Exploring Anomalies in Anomaly DLC

Today's video is brought to you by NordVPN. Ah, Anomaly. A DLC that forces pawns to deal with the eldritch horrors of space and time. Also fire. Lots of fire. Today I'm going to talk to you about every Anomaly, how to best deal with them, and of course, a bit of the inspiration behind their creations. So for a quick refresher on how Anomaly research works, you research entities over time to obtain research points. to whatever anomalous research you want. The more you go further in, the more hostile and dangerous events you encounter, but in turn better stuff for you. The good thing you don't stop normal research so you can do the mad scientist thing while researching for more important things like beer. The monolith is the first entity you will face. If you don't select ambient horror mode on the storyteller screen from it, you will start the dark path to some understanding of the universe. Also, it's unbreakable cover, so it could be useful for that. Throughout the game, the more you learn and see different entities, the more you can unlock the potential of the monolith, shifting it, changing it. Eventually, it will call upon a pawn to go into the dark abyss it is linked to. From there, the pawn has the final choice. Embrace eternity or sever the planet from whatever holds onto it. As for the cultural inspiration, the easiest comparison is the black monolith from 2001, a space odyssey. A symbol of knowledge and evolution in humanity. Through here it takes a more sinister tone, giving you knowledge of the great unknown, at immense risk and costs. Next for the gardeners in the audience, the harbinger tree. A tree that can randomly sprout or be planted with seeds obtained from a quest reward. What does this do? Well you put corpses at the tree and it turns them into twisted meat. Why do this? Well twisted meat isn't a pleasant thing, giving a minus 10 moon debuff to most pawns who aren't completely dehumanized. However, take into account eating raw human meat. If you are desperate for food, twisted meat actually can save a colony. As for the tree itself, it's harmless. In fact, pretty great if you are starting out and don't have an easy way to get rid of corpses. Because trust us, you kinda want to be able to get rid of corpses in this DLC. If you don't like the trees, chop them down and get some twisted meat. So what about in mythology do they link to? Well, in mythology trees always have some sort of religious significance through mostly the observation of life and death and rebirth. In some stories people are trapped within trees or some hold spirits. This tree, however, might be taking more inspiration from the idea of giant man-eating plants, like jungle explorers going into a strange undiscovered land only to find themselves the prey to some kind of vegetation. Only seems these ones prefer the already dead than living prey. Good thing too, I don't think we'd survive the trifled uprising, unless we have a lot of seawater on standby. Now for ghouls, as many people call them. Zombies, yeah, makes sense. A ghoul is a living human turned into a nearly indestructible fighting machine. It also hungers for the flesh of humans, optional. Though to do this, you have to research ghoul infusion in the anomaly research, and then find some unlucky pawn to turn into the ghoul. From there, well, you could research ghoul implants to give them a few custom bionics. However, a ghoul can get access to actual bionics, which some do help. Like a nuclear stomach to reduce hunger rates, which given you must feed them, is a big bonus. Plus no cancer on these corpses. Also, the ghoul pawn will keep all traits from its previous life. However, some won't come into play, but stuff like jogger, tough, or anything else involving physical stuff will be useful to keep in mind. Same with Xenotypes. A genie won't make a good ghoul, but a hussar or etkin will make great ghouls for their more physically oriented traits. Use ghouls for softening up enemies since unless they are properly put down, they will just regenerate their damage pretty quickly. Granted they can't use arms and armor, the fact they feel no pain is more than enough to make 1-3 ghouls a real sizable threat to anyone. The cultural significance is pretty obvious. Zombies have always been staple of mythology and pop culture. But the name ghoul comes from Arabic mythology of the demon-like shapeshifter that eats the corpses of people. However, the use of zombies as labor and combat can be also related to voodoo zombies of Haitian folklore. Now, shamblers are the real zombie deal. either appearing from a raid or another entity, the deathpaw. A deathpaw will rain down upon the land and any corpses not in door and roofed will rise up and, well, go full zombie. Given their melee-oriented limitations, their risk isn't their power, it's their numbers. So range tactics usually work. However, if you got a deathpaw after a huge raid with a pile of corpses on your doorstep, well, you might not like what happens next. See, this is why harbinger trees are great for quarterbacks. disposal, they can prevent the zombie uprising. Oh, and this doesn't just affect humans, it also affects dead animals. Depending on your situation, you might have a real Night of the Living Dead. So zombies, where did they come from? Well, zombies, as mentioned, came from Haitian mythology, and that's where the name came from. But trivia question, which movie actually gave living corpses the name zombie? The answer. Dawn of the Dead in 1978, Night of the Living Dead referred to them as ghouls. I don't need to explain what a zombie is, an undead corpse. If you played any video games, you'd face a zombie in one form or another. And here, it's no different. Gore hulks are big mounds of flesh and spike. Now, you would think they would be a threat in melee, and you are wrong. The biggest worry about them is their ranged spike attack, striking at colonists like they are a mechanoid pikeman's needle gun. Neither one you want hitting an unarmed colonist. You want to beat them, lure into choke points, and melee them. They are still dangerous up close, but it's a better choice to go melee than range for these guys, especially since they don't seem to resist pain very well. So you could find them as great early sources of biofright. As for the inspiration of gorehulks, no real direct inspirations could be found, but their design and possible use could be relating to mad science and creating mutants in a lab for war. Possibly the spike shots could be a reference to DC villain Doomsday, Just without the durability, thank randy. Now for the first of the stealthy boys, the sight stealer. Using psychic abilities to appear invisible, they stalk your colonists. This is why you have proximity detectors when they walk past one, they alert you. That's where you get your pawns ready for a fight. The good news, they appear when they attack. The bad news, despite being pretty weak, they are still gonna go into melee on any pawn. My recommendation... Fire, obviously, but also mechanoids. They are more durable, and with stuff like Scythers on patrol, they could cut up these ninja entities. Oh, and one more thing. If they howl, you might not be getting sleep that night, as more are coming. Their inspiration could be a lot of things, but no real direct inspiration could be found. However, in a lot of folktales, many cultures have tales of humanoid creatures who stalk unsuspecting people. This might be the Rim's take on those folktales. You know what else is sneaking around undetected? Trackers. That's right. While you browse the internet, your data is being harvested and sold off. 