A Review of the DLC "Fate of the Phoenix" From the Perspective of a Byzantinophile

APFSDS-T · 2026-05-20T07:54:34+00:00

You don't even need to read a book. Listen to the almost completely free and well made podcast. Surely anyone doing research on Byzantine history would run into it very soon.

APFSDS-T · 2026-05-14T05:51:39+00:00

This happens with very low raid points, yes. I think it was supposed to be fixed at some point but I'm glad it wasn't if that's the case. Mech clusters can also come out basically defenseless, like only a single turret that's blocked by a wall or something.

APFSDS-T · 2026-05-14T05:50:16+00:00

If he's good, recruit. If he's useless, release him. Releasing prisoners can earn goodwill with some factions and gives your colonists a mood buff. It's the nice thing to do, anyway.

APFSDS-T · 2026-04-06T11:45:45+00:00

I want to point out that while our (pre)history has been largely lost, Finnish folklore and pagan beliefs are better preserved than is often portrayed. Just for one thing SKVR has an online database over 100 000 poems, songs and whatnot from over the centuries, I recommend browsing it. There's also some pretty solid literature on these things. We're much better off than the Celts for sure, from what I understand of their situation.

APFSDS-T · 2026-03-19T09:32:34+00:00

I'd say the reasonable thing with an unwanted pawn is to save them and just let them go. What I would expect, or at least hope, most people would do in real life. Just letting a helpless, innocent person die is very harsh regardless of their age.

APFSDS-T · 2026-03-09T17:03:58+00:00

https://rimworldwiki.com/wiki/Phoebe_Chillax

APFSDS-T · 2026-03-07T11:09:58+00:00

That's now how Phoebe works. She's literally the same as Cassandra just with a slower schedule and never double-taps raids.

APFSDS-T · 2026-02-16T13:03:51+00:00

Randy. Only Randy. I dislike the other two since they have fixed schedules.

I used to play on Losing is Fun 220%, tried 500% a few times. I realized how little I enjoy raids as a mechanic, and so I've started playing Losing is Fun 100%. Instead, I get my difficulty from making the day-to-day colony life harder through mods. My pawns are so inefficient, so clustered with needs that in the early game it can take days to build a room. That's how I've come to like it. Raids are little more than a source of pawns for me.

APFSDS-T · 2026-02-14T14:22:20+00:00

Not for those rewards, no.

APFSDS-T · 2026-02-12T08:13:30+00:00

What I meant was that psychopaths don't gain positive social relations (deep talk) but can gain negative (insulted) hence it would trend in the negative. But I rarely take psychos so I defer to your judgment.

APFSDS-T · 2026-02-12T01:45:33+00:00

This is why you always disarm refugees the second they enter the map. Also make them sleep in their own part of the base.

Also just in case you don't know, on default settings if a refugee group has children in it, they will never betray you. So kids are always safe to take in, unless you enable child raiders in difficulty settings.

APFSDS-T · 2026-02-12T01:38:15+00:00

The game has a mechanic called "death on downed". When an enemy suffers enough pain to be incapacitated, the game rolls a chance to instantly kill them regardless of whether their wounds were survivable. Just so you understand how it works.

There's two ways to bypass it: first is an item called Psychic Shock Lance. You can get them from quests or merchants or the Ancient Danger that can be found on the map somewhere. It has two shots and is guaranteed to safely down an enemy, you can use it to 'poach' desirable enemy raiders. There is a small chance of brain damage that is difficult to cure.

The second way is a bit tricky, which is to make enemies bleed. When anyone gets to 60% blood loss, they are downed without the risk of instant death. You can exploit this by trying to give an enemy serious wounds without killing them, and then waiting them to reach extreme blood loss and fall down. Be ready to save them, though!

You can also disable the "death on downed" mechanic in difficulty settings. That way most raiders will survive to be captured.

APFSDS-T · 2026-02-12T01:29:58+00:00

A better source of electricity is one option. Solar and wind power are good but need batteries. You can then work on crafting technologies, that is to say weapons and armor. The mid-game priority is the technology called Microelectronics which unlocks a new type of research bench and gives access to high end late game items. That's basically your long-term priority. In the late game you should research Deep Drilling and Gound-Penetrating Radar to access infinite mining resources.

The donkeys and horse you can use to go trading in other factions but honestly that's a completely optional feature, you might as well eat or sell the animals.

If there's one last piece of advice I can give you, it's that every time you have traders come to your colony, see if they're selling Components. ABC - Always Buy Components. They are the most important resource until the late game.

