How to procede with ancient danger?

[Zales]

I recently found my first ancient danger thing, but I am not sure what to expect. I have read that it can be mechanoids, bugs, or cryochambers. How can I know what it is? Will its size help to determine anything? It is a very big room, bigger than any that I have ever seen before.

Edit: Guys, this post is 2 years old. If this gets bumped up from the depths of hell again, please ignore it.

[=(e)= Lemonater47]

You'll never know what it is until you bust down a wall.

[easytarget]

And or course at that point it'll be too late. ;)

[CheifCommissar]

I recommend laying out some sandbags outside where you deconstruct the wall. Also try and get all your colonists there whether they can fight or not incase somebody needs to be rescued, just keep the rescuers out of the way of danger

[Zales]

Originally posted by Commissar197:

I recommend laying out some sandbags outside where you deconstruct the wall. Also try and get all your colonists there whether they can fight or not incase somebody needs to be rescued, just keep the rescuers out of the way of danger

That's actually what I have been doing. Right now I have what I hope to be a good enough formation of sandbags to slow whatever I find down. I am also putting down turrets to help me out. The one who I use to deconstruct the wall will probably die, but she is a 70 year old woman so she won't be much use after a while anyway.

[CheifCommissar]

I've never found turrets to be helpful with ancient dangers but they could be good, also you should have a couple seconds to get your deconstructer out of the way but yea always expect a casualty or two

[=(e)= Lemonater47]

It could of course have no defenders. If you're lucky.

[sbmarauderman03]

Save your game; then draft a colonist to deconstruct one piece of the wall. When the building is opened and the buzzers go off/red letter alert drops, pause game. Now you will know what's inside. Re-load game from last save.

Yeah, it's the 'cheaty' way, but if you're new to the game it's the best way to learn about ancient dangers.

[Zales]

Originally posted by Commissar197:

I've never found turrets to be helpful with ancient dangers but they could be good, also you should have a couple seconds to get your deconstructer out of the way but yea always expect a casualty or two

Surprisingly enough the little guy moves fast.

Originally posted by =(e)= Lemonater47:

It could of course have no defenders. If you're lucky.

There are defenders in there that wiped out my entire colony.

Originally posted by sbmarauderman03:

Save your game; then draft a colonist to deconstruct one piece of the wall. When the building is opened and the buzzers go off/red letter alert drops, pause game. Now you will know what's inside. Re-load game from last save.

Yeah, it's the 'cheaty' way, but if you're new to the game it's the best way to learn about ancient dangers.

I did this. I haven't opened it again.

[Shirome Artiste]

Ancient dangers are generally well worth opening, and can usually be done semi-safely at that.

First off, know what is in the room. You can either do this by cheating(Save game, open it, see what's inside, reload save point) or by knowing what you can expect beforehand.

First off, EVERY ancient danger holds cryo pods. These will almost always contain one living(Can also be dead) human(If using mods, can also be of the modded races). If damaged or opened, they will disgorge whatever they have inside.

If disgorged, the cryo pod will have 1 of 3 things happen:
1: The inhabitant is dead. The corpse and any items stored with the person will be dropped next to the cryo pod for you to collect.
2: The inhabitant is hostile. It will fight anything not of its own faction(Basically "Hostile Spacer") untill downed or killed. Any items the pod has will generally be disgorged next to said pod.
3: The inhabitant is friendly. He/she will either walk off to the edge of the map to disappear or be in a downed state and in need of rescue/capture.

NOTE: Both friendly and hostile cryo pod inhabitants WILL fight mechanoids and hive insects in their area, generally resulting in the inhabitant's death(They're generally wearing generic synthread clothing and come with usually pretty crappy firearms).


Now, alongside the cryo pods there will generally be two things:

1: Threats.
2: Goodies.

Threats will generally be one of two things, mechanoids or hive inhabitants+hives.
Mechanoids generally are 1-3 centipedes and 1-3 scythers.
Hives will generally be 1-3 hives + assorted lot of bugs.