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You are fighting a lot. This is a pure swarm and melee enemies are going to be playing with you. It's not going to be fun. I'm not kidding about the swarm. The bigger ones tend to come with the ability to split off at death. And now you've got two. More munchkin monsters to mash and malice your men. At first, you will face small hordes of the stuff. Just do what you normally do with raiders. Gun and slice them to bits. Fire also helps, but careful for your wooden buildings. You don't want everything to burn down. That's a bad day. However, that's not the only way you are going to deal with them. Flesh beasts also come in land cancer. Seriously, what is called flesh mass heart. We'll start engulfing the land nearby with flesh for both defense and offense. Don't sit on this. Trust me. Not only will it continue to grow, but it also spawns flesh beasts and long-range spitlers. Also, don't think you can nuke them out of orbit. It will regenerate all the damage. So to beat it, you have to target three nerve clusters and analyze them. After that, it's as simple as walking up to the heart and triggering a heart attack. No, seriously. From there, you got the nucleus. Destroy it. For more shards, capture it. Finally, the Pit Gate. A large pit to the bowels of the earth will open up and spew more living cancer. For this you are gonna have to go down to their turf to bring them down. The good news, flesh walls burn a lot. So bring the flamers and roast the walls as you search for the load-bearing boss. Though keep in mind, the caves do have treasure, so don't go too crazy with the fire if you want to make out like bandits. The boss for this one is the mighty Dreadnought. It is made up of plenty of flesh beasts, And as it damaged it drops them to stop you. But keep the barrage up and you can win. When they go down, you have around 10 hours to pack your bags and get out of there, cause that cave is collapsing. So what are they supposed to represent in pop culture? Well, in sci-fi, a very common trope is the living flesh or hive mind organics. Think the flood from Halo, the necromorphs of Dead Space, and so on. Big walls of meaty flesh and working to spread its influence and continue to exist. I'm just glad that killing it with fire can and always will be a viable option against it all. The Nokiosphere is a giant sphere, which looks hilarious when pawns have to capture it, like something out of Katamari. That's the only thing funny about this device, because all it is is meant to do is cause you pain. Within six tiles of it all, pawns will feel pain around it. The good news is that it will never try to break out, so you can harvest it for bio-fright and power all you want. Even better news, you can unleash it upon your foes and it does a pretty darn good job at it. The bad news is that it will eventually stop being suppressed by your colonists and you'll be dealing with it again. It won't break free, you'll have to send colonists over to suppress the orb, but after a while that won't work. You'll have to unleash it on something and it will go away. My recommendation, a huge raid or a mechanoid cluster if you want to summon a raid, drop potting some waste packs on the enemy is a good way to do it. In sci-fi, mysterious ancient spheres are a- pretty common thing, what does it do? The more interesting thing is the name, firstly. Nociception is the term for how the body takes pain, stimuli, and turn it into the feeling of pain that you get. The big furry chimeras are going to be a pain and a half for your colonists. Melee-oriented rushers think of them like Manhunter packs, since they follow the same rules, not destroying buildings and destroying everything else. The difference is they have more durability and a nasty rage power to up their attack. Stay inside, let them mill around, maybe let a raid come in and get raided back. That or use Berserk or Manhunter Psycast to throw them into chaos since Manhunter Psycasts actually act like Berserk, causing them some infighting. As for the name, it's pretty obvious. It's taking inspiration from the Chimera of Greek mythology, a monster composed of multiple animals turning hostile. Devourers as the name implies, they like to eat. Rather than do the normal attack, anything that moves, it will instead pick a target and chase them down to try and swallow them whole. From there, if a pawn gets swallowed, they take damage from the experience. For obvious reasons, the good news is that if you are fast enough, you can save the pawn by just killing the devourer. Fire can be an excellent source to combat them, as a devourer on fire will rapidly spit out its food. Furthermore, using dryads or Roombas as bait can be invaluable when low on pawns. Honestly, this is one enemy I don't like to fight, mostly because getting bored is not a way I want to go out, and I doubt my colony does either. Best way to handle them, range, and maybe using jetpacks to jump away to keep distance from them. As for what they are based on, in mythology, giant snakes that devour prey are a common thing, so in the ancient times, unnatural darkness from the eclipse was said to be a harbinger of doom. Out on the rim, this means you are being invaded by noctules and noctoliths. During this time, intense darkness will cover the land, and any pawn not within the light will take damage. It's not from any particular entity, it's like the darkness itself it attacking. So how do you handle the darkness? Well, two ways. One is to wait it out. So long as your base is lit up, your pawns will be safe. Albeit a bit uncomfortable, given the natural darkness around them. After a few days, it will dissipate. However, if you want to go on the offensive, then you can go out into the darkness and break the Noctilus. Keep in mind that your pawns aren't the only thing out there. Hiding in the darkness are Noctals, and they gain strength the less light there is. The best tool to fight them by far is going to be flares. They not only light up a large area for a low cost, but also stun any target on impact, giving precious time to set up your range pawns, as smashing Noctoliths will trigger a wave to attack you. So my recommendation is a torchlight. It protects your pawns and weakens the enemies, then just smash them up. Ghouls make great pawns for this job, since they could just rush through the darkness and regenerate the damage, then take their time to break the pillars. Other options are, of course, mortars, though it would take about five explosive shells to bring one pillar down, so maybe skip that unless you've got a lot of shells you just don't want to deal with. As I said earlier, in ancient times, the darkness was considered an ill omen. After all, who knows what's in there? But the name Noctis means night in Latin. and noctilith is a combination of that and monolith. Revenants are more annoying than sight-stealers. Like them, they will skulk around hunting a target, though if they hone in and get too close. It's not death that happens. Instead, they get a condition called revenant hypnosis, rendering their target unconscious until the revenant is dead. Needless to say, if you aren't your entire base will be lost. The good news, if you do hone in and fight it, it doesn't actually fight. It's more runaway. So get those flares out to stun them and just hit it till it dies. Also, other things that reveals it are missed shots, fire, EMP, and apparently water skip and vertigo pulse sidecasts. Figure it I'd mention that before you lose your best colonists to it. So what is a revenant? Well, in mythology, namely Celtic and Norse, a revenant is a corpse that returns to haunt the living, usually unfinished business, revenge, or just, you know, being a bit of a bony jerk. Given how the Rimworlds one fits coming onto your base to haunt your colonists, yeah, I'd say it's a fitting name. The Blood Reign, is that a reign of blood? Yes. Well, to be fair, it's mostly a blood-like psycho-fluid that causes all people not undercover to feel intense rage upon the world. So, you know, usual stuff out on the Rim. To be honest, this is kind of the weakest anomaly threat-wise, since you can avoid it by staying inside like a toxic fallout, though it can be summoned through ritual and could be fun to use on some sieging raiders or something. As for cultural significance, Blood Rain is actually a real thing, a phenomenon which in ancient times was an ill omen, though now we believe it to be caused by dust or algae in the rainwater. That makes it look like blood. Now for the one that will make you question your colonists loyalties. The Metal Whore. Now for those who don't know, the Metal Whore is a parasite that hides amongst the colonists. You learn about this when a piece of metal flesh is found on the ground. You can analyze it and now play a game of whodunit, trying to pick out who is the traitor. You can then do a surgery to analyze them though be warned when backed into a corner, the whore will just burst out and fight back. The good news, it usually won't kill them. The bad news, The metal whore is pretty good at melee fighting. So how do you get infected? The main way is by a new pawn offering to join. Be wary of new pawns if you just provoke the void, as it is almost certainly a metal whore. Furthermore, if no pawns spawn, it is still possible for a pawn to catch a metal whore if they've been hurt by an anomaly. This list includes most anomalies, so there's no avoiding the initial infection. Once an infection is present in the colony, it can spread to other