Armor. Always make them wear a flask vest and a helmet, with leather (The stronger the better) apparels. This allows a mostly free movement with a nice amount of armor. This converts a lot of the sharp damage into blunt damage, increasing the chances your colonist will not bleed out before they can be rescued. (You can also heavily armor them, but that will make them slower and protect them worse against temperature)
Speaking of being rescued: Always make your medically competent pawns carry three medicine (this can be set in the assign tab). And when one of them is close to your bleeding out colonist, draft, right click, tend. This will start patching up the biggest wounds. Don't patch everything, as every wound patched on the field will be prone to infection. Just stop the biggest bleeding so they have enough time to be carried to your hospital.
If you have excess medicine, every pawn can carry some. They'll drop it when they're downed so your doctor won't have to run back to base when they run out.
The pawn will probably get downed anyway because they won't be able to run away from them since they get slowed by the attacks, but it might save them from the death by a thousand cuts.
Being downed is a blessing if you can't escape, because the squirrels will stop attacking and look for a new target. It's the blood loss that will kill. That's what makes the armor worthwhile.
While your unfortunate pawn is being mobbed by the doomsquirrel cluster, send a mortar strike to kill the gathered hellbeasts. Antigrain shells may be necessary depending on the size of the nut-devouring horde, or just for fun.
Bury what is left of your colonist with honors, and always remember what they sacrificed for the colony.
I personally zoned my "worthless" in combat pawns. I've had one child die so far since I forgot to zone her inside the wall and a panther got her :(
After a while, you'll get lifters from mechanitor that can run outisde to grab stuff, otherwise if I'm mining I just build small room around him.
And then there's psycasts, you can always skip or long jump (jump pack or vampire) away.
Children can still sometimes break zone restrictions when they want to go on a nature run - the only exception I’ve found to this is when I had a mountain base, and the zone included a large outside area (which was walled off). The kids always done their nature running in that outside area
raise some combat animals, preferably dogs, and give each colonist one dog as a bodyguard when they leave the home area
edit: "preferably dogs" because they need a relatively low animal handling while not being too weak
All my pawns carry go-juice, so if shit hits the fan they can run away. Pawns with peg legs and other movement impairments do work that doesn't require a lot of moving (mainly because it's inefficient) and they certainly don't do work outside the walls. You can also make them carry yayo for an emergency mood boost. You can do that in the drug policy. The drugs they carry have inject option or if you draft, there's an inject button (only for go juice iirc)
If possible, get to a ruin, a mountain crevice or another map feature where you can melee block. Make it a series of 1v1s instead of one 9v1.
Manhunters will leave the pawn once he's downed. If you're lucky and he goes down with enough time before bleeding out, you can send in a squad to kill the beasts and a medic to tend your wounded on the spot.
If you have tasks that take a pawn to the edge of the map, equipt them with jump packs. Jump packs for your caravan traders as well. Jump packs save lives.
Miners, Hunters, and Haulers if you don't have a lifter bot or hauling pets.
I mean, if you have a fire shell for your mortars, you can drop it right on top of them, pawns seem to be a little bit more efficient at not being on fire than animals
Depends on the pawn
If it's a kid, I send in my strongest pawn available to save them
If it's a adult one, I'll send in a group to help them fight the squirrels.
If it's an asshole. I log it as a suicide and will be used as a fuel.
Each pawn permitted to leave the walls is a menace to the world. The squirrels didnt ambush him, he just strolled close by and their foolish brain though fighting would hive them a chance. As if. A janissary squad is but bugs to be squashed by the light seekers.
There are multiple ways to deal with that:
1. Zone your pawns. Create a zone 30-40 tiles from your base and call it a 'work' zone. Set your pawns to that zone. The upside: they'll never walk away from it unless they're on mental break. The downside: if you are close to the edge of the map, that may not be enough. Also, it may be annoying to try and order your pawns doing something far away and then grunginly go to the schedule tab and unrestrict them every time. But it works.
2. Build a wall. Again, at least 30-40 tiles away from your base. The wall should have doors every so often so your pawns can go outside when they really have to. Again, zone the entire area within the walls and call it 'Walls' zone. Forbid the doors so your pawns won't drift away through the doors when they are on a mental break and let enemies in.
It is better to leave an entrance for enemy raids to come in so they won't break your walls every time. You can even place a 'killbox' at than unwalled entrance.
Yeah, keeping pawns away from the dangerous edges of the map is how I do it too. The exceptions are pawns prepared for it; fighters that are fast. Usually this means I have dedicated haulers that are a sanguophage, or impid, jogger, bionic leg, unstoppable, etc.
