v0.34:Flesh ball

xTATTEREDx  · +FINE+  · *SUPERIOR*  · ≡EXCEPTIONAL≡  · ☼MASTERWORK☼

Flesh ball

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Urist likes flesh balls for their warmth.
Biome
Underground Depth: 3
Attributes
· Genderless · No Stun
Cannot be tamed
Size
Max:	70,000 cm3
Age
Adult at:	Birth
Max age:	100-200
Butchering returns
Food items
Raw materials
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v50.14 · v0.47 · v0.34.11 · v0.31 · v0.28 · v0.23 This article is about an older version of DF. More Info · V

A large ball of skin found moving around the debris near underground ponds. It is there that it absorbs dead matter for food.

The flesh ball is an amphibious creature, made entirely out of muscle and blood, that is quite slow on the ground. In fortress mode, they appear in clusters of 2–5 flesh balls per cluster in the third layer of the caverns. Given its size (and the density of its flesh), the ball's diameter is about half a metre. When butchered, it produces no organs and only meat, but is edible. Some dwarves may enjoy flesh balls for their calming roundness or warmth.

Flesh balls are featureless. As simple balls of muscle, they do not need to breathe or sleep, have no thought, cannot vomit, become dizzy, or be stunend, but still easily killable via slashing weapons. A novice swordswarf with a steel short sword takes about twelve minutes (fortress mode) or ten seconds (adventure mode) to kill a single flesh ball, and kills it by repeatedly tearing and slashing the Ball's body until it bleeds to death, and the dwarf remains completely unharmed.

Confronted with a blunt force attacker, a flesh ball laughs by slowly undulating in a rhythmic manner. In an arena test, a novice hammerdwarf with a silver war hammer, no other skills and no armor, attacked the Ball for one day, at which point he was a legendary hammerdwarf, wrestler, fighter, and striker. The flesh ball sustained bruises but was still alive and attacking the hammerdwarf in vain. After about two days of pelting, the hammerdwarf got a lucky hit and tore the skin of the ball, which caused it to bleed out and die.

Even though they are simple, flesh balls can live up to age 200, much older than even dwarves.

Flesh balls are not available in the object testing arena, presumably because they are cavern creatures and may present minor spoilers.

Live training

Main article: Live training

Flesh balls, due to their extreme resistance to blunt weapons, are excellent training dummies. You would do better to catch the flesh balls in cage traps first — it simplifies things. Catch several if possible.

Arm your edge damage dwarves with training weapons (and do not use elven wooden swords and spears, as they are cutting weapons, and will kill flesh balls), arm your blunt damage dwarves with their normal weapons, clad them in metal armor (because flesh balls are able to wound your dwarves, as harmless as they may seem), and send a dwarf to attack a flesh ball. You may want to retire your dwarves every two weeks because of over-exertion and drinking, eating and sleeping. Or, schedule your dwarves so only one goes to the flesh ball training room.

Put your flesh balls in a closed room, add cage traps to the exit so they won't escape and interrupt your dwarves, and send a military dwarf against one. Three or four weeks of constant flesh ball bashing should be sufficient to raise the dwarf's primary weapon skill to legendary.

While flesh balls are invulnerable to blunt weaponry, dwarves will quite frequently bite or scratch, and this makes the flesh balls bleed. You may want to check the flesh ball's state quite often so they do not die (flesh balls do not reproduce, and you will probably not get more than 15–20 flesh balls in a fortress, so you may want to keep them alive longer. Either babysit the flesh balls and deactivate your military so they don't bleed to death, but it is a bother, or find a way to remove the blood.

An advantage of one dwarf vs. one flesh ball is that the flesh ball will attack the dwarf as well, which should help give you a few levels in armor user.

You can train all military weapon skills except for marksdwarf (use iron men, bronze colossuses or giant sponges for these) on a flesh ball, including the unarmed attack skills and of course fighter. Armor user and shield user may earn a few levels, but dodger will generally not, so you will need to complete your dwarves's training program with more dangerous fights.