colonists. In many ways, of course, too. Any pawn sharing a double bed will instantly spread it. No funny business. If an infected doctor performs a surgery, he has a 50% chance to transmit the infection. Tending does not transmit the infection, so you don't want to worry about that. However, pawns stuck in hospital beds need feeding, which has a 10% of transmitting the infection. Not only that, but if a chef is infected, he has a 4% chance per meal to spread the infection, which can be catastrophic. The final way the infection can spread is with unnatural healing, having a 100% chance to spread the infection if the caster is infected. Now, to prevent the infection, cancel all surgeries, switch to nutrient paste, get pawns out of the hospital beds, and bed rest until you can identify a pawn that is for sure not infected. Finally, do not use unnatural healing, especially not on newcomers, and remove any double beds. Stay on your toes. So how do you get infected? Well, that's the thing you don't know, and you don't really have a lot of control over that, since a pawn can get infected before joining the map, and that includes visitors. Other ways is being tended to or eating food prepared by an infected person, attacked by anomalies like Fleshbeast, or perhaps the game just decides one day a pawn is infected. So stay on your toes. So how do you go about testing? Well, the first step is going to be to analyze three gray flesh. They are dropped over time by infected pawns, which may help pin down who is infected. After all of them have been acquired, a non-infected doctor can perform the surgery to test a pawn. Inspections before this point will do nothing. Another way you can tell a pawn is infected is with a very low chance during any social interactions, where pawns might realize something is odd about the behavior of an infected pawn. The final way of testing pawns is to interrogate them. This requires the potentially infected pawn to be a prisoner. From there- your warden can try to squeeze them for information. This has a much higher chance of succeeding than normal social interactions and has no risk of infections in between the prisoner and the warden. Even better, this will work even if the warden is infected. Keep in mind that metal whores will most likely burst out when revealed by any means. This includes every single infected pawn. If you are lucky and they stay passive, the pawn will now have a health condition listed. From there, a simple surgery check will reveal all metal whores. Now occasionally one of three obelisks will arrive to the map and you can utilize them for better and worse. First, the twisted obelisk. A structure that can enhance your pawns by twisting their flesh into somewhat improved variants. Technically inferior to normal bionics, these ones will cause a pawn pain. Oh, and if you try and remove them, they become flesh beasts and fight back. Still, for massacres. ...or colonies where pain is king might be a good free upgrade. Keep in mind that sometimes the obelisk will mess with trees or worse, other animals, turning them into flesh beasts, so careful with that. This obelisk might be a take on the markers of Dead Space, a strange structure that turns humans into flesh beast necromorphs. The corrupted obelisk creates duplicates of your pawns. Now this might seem like a great idea, except... Okay, sometimes you might have no problems, but usually something bad happens. Sometimes a duplicate is now hostile, meaning if you choose to, say, duplicate your 20th melee level God of War, you now have to deal with that. Or maybe they might have organ failure or a crumbling mind, which can be a problem and even life-threatening. And finally, duplication sickness, where both the original and the dupe will start to lose consciousness. You'll have to put one down. Well, that and use healer mech serums usually fixes up a lot of those problems. Warped Obelisk. This one, as the name implies, warps your pawns to another world, the Labyrinth. And no David Bowie to entertain you either. So what's the deal? Well, pawns can be randomly teleported into the maze if you let the Obelisk activity go up too high. Suppressing it doesn't help since pawns who suppress it can also be teleported in. But hey, you later can learn how to willingly send someone in. From there, you just follow the maze and reach the obelisk in there and everyone and everything inside will come back to your realm. Here's the problem. You aren't alone. Other creatures hide within the rooms and there were others who didn't make it through. But the treasure inside might be worth investigating. Mazes have always been in history as trials for humanity to solve. Most famous, the maze of Daedalus and the Minotaur of Crete. I probably said that wrong, but you guys know it. However, being forced into another realm does also remind me of H.P. Lovecraft's The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath, which is more Alice in Wonderland than horror, but still dangerous. All three of the obelisks have their use, and when used properly, can aid a colony, but also doom it. But artifacts tend to do that, am I right? So picture this. You are walking around the base, and suddenly, boom. Dead body. That looks exactly like you, but isn't. Made of the same material, what do you do? Well, I'd freak out if you asked me. And you really should research on how to destroy it. I know what you are thinking, but I could just burn it. Yeah, go ahead and try. It won't work. You could burn it, butcher it, nuke it. That corpse is like droopy. It finds a way back. Yeah, like that seriously. Even if you destroy the corpse, it reappears. So yeah, you need to research it and find a way to properly do it. And you are on a time limit. Because if you wait too long, it will wake up. And like the Terminator, it will find its target. It has high health, regeneration like a ghoul. Oh. and it can instantly one-shot its target, which is its duplication. Yeah, have fun with that one if you let it rise up. So the corpse and the duplicating obelisk comes from the fear of the duplicate throughout mythology, the idea of a twisted mirror version of yourself, be it a version of you that has the darker aspects you suppress. Doppelgangers are considered a hostile entity or an ill omen for things to come. Finally last, but certainly not least, the one that gets to be held on the cover, the golden cube. Yes, everyone's favorite geometric shape of element. This cube will land in the life of your colony one way or another and bring joy to one pawn. They even will start to obsess over it. Watch it. Talk to it. Create art for it. And now you got more colonists hooked on it. Oh no. Oh no. Yeah, this cube is basically a drug. It causes pawns to obsess and fawn over it to the point they can't do anything else. Research on how to destroy it if you want to lessen their control. Just keep in mind, any pawns who were obsessed will go berserk. I recommend putting them under for surgery during that time, since being anesthetized prevents them from going berserk. Well, that and taking their legs, but that's a different story altogether. Obviously, cultural reference, the one ring of power, a golden trinket that can't be destroyed by conventional means that ensures the minds of lesser beings. However, this video isn't over, there is still the endgame. When you put 12 advanced entities into your codex, you have the option to awaken the monolith and begin the end. Be prepared for this one, with food, supplies, and a good defense. Because once it starts, it ain't stopping. Darkness will fall upon the land, and you will have to activate five randomly placed void structures throughout. Like with the Noctolith, use torches, flares, or other light sources to make your way through the darkness. However, unlike that event, you got just about every anomaly coming out to play. But be strong. Be smart, and you can unlock them all. The monolith will reveal its purpose. It's a teleport, linking to a metal hell. And one pawn must go inside to make the final decision. Choice 1. You sever the link. Your pawns had enough of the madness, and sever the link, connecting this planet to the nightmarish Archotech and- The Monolith will be sealed away and release the colonists. Every faction you could ally with will gain plus 50 mood boost with your relations. And all colonists will gain a mood buff for 30 days, and the one who sealed the Nightmarish away will get 60. And the story will continue from there. But let's say you don't do that. Choice 2. You embrace eternity, the madness has taken hold. Well, you embrace the Archotech's power, and