Every settler has a Mood stat (the UI scale tops out at 30) that quietly drives the whole management layer. Mood above 0 makes Stress fall; Mood below 0 makes Stress rise proportionally.
Stress and mental break
Stress crosses its effect thresholds at 20% / 40% / 80%. When it maxes out the unit suffers a Mental Break and Stress resets to 0.
Low mood also trips HUD alerts. A squad whose average mood stays below -3 for 180 in-game minutes triggers the Growing Discontent morale-crisis event.
Meal classes and racial diets
Every edible item carries a food class in its ItemSubType:
- vegetarian (
Food_Vegeterian, 13 items) - carnivore (
Food_Carnivore, 10 items) - omnivore (
Food_Omnivore, 2 items)
5 misc edibles sit outside those classes. The racial diet rules read the class:
- Elves gain Carnal Guilt (-2 Mood) when they eat carnivore food, and ignore the mood penalty of the vegetarian penalty foods (the porridges). The exemption is per food, not a diet rule.
- Lizardmen gain Plant Rage (-2 Mood) when they eat vegetarian food, and ignore the mood penalty of the carnivore penalty foods (the raw and monster meats). The exemption is per food, not a diet rule.
- Humans eat anything. Their racial mood quirk is Growth Fatigue (-2 Mood) whenever their XP bar is sitting at max, so level them up promptly.
Cooked dishes also carry a mood value, and guild quests ask you to stockpile food above a given one.
Other mood levers
Sleep quality is a ladder. The comfort mood from sleeping on the ground lasts a fraction of the time a bed gives, and a real bedroom doubles the bed again.
| Sleeping spot | Effect window |
|---|---|
| Ground | 135 seconds |
| Bed | 1'080 seconds |
| Bedroom | 2'160 seconds |
Treatment expectations rise with level. At Normal management difficulty the baseline mood a unit contributes at levels 1 to 5 is 7 / 4 / 0 / -4 / -7, and veterans expect better rooms, food and pay.
Each management difficulty has its own row. The Mood Simulator shows all of them.
Expeditions drain mood. Each in-game day in the dungeon steps up a Dungeon Stay debuff (see Time).
Recreation buildings restore mood. Each of these grants a Mood bonus per play session, about 40 in-game minutes:
- Dice Play Table
- Dart Play Board
- Card Play Table
The exact value is the Played effect listed on each building's page.
Mood equipment
- Flower Necklace gives Mood increases. (+2 Mood) (+2 Mood) while worn.
- Echo Flower Ring gives A ring that occasionally gives off an unusual resonance. (+2 Mood, +0.1% Health Regeneration) (+2 Mood, +0.1% Health Regeneration).
- Forgotten Idol is the opposite bet: The damage dealt bonus changes by current Mood × -8%. The lower Mood is, the more damage is dealt. Each point of Mood below 0 adds 8 percent damage dealt; each point above 0 removes 8 percent. It enables a deliberate misery build.
The Inscription of Gloom tradeoff
The Rare Inscription of Gloom gives +20% Strength, +20% Constitution, +20% Willpower, +20% Intelligence, +20% Agility, +20% Perception, -3 Mood. On a unit whose needs you can keep met it is one of the best stat sticks in the game.