Raws

[CREATURE:FLESH_BALL] [ARENA_RESTRICTED] [DESCRIPTION:A large ball of skin found moving around the debris near underground ponds. It is there that it absorbs dead matter for food.] [NAME:flesh ball:flesh balls:flesh ball] [CASTE_NAME:flesh ball:flesh balls:flesh ball] [CREATURE_TILE:'o'][COLOR:6:0:0] [PETVALUE:10] [FREQUENCY:10] [BIOME:SUBTERRANEAN_WATER] [LARGE_ROAMING] [UNDERGROUND_DEPTH:3:3] [NOBONES] [NATURAL] [POPULATION_NUMBER:250:500] [CLUSTER_NUMBER:2:5] [PREFSTRING:calming roundness] [PREFSTRING:warmth] [BODY:BASIC_1PARTBODY] [NO_THOUGHT_CENTER_FOR_MOVEMENT] [USE_MATERIAL_TEMPLATE:FLESH:MUSCLE_TEMPLATE] not skin -- it is eaten rather than tanned [USE_TISSUE_TEMPLATE:FLESH:MUSCLE_TEMPLATE] [TISSUE_LAYER:BY_CATEGORY:ALL:FLESH] [SPEED:6900] [USE_MATERIAL_TEMPLATE:BLOOD:BLOOD_TEMPLATE] [BLOOD:LOCAL_CREATURE_MAT:BLOOD:LIQUID] [CREATURE_CLASS:GENERAL_POISON] [GETS_WOUND_INFECTIONS] [GETS_INFECTIONS_FROM_ROT] [BODY_SIZE:0:0:70000] [MAXAGE:100:200] [ALL_ACTIVE] [NOBREATHE][NOSTUN][NONAUSEA][NOEMOTION] [NOTHOUGHT] [NO_SLEEP] [NO_DIZZINESS] [SET_TL_GROUP:BY_CATEGORY:ALL:FLESH] [TL_COLOR_MODIFIER:BROWN:1:BURNT_UMBER:1:CINNAMON:1:COPPER:1:DARK_BROWN:1:DARK_PEACH:1:DARK_TAN:1:ECRU:1:PALE_BROWN:1:PALE_CHESTNUT:1:PALE_PINK:1:PEACH:1:PINK:1:RAW_UMBER:1:SEPIA:1:TAN:1:TAUPE_PALE:1:TAUPE_SANDY:1] [TLCM_NOUN:flesh:SINGULAR]