they have blessed the pawn. Coming back from that hell, the pawn now is inhuman. and doesn't see themselves as a human anymore, gaining the inhumanized Hedith. They also have death refusal for four times, four extra lives if you will. Course, they might not need that thanks to the void-touched Hedith, allowing them to regenerate their limbs like a ghoul along with their HP, 200% psychic sensitivity, and disabled needs for sleep and comfort. This pawn will be perfect for leading your colony to the greatest with other endings, and all it cost was this planet's safety in the future. But who cares with the knowledge you obtained? Course you chosen pawn might not be the only one touched by the darkness. Occasionally, strange visitors will enter the map and request joining you. They are the creepy joiners, but despite their strange appearance and the vibe they give off, they actually can be useful. but also a problem on your colony. So first the benefits. Each one has a specific ability or gimmick. Perfect Human has the perfect memory trait and a high value in all skills, and since they have the perfect memory, those skills don't go down. Occultist has a bonus to research perfect for being the solo researcher. Shambler Overlord has an ability to create friendly shamblers great for defenses. Fleshcrafter has a shape flesh ability with a one hour cooldown which converts a corpse into a flesh beast that is hostile to all humans. That includes you. The flesh beast created depends on the size of the corpse, of course. Death Refusal has the ability to self-resurrect themselves up to four times, healing lost limbs and organs each time. Scarring and resurrection sickness are possible, so don't think this is without cost. Body Master has the Body Mastery Trait. which completely removes the pawns need for food, sleep, and comfort. One of the best ones in my opinion since that means they can constantly be working throughout the base. Psychic Butcher has an ability that can instantly kill and butcher pawns, animals, entities, turning them into twisted flesh, and this is one of the few ways to actually bring down a Terminator doppelganger without a problem. And then those like the Blind Healer whose unnatural healing can replicate the effects of a Healer Mexium again, One of the best ones to have in the colony. So, what's the catch? Well, you don't know their intentions or their health issues. Sometimes they are on the up and up and consider yourself lucky. Other times they are going to just up and leave. And capturing and recruiting doesn't stop this, just delays their intention to leave. Oh, and sometimes they turn traitor and not fun if you ask me given those special abilities. Others might be host to a metal whore, also not fun. Same with just doing disturbing rambling and bringing everyone else's mood down. And then the most annoying, trying to break your entities free. The ones you work hard to contain. Yeah, super annoying, letting all the monsters out in the colony. Not fun stuff. And don't think you can just tell them to go away if you don't want to risk it. Sometimes they will just shrug their shoulders and leave. But sometimes they might fight back. And if they do, well, they might just normally fight back, or a flesh beast will emerge from them. Least that kills them. But if they scream and summon sight stealers, depending on your level of tech and defenses, you might have a bigger problem than some weirdo in the colony. Now before we go, I suppose I should mention a few of the extra stuff you can do that relates to the anomaly, namely rituals. Because it just isn't a Lovecraftian-like playthrough without a few rituals. Go play Hooked on a Feeling. Get the Ooga Chaka on repeat, and pick what ritual you want, provided you research them, of course. So before you actually do a ritual, it's a good idea to prepare. For instance, the invoker improves the chances if they have a high psychic sensitivity. Makes sense. Also, including void sculptures and shard beacons helps, though again needs research, those being void structures and advanced void rituals respectively. Oh, and of course, have more than one person doing that ritual. If you got anything set up and you're right about it, you can do a ritual. And boy, there are a lot of fun ones. First, void. Provocation which, as the name suggests, has you poking the bear so to speak. The better the ritual, the less likely your invoker passes out from the strain, You will be doing this to expand on your research and face a few new entities. Next is Draw Animals. This one summons a herd of animals to your map. Great if you need food, and not so great if you do low quality ritual as they will be summoned. As Manhunters, though I suppose you could intentionally fail the ritual to summon Manhunters and use them as a weapon against sieges and mech clusters, Draw Shamblers calls a group of Shamblers to the map. The number will equal the higher of the ritual quality, and power of the Shamblers will increase evenly. They won't directly target the base, but still be careful. Chronopathy allows you to have the Invoker steal age from the victim. They get younger, the victim older. The better the ritual, the more years taken. This can kill the victim outright if they go beyond their life expectancy, but also heal scars and age-related problems to the Invoker. Though a lot of the participants will get a mood debuff of guilt, unless they are psychos or your ideology exalts psychic rituals. Psychopathy is like chronopathy in that the invoker takes something from the victim, this time a connection to the psychic powers. The victim will become psychically deaf along with going into a coma, and the invoker gains a 50% psychic sensitivity for a number of days based on the quality of the ritual. Again, participants of the ritual feel guilt unless psycho or exalted for rituals. Skip abductions are my favorite of the rituals since it captures a random hostile pawn and puts them into a temporary coma. The better the ritual, the less time they are in it. Great for getting organ donors or new colonists. Draw flesh beasts is another ritual to summon cannon fodder. They will target anyone nearby that isn't them and could be useful in a pinch. Provoke pit gate lets you open up a fleshy pit on your map, which, more flesh beasts being summoned at a good ritual, if you want a way to get loot and uh, meat, guess that's one way to go about it. Imbued death refusal grants a target the death refusal buff, meaning if they die, they don't. They reject the game's reality and substitute their own. Filophagy has the invoker's skill experience of the victim. The highest skill they have, that is, so they lose XP and the invoker gains that skill XP. Not a bad way to top off skills, and if you have someone with perfect memory, well that just helps a lot. Pleasure Pulse puts everyone on the map in a good mood for a number of days based on the ritual quality, also pawns with higher psychic sensitivity have better moods from this. The polar opposite is the Necrosis Pulse. which ups the global work speed to 150% and makes the recreation fall rate go to 50%. However, the mental break threshold gets an 8%, meaning that it's easier for pawns to snap. The Blood Rain lets you summon a Blood Rain. Better quality the longer it lasts. Suppose it's good for making a siege more entertaining. Finally, the Brain Wipe, a ritual to make recruitment so much easier since it erases their allegiances, thoughts on other people, Their loyalties, meaning unwaveringly loyal pawns, suddenly forget all that. It can be great, too, if a pawn is dealing with trauma. Though keep in mind that the pawn hit by this will go into a coma. The better the ritual, the shorter the coma is, so keep that in mind. But yeah, so many rituals to play around with, so helpful for everyone. Well, except your enemies. Speaking of, you might get a raid where they try to do their own ritual. Yeah, deal with that ASAP. Don't want them messing with your colonists with the dark arts. Wow, that was a lot. But you know it's not a lot? NordVPN. That's right. NordVPN is still the sponsor of today's video. And it's still a great VPN service too. That you can get at a steep discount with 4 extra months using my link on screen right here or below in the description. And that's nordvpn.com slash newbird. Thanks for watching. So yeah, that was a lot of dark knowledge. Might have to have a palate cleanser after that. Might have gone insane. Hope my writer is okay. Anyway, hope you enjoyed today's video and hope you all learned a bit more about the context of a lot of these anomalies. I know you did.

