Info on anima trees

[Jager]

I'm doing a tribal run in a winter biome and i just so happen to have HAD an anima tree. Beavers spawned in and murdered the tree and soon after it screamed bloody murder, it made all the nearby animals mad and did me a favor and killed off the one beaver that killed it. But do these trees grow again or is it a one time hit or miss? Also, how can i train my tribals to do psycasts without the influence of the empire (If at all possible)? Plus any other tips on how these trees work? Thanks.

[Jigain]

Yes, they grow back. It takes a little time, but it will grow back.

If they're tribals, then it's likely they have nature meditation unlocked, in which case you only need to place meditation spots near the anima tree. Schedule some meditation time, and your pawns will start meditating at the tree, which will grow some grass. Once 18 patches of grass have grown, you can begin a linking ritual, letting a tribal pawn of your choosing become a psycaster.

[gussmed]

In addition to the above, let me add that you can use anima grass to get all the way to the maximum psycaster level of 6. The grass requirement goes up a little with each level, but not a lot.

Also, the anima grass is grass. Which means animals will eat it if you don’t use it, or take a long time growing it. It can also burn.

I takes a lot of serious meditation to get enough grass. You reall have to dedicate a colonist or two to doing nothing but meditate all day long for a few days.

Linking takes a long time, about half a day, and you lose all progress if you interrupt it. So make sure anyone going off to link is well fed, rested, and happy.

I had a “host tribal guests” quest, which gave me 9 extra tribal colonists who could do absolutely no work. They could, however, meditate at the tree all day long. They generated enough grass over a few days to boost one of my tribal colonists to level 6.

[HunterSilver]

Alpha Beavers, Thrumbo, and fires will kill anima trees if you're not careful. If you're planning to use the anima tree just to gain psychic levels and not as a meditation spot then you can wall it in. Meditating at an anima tree that is at 100% civilization impact provides ~0% meditation gain per day but still grows grass at ~20%/hour per nature meditation type colonist, the same as if it had no civilization impact.

[gussmed]

Constructed objects don’t affect grass growth? That’s good to know. That building restriction is a PITA, frankly. I think I’d just as soon wall the tree in and make a large nature shrine.

My level 6 psionic also has morbid meditation, so I’ve got her set up to meditate at a sarcophagus instead of the tree. I don’t get any grass from it, but the sarcophagus is in the center of my base and is in a room with max beauty. The tree’s a fair hike away and has slightly negative beauty since it’s mostly soil and a handful of trees.

I never really thought about how little Rimworld colonists like nature. Soil’s -1 beauty, trees are +1, wild dandelions are +3, and water is 0. They never see a natural environment as anything better than neutral. Waterfront property isn’t particularly desirable.

[Jigain]

I'm pretty sure the building restriction is there specifically to (attempt to, because it doesn't do a good job of it) balance out the absolute ease of access to psychic powers tribals have by forcing them to leave settled areas and be at risk of raids, manhunters, or just wild animals hunting for food. Considering any tribe basically has instant, infinite access to psychic powers, I can understand why it's not intended you can just build a village around the tree, tempting though that may be.

That said, as mentioned, even as-is there's not much of a risk meditating at the anima tree. So... yeah.

[HunterSilver]

Originally posted by Jigain:

I'm pretty sure the building restriction is there specifically to (attempt to, because it doesn't do a good job of it) balance out the absolute ease of access to psychic powers tribals have by forcing them to leave settled areas and be at risk of raids, manhunters, or just wild animals hunting for food. Considering any tribe basically has instant, infinite access to psychic powers, I can understand why it's not intended you can just build a village around the tree, tempting though that may be.

That said, as mentioned, even as-is there's not much of a risk meditating at the anima tree. So... yeah.

Yeah, I don't think I've had any incidents where meditating at an anima tree caused me any problems, it was just a frustrating waste of time to have all of my tribal colonists walk 200 tiles there and back every day, especially since the explicit goal of them meditating at the anima tree for me was to level up psylinks on colonists and not really to maintain meditation levels.

[konduct]

I noticed that the tree (like other natural idols of meditation) require to be away from manmade things. the problem i am running into is when my pawns meditate, they then immediately eat their food without a table since there isnt one within range. Has anyone figured out a way around this?

[HunterSilver]

Originally posted by konduct:

I noticed that the tree (like other natural idols of meditation) require to be away from manmade things. the problem i am running into is when my pawns meditate, they then immediately eat their food without a table since there isnt one within range. Has anyone figured out a way around this?

Yeah, just wall the anima tree in, build tables and chairs nearby, and meditate with a 0% meditation bonus. You still have the base 50% psyfocus gain from being human.

Alternatively schedule them to meditate an hour after they wake up so they have a chance to get up, eat, and then meditate.