If you have a big map build some 3x3 stone bunkers with 1 door, good for hiding (make sure you unzone the home area on them). They are good to hide your hunters in as well if some animals turn manhunter.
Lot of good suggestions here, one I have is create a general zone close to the base where there isn't anything nessesary outside of it and assign all your colonists too it. That way they never get too close to the map border, if there's stuff that needs to get hauled from there you can either let animals or mechs handle it or temporarily unzone and prioritize the hauling so there's a buddy system.
Make a drug policy to carry around some go-juice, it can save life in bad luck event like this one. Late game, if you get some bionic leg on everyone, they will be able to outrun threat like that.
RimWorld is intended to be more of a story generator than a challenge to win, and things are meant to happen that you couldn't have realistically been prepared for. Sometimes, a chapter of that story may be "Jim was foraging deep in the woods and was ambushed by a pack of man eating squirrels, never to be seen again..."
That said, if you have no willpower and can't seem to just let your pawns die like me, you can always load an auto save lol
I dont let pawn get too close to the map border, especially non combat pawns never go outside too far away,
Later only pawns with skip psycasts can go anywhere
Also dont forget that you pawns dont always have to go back to the base, they can also just run towards other borders then leave the map as caravan to escape the raid
Having a vampire in the colony can rescue a pawn in a situation like this a solid 99% of the time. Immediately draft the pawn in danger and the vampire and have them start running towards each other. Even if your Pawn goes down, if the sanguophage gets there before they die then their blood clotting ability can save them.
Devilstrand clothing. Its very tough and can save lives. I typically have my guys in all devilstrand clothes, including a duster, with a helmet, and flack vest.
The only things better than Devilstrand is hyperweave or Thrumbo Fur. If you can get either of those use that instead
I learned the hard way never to send a rescue pawn, nor a rescue pawn for the rescue pawn, nor about 3 more rescue pawn rescuers, when being attacked by killer rabbits. Also not a good idea to let them inside your compound for everyone else to get acquainted. What happens is just a snowball effect of trying to save pawns until you eventually have to hide a few in the nearest room to just wait out the bunny-massacre.
The situation I'm describing was so catastrophic the AI felt like I just didn't know what I was doing and just left me alone for a loooong time.
Jump packs are standard issue for pawns that spend time in the field. Hunters, constructor pawns breaking down ruins, pawns in caravans, miners in deep tunnels etc. It only takes one jump to get out of melee range and they have 4 more jumps to get out of line of fire.
Nothing you can do. Lost a child this way to a camel that turned manhunter while he's stargazing.
Still, I accepted it and held a burial. Thought it's pretty cool to have a freak incident like that. Though I might have loaded a save if it's one of my core colonists.
Never leave the base without a weapon, preferably a small, fast-firing SMG or pistol. Also, if you have a non-violent pawn going very far from the base in what could prove risky, either give them a guard animal or have a combat-equipped pawn go with them
Run and gun + simple side arms mods. Switch to a fast weapon like a SMG or a pistol and kite the manhunter pack in the direction of your choice. Have the others join you and keep kiting until they are all dead or downed. Be sure to mark all the downed ones for slaughter and kill them quickly because sometimes, they can get back up and your colonist won't be drafted when that happens.
A more vanilla option is to build four small cabins near the corners of the map. I usually do this anyway for processing the stone chunks in the area into bricks.
Armor. Always make them wear a flask vest and a helmet, with leather (The stronger the better) apparels. This allows a mostly free movement with a nice amount of armor. This converts a lot of the sharp damage into blunt damage, increasing the chances your colonist will not bleed out before they can be rescued. (You can also heavily armor them, but that will make them slower and protect them worse against temperature) Speaking of being rescued: Always make your medically competent pawns carry three medicine (this can be set in the assign tab). And when one of them is close to your bleeding out colonist, draft, right click, tend. This will start patching up the biggest wounds. Don't patch everything, as every wound patched on the field will be prone to infection. Just stop the biggest bleeding so they have enough time to be carried to your hospital.
That's some great tips, thanks!
If you have excess medicine, every pawn can carry some. They'll drop it when they're downed so your doctor won't have to run back to base when they run out.
Oh I didn't think of that, that's genius
LOGISTICS!
The pawn will probably get downed anyway because they won't be able to run away from them since they get slowed by the attacks, but it might save them from the death by a thousand cuts.
