RimWorld How to Butcher Dead Animals (1.6.4633) | Yield & Fix Tool

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Code-backed butcher tool • Local 1.6.4633 rev1266

How to Butcher Dead Animals: Max Yield & Quick Fixes

Build a butcher table, keep corpses fresh, let a cook run the bill, and stop mixing corpse work with the clean kitchen. The panel set below mirrors the fast answers players need, then the live tools underneath turn the local game rules into usable decisions.

Fastest reliable loop: fresh corpse → butcher table → freezer shelf Common fail states: rotten, desiccated, out of radius, no Cooking Permanent layout: freezer → butcher room → kitchen
Quick fix panel for RimWorld dead animal butchering with butcher table, bill, and fresh corpse loop

Efficiency Comparison: Table vs. Spot

Butcher spot warning card showing 70 percent yield and early-game emergency use
Butcher table recommendation card showing full yield and minus fifteen cleanliness

Troubleshooting: Why Can't I Butcher?

Troubleshooting panel covering rotten or desiccated corpses, bill radius, and species filters

The Ideal Room Layout Flow

Freezer to butcher room to kitchen layout flow for clean RimWorld food processing

Copyable Bill Configurations

Two RimWorld butcher bill examples for a standard base and an emergency caravan setup
Updated for the local RimWorld install at 1.6.4633 rev1266. The tool rules below are pulled from the local Recipes_Butchery.xml, Buildings_Production.xml, WorkGivers.xml, WorkTypes.xml, Buildings_Misc.xml, Buildings_Furniture.xml, CompRottable.cs, and the local bill behavior where the default ingredient search radius is 999.
Live Tools

Check Yield, Diagnose Failures, and Lock the Layout

These tools are tuned to the current local game files. Yield and warm-room speed assume a healthy pawn with no sight or manipulation penalties. If you butcher in cold rooms, the page will warn you where the game adds extra slowdown.

Yield & Speed Estimator

Compare butcher table and butcher spot output using the local Cooking-based butcher stats, plus tool cabinet bonuses.

8
Yield vs corpse baseline 95%
Warm-room work rate 0.88x
Spot penalty 0%

Use the table for economy

The butcher spot strips 30 percent of output before Cooking skill can help you recover any value.

Temperature note

This estimate assumes the bench stays above 10 C / 50 F.

Why It Fails Checker

Step through the same block points the local recipe and bill system care about: freshness, bill filter, radius, assignment, and access.

Recipe rejects the corpse

Anything past Fresh fails the flesh butcher recipe.

  • Rotting corpses fail because the recipe interrupts if an ingredient is rotting.

Copyable Bills

Generate a clean butcher bill for a freezer wing or a bare-bones emergency spot. The base JSON stays intentionally readable so you can mirror it in-game fast.


          

Default animal butchering keeps human corpses off unless you explicitly allow them.

Room Placement Advisor

Pick where you want the bench and how much traffic the wing handles. The advisor pushes you toward the same freezer → butcher → kitchen split shown in the layout panel.

Best default: freezer next door, butcher room in the middle

This keeps corpses fresh, contains the butcher table cleanliness hit, and avoids making the stove room dirty.

  • Keep freezer shelves and corpse stockpiles one short door away.
###########
# F F F F #
# F C C F #
# D###D####
# B T . K #
# B S . S #
# D###D####
# . . . O #
###########

F = freezer
C = corpse stockpile
B = butcher room
T = butcher table
K = clean kitchen
S = shelf
O = hall
            
Game File Proof

What the Local RimWorld Files Actually Say

These are the rule anchors behind the tool. They are written for players, but every card maps back to the local game files and bill behavior used by this install.

Bench defs Buildings_Production.xml

Butcher spot is a 70% bench, butcher table is full yield

The spot sets WorkTableEfficiencyFactor to 0.7. The table has no such penalty, so it keeps the full yield multiplier.

Bench defs Buildings_Production.xml

The butcher table carries minus fifteen cleanliness

The table applies Cleanliness -15, and the corpse code also throws blood filth on the floor during butchering. That is why clean kitchens and butcher tables should be separated.

Recipe Recipes_Butchery.xml

Fresh only, Cooking work, 450 work amount

The flesh recipe uses Cooking, workAmount 450, forces the AllowFresh filter, disallows AllowRotten, and interrupts if the ingredient starts rotting.

Work types WorkGivers.xml + WorkTypes.xml

Butchering belongs to Cooking, not Animals

The butcher work giver points to TableButcher and ButcherSpot under the Cooking work type. Animals covers taming, training, harvesting resources, and slaughtering, not the bench job itself.

Support gear Buildings_Misc.xml

Two tool cabinets maximum, plus six percent each

The tool cabinet offsets WorkTableWorkSpeedFactor +0.06 and its facility component allows maxSimultaneous 2. If you butcher often, both cabinets are real throughput.

Storage Buildings_Furniture.xml

Shelves are for outputs, not giant corpses

The shelf description explicitly says large corpses cannot be stored there. Use shelves for meat and leather staging, not for the carcasses themselves.

Rot CompRottable.cs

Rot is temperature-driven

The rottable component advances using ambient temperature. Frozen items effectively stop rotting, refrigerated items slow down, and warm storage lets the timer run at normal speed.

Corpse code Corpse.cs

Butchering spreads blood, and human butchery records history events

Every butcher job can create blood filth. Humanlike corpses also trigger a butchered human history event and tale, which is why human processing needs a deliberate bill choice.

Bill rules Local Bill + WorkGiver_DoBill

The default search radius is 999 tiles

The bill constructor sets ingredientSearchRadius to 999. Corpses only fall out of range when you shrink the radius yourself or use a tighter room-specific setup.

Version and patch framing
The local install reports 1.6.4633 rev1266. This page assumes the current 1.6-era bill UI, butcher room cleanliness behavior, and the current flesh butcher recipe setup used by that version.
FAQ

Fast Answers for the Common Edge Cases

Short answers for the failures and layout decisions that keep coming up in butchering runs.

Can you butcher rotten animals in vanilla RimWorld?

No. The butcher recipe forces fresh ingredients and rejects rotting ones. Once the corpse is rotten or desiccated, treat it as disposal, not food.

Why is the pawn not doing the butcher bill?

The bench job is Cooking work. Check work priorities, path access, forbidden corpses, and whether the pawn is stuck behind higher-priority food bills.

Can the butcher table sit in the freezer?

Yes, but cold rooms slow worktables. It is usually better to freeze the corpse next door and butcher in an adjacent dirty room above 10 C / 50 F.

What about human and insect corpses?

Animals are allowed by default. Humanlike corpses require an explicit bill filter change and come with mood or precept consequences. Insect corpses count as animal corpses for the flesh butcher recipe.

Does a better cook increase leather and meat?

Yes. The local butcher efficiency stat scales from Cooking skill, so skilled cooks get more value out of the same corpse, and the butcher spot still throws away 30 percent on top of that.

What is the emergency day-one setup?

Drop a butcher spot, keep one fresh corpse close, set a single butcher bill, and upgrade to a table as soon as you can afford the material loss no longer.