Today's video is brought to you by NordVPN. Ah, Anomaly. A DLC that forces pawns to deal with the eldritch horrors of space and time. Also fire.

Lots of fire. Today I'm going to talk to you about every Anomaly, how to best deal with them, and of course, a bit of the inspiration behind their creations. So for a quick refresher on how Anomaly research works, you research entities over time to obtain research points. to whatever anomalous research you want.

The more you go further in, the more hostile and dangerous events you encounter, but in turn better stuff for you. The good thing you don't stop normal research so you can do the mad scientist thing while researching for more important things like beer. The monolith is the first entity you will face. If you don't select ambient horror mode on the storyteller screen from it, you will start the dark path to some understanding of the universe. Also, it's unbreakable cover, so it could be useful for that.

Throughout the game, the more you learn and see different entities, the more you can unlock the potential of the monolith, shifting it, changing it. Eventually, it will call upon a pawn to go into the dark abyss it is linked to. From there, the pawn has the final choice. Embrace eternity or sever the planet from whatever holds onto it.

As for the cultural inspiration, the easiest comparison is the black monolith from 2001, a space odyssey. A symbol of knowledge and evolution in humanity. Through here it takes a more sinister tone, giving you knowledge of the great unknown, at immense risk and costs.

Next for the gardeners in the audience, the harbinger tree. A tree that can randomly sprout or be planted with seeds obtained from a quest reward. What does this do? Well you put corpses at the tree and it turns them into twisted meat. Why do this?

Well twisted meat isn't a pleasant thing, giving a minus 10 moon debuff to most pawns who aren't completely dehumanized. However, take into account eating raw human meat. If you are desperate for food, twisted meat actually can save a colony.

As for the tree itself, it's harmless. In fact, pretty great if you are starting out and don't have an easy way to get rid of corpses. Because trust us, you kinda want to be able to get rid of corpses in this DLC.

If you don't like the trees, chop them down and get some twisted meat. So what about in mythology do they link to? Well, in mythology trees always have some sort of religious significance through mostly the observation of life and death and rebirth.

In some stories people are trapped within trees or some hold spirits. This tree, however, might be taking more inspiration from the idea of giant man-eating plants, like jungle explorers going into a strange undiscovered land only to find themselves the prey to some kind of vegetation. Only seems these ones prefer the already dead than living prey.

Good thing too, I don't think we'd survive the trifled uprising, unless we have a lot of seawater on standby. Now for ghouls, as many people call them. Zombies, yeah, makes sense. A ghoul is a living human turned into a nearly indestructible fighting machine. It also hungers for the flesh of humans, optional.

Though to do this, you have to research ghoul infusion in the anomaly research, and then find some unlucky pawn to turn into the ghoul. From there, well, you could research ghoul implants to give them a few custom bionics. However, a ghoul can get access to actual bionics, which some do help. Like a nuclear stomach to reduce hunger rates, which given you must feed them, is a big bonus.

Plus no cancer on these corpses. Also, the ghoul pawn will keep all traits from its previous life. However, some won't come into play, but stuff like jogger, tough, or anything else involving physical stuff will be useful to keep in mind.

Same with Xenotypes. A genie won't make a good ghoul, but a hussar or etkin will make great ghouls for their more physically oriented traits. Use ghouls for softening up enemies since unless they are properly put down, they will just regenerate their damage pretty quickly.

Granted they can't use arms and armor, the fact they feel no pain is more than enough to make 1-3 ghouls a real sizable threat to anyone. The cultural significance is pretty obvious. Zombies have always been staple of mythology and pop culture. But the name ghoul comes from Arabic mythology of the demon-like shapeshifter that eats the corpses of people. However, the use of zombies as labor and combat can be also related to voodoo zombies of Haitian folklore.

Now, shamblers are the real zombie deal. either appearing from a raid or another entity, the deathpaw. A deathpaw will rain down upon the land and any corpses not in door and roofed will rise up and, well, go full zombie. Given their melee-oriented limitations, their risk isn't their power, it's their numbers. So range tactics usually work.

However, if you got a deathpaw after a huge raid with a pile of corpses on your doorstep, well, you might not like what happens next. See, this is why harbinger trees are great for quarterbacks. disposal, they can prevent the zombie uprising.

Oh, and this doesn't just affect humans, it also affects dead animals. Depending on your situation, you might have a real Night of the Living Dead. So zombies, where did they come from? Well, zombies, as mentioned, came from Haitian mythology, and that's where the name came from. But trivia question, which movie actually gave living corpses the name zombie?

The answer. Dawn of the Dead in 1978, Night of the Living Dead referred to them as ghouls. I don't need to explain what a zombie is, an undead corpse.

If you played any video games, you'd face a zombie in one form or another. And here, it's no different. Gore hulks are big mounds of flesh and spike. Now, you would think they would be a threat in melee, and you are wrong.

The biggest worry about them is their ranged spike attack, striking at colonists like they are a mechanoid pikeman's needle gun. Neither one you want hitting an unarmed colonist. You want to beat them, lure into choke points, and melee them. They are still dangerous up close, but it's a better choice to go melee than range for these guys, especially since they don't seem to resist pain very well. So you could find them as great early sources of biofright.

As for the inspiration of gorehulks, no real direct inspirations could be found, but their design and possible use could be relating to mad science and creating mutants in a lab for war. Possibly the spike shots could be a reference to DC villain Doomsday, Just without the durability, thank randy. Now for the first of the stealthy boys, the sight stealer. Using psychic abilities to appear invisible, they stalk your colonists. This is why you have proximity detectors when they walk past one, they alert you.

That's where you get your pawns ready for a fight. The good news, they appear when they attack. The bad news, despite being pretty weak, they are still gonna go into melee on any pawn.

My recommendation... Fire, obviously, but also mechanoids. They are more durable, and with stuff like Scythers on patrol, they could cut up these ninja entities. Oh, and one more thing. If they howl, you might not be getting sleep that night, as more are coming.

Their inspiration could be a lot of things, but no real direct inspiration could be found. However, in a lot of folktales, many cultures have tales of humanoid creatures who stalk unsuspecting people. This might be the Rim's take on those folktales.

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Try NordVPN today. Now for one of the bigger opponents in the DLC, the Flesh Beast. Okay, yeah, one doesn't seem like a lot and that's true, but you aren't fighting one little hunt of living flesh. You are fighting a lot. This is a pure swarm and melee enemies are going to be playing with you.

It's not going to be fun. I'm not kidding about the swarm. The bigger ones tend to come with the ability to split off at death.

And now you've got two. More munchkin monsters to mash and malice your men. At first, you will face small hordes of the stuff. Just do what you normally do with raiders.

Gun and slice them to bits. Fire also helps, but careful for your wooden buildings. You don't want everything to burn down. That's a bad day. However, that's not the only way you are going to deal with them.

Flesh beasts also come in land cancer. Seriously, what is called flesh mass heart. We'll start engulfing the land nearby with flesh for both defense and offense. Don't sit on this.

Trust me. Not only will it continue to grow, but it also spawns flesh beasts and long-range spitlers. Also, don't think you can nuke them out of orbit. It will regenerate all the damage.

