The Carcass Colony

Your colony in The Carcass is not a city skyline—it is a tumor civilization carved into ribs, ventricles, and marrow shafts. Every citizen has traits, skills, scars, and opinions. Leaders rise with unique abilities. Factions form inside your own walls. Sometimes saving one person means another joins the rot.

This hub covers the simulation layer beneath terminal commands: resources, buildings, and people. Pair it with controls for how to issue orders and guides for full walkthroughs.

Colony pillars

Resources

Biomass feeds bodies. Calcium builds bone walls. Bile fuels industry. Neurons unlock research. Learn harvest zones, Pulse costs, and bottlenecks that kill demo runs before Pulse 30.

Buildings and production

Nutrient Vats, Bone Quarries, forges, altars, and chambers each convert inputs into survival. We explain ratios, upgrade timing, and when expanding a region costs more danger than yield.

Citizens and morale

Traits interact with events. Morale collapses into cannibalism or exile. Leaders can stabilize—or tyrannize—your population. Read this before you accept every stranger the carcass sends.

Colony vs carcass

The map is alive. Regions shift. Parasites wake when you sleep—metaphorically, after you burn Pulses without securing defenses. Deeper carving yields richer harvests but raises awareness: the god remembers, and some endings require leaning into that relationship instead of fighting it.

Early-game checklist

1. Secure baseline biomass income (resources guide).
2. Build one Nutrient Vat and one Bone Quarry before luxury research (buildings).
3. Assign roles to citizens with matching traits (citizens).
4. Read Pulse system so expansion does not outrun food.
5. Plan one diplomatic contact (factions) before military tech.

Late-game colony concerns

Large populations (500+ citizens) stress simulation and performance—see release system requirements. At that scale, mind-link mutations, forbidden arts, and multi-front wars dominate. Cross-reference mutations tier list and combat guide before you over-expand.

Remember permadeath

Unless you are on a forgiving difficulty with saves, colony mistakes persist. Ironman allows one file. The carcass remembers warriors, traitors, and meals. New Game Plus carries victories forward—but not every mistake.

Colony hub focus

Start with resources, then buildings, then citizens—each page maps to a different crisis clock inside the carcass.

Hub navigation

Resources explain yields, buildings explain structures, citizens explain morale. Visit all three before Hard difficulty.