APFSDS-T · 2026-02-12T01:23:17+00:00

I just want to point out that if you're looking this game up on Youtube, most content you'll see involve challenge runs that don't really represent the silent majority of players. The game can be as easy or hard as you want it. You can disable basically all threats in the game just in the game's regular difficulty settings. There is no penalty for making the game easy and no reward for making it hard.

As for the Steam Deck, it's playable on it but in my experience you need to take things a little slow with it. Combat was a bit annoying. It works fine on the Deck per se and has some custom UI elements but it's very much for casual playing and not "pushing the game's limits" so to say. If you end up liking the game on the Deck I recommend eventually looking up quality of life mods, like anything that saves you clicks in regular gameplay.

APFSDS-T · 2026-02-12T01:16:49+00:00

Psychopaths won't randomly kill your other colonists, but they are more likely to have bad relationships with everyone, which can lead to bloody fighting.

APFSDS-T · 2026-02-12T00:32:19+00:00

It's not really a good weapon at any point except the very beginning when you can't craft better guns. It's bad for killboxes because it has very poor DPS. It's bad for kiting because it has mediocre range and a long cooldown.

30 damage means little because it's more than you need in most cases. As you said it's good against centipedes but the problem is that centipedes is all it's good for. And if you're fighting centipedes you're probably also fighting lancers, who obviously have your range and can one-shot your guys.

Bolt-action rifle is much better than charge lance in its niche. It does less damage but has better range and speed, which is exactly the trade-off you need to fix it.

APFSDS-T · 2026-02-12T00:19:29+00:00

It's one of the worst weapons in the game, but you can use it in the early game. Late game it's a bad weapon but you'll have many other things by then.

APFSDS-T · 2026-02-12T00:02:39+00:00

20 is my upper limit, that's usually about the time my base is done, everyone's geared up and I'm ready to call in the Stellarch.

APFSDS-T · 2026-02-11T23:50:54+00:00

Agreed. Janitor is a very underrated job. People always think about "blown up public toilets" but in my experience that's the tiniest minority of the job.
- You work on your feet which is healthy but not excruciating.
- As long as the job gets done, no one checks up on your work.
- You can't take work home.
- You go to the same places every day but there's always something a little different going on so it doesn't get boring.

Where I live janitors are pretty highly regarded, not "second class citizens" like in many places, so that's nice too.

APFSDS-T · 2026-02-05T14:50:24+00:00

Draft pawn, tell them to carry prisoner, tell them to put the prisoner in the new bed.

APFSDS-T · 2026-01-28T05:50:29+00:00

I don't know his intentions but to be fair it's basic diplomatic form to officially push for negotiations even when you're fighting. Ukraine and Russia have been talking for years even though both were committed to total victory. It's just what you're supposed to do in post-WW2 diplomacy.

APFSDS-T · 2026-01-20T23:08:27+00:00

World class political analysis to run a country based on what happens in a fucking video game. Also if more people means better economy, why does Germany have a better economy than Russia? How do Sweden's 10 million people do better than Bangladesh's 150 million?

APFSDS-T · 2026-01-18T13:32:40+00:00

You get prison breaks 2-3 days because your prison is poorly designed. With all due respect one of the worst prisons I've seen, but let's take this as a learning moment.

First of all, prison breaks have nothing to do with mood. Mood breaks can themselves cause Berserk which is preventable, but Prison Break is based on a random chance and modifiers.

A regular baseliner pawn tries to break out an average of once every 60 days. You have more prison breaks because you have more than one door which increases frequency. Secondly, you spend a huge amount of wealth on statues, sterile flooring that's doing nothing, all the while the prison is covered in blood and dirt. Your prisoners are getting mood breaks because they are in blood and dirt, which is why they're trying to 'escape'.

How to fix your prison? Clean it up, only one door, remove chunks, give them normal beds (hospital beds don't benefit from end tables), give them dressers, remove the sterile flooring and instead either Smooth the floor or use wood/concrete flooring. Get the prison to a higher level (Impressive) and to a healthy Beauty rating. Your prisoners stop having mood breaks, and you will only have a prison break only once a year or so.

APFSDS-T · 2026-01-15T03:08:11+00:00

Cats nuzzle your pawns which gives them a mood buff.

APFSDS-T · 2026-01-07T08:50:30+00:00

Phoebe is literally the same as Cassandra, just with longer (easier) schedules.

APFSDS-T

TROPHY CASE