Lantern Hunters for Rimworld: Noob Guide

Guide for installing and getting started in Lantern Hunters for Rimworld 1.3. By Lantern Friend.

How do I Install the mod?

Use steam workshop to subscribe.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2866414675

Make sure the mod order is:
1. Harmony → 2. Core → 3. Lantern Hunters.
This mod is not compatible with any other mods, and not compatible with ideology or royalty, so be sure to disable everything else.

Do I need to know how to play Kingdom Death Monster?

No. Some of the knowledge of the game will help with understanding items and strategy, but you should be fine going in blind. You will need to have a good understanding of the Rimworld user interface, however, as semi-advanced tactics such as caravaning and micromanaging are required.

How do I get started?

If it is your first time playing, select Scavengers from the scenario menu. Choose a red colored plains tile to settle on. Once the game starts, build some lanterns from the lantern hoard and equip offhand so you can see, and then create a stockpile. The first 4 buildings you will probably want are:

Production Tab:

• Bone Smith (Makes weapons)
  
• Skinnery (Makes Armor)
  
• Organ Grinder (Makes utility items)

Recreation Tab:

• Augury Spot (Recreation + Raises Survival Limit)

Once you have these, make some armor and weapons. Bone axe + Rawhide vest is a good choice. Next, you need to hunt. At the start of day 2, you will get a quest to hunt a white lion. Form a caravan and travel to the quest destination. Events will happen as you travel. You can select the outcome for some, while others are determined by dice roll. When you get to the quest location, you will have a fight against the monster. Kill the monster and then create a butcher spot to butcher it for meat and other resources, then head home. You should bring exactly 4 hunters on the caravan. Bringing less will make the fight difficult, while bringing more will cause more bad hunt events on the way there, some of which may kill people.

More hunt quests will show up every day, along with scripted settlement events occasionally, so just continue repeating this cycle to get better equipment and technology. Sometimes monsters may attack you on your home tile, but they won't kill more than 4 of your people before leaving, so don't be afraid of a settlement wipe-out.

How to I do research?

To do research, build an innovation at the Lantern Hoard, then use it (doesn't matter who uses it) to gain a new technology. The game will give you 2 choices from the list of all available tech.

How do I prevent starvation?

You will not find much food on the home tile. Not more than a few bugs with nasty insect meat. You cannot grow anything to eat either. Don't worry, there are plenty of ways to get food. The most important way to get meat is to go off tile on a caravan quest to kill a monster, but if you failed to kill the monster, there are other things you can do. You can create offal from the Bone Smith, Skinnery, and Organ Grinder, which will feed you for a short while. You can also resort to cannibalism. There is no penalty for cannibalism, so eat all the people you want. Eating raiders is a good idea to help survive, but your own colonists will do if it's the only choice. After you get heat and cooking researched there are more ways to prepare and store foods.

How to I kill monsters?

The combat system with monsters is much different from fighting other creatures. To kill a monster you need to wound it a certain number of times. You can check the number from the monster's stats page (Monster Wound Threshold). When you attack a monster, if you don't pass a strength check, it will ignore the damage (Attacker Strength + Weapon Strength + 1d10 >= Monster toughness). Check the monster health tab to see how many wounds the monster has, and check the combat log to see who is damaging the monster, and who the monster is hitting.

If I lose against a monster, do I lose all my gear?

No. If your party wipes against a monster, a new quest will spawn called “Corpse Run”. You can send another party to recover the bodies, including all equipment and corpses. You may need to cannibalise the corpses to prevent starvation. A small party of 2 people may be preferable for the job, as you will get less hunt events and you don't need to fight anyway. As long as you have at least 4 colonists with one man and one woman, you still have a chance.

What is Survival / Insanity?

Survival is a measure of a colonists will to live. It can be spent on survival actions (Dodge, Dash, Surge, Encourage, Endure) if your colony has them unlocked. Under the Assign tab (next to drug policy) you can find survival policy, which lets you set rules for when colonists will use survival. You can also manually use some survival actions from the drafted menu bar. Colonists will always use survival to avoid fatal injuries regardless of survival policy. Survival regenerates slowly while on the home tile, up to the limit of 1 + 1 for each unique recreation building (not including child recreation). The number next to the colonists portrait in the top of screen colonist bar shows you each colonists current survival level. You can also check from the needs tab for a more accurate view.

Insanity is a measure of a colonists mental defense against traumatic events and monster intimidate actions. If you run out of insanity, these events will start to impose large mood penalties, and possibly cause a mental break. Too much insanity can also be bad, as it may cause erratic behavior during hunt events and a small mood penalty. Insanity does not regenerate, or dissipate naturally, and can be checked from the needs tab.