So to beat it, you have to target three nerve clusters and analyze them. After that, it's as simple as walking up to the heart and triggering a heart attack. No, seriously. From there, you got the nucleus. Destroy it.

For more shards, capture it. Finally, the Pit Gate. A large pit to the bowels of the earth will open up and spew more living cancer. For this you are gonna have to go down to their turf to bring them down. The good news, flesh walls burn a lot.

So bring the flamers and roast the walls as you search for the load-bearing boss. Though keep in mind, the caves do have treasure, so don't go too crazy with the fire if you want to make out like bandits. The boss for this one is the mighty Dreadnought.

It is made up of plenty of flesh beasts, And as it damaged it drops them to stop you. But keep the barrage up and you can win. When they go down, you have around 10 hours to pack your bags and get out of there, cause that cave is collapsing. So what are they supposed to represent in pop culture? Well, in sci-fi, a very common trope is the living flesh or hive mind organics.

Think the flood from Halo, the necromorphs of Dead Space, and so on. Big walls of meaty flesh and working to spread its influence and continue to exist. I'm just glad that killing it with fire can and always will be a viable option against it all.

The Nokiosphere is a giant sphere, which looks hilarious when pawns have to capture it, like something out of Katamari. That's the only thing funny about this device, because all it is is meant to do is cause you pain. Within six tiles of it all, pawns will feel pain around it. The good news is that it will never try to break out, so you can harvest it for bio-fright and power all you want.

Even better news, you can unleash it upon your foes and it does a pretty darn good job at it. The bad news is that it will eventually stop being suppressed by your colonists and you'll be dealing with it again. It won't break free, you'll have to send colonists over to suppress the orb, but after a while that won't work. You'll have to unleash it on something and it will go away.

My recommendation, a huge raid or a mechanoid cluster if you want to summon a raid, drop potting some waste packs on the enemy is a good way to do it. In sci-fi, mysterious ancient spheres are a- pretty common thing, what does it do? The more interesting thing is the name, firstly. Nociception is the term for how the body takes pain, stimuli, and turn it into the feeling of pain that you get.

The big furry chimeras are going to be a pain and a half for your colonists. Melee-oriented rushers think of them like Manhunter packs, since they follow the same rules, not destroying buildings and destroying everything else. The difference is they have more durability and a nasty rage power to up their attack. Stay inside, let them mill around, maybe let a raid come in and get raided back.

That or use Berserk or Manhunter Psycast to throw them into chaos since Manhunter Psycasts actually act like Berserk, causing them some infighting. As for the name, it's pretty obvious. It's taking inspiration from the Chimera of Greek mythology, a monster composed of multiple animals turning hostile.

Devourers as the name implies, they like to eat. Rather than do the normal attack, anything that moves, it will instead pick a target and chase them down to try and swallow them whole. From there, if a pawn gets swallowed, they take damage from the experience. For obvious reasons, the good news is that if you are fast enough, you can save the pawn by just killing the devourer.

Fire can be an excellent source to combat them, as a devourer on fire will rapidly spit out its food. Furthermore, using dryads or Roombas as bait can be invaluable when low on pawns. Honestly, this is one enemy I don't like to fight, mostly because getting bored is not a way I want to go out, and I doubt my colony does either.

Best way to handle them, range, and maybe using jetpacks to jump away to keep distance from them. As for what they are based on, in mythology, giant snakes that devour prey are a common thing, so in the ancient times, unnatural darkness from the eclipse was said to be a harbinger of doom. Out on the rim, this means you are being invaded by noctules and noctoliths. During this time, intense darkness will cover the land, and any pawn not within the light will take damage. It's not from any particular entity, it's like the darkness itself it attacking.

So how do you handle the darkness? Well, two ways. One is to wait it out.

So long as your base is lit up, your pawns will be safe. Albeit a bit uncomfortable, given the natural darkness around them. After a few days, it will dissipate.

However, if you want to go on the offensive, then you can go out into the darkness and break the Noctilus. Keep in mind that your pawns aren't the only thing out there. Hiding in the darkness are Noctals, and they gain strength the less light there is. The best tool to fight them by far is going to be flares.

They not only light up a large area for a low cost, but also stun any target on impact, giving precious time to set up your range pawns, as smashing Noctoliths will trigger a wave to attack you. So my recommendation is a torchlight. It protects your pawns and weakens the enemies, then just smash them up.

Ghouls make great pawns for this job, since they could just rush through the darkness and regenerate the damage, then take their time to break the pillars. Other options are, of course, mortars, though it would take about five explosive shells to bring one pillar down, so maybe skip that unless you've got a lot of shells you just don't want to deal with. As I said earlier, in ancient times, the darkness was considered an ill omen.

After all, who knows what's in there? But the name Noctis means night in Latin. and noctilith is a combination of that and monolith. Revenants are more annoying than sight-stealers. Like them, they will skulk around hunting a target, though if they hone in and get too close.

It's not death that happens. Instead, they get a condition called revenant hypnosis, rendering their target unconscious until the revenant is dead. Needless to say, if you aren't your entire base will be lost.

The good news, if you do hone in and fight it, it doesn't actually fight. It's more runaway. So get those flares out to stun them and just hit it till it dies.

Also, other things that reveals it are missed shots, fire, EMP, and apparently water skip and vertigo pulse sidecasts. Figure it I'd mention that before you lose your best colonists to it. So what is a revenant?

Well, in mythology, namely Celtic and Norse, a revenant is a corpse that returns to haunt the living, usually unfinished business, revenge, or just, you know, being a bit of a bony jerk. Given how the Rimworlds one fits coming onto your base to haunt your colonists, yeah, I'd say it's a fitting name. The Blood Reign, is that a reign of blood? Yes.

Well, to be fair, it's mostly a blood-like psycho-fluid that causes all people not undercover to feel intense rage upon the world. So, you know, usual stuff out on the Rim. To be honest, this is kind of the weakest anomaly threat-wise, since you can avoid it by staying inside like a toxic fallout, though it can be summoned through ritual and could be fun to use on some sieging raiders or something.

As for cultural significance, Blood Rain is actually a real thing, a phenomenon which in ancient times was an ill omen, though now we believe it to be caused by dust or algae in the rainwater. That makes it look like blood. Now for the one that will make you question your colonists loyalties.

The Metal Whore. Now for those who don't know, the Metal Whore is a parasite that hides amongst the colonists. You learn about this when a piece of metal flesh is found on the ground. You can analyze it and now play a game of whodunit, trying to pick out who is the traitor. You can then do a surgery to analyze them though be warned when backed into a corner, the whore will just burst out and fight back.

The good news, it usually won't kill them. The bad news, The metal whore is pretty good at melee fighting. So how do you get infected?

The main way is by a new pawn offering to join. Be wary of new pawns if you just provoke the void, as it is almost certainly a metal whore. Furthermore, if no pawns spawn, it is still possible for a pawn to catch a metal whore if they've been hurt by an anomaly.

