If you happen to have a pawn with an animal handling skill between 7 and 9, and they have inspired taming, you can get a guaranteed pet Thrumbo by using the catalyst.

Boosting an animal's consciousness by 10% also improves their manipulation. This increases their chance to hit, making the animal more efficient during combat. It also increases their carrying capacity, potentially making the animal more efficient at hauling.

Version history[edit]

Odyssey DLC Release - Added.
1.6.4535 - Fix: Unnatural healing/healer serum removing sentience catalyst. Fix: Sentience catalyst can target wild people. Previously it would provide a permanent consciousness buff even after the wild person was tamed.
1.6.4566 - Sentience catalyst now removes roaming and fence-blocked status from animals.

World quest items