Editing Dryads

All dryads are produced by a [[Gauranlen tree]]. They have no need to eat, are immune to disease events, and have a 100% [[Toxic Resistance]], rendering them immune to [[Toxic fallout]] and [[Toxic buildup]]. Dryads will bleed, but cannot bleed to death. They have a sleep need requirement and tend to sleep at nighttime, not maintaining a normal sleep schedule.

All castes will start off as an immature dryad. Immature dryads will spawn every 6 days, according to an invisible timer. If there are empty dryad slots, this timer will be visible; it'll still tick down if there aren't empty dryad slots, waiting for an opening.

Immature dryads will attempt to immediately form into a cocoon upon spawning, as long as their sleep need is met. It takes 5 days for them to grow into a caste. Players can choose the caste for each specific tree, which future dryads will be. Changing a tree's caste will cause all dryads to become immature again, instead taking 5{{Check Tag|Verify|Verify 5 days not 6}} days to grow up.

Dryads cannot be assigned to any areas. While not hauling or following a drafted pawn, dryads will meander nearby their Gauranlen tree. They will attempt to put out fires on Gauranlen moss nearby. When following a drafted pawn, dryads perform identically to other animals. Carriers will continuously haul, while other animals with Haul training have a random delay.

Tree pruning is a time consuming process - colonists connected to trees will need to dedicate all their time managing their trees. For the three resource -makers, just planting [[crop]]s (when possible) tends to give more yield per work. Haulers are more efficient than humans haulers, as 1 tree and 1 colonist will support 4 haulers who don't need to eat or recreate, and will work longer than prune time. Combat dryads are weak on their own, but have unique advantages and dedicated combat roles - see [[#Combat potential]] for details.

**Wood can be fashioned into [[sculpture]]s, valued based on Art skill. However, one harvest is not enough for a sculpture, and they take a noticeable amount of work. See [[Money_making_guide#Sculpture_Production|Sculpture Production]] for more details.

Therefore, berrymakers are the most efficient money dryad, giving the most value for no extra work. However, berries expire after 14 days, which may necessitate woodmakers instead.

For comparison, planting a ''single'' [[psychoid plant]] gives $28 in [[flake]]. Corn can be planted and harvested to make $605 per hour with the right bionics. This makes dryads a fairly poor method of making money, and more useful for their situational or Ideoligion benefits.

Only Barkskin and Clawer dryads are capable of combat. Either dryad can follow their tree's connected pawn into battle, much like a trained [[animal]]. Dryads have special advantages over normal animals: they can't die of blood loss (so don't need to be tended to immediately), can heal otherwise permanent injuries in 3 days, and do not contribute towards colony wealth (making raids smaller). However, they can't be brought off the colony normally, unable to leave via [[caravan]] or pod launchers.

As individual fighters, dryads perform rather poorly in combat. However, they are good at doing their role, supporting colonists and other pawns in combat:

*Barkskin dryads boast high defense, with similar armor to a [[thrumbo]] (70% sharp, 40% blunt), but with around 9x less health. They can take roughly 3-4 shots from most firearms. With 3.16 DPS, they are fairly weak, but their armor and aforementioned healing make them useful. With such high armor, these dryads are good at distracting enemies while your colonists fire from afar. Alone, they are roughly equal to [[dog]]s in combat.

*Clawers have a great DPS, out-damaging [[scyther]]s and [[thrumbo]]s, and their first attack will stun for a short duration. The opposite of barkskins, clawers have poor durability. This makes them strong when combined with other melee attackers (including other clawers), in a cramped hallway, or when facing a small number of powerful enemies like centipedes or thrumbos. Alone, they are typically capable beating gun-wielding human pawns.

Conclusion: Even though they require a large amount of a pawn's time, dryads don't need food or training. With strong healing and immunity to blood loss, players may find them easier to keep than other pets. If they die, the tree-connected pawn only receives a -2 [[mood]] debuff, and a new dryad can take their place in 12 days.