Editing Blood

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[[File:blood_splat_preview.png|right]]'''Blood''' is a fluid and [[contaminant]] found in the bodies of most living [[creature]]s. The preferred fluid of [[Armok]], it serves as a vital part of those who possess it; losing it tends to be invariably fatal to most things which have it.

Blood smears located [[tile attributes|indoors]] will automatically be [[Cleaning|cleaned]] by passing dwarves, while those located outdoors will remain there until cleaned by some external factor like [[rain]]. Allocating bloody indoor underground areas as a [[activity zone#Meeting Area|meeting area]] seems to increase their cleaning priority, and they will get cleaned pretty quickly if you have enough idle workers. It is possible to remove blood from a [[soil]] [[floor]] by building a [[dirt road]] on it.

Brooks and similar sources of [[water]] replicate any blood that falls on their tiles, resulting in an endlessly-growing carpet of blood. This can be dealt with by covering the offending brook tiles with [[wall]]s or floors. It is better to forbid an area with blood in above ground areas as rain will randomly clear tiles where it touches it. To be rid of blood splatters on a rough wall, designating the splattered area to be smoothed will make it disappear.

An option in the game [[settings]] permits disabling the spreading of contaminants, including blood.

Beyond the obvious method of injuring creatures, [[barrel]]s full of blood can be brought with a [[dwarf|dwarven]] expedition upon [[embark]], and bought from dwarven and [[human]] civilizations during [[trading]]. Barrels of blood possess no use beyond being trade goods (making buying them redundant at best and a waste of dwarfbucks at worst, unless you are using it as a currency). Player-controlled dwarves are not able to create blood barrels.

Selecting blood inside a barrel for dumping does not empty the barrel. Using the [[soap|workaround]] for dumping liquids from lye buckets works - view the contents of the barrel, select the blood and forbid or dump it. Alternatively, forbid/dump the blood from the stocks screen in 'liquids' then order the barrel to be brought for trading at the depot.

As with all other contaminants, blood created from injured creatures can't be used for anything (beyond morbid decoration) except smeared blood from a [[vampire]], as drinking vampiric blood will turn the person into a vampire themselves.  

*Most invertebrates ([[ant]]s, [[honey bee]]s, [[creeping eye]]s, [[giant cave spider]]s, etc.) possess white-colored '''ichor''', which is functionally identical to blood. ([[File:blood_ichor_sprite.png|15px]])

*[[Crab]]s, [[cuttlefish]], [[nautilus]]es, [[octopus]]es and [[squid]]s possess copper-based dark blue blood. ([[File:blood_cyan_sprite.png|15px]])

*[[Troll]]s possess cyan-colored blood. ([[File:blood_cyan_sprite.png|15px]])

*[[Fire imp]]s and [[demon rat]]s possess gray-colored goo instead of normal blood. ([[File:blood_goo_sprite.png|15px]])

Inorganic creatures such as the [[bronze colossus]], the [[magma man]] and the [[amethyst man]] don't have blood, including particular organics, such as [[sponge]]s and [[Sponge man|their]] [[Giant sponge|variants]], similarly for some types of [[undead]] (skeletons or animated [[skin]]).

Blood makes a significant impact during [[combat]]. A strike which causes damage to major arteries can open them, leading the creature to begin bleeding out rapidly. Without any treatment, the wound may eventually cause the creature to die of blood loss, even if it isn't struck down by any other means. This is especially important in [[adventurer mode]], where the impact of blood loss is more noticeable on an individual level. This type of death is common with creatures who get their limbs severed from their bodies.

Most [[syndrome]]s are contracted when the poison enters the victim's blood. Certain sicknesses (such as [[iron man]] cough) include coughing or vomiting blood as symptoms, which may lead to bleeding damage on the afflicted individual. These are usually not fatal, but may lead to the person being left vulnerable in the face of danger. Certain creatures will suck the blood out of their victims upon landing a bite attack (such as female [[mosquito]]s, [[leech]]es and [[nightwing]]s). This is largely irrelevant with [[vermin]] (who can't interact with other creatures anyway), but may be a problem when dealing with their [[savage]] humanoid/giant counterparts.