This list includes most anomalies, so there's no avoiding the initial infection. Once an infection is present in the colony, it can spread to other colonists. In many ways, of course, too. Any pawn sharing a double bed will instantly spread it. No funny business.

If an infected doctor performs a surgery, he has a 50% chance to transmit the infection. Tending does not transmit the infection, so you don't want to worry about that. However, pawns stuck in hospital beds need feeding, which has a 10% of transmitting the infection.

Not only that, but if a chef is infected, he has a 4% chance per meal to spread the infection, which can be catastrophic. The final way the infection can spread is with unnatural healing, having a 100% chance to spread the infection if the caster is infected. Now, to prevent the infection, cancel all surgeries, switch to nutrient paste, get pawns out of the hospital beds, and bed rest until you can identify a pawn that is for sure not infected. Finally, do not use unnatural healing, especially not on newcomers, and remove any double beds. Stay on your toes.

So how do you get infected? Well, that's the thing you don't know, and you don't really have a lot of control over that, since a pawn can get infected before joining the map, and that includes visitors. Other ways is being tended to or eating food prepared by an infected person, attacked by anomalies like Fleshbeast, or perhaps the game just decides one day a pawn is infected.

So stay on your toes. So how do you go about testing? Well, the first step is going to be to analyze three gray flesh.

They are dropped over time by infected pawns, which may help pin down who is infected. After all of them have been acquired, a non-infected doctor can perform the surgery to test a pawn. Inspections before this point will do nothing. Another way you can tell a pawn is infected is with a very low chance during any social interactions, where pawns might realize something is odd about the behavior of an infected pawn.

The final way of testing pawns is to interrogate them. This requires the potentially infected pawn to be a prisoner. From there- your warden can try to squeeze them for information. This has a much higher chance of succeeding than normal social interactions and has no risk of infections in between the prisoner and the warden.

Even better, this will work even if the warden is infected. Keep in mind that metal whores will most likely burst out when revealed by any means. This includes every single infected pawn. If you are lucky and they stay passive, the pawn will now have a health condition listed.

From there, a simple surgery check will reveal all metal whores. Now occasionally one of three obelisks will arrive to the map and you can utilize them for better and worse. First, the twisted obelisk. A structure that can enhance your pawns by twisting their flesh into somewhat improved variants.

Technically inferior to normal bionics, these ones will cause a pawn pain. Oh, and if you try and remove them, they become flesh beasts and fight back. Still, for massacres. ...or colonies where pain is king might be a good free upgrade. Keep in mind that sometimes the obelisk will mess with trees or worse, other animals, turning them into flesh beasts, so careful with that.

This obelisk might be a take on the markers of Dead Space, a strange structure that turns humans into flesh beast necromorphs. The corrupted obelisk creates duplicates of your pawns. Now this might seem like a great idea, except...

Okay, sometimes you might have no problems, but usually something bad happens. Sometimes a duplicate is now hostile, meaning if you choose to, say, duplicate your 20th melee level God of War, you now have to deal with that. Or maybe they might have organ failure or a crumbling mind, which can be a problem and even life-threatening.

And finally, duplication sickness, where both the original and the dupe will start to lose consciousness. You'll have to put one down. Well, that and use healer mech serums usually fixes up a lot of those problems.

Warped Obelisk. This one, as the name implies, warps your pawns to another world, the Labyrinth. And no David Bowie to entertain you either. So what's the deal?

Well, pawns can be randomly teleported into the maze if you let the Obelisk activity go up too high. Suppressing it doesn't help since pawns who suppress it can also be teleported in. But hey, you later can learn how to willingly send someone in. From there, you just follow the maze and reach the obelisk in there and everyone and everything inside will come back to your realm.

Here's the problem. You aren't alone. Other creatures hide within the rooms and there were others who didn't make it through.

But the treasure inside might be worth investigating. Mazes have always been in history as trials for humanity to solve. Most famous, the maze of Daedalus and the Minotaur of Crete. I probably said that wrong, but you guys know it. However, being forced into another realm does also remind me of H.P.

Lovecraft's The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath, which is more Alice in Wonderland than horror, but still dangerous. All three of the obelisks have their use, and when used properly, can aid a colony, but also doom it. But artifacts tend to do that, am I right? So picture this.

You are walking around the base, and suddenly, boom. Dead body. That looks exactly like you, but isn't. Made of the same material, what do you do?

Well, I'd freak out if you asked me. And you really should research on how to destroy it. I know what you are thinking, but I could just burn it.

Yeah, go ahead and try. It won't work. You could burn it, butcher it, nuke it. That corpse is like droopy.

It finds a way back. Yeah, like that seriously. Even if you destroy the corpse, it reappears.

So yeah, you need to research it and find a way to properly do it. And you are on a time limit. Because if you wait too long, it will wake up. And like the Terminator, it will find its target.

It has high health, regeneration like a ghoul. Oh. and it can instantly one-shot its target, which is its duplication.

Yeah, have fun with that one if you let it rise up. So the corpse and the duplicating obelisk comes from the fear of the duplicate throughout mythology, the idea of a twisted mirror version of yourself, be it a version of you that has the darker aspects you suppress. Doppelgangers are considered a hostile entity or an ill omen for things to come.

Finally last, but certainly not least, the one that gets to be held on the cover, the golden cube. Yes, everyone's favorite geometric shape of element. This cube will land in the life of your colony one way or another and bring joy to one pawn.

They even will start to obsess over it. Watch it. Talk to it.

Create art for it. And now you got more colonists hooked on it. Oh no. Oh no. Yeah, this cube is basically a drug.

It causes pawns to obsess and fawn over it to the point they can't do anything else. Research on how to destroy it if you want to lessen their control. Just keep in mind, any pawns who were obsessed will go berserk. I recommend putting them under for surgery during that time, since being anesthetized prevents them from going berserk.

Well, that and taking their legs, but that's a different story altogether. Obviously, cultural reference, the one ring of power, a golden trinket that can't be destroyed by conventional means that ensures the minds of lesser beings. However, this video isn't over, there is still the endgame.

When you put 12 advanced entities into your codex, you have the option to awaken the monolith and begin the end. Be prepared for this one, with food, supplies, and a good defense. Because once it starts, it ain't stopping. Darkness will fall upon the land, and you will have to activate five randomly placed void structures throughout. Like with the Noctolith, use torches, flares, or other light sources to make your way through the darkness.

However, unlike that event, you got just about every anomaly coming out to play. But be strong. Be smart, and you can unlock them all.

The monolith will reveal its purpose. It's a teleport, linking to a metal hell. And one pawn must go inside to make the final decision. Choice 1. You sever the link.

Your pawns had enough of the madness, and sever the link, connecting this planet to the nightmarish Archotech and- The Monolith will be sealed away and release the colonists. Every faction you could ally with will gain plus 50 mood boost with your relations. And all colonists will gain a mood buff for 30 days, and the one who sealed the Nightmarish away will get 60. And the story will continue from there.