How to I get more colonists?

In Rimworld, you mostly get colonists from events, or recruitment. In Lantern hunters, you get them the old fashioned way. Assign and male and female to a double sleeping spot to cause pregnancy. Colonists don't need a relationship to procreate, but do need functional (undamaged) genitals. The rate of pregnancy and growth is greatly accelerated, so you can get a full grown person in about 8 days (2 days pregnant, 6 days to grow to teenager, another 6 to full adult). Once children reach teenager, you can use them as colonists, but before this they are wild, and do whatever they want, including attacking animals and other children. It is recommended to build a play pen to keep your children safe, as they cannot climb out. Be careful not to overpopulate your settlement. One hunting party of 4 people every 5 days can feed 12 colonists, perhaps more if you have cooking innovated.

How do I get medicine?

The equivalent for herbal medicine is Dried Acanthus. Harvest fresh acanthus, and use the organ grinder to make it dried. You can find fresh acanthus on any tile with a screaming antelope, or grow your own at home if you have the growing skill. Advanced medicine can be made at the Gormchymist. Craft a sickle for better chance of harvest.

How do I get Iron?

Iron is a rare find, normally. Once you have scrap smelting researched, you can melt down broken lanterns. Scrap, and sometimes iron can be obtained from red ore nodes usually found around the edge of any map. You need a pickaxe to get good results from mining, but you might still get some scrap without one.

How to I see things?

You can get unlimited lanterns from the Lantern Hoard on the home tile. Either equip them offhand, or use the crafting spot to create a lantern belt to wear. Without a lantern, you will have a hard time hitting anything, or even finding anything. It is recommended to build guideposts around your base to increase your vision.

How does dual wielding work?

Colonists do not attack with weapons in the off hand slot, but do gain any bonuses from them. The off hand slot is for lanterns/shields. Some weapons that have the “paired” quality (certain daggers) can be used to attack from the off hand slot, but only if the primary weapon is a matching weapon.

How do I build housing / furniture?

You need to complete the “Hovel” research to create rooms, and “Bed” to create beds. Tables can be created with no research, or you can use a toppled pillar as a natural table. Having no rooms means mood penalties and stored items degrading, but you can build a column that will support a roof. Items under a roof degrade at half speed and colonists won't get rained on under a roof, so place sleeping spots under one if possible. Some crafting locations like Catarium require a room to function.

What should I focus on crafting?

Read what items do from the description on the inspector. Armors have set bonuses, so it is best to create full sets of matching armor. Check the main chest piece for set bonus description. Bonus appears under the health tab if active. Some weapons like spears and whips have reach to their melee attack, which is useful to avoid getting knocked down by monster movement. Be sure to check the weapon strength and attack speed for weapons before making them. You can use monster grease from the organ grinder for an early game evasion modifier. Hiding in tall grass also increases your evasion (but only from monster attacks). It is recommended to try and complete one innovation every 5 days or so to keep up with the difficulty curve. You need good equipment for 4 hunters. You can swap equipment to a different hunter if one is too wounded to hunt. Base defense should me manageable with leftover gear, as the monster fights are much tougher than the raids.

How does survival policy work?

There are 2 fields that can be set for each survival action. The first is “Minimum Survival Level”, which is the minimum amount of survival a colonist will automatically use this action when an opportunity is available. The second is “Danger Severity”, which determines the minimum risk to use the survival action. Both conditions must be true for automatic survival use.

For dodge, danger severity is how much limb health will be depleted after an attack, so if a colonist's head has 20 max health and 10 health remaining and gets hit for 10 damage, the danger will be 100%, while 5 damage would be 75% danger. Colonists will always avoid a fatal injury by dodging if they can.

Dash is the same as dodge, except only area of effect attacks (where you are not the primary target) can be dashed away from. If the colonist dashes, they take no damage, break melee engagement, and automatically move away. Monsters can cause multiple injuries per attack. Dodge only prevents 1 injury per dodge, while dash prevents all injuries.

Surge danger severity is how much health the monster has left (number of wounds / wound threshold). Surge will be used automatically when the colonist hits a monster if the conditions are met.

Encourage danger severity is the number of knocked down colonists nearby, with each one being 25%.

Endure does not need to be set, as it only triggers for fatal injuries, and ignores the policy rules.

You cannot use survival actions except dodge and endure when knocked down. You can manually use survival actions, excluding dodge and endure, from the draft controller tab buttons, if you have the research projects complete.

Where can I ask a question?

You can ask a question on the discussion page for the Lantern Hunters mod on the steam workshop is you have anything you want to know about the mod that is not listed in this guide.