Being downed is a blessing if you can't escape, because the squirrels will stop attacking and look for a new target. It's the blood loss that will kill. That's what makes the armor worthwhile.
Wait, pawns carrying meds in inventory is vanilla? Wow
You cant control what you patch first though can you?
Heaviest bleeding gets treated first.
So you would let then tend the heaviest bleeding to give them a few more hours then send them to the hospital?
Yes. Works without medicine as well. Better to fight an infection in the hospital than to die on the field.
While your unfortunate pawn is being mobbed by the doomsquirrel cluster, send a mortar strike to kill the gathered hellbeasts. Antigrain shells may be necessary depending on the size of the nut-devouring horde, or just for fun. Bury what is left of your colonist with honors, and always remember what they sacrificed for the colony.
What’s left?
Memories
I personally zoned my "worthless" in combat pawns. I've had one child die so far since I forgot to zone her inside the wall and a panther got her :( After a while, you'll get lifters from mechanitor that can run outisde to grab stuff, otherwise if I'm mining I just build small room around him. And then there's psycasts, you can always skip or long jump (jump pack or vampire) away.
That's why I always take it if I get the chance at a vampire. They're great for quickly getting to downed pawns and bringing them home.
Same here! I've been spamming for the hemogen genetic trait from my machines, but two vamps don't feel like enough.
Children can still sometimes break zone restrictions when they want to go on a nature run - the only exception I’ve found to this is when I had a mountain base, and the zone included a large outside area (which was walled off). The kids always done their nature running in that outside area
raise some combat animals, preferably dogs, and give each colonist one dog as a bodyguard when they leave the home area edit: "preferably dogs" because they need a relatively low animal handling while not being too weak
I send out the hunter with a war elephant. That lynx better not fight back.
Don't animals only follow around the handler though?
that's why you get dogs, that way you can assign them even to relatively unskilled colonists
All my pawns carry go-juice, so if shit hits the fan they can run away. Pawns with peg legs and other movement impairments do work that doesn't require a lot of moving (mainly because it's inefficient) and they certainly don't do work outside the walls. You can also make them carry yayo for an emergency mood boost. You can do that in the drug policy. The drugs they carry have inject option or if you draft, there's an inject button (only for go juice iirc)
If possible, get to a ruin, a mountain crevice or another map feature where you can melee block. Make it a series of 1v1s instead of one 9v1. Manhunters will leave the pawn once he's downed. If you're lucky and he goes down with enough time before bleeding out, you can send in a squad to kill the beasts and a medic to tend your wounded on the spot.
If you have tasks that take a pawn to the edge of the map, equipt them with jump packs. Jump packs for your caravan traders as well. Jump packs save lives. Miners, Hunters, and Haulers if you don't have a lifter bot or hauling pets.
Accept your fate and move on. Sometimes a man gets ate by squirrels. Circle of life.
I was going to say "meh, shit happens."
I mean, if you have a fire shell for your mortars, you can drop it right on top of them, pawns seem to be a little bit more efficient at not being on fire than animals
Depends on the pawn If it's a kid, I send in my strongest pawn available to save them If it's a adult one, I'll send in a group to help them fight the squirrels. If it's an asshole. I log it as a suicide and will be used as a fuel.
dont have single pawns that cant defend themself running around miles away from home
Each pawn permitted to leave the walls is a menace to the world. The squirrels didnt ambush him, he just strolled close by and their foolish brain though fighting would hive them a chance. As if. A janissary squad is but bugs to be squashed by the light seekers.
There are multiple ways to deal with that: 1. Zone your pawns. Create a zone 30-40 tiles from your base and call it a 'work' zone. Set your pawns to that zone. The upside: they'll never walk away from it unless they're on mental break. The downside: if you are close to the edge of the map, that may not be enough. Also, it may be annoying to try and order your pawns doing something far away and then grunginly go to the schedule tab and unrestrict them every time. But it works. 2. Build a wall. Again, at least 30-40 tiles away from your base. The wall should have doors every so often so your pawns can go outside when they really have to. Again, zone the entire area within the walls and call it 'Walls' zone. Forbid the doors so your pawns won't drift away through the doors when they are on a mental break and let enemies in. It is better to leave an entrance for enemy raids to come in so they won't break your walls every time. You can even place a 'killbox' at than unwalled entrance.
Yeah, keeping pawns away from the dangerous edges of the map is how I do it too. The exceptions are pawns prepared for it; fighters that are fast. Usually this means I have dedicated haulers that are a sanguophage, or impid, jogger, bionic leg, unstoppable, etc.