Clearing a mechanoid room:
If you don't care about the inhabitants, it's fairly easy. Clear the area around the wall section that you're going to breach, then build sandbags spaced out a bit so that your people can take cover. These two steps are important, clearing out the zone means you will hit scythers more often, meaning they're all dead before the centipedes arrive. Spreading out and having cover(e.g. sandbags) is important against both Scythers(High damage shots need to be dodged, so stay in cover) and Centipedes(If they have explosive or incendiary weapons you REALLY don't want to clump up).

Now, once you're in cover, preferably at such an angle that nobody can fire in or out through the hole, and breach one section of wall. Then fire ONCE at a cryo pod. This'll trigger all pods to disgorge their occupants, who will happily trade fire with(And get downed/killed by) the mechanoids. Usually they will lose against the mechs but take down a fair few of them.


If you DO want the occupants alive, you basically do the same as before, but without triggering the pods. This means you'll be fighting the mechanoids without "help", generally resulting in at least a few injuries on your colonists.


The hive version is easier. Set up a killzone around the wall, breach in and shoot down whatever drones meander around. Then destroy the hives one by one, staying at range as much as possible so to have more time gunning down whatever random spawns it disgorges.

[=(e)= Lemonater47]

Hostile spacers can be put down with ease. As they will have Crypto Sickness, wear no armour and generally won't have a good weapon. I've seen an assault rifle once but usually it's machine Pistols, SMGs or shotguns.

Though I have had a colonist lose an entire arm and get downed due to pain shock. Manually opened the casket. They got out holding a chain shotgun. All 3 shots hit which blew off the left arm with the 2nd shot hitting the torso which also damaged the liver. It was the only burst the spacer got off before they too were downed.

[TSense]

Set up rocks in front of the wall, like a lot of them, and build a pillbox near by

[Glerk]

make a small killbox around it, then shoot a wall till it's gone.
never manually open the caskets, shoot them once to get them all out.

[sbmarauderman03]

Originally posted by Shirome Artiste:

...(They're generally wearing generic synthread clothing and come with usually pretty crappy firearms)...

Originally posted by =(e)= Lemonater47:

Hostile spacers can be put down with ease. As they will have Crypto Sickness, wear no armour and generally won't have a good weapon. I've seen an assault rifle once but usually it's machine Pistols, SMGs or shotguns.

On the contrary, I've opened many an ancient danger and the inhabitants of the caskets are wearing good+ quality hyperweave and synthread clothing and have very good weapons. The only time I have ever had a masterwork sniper rifle was from opening an ancient danger.

[grapplehoeker]

Ancient Danger is, to quote Forrest Gump, like a box of chocolates... you never know what you're gonna get ;)
So, prepare for the worst. Set up a wall or two for cover at a good firing range, opposite the piece of wall you're going to open. Place your shooters at the ready behind the cover and then send in a shielded melee pawn to open the wall. You'll be ready for anything inside, but it could just turn out to be a few nauseated refugees waking up from cryosleep after all that ;)

[Spicy pineapple]

Wait for trade caravans, draft all your colonists so they won't be targeted, have one open wall and run.

Bonus is if you can strip them before they die and rescue some then you'll get faction relation increase once they are healed enough to leave the area. Though if the centipede has the fire cannon then it can burn the resources that the dead caravan colonists and animals drops. Try to get it so you only have the mechanoids fighting them, then wait for another caravan them release those asleep using grenade or something explosive that can be triggered anytime you want. As long they aren't disturbed then those sleeping in the caskets won't wake up. It is possible to open a casket with the open command and run away before your colonist is downed but they must at least be nimble if not armored aswell. Even then the chances are like 1/5 chance your colonist will escape before they are downed or killed. 1/4 chance when armoured aswell.

If you want to fight them yourself then having really good shooters and cover is highly recommended. You'd want the best shooters behind the spray gunners with lower shooting skill. And avoid being outranged aswell. If they do break the wall preventing their range advantage then best to reposition those not injured and leave those currently targeted to distract them. Also hose sleeping will fight the mechanoids aswell so you can have them fight each other. Though the mechs will win with few if any losses. Those sleeping are only good for armour and guns. Skills usually aren't really good in fighting or melee but they can still be rescued if you are really lucky with them collapsing from blood loss instead of being killed by the mechs. As many won't go down from pain alone.