Is the cannibal trait a good one?

[JFK_360NoScope]

I rescued a colonist who I thought was a good one because he had the "Cannibal" trait. I thought I could use this since it doesn't bother him to butcher humans. With that in mind, I thought I could use him to butcher raiders and use their meat for kibble (And possibly meals for him) The issue I found is that all colonists get upset about someone butchering a human and everyone also has a -5 opinion every time he eats something with human meat. He's only 15 so he doesn't have any real skills either, so I was considering whether I should keep him or just banish him.

[LIMP BISQUICK]

The trait is pretty much gimmick as it's easy to get food in most situations. There are worse traits to have tho so up to you to banish or keep.

[ichifish]

Originally posted by JFK_360NoScope:

I rescued a colonist who I thought was a good one because he had the "Cannibal" trait. I thought I could use this since it doesn't bother him to butcher humans. With that in mind, I thought I could use him to butcher raiders and use their meat for kibble (And possibly meals for him) The issue I found is that all colonists get upset about someone butchering a human and everyone also has a -5 opinion every time he eats something with human meat. He's only 15 so he doesn't have any real skills either, so I was considering whether I should keep him or just banish him.

As you discovered, cannibals can be useful, but less so when other colonists are bothered by their... proclivities. I think people talk them up because it seems cool, but you have to embrace the evil to really make the cannibal strategy sing.

One thing you can do if you really really want to make human meat kibble is to send everyone else off in a short caravan. I did this when I had a quest for a bunch of human leather and there wasn't a mood debuff when my bloodlust pawn did the butchering. On the other hand, just keeping a freezer for dog food corpses and having him and the dogs haul to it is a useful strategy.

[Astasia]

Cannibal is easily the strongest trait in the game. It's a massive mood boost, and a large boost in resource generation by butchering raiders, and has no downside.

Cannibals can get the following mood boosts:
+20 from raw cannibalism
+15 from cooked cannibalism
+7~ from human leather clothes

They all stack and can be maintain permanently as needed for a +42 mood bonus.

They get no mood penalty for seeing corpses making them good for hauling them around, and no penalty for butchering corpses which is a great source of leather and meat. By butchering raiders on higher difficulties/wealth you can pretty easily feed your cannibal colonists lavish meals made from human forever without risk of running low for another +12 mood boost.

The penalty for butchering corpses doesn't stack, a -5 mood hit for the rest of your colony for a few days is usually worth it for the resources you get. The lowered opinion for eating human meat also doesn't stack, so it generally doesn't cause any relationship problems.

If you want you can just not butcher humans or feed them human meat though, cannibals don't mind eating normal food, the trait has no negative mechanics at all, you can just use them as the corpse disposer so your other colonists don't get the mood hit for seeing dead people.

[grapplehoeker]

Originally posted by JFK_360NoScope:

Is the cannibal trait a good one?
The issue I found is that all colonists get upset about someone butchering a human and everyone also has a -5 opinion every time he eats something with human meat.

Yes, it is an excellent trait, but as you have discovered you will have to make sure that they don't eat human flesh in front of others who are not cannibals.
Or... make sure that your whole colony are cannibals! Then you'll really appreciate the benefits... regular source of free meat due to raid kills, no need for a crematorium or graves, human leather, human leather hats ;)

[Kittenpox]

If you can get a Cannibal who is capable of cooking, even if they have 0 skill, they are an incredible asset to the colony if you have animals to feed.

At the butchery table, set up a bill to butcher non-colonist humanlikes, forever, and set it so that only your cannibal does that job.

Then set up another bill at the butchery table, to make kibble. Using only human meat + insect meat, and plants you have in abundance (I choose corn, potato, fungus - leaving berries+rice exclusively for humans), do forever, and anyone can perform this job.

Then at the tailoring bench, you could do something like: make duster, using only human leather, do forever. (Put this job at the bottom of the list, after your regular outfit production.)
You may want to make 1 complete outfit out of that material first though. Your cannibal will be happy with clothes made of faces. (Grisly stuff, I know.)

--

Any mood debuff to other pawns is completely offset by the animal meat being put towards making Lavish Meals instead of being used as kibble.

[Kittenpox]

Originally posted by Jibbles:

The trait is pretty much gimmick as it's easy to get food in most situations.

That depends heavily upon your biome and the size of your colony.

In a temperate forest, sure. In a barren biome with relatively frequent cold-snaps, while playing as tribals who don't yet have sun lamp technology? Less so.

[LIMP BISQUICK]

Yeah, not trying to make them sound bad but they're too tedious for my taste if I want to get the benefits. Those bonuses are small outside really HARSH conditions IMO. On sea ice, hells yeahs they're great! In other biomes, if I had a colony of cannibals then that too might be worth my time but that's not going to happen without forcing it. I also don't care for the vibe it brings when brought into a normal colony, so they won't be butchering in most of my games.

[gimmethegepgun]

Originally posted by Astasia:

They get no mood penalty for seeing corpses

FRESH corpses. They still dislike seeing rotting corpses. Only Bloodlust prevents the rotting corpse penalty.

[RamboRusina]

Cannibal is one of strongest traits. If you got full cannibal colony it's easy sailing. Singlular cannibal(s) you can keep feeding directly from corpses, maybe give them exclusive side freezer. You can also take bunch of corpses and butcher them on different map as workaround for butcher humanlike penalty on others. Or you can just ignore the trait, it doesn't bring maluses even if you make them vegans. At worst it's neutral, at best it's god tier trait.

[Atrophus]

Its one of the best traits, up there with psychopath. No downside at all, but they ignore integral parts of regular Rimworld: Morale. On top of it, for some reason unbeknown to humankind, they count as negative traits, so pawns with them usually have stronger other stats/traits on top.