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Birds	Albatross (man, giant) • Barn owl (man, giant) • Bushtit (man, giant) • Cassowary (man, giant) • Cockatiel (man, giant) • Crow (man, giant) • Eagle (man, giant) • Emu (man, giant) • Great horned owl (man, giant) • Grey parrot (man, giant) • Hornbill (man, giant) • Kakapo (man, giant) • Kea (man, giant) • Kestrel (man, giant) • Kiwi (man, giant) • Loon (man, giant) • Lorikeet (man, giant) • Magpie (man, giant) • Masked lovebird (man, giant) • Osprey (man, giant) • Ostrich (man, giant) • Parakeet (man, giant) • Peach-faced lovebird (man, giant) • Penguin (little, emperor, man, giant) • Peregrine falcon (man, giant) • Puffin (man, giant) • Raven (man, giant) • Snowy owl (man, giant) • Sparrow (man, giant) • Swan (man, giant) • White stork (man, giant) • Wren (man, giant)
Bugs	Bark scorpion (man, giant) • Brown recluse spider (man, giant) • Damselfly (man, giant) • Grasshopper (man, giant) • Jumping spider (man, giant) • Louse (man, giant) • Mantis (man, giant) • Moon snail (man, giant) • Mosquito (man, giant) • Moth (man, giant) • Slug (man, giant) • Snail (man, giant) • Thrips (man, giant) • Tick (man, giant)
Desert	Desert tortoise (man, giant) • Gila monster (man, giant) • Leopard gecko (man, giant)
Domestic	Alpaca • Blue peafowl • Cat • Cavy • Chicken • Cow • Dog • Donkey • Duck • Goat • Goose • Guineafowl • Horse • Llama • Mule • Pig • Rabbit • Reindeer • Sheep • Turkey • Water buffalo • Yak
Mountain	Chinchilla (man, giant) • Dark gnome • Hoary marmot • Mountain gnome • Mountain goat • Wolverine (man, giant)
Ocean	Angelshark • Basking shark • Blacktip reef shark • Blue shark • Bluefin tuna • Bluefish • Bull shark • Cod • Coelacanth • Common skate • Conger eel • Crab (man, giant) • Cuttlefish (man, giant) • Elephant seal (man, giant) • Frill shark • Giant grouper • Great barracuda • Great white shark • Halibut • Hammerhead shark • Harp seal (man, giant) • Horseshoe crab (man, giant) • Leopard seal (man, giant) • Longfin mako shark • Manta ray • Marlin • Milkfish • Narwhal (man, giant) • Nautilus (man, giant) • Nurse shark • Ocean sunfish • Octopus (man, giant) • Opah • Orca (man, giant) • Sea lamprey • Shortfin mako shark • Sperm whale (man, giant) • Spiny dogfish • Sponge (man, giant) • Spotted wobbegong • Squid (man, giant) • Stingray • Sturgeon • Swordfish • Tiger shark • Walrus • Whale shark • Whitetip reef shark
River/Lake	Axolotl (man, giant) • Beaver (man, giant) • Carp • Hippo • Leech (man, giant) • Longnose gar • Mink (man, giant) • Otter (river, sea, man, giant) • Pike • Platypus (man, giant) • Pond turtle (man, giant) • Snapping turtle (common, alligator, man, giant) • Tigerfish
Temperate	Adder (man, giant) • Alligator • Badger (man, giant) • Black bear • Bobcat (man, giant) • Buzzard • Capybara (man, giant) • Coati (man, giant) • Copperhead snake (man, giant) • Cougar • Coyote (man, giant) • Deer • Dingo (man, giant) • Echidna (man, giant) • Fox • Gray langur (man, giant) • Green tree frog (man, giant) • Grizzly bear • Groundhog • Hare (man, giant) • Ibex (man, giant) • Kangaroo (man, giant) • Kingsnake (man, giant) • Koala (man, giant) • Moose (man, giant) • Opossum (man, giant) • Panda (man, giant) • Porcupine (man, giant) • Raccoon • Rattlesnake (man, giant) • Red panda (man, giant) • Rhesus macaque • Skunk (man, giant) • Weasel (man, giant) • Wild boar (man, giant) • Wolf • Wombat (man, giant)
Tropical	Aardvark (man, giant) • Anaconda (man, giant) • Armadillo (man, giant) • Aye-aye (man, giant) • Bilou • Black mamba (man, giant) • Black-crested gibbon • Black-handed gibbon • Bonobo • Bushmaster (man, giant) • Capuchin (man, giant) • Cheetah (giant) • Chimpanzee • Elephant • Gazelle • Giant desert scorpion • Giant tortoise (man, giant) • Giraffe • Gorilla • Gray gibbon • Honey badger • Hyena (man, giant) • Impala (man, giant) • Jackal (man, giant) • Jaguar (giant) • King cobra (man, giant) • Leopard (giant) • Lion (giant) • Lion tamarin (man, giant) • Mandrill • Mongoose (man, giant) • Monitor lizard (man, giant) • Ocelot (man, giant) • One-humped camel • Orangutan • Pangolin (man, giant) • Pileated gibbon • Python (man, giant) • Rhinoceros • Saltwater crocodile • Siamang • Silvery gibbon • Sloth (man, giant) • Sloth bear (man, giant) • Spider monkey (man, giant) • Tapir (man, giant) • Tiger (giant, man) • Two-humped camel • Vulture • Warthog • White-browed gibbon • White-handed gibbon
Tundra	Elk • Lynx (man, giant) • Muskox • Polar bear • Stoat (man, giant)
Subterranean	Amethyst man • Blind cave bear • Blind cave ogre • Blood man • Bugbat • Cave blob • Cave crocodile • Cave dragon • Cave floater • Creeping eye • Crundle • Draltha • Drunian • Elk bird • Fire imp • Fire man • Flesh ball • Floating guts • Gabbro man • Giant bat • Giant cave spider • Giant cave swallow • Giant earthworm • Giant mole • Giant olm • Giant rat • Giant toad • Gorlak • Green devourer • Helmet snake • Hungry head • Iron man • Jabberer • Large rat • Magma crab • Magma man • Manera • Molemarian • Mud man • Naked mole dog • Plump helmet man • Pond grabber • Reacher • Rutherer • Troglodyte • Voracious cave crawler
Mammals	Flying squirrel (man, giant) • Hamster (man, giant) • Hedgehog (man, giant)
Miscellaneous	Beak dog • Blizzard man • Foul blendec • Gremlin • Grimeling • Harpy • Ice wolf • Merperson • Nightwing • Ogre • Sasquatch • Satyr • Sea monster • Sea serpent • Strangler • Troll • Unicorn • Yeti
Semi-Megabeasts	Cyclops • Ettin • Giant • Minotaur
Megabeasts	Bronze colossus • Dragon • Forgotten beast • Hydra • Roc • Titan
Nonexistent	Centaur • Chimera • Griffon