Wraith Essence Manangement

Wraith Essence Manangement

This guide covers the Wraith essence loop: how essence is gained/spent, which abilities participate in the loop, and how auto-feeding now works with both pods and prisoners.

For biomass production and biomass power, see Wraith Biomass and Cocoon Operations. For overall unlock flow, see Research and Progression. For cloning biomass demand, see Cloning Systems.

Essence Resource Basics

essence metabolism (Rimgate_WraithEssenceMetabolism) is the core Wraith resource gene:

• Disables the normal Food need.
• Adds an essence resource gizmo (resourceGizmoType: Rimgate.GeneGizmo_ResourceEssence).
• Decays at baseline 0.02 per day (resourceLossPerDay).
• Applies escalating Essence deficit pressure when essence is low.

Operationally, Wraith pawns act against a configurable target level in the gizmo. Auto-feed logic only triggers when essence is below that target.

Essence Abilities and Costs

The table below summarizes Wraith abilities tied to essence management.

Ability	Source Gene	Essence Cost	Essence Gain	Cooldown	Practical Use
drain life (Rimgate_WraithLifeDrainAbility)	essence metabolism	0	+0.25 base (essenceGainAmount)	30000 ticks	Main refill tool; can target pawns and filled cocoon pods in melee.
web shot (Rimgate_WraithCocoonTrapAbility)	webbing protein glands	0.1	None	420 ticks	Combat control; indirect essence support by creating safer captures.
cocoon wrap (Rimgate_WraithCocoonWrapAbility)	webbing protein glands	0.4	None	1800~2400 ticks	Converts a colony prisoner into a cocoon pod target.
regenerative trance (Rimgate_WraithEssenceMendingAbility)	essence metabolism	0.45	None	90000 ticks	Converts stored essence into long-form self-repair utility.

Notes:

• drain life is the only direct essence gain action in this set.
• regenerative trance uses deferred payment (payCostAtStart=false), so essence is charged when the job completes successfully.

Feeding Targets

Wraith can refill from two target types:

• Filled cocoon pods (Rimgate_WraithCocoonPod)
• Colony prisoners

Both routes use the same drain life ability for cooldown and effect resolution.

Auto-Feed Behavior

When essence is below target and drain life is castable:

1. If auto use pods is enabled, AI searches for a reachable filled cocoon pod first.
2. If no pod is selected and auto use prisoners is enabled, AI searches reachable colony prisoners and casts drain life.
3. If both are disabled, no autonomous essence feeding is attempted.

This means pods are always prioritized over prisoners when both toggles are enabled.

Per-Pawn Toggle Controls

The essence gizmo now has two separate auto-feed toggles:

• auto use pods for filled cocoon pod feeding.
• auto use prisoners for prisoner feeding fallback (Baseliner icon).

Each toggle is stored per pawn through the Gene_WraithEssenceMetabolism state:

• FilledPodsAllowed
• PrisonersAllowed

Practical Setup

• Keep at least one valid prisoner lane available even when pods are part of your primary loop.
• Enable pod automation on core Wraith fighters to reduce micromanagement.
• Disable prisoner automation on pawns you do not want entering prison blocks.
• Treat regenerative trance as planned spending; it competes with emergency drain reserves.