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Big and Small - Sapient Animals

Sapient Animals! Optionally also Mechanoids.


Most animals (and optionally mechanoids) can be made sapient using a craftable and findable "Cogni-Fi" gadget.

A sapient animal will in most respects function as a colonists being able to perform jobs, be draftable and; if they have suitable limbs for it; wields weapons.

They can wear apparel, but most have heavier apparel blacklisted automatically. Shieldbelts and such are fine though, and modders are free to change what they want each animal to be able to wear.



Animals will show their "animal pack" graphics if carrying items, but most other apparel won't be visible.

Genes and bionics can both be applied to animals, but most graphics are suppressed unless tagged to be visible on animals. Size genes and such will show fine though.

Sapient animals will expect to sleep on proper beds rather than animal sleeping spots and the like.


Animals with anything like hands or a trunk can wield weapons, but hoofed or animals with non-retractable claws won't be able to wield weapons. Those in-between will do it... poorly. The mod will try to figure out which ones automatically.

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The Cogni-Fi item can be used to make an animal sapient. It can be found randomly as a reward or crafted using Neutroamine, Glitterworld Medicine, and a Spacer Component.

It works only on animals, and i taming them first is advised unless you like surprises.

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Sapient Mechanoids are possible as well, and should retain their unique weapons (if any), but for balanced reasons they will be dependent on "android fuel" for food unless genes or hediffs that remove hunger are used. Simply Robots has the Android Fuel food item.


Sapient Mechanoids was a bit of a last-minute feature due to being requested a lot, so they are a bit barebones in implementation.

A restart is required for this to take effect. Changing that setting will also make the Cogni-Fi work on mechanoids.

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Animals can easily be given custom overrides (no path operations needed). If the mod finds settings for an animal with the right name it will use them automatically.

The same type of overrides work for mechanoids, so if you want them to not need special food, or not eat at all, you can easily do it by changing those overrides.

The image above shows an override for sapient rats that give them their appropriate Pixar aptitudes.


The Sapient Animals and Mechanoids can be enabled on the Big & Small Framework by making a BS_GlobalSettings entry. They won't spawn naturally though, so you will need to handle that yourself.

Using this method you can fairly easily set up how you want your Sapient Mechanoid Maids to work, or whatever you wish.

Genes can target sapient animals, meaning you can make genes to turn someone into a killer rabbit, or for example give a vampire xenotype the ability to turn into a wolf temporarily.

For more info message me on my discord linked below. :)

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Is there any visible armor?

The Animal Armor mod supports sapient animals

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Mod Discord

[discord.gg][ko-fi.com]