What does the psychic animal pulser affect?

The effect covers the current map, including animals outside your view and behind walls. It does not reach adjacent world tiles or follow a caravan on the world map. Distance from the item is not the limit; eligibility is.

Insects and dormancy: sleeping insects can be woken by the effect. Do not assume an insect is protected just because it is resting or dormant. This does not open cocoons, generate new insects or destroy a hive. A persistent infestation still needs a cleanup plan.

“Your animals are safe” means they are excluded from this pulse. It does not protect the barn from raiders, fire or collateral damage. Shelter the animals you cannot afford to lose, and stop animal handlers from walking into the herd.

Older advice telling you to anesthetize all your pets predates the player-animal exemption introduced in 1.1.2562.

Why did the animals ignore the raid?

Map-wide activation is not a coordinated attack. Each animal picks its own targets. A herd on the far side of your colony can fixate on colonists instead of crossing the map to the raiders you wanted it to fight.

A closed door can keep your colonist relevant as a target

A manhunter can consider a pawn behind doors during target selection. If it cannot reach that pawn without passing the closed door, it may mill around outside the blocked route instead. That is why animals sometimes gather around a bedroom while the raid stays untouched.

Forbidding a closed door helps stop routine pawn traffic. It does not remove that route from the animal’s target search. A fully completed wall seal changes the route and can make another target more attractive. Check for other doors and gaps. A blueprint, fence or held-open door is not the same barrier.

Walls do not command the herd, and no layout guarantees that it will defeat an enemy. Keep enough supplies inside to wait. Never assume a door is invulnerable: animals pursuing a target that disappears through a door can attack it.

Mechanoids must be valid targets

Manhunters can attack active mechanoids. The pulser does not directly wake a dormant mech cluster: it only targets animals, and dormant mechanoids are excluded from normal automatic targeting. If your tactic depends on waking the cluster, arrange a safe activation or attack separately. Do not send an exposed colonist out to fix this after pulsing.

Your turrets may consume your distraction

Exposed turrets can shoot the maddened animals, and eligible hostile buildings can also draw their attacks. Consider switching off turrets that would kill the herd before it reaches the raid, if you still have a safe fallback. Fire, explosives, strong armor and concentrated gunfire can stop a herd quickly. A lot of small animals is not the same as a few healthy large ones.

Use the pulser as one layer alongside a defensive layout, not a replacement for shelter and a reserve fighting position.

How to use it without exposing your colony

1. Pause and inspect the map. Count useful wildlife, check its health, find the raid, and look for visitors. Do not activate just because the item is sitting in storage.
2. Get everyone indoors. Include hunters, builders, children and handlers. Bring food, medicine and sleeping space into a shelter that can stay closed. Put the pulser inside it.
3. Prepare the route and defenses. Finish a wall seal if you want to remove a door route. Stop routine outdoor jobs. Decide whether exposed turrets help or waste the herd. Arrange any required mech-cluster wake-up safely.
4. Activate from shelter. Select a colonist, right-click the reachable pulser, and choose Activate. You can also select the item and use its activation command. Let the brief use action finish; the item is consumed.
5. Watch without opening up. Keep colonists out of the fight while the herd is active. The end of the raid is not the end of the manhunters.
6. Inspect before leaving. Check remaining animals for their manhunter state. Reopen only when the route is safe, then restore normal work areas and turret settings.

Activation takes 132 ticks, about 2.2 real seconds at normal speed. Treat it as a planned emergency action, not an instant save for a pawn already being mauled. There is no research or psylink requirement to use the Core item.

Using it at an enemy settlement

Bring it only if the destination has enough wildlife and you can establish shelter before defenders reach you. Carry building material, food and a way to deal with survivors. Complete and occupy the shelter first, then activate. The same target-selection limits apply away from home; the pulser does not guarantee a cleared settlement or a safe exit.

Keep it, use it, or sell it?

700 is base market value. Actual buy and sell prices depend on trading modifiers. Do not budget on receiving exactly 700 silver. The animal population at the moment of use matters more than the biome’s reputation: check the Wildlife tab instead of assuming a forest always supplies a useful army.

How long does the manhunter rage last?

For this pulser’s ordinary manhunter state, random recovery starts after about 4 in-game hours (10,000 ticks). After that minimum, the mean additional random wait is 0.3 days, or 7.2 hours. Roughly 11.2 hours is a timer-only average from onset, not a promise and not a shared herd expiration.

Downing or collapsing from exhaustion can end this state sooner. The four-hour minimum applies to random recovery, not every way the state can end. Different animals can recover at different times.

Ordinary sleep does not automatically end this state in the stated build. “They will sleep it off tonight” is poor safety advice. Inspect the animal and wait for its manhunter status to clear before restarting outdoor work.

This is not scaria or a permanent manhunter pack

The artifact applies a temporary manhunter state. It does not add scaria, cure existing scaria, or turn the animal into a special event-pack animal. An animal can already be diseased before activation. Check its health independently, especially in the Scarlands. Do not transfer the recovery rules above to permanent manhunter states.

Where to get a psychic animal pulser

You cannot craft the Core psychic animal pulser. Look for artifact trade stock, quest rewards and ancient-danger treasure. Stock is random; an artifact slot can contain a different item.

In Core, the artifact trade pool includes psychic shock and insanity lances, the animal pulser and the soothe pulser. The ancient-danger artifact category is a different pool; in Core it contains the two pulsers. DLC and mods can change eligible items. The ancient-danger roll is also separate from Royalty’s rare psychic loot roll.

Do not open an ancient danger just to chase an emergency item unless you can handle what is inside. For buying logistics, see RimWorld trading.

Animal pulser vs the other pulses

Royalty’s Manhunter pulse is a level 6 psycast, with a 27.9-cell effect radius and a 34.9-cell cast range. Those are different measurements. Its base cost is 4% psyfocus and 50 neural heat; its duration is also ability-based. Do not use the artifact’s map coverage, pet exemption or recovery timing for this psycast.

The shard animal pulser needs Insanity weaponry research and a bioferrite shaper. Crafting requires 1 shard + 75 bioferrite, Crafting 6, and 19,200 base work ticks. It does not appear in normal trader stock. Choose it when a renewable supply matters enough to spend the shard.

If the pulser still seems to do nothing

• The item is gone, but no new animals appeared: it changes animals already present; it never summons them.
• Your barn is calm: that is expected. Player animals are excluded.
• Only some animals are angry: check ownership, psychic sensitivity, whether they were downed, and whether they arrived after activation. Existing mental or health states can also matter.
• The herd is outside your bedroom: close routine traffic, check the door route and inspect other available targets. Do not step out to lure it.
• The mech cluster is untouched: check whether it is still dormant and whether the animals can reach active targets.
• Animals died before reaching the enemy: inspect turret coverage and enemy weapons. The pulse does not improve animal armor or health.
• Some animals are calm and others are not: individual recovery is expected. Check the remaining threats rather than waiting a fixed number of hours.