But let's say you don't do that. Choice 2. You embrace eternity, the madness has taken hold. Well, you embrace the Archotech's power, and they have blessed the pawn. Coming back from that hell, the pawn now is inhuman.

and doesn't see themselves as a human anymore, gaining the inhumanized Hedith. They also have death refusal for four times, four extra lives if you will. Course, they might not need that thanks to the void-touched Hedith, allowing them to regenerate their limbs like a ghoul along with their HP, 200% psychic sensitivity, and disabled needs for sleep and comfort.

This pawn will be perfect for leading your colony to the greatest with other endings, and all it cost was this planet's safety in the future. But who cares with the knowledge you obtained? Course you chosen pawn might not be the only one touched by the darkness. Occasionally, strange visitors will enter the map and request joining you.

They are the creepy joiners, but despite their strange appearance and the vibe they give off, they actually can be useful. but also a problem on your colony. So first the benefits.

Each one has a specific ability or gimmick. Perfect Human has the perfect memory trait and a high value in all skills, and since they have the perfect memory, those skills don't go down. Occultist has a bonus to research perfect for being the solo researcher. Shambler Overlord has an ability to create friendly shamblers great for defenses.

Fleshcrafter has a shape flesh ability with a one hour cooldown which converts a corpse into a flesh beast that is hostile to all humans. That includes you. The flesh beast created depends on the size of the corpse, of course.

Death Refusal has the ability to self-resurrect themselves up to four times, healing lost limbs and organs each time. Scarring and resurrection sickness are possible, so don't think this is without cost. Body Master has the Body Mastery Trait. which completely removes the pawns need for food, sleep, and comfort. One of the best ones in my opinion since that means they can constantly be working throughout the base.

Psychic Butcher has an ability that can instantly kill and butcher pawns, animals, entities, turning them into twisted flesh, and this is one of the few ways to actually bring down a Terminator doppelganger without a problem. And then those like the Blind Healer whose unnatural healing can replicate the effects of a Healer Mexium again, One of the best ones to have in the colony. So, what's the catch? Well, you don't know their intentions or their health issues. Sometimes they are on the up and up and consider yourself lucky.

Other times they are going to just up and leave. And capturing and recruiting doesn't stop this, just delays their intention to leave. Oh, and sometimes they turn traitor and not fun if you ask me given those special abilities. Others might be host to a metal whore, also not fun.

Same with just doing disturbing rambling and bringing everyone else's mood down. And then the most annoying, trying to break your entities free. The ones you work hard to contain.

Yeah, super annoying, letting all the monsters out in the colony. Not fun stuff. And don't think you can just tell them to go away if you don't want to risk it.

Sometimes they will just shrug their shoulders and leave. But sometimes they might fight back. And if they do, well, they might just normally fight back, or a flesh beast will emerge from them. Least that kills them. But if they scream and summon sight stealers, depending on your level of tech and defenses, you might have a bigger problem than some weirdo in the colony.

Now before we go, I suppose I should mention a few of the extra stuff you can do that relates to the anomaly, namely rituals. Because it just isn't a Lovecraftian-like playthrough without a few rituals. Go play Hooked on a Feeling. Get the Ooga Chaka on repeat, and pick what ritual you want, provided you research them, of course. So before you actually do a ritual, it's a good idea to prepare.

For instance, the invoker improves the chances if they have a high psychic sensitivity. Makes sense. Also, including void sculptures and shard beacons helps, though again needs research, those being void structures and advanced void rituals respectively.

Oh, and of course, have more than one person doing that ritual. If you got anything set up and you're right about it, you can do a ritual. And boy, there are a lot of fun ones.

First, void. Provocation which, as the name suggests, has you poking the bear so to speak. The better the ritual, the less likely your invoker passes out from the strain, You will be doing this to expand on your research and face a few new entities.

Next is Draw Animals. This one summons a herd of animals to your map. Great if you need food, and not so great if you do low quality ritual as they will be summoned.

As Manhunters, though I suppose you could intentionally fail the ritual to summon Manhunters and use them as a weapon against sieges and mech clusters, Draw Shamblers calls a group of Shamblers to the map. The number will equal the higher of the ritual quality, and power of the Shamblers will increase evenly. They won't directly target the base, but still be careful.

Chronopathy allows you to have the Invoker steal age from the victim. They get younger, the victim older. The better the ritual, the more years taken.

This can kill the victim outright if they go beyond their life expectancy, but also heal scars and age-related problems to the Invoker. Though a lot of the participants will get a mood debuff of guilt, unless they are psychos or your ideology exalts psychic rituals. Psychopathy is like chronopathy in that the invoker takes something from the victim, this time a connection to the psychic powers. The victim will become psychically deaf along with going into a coma, and the invoker gains a 50% psychic sensitivity for a number of days based on the quality of the ritual. Again, participants of the ritual feel guilt unless psycho or exalted for rituals.

Skip abductions are my favorite of the rituals since it captures a random hostile pawn and puts them into a temporary coma. The better the ritual, the less time they are in it. Great for getting organ donors or new colonists. Draw flesh beasts is another ritual to summon cannon fodder.

They will target anyone nearby that isn't them and could be useful in a pinch. Provoke pit gate lets you open up a fleshy pit on your map, which, more flesh beasts being summoned at a good ritual, if you want a way to get loot and uh, meat, guess that's one way to go about it. Imbued death refusal grants a target the death refusal buff, meaning if they die, they don't.

They reject the game's reality and substitute their own. Filophagy has the invoker's skill experience of the victim. The highest skill they have, that is, so they lose XP and the invoker gains that skill XP. Not a bad way to top off skills, and if you have someone with perfect memory, well that just helps a lot.

Pleasure Pulse puts everyone on the map in a good mood for a number of days based on the ritual quality, also pawns with higher psychic sensitivity have better moods from this. The polar opposite is the Necrosis Pulse. which ups the global work speed to 150% and makes the recreation fall rate go to 50%. However, the mental break threshold gets an 8%, meaning that it's easier for pawns to snap. The Blood Rain lets you summon a Blood Rain.

Better quality the longer it lasts. Suppose it's good for making a siege more entertaining. Finally, the Brain Wipe, a ritual to make recruitment so much easier since it erases their allegiances, thoughts on other people, Their loyalties, meaning unwaveringly loyal pawns, suddenly forget all that.

It can be great, too, if a pawn is dealing with trauma. Though keep in mind that the pawn hit by this will go into a coma. The better the ritual, the shorter the coma is, so keep that in mind.

But yeah, so many rituals to play around with, so helpful for everyone. Well, except your enemies. Speaking of, you might get a raid where they try to do their own ritual. Yeah, deal with that ASAP. Don't want them messing with your colonists with the dark arts.

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So yeah, that was a lot of dark knowledge. Might have to have a palate cleanser after that. Might have gone insane.

Hope my writer is okay. Anyway, hope you enjoyed today's video and hope you all learned a bit more about the context of a lot of these anomalies. I know you did.

Transcript for:Exploring Anomalies in Anomaly DLC

Transcript for:
Exploring Anomalies in Anomaly DLC