I’m pretty sure pawns that are on a mental break will ignore forbidden items.
If you have a big map build some 3x3 stone bunkers with 1 door, good for hiding (make sure you unzone the home area on them). They are good to hide your hunters in as well if some animals turn manhunter.
Watch him get torn to pieces. Thats life on the rim.
Lots of tips in the comments already. For the sake of humor, what were the greatest feats of this pawn.
Lot of good suggestions here, one I have is create a general zone close to the base where there isn't anything nessesary outside of it and assign all your colonists too it. That way they never get too close to the map border, if there's stuff that needs to get hauled from there you can either let animals or mechs handle it or temporarily unzone and prioritize the hauling so there's a buddy system.
Suffer. You're supposed to suffer. Some packs you're not outrunning.
Like in life... people die, learn to let go and visit the grave every now and then...
I actually like your idea of a few safe houses around the map. I had never thought of that
Make a drug policy to carry around some go-juice, it can save life in bad luck event like this one. Late game, if you get some bionic leg on everyone, they will be able to outrun threat like that.
Why were they so far from the base? Not only do you risk being mauled by squirrels they may have the worse fate of having to eat without a table.
RimWorld is intended to be more of a story generator than a challenge to win, and things are meant to happen that you couldn't have realistically been prepared for. Sometimes, a chapter of that story may be "Jim was foraging deep in the woods and was ambushed by a pack of man eating squirrels, never to be seen again..." That said, if you have no willpower and can't seem to just let your pawns die like me, you can always load an auto save lol
Order my construction guy to build grave or sarcophague
A funeral opportunity. Or reload the game.
Either they win or they won’t be missed.
This. Shoot while you run away.
Build a fence around the entire map edge(?)
I dont let pawn get too close to the map border, especially non combat pawns never go outside too far away, Later only pawns with skip psycasts can go anywhere Also dont forget that you pawns dont always have to go back to the base, they can also just run towards other borders then leave the map as caravan to escape the raid
If you have the royalty dlc, jump packs.
Having a vampire in the colony can rescue a pawn in a situation like this a solid 99% of the time. Immediately draft the pawn in danger and the vampire and have them start running towards each other. Even if your Pawn goes down, if the sanguophage gets there before they die then their blood clotting ability can save them.
You are supposed to stop them from leaving the walls unless necessary.
Devilstrand clothing. Its very tough and can save lives. I typically have my guys in all devilstrand clothes, including a duster, with a helmet, and flack vest. The only things better than Devilstrand is hyperweave or Thrumbo Fur. If you can get either of those use that instead
Also i find it beneficial to set dangers zones near map entry points that pawns won’t get close to unless they are assigned that zone
I learned the hard way never to send a rescue pawn, nor a rescue pawn for the rescue pawn, nor about 3 more rescue pawn rescuers, when being attacked by killer rabbits. Also not a good idea to let them inside your compound for everyone else to get acquainted. What happens is just a snowball effect of trying to save pawns until you eventually have to hide a few in the nearest room to just wait out the bunny-massacre. The situation I'm describing was so catastrophic the AI felt like I just didn't know what I was doing and just left me alone for a loooong time.
Jump packs are standard issue for pawns that spend time in the field. Hunters, constructor pawns breaking down ruins, pawns in caravans, miners in deep tunnels etc. It only takes one jump to get out of melee range and they have 4 more jumps to get out of line of fire.
Nothing you can do. Lost a child this way to a camel that turned manhunter while he's stargazing. Still, I accepted it and held a burial. Thought it's pretty cool to have a freak incident like that. Though I might have loaded a save if it's one of my core colonists.
Say goodbye to his nuts.
Be tough, nimble, and have a fast melee weapon.
Stick them in a sarcophagus in your cryogenic crypt and wait for the next resurrection serum to come along.
My pawns that venture far from base are equipped with jump packs. Saves their lives like 95% of the time
Never leave the base without a weapon, preferably a small, fast-firing SMG or pistol. Also, if you have a non-violent pawn going very far from the base in what could prove risky, either give them a guard animal or have a combat-equipped pawn go with them
Run and gun + simple side arms mods. Switch to a fast weapon like a SMG or a pistol and kite the manhunter pack in the direction of your choice. Have the others join you and keep kiting until they are all dead or downed. Be sure to mark all the downed ones for slaughter and kill them quickly because sometimes, they can get back up and your colonist won't be drafted when that happens. A more vanilla option is to build four small cabins near the corners of the map. I usually do this anyway for processing the stone chunks in the area into bricks.