Editing Tortoise

{{info|'''Tortoises''' are crawling omnivores which live in the moderate climates of the [[temperate forest]] and [[temperate swamp]], and the sweltering humidity of the [[tropical rainforest]] and [[tropical swamp]]. Its thick shell gives it 35% blunt damage resistance and 50% sharp damage resistance. Their small body size, built-in armor, and moderate health means that a hunter will need several shots to take one down.}}

 

When slaughtered, a tortoise yields {{#vardefineecho:baby_meat|{{Meat Leather Curve|{{#expr:{{P|Body Size}}*0.2*140}}}}}} meat and {{Meat Leather Curve|{{#expr:{{P|Body Size}}*0.2*40}}}} [[lizardskin]] as a baby; {{Meat Leather Curve|{{#expr:{{P|Body Size}}*0.5*140}}}} meat and {{Meat Leather Curve|{{#expr:{{P|Body Size}}*0.5*40}}}} lizardskin as a juvenile; or {{Meat Leather Curve|{{#expr:{{P|Body Size}}*140}}}} meat and {{Meat Leather Curve|{{#expr:{{P|Body Size}}*40}}}} lizardskin as an adult.

Tortoises do not lay unfertilised eggs, and as their [[Tortoise egg (fert.)|fertilised eggs]] only provide {{Q|Tortoise egg (fert.)|Nutrition}} nutrition compared to the {{#expr:{{#var:baby_meat}}*0.05}} nutrition of the butchered baby tortoise, they should always be allowed to hatch.

An adult female tortoise consumes {{P|Real Hunger Rate}} nutrition per day. If her offspring are slaughtered immediately, a female tortoise produces {{#expr:{{Meat Production|{{PAGENAME}}|baby}} round 2}} nutrition of meat per day, giving a nutrition efficiency of {{#expr:{{Meat Production|{{PAGENAME}}|baby}}/{{P|Real Hunger Rate}} round 3}}. If the offspring are allowed to grow to adulthood before they are slaughtered, they will consume an additional {{#expr:{{Nutrition Consumption|{{PAGENAME}}|adult}} - {{P|Real Hunger Rate}} round 2}} nutrition per day, but will instead yield {{#expr:{{Meat Production|{{PAGENAME}}|adult}} round 2}} nutrition per day as they are slaughtered, resulting in a nutrition efficiency of {{#expr:{{Meat Production|{{PAGENAME}}|adult}}/{{Nutrition Consumption|{{PAGENAME}}|adult}} round 3}}. When considering a population of equal numbers of male and female tortoises, these nutrition efficiencies fall to {{#expr:{{Meat Production|{{PAGENAME}}|baby|1|1}}/{{Nutrition Consumption|{{PAGENAME}}|baby|1|1}} round 3}} for baby slaughter and {{#expr:{{Meat Production|{{PAGENAME}}|adult|1|1}}/{{Nutrition Consumption|{{PAGENAME}}|adult|1|1}} round 3}} for adult slaughter.

While tortoises are the single most nutritionally efficient animal in the game, they are not blocked by fences and so require taming upkeep every {{#expr:12 - 6*{{P|Wildness}} round 2}} days. This can potentially be worked around by slaughtering the tortoises just as they would lose their tameness, but this might require heavy micromanagement.

Tortoises are fairly easy to tame. Tortoise ranching can be a rewarding experience as maintenance costs are low and fresh females can be constantly recruited in the right biomes. Though they will not explode into a dwarf fortress "2cat" style of overpopulation in the same way a few [[chicken]]s can manage to, players can still build up large tortoise farms and use them as a steady source of income.  

Alternatively they can be raised for doctors to train medical skills by euthanizing and/or for training the melee skill. Because of the creature's armor and low damage output, a [[plate armor|well-armored]] colonist can land many blows without much risk, quickly raising the melee skill substantially. One strategy is to allow warriors needing training in melee to fight, (but not kill) the animal, then for doctors to mend the creature's wounds, allowing them to train their skill, too. Rinse and repeat a few times until the poor beast has been tenderized enough to be given to the cooks for a nutritious final disposition.