How does butchering actually work? (related to extracting bionics from zombies)

[hexman]

Hello everyone, I’m collecting bionics and I’ve got many from Shockers, Shocker-Brutes, Scientists, Bio Operators and Technicians. Labs don’t contain many bionics iirc (I’ve explored only 2 floors of my lab and have only got metabolic interchange, internal storage, joint torsion ratchet, integrated toolset, Internal Furnace, and other common bionics) and most of the good bionics I’ve got were from zombies (especially Shocker Brutes, Scientists and Bio Operators) but there is one problem. Whenever I butcher these zombies’ corpses with an item with a good butchering quality, it still gives me burnt out bionic. In other words whether I butcher 'em with my machete, hunting knife or an activated circular saw I get random no of bionics and some burnt out bionics (or no good bionics at all). The hunting knife has a 30 butchering quality, and an activated circular saw has a 60 butchering quality, I always keep a hunting knife with me in a sheat and I (a)ctivate the sheat whenever I need to butcher a zombie corpse (which has a chance of dropping bionics). I also tried butchering a Shocker Brute with an activated circular saw (wielded in hand) but got 3 burnt out bionics while butchering another one with a machete got me Internal Unified Power System and Ethanol burner along-with a Power Storage bionic. On another occasion when I butchered a Bio-Operator with a hunting knife, I only got a Power Storage MK2. And when I butchered a Scientist with a machete, I got Hydraulic Muscles and Air Filtration System while butchering many with hunting knife only yielded burnt out bionics.

Is butchering actually related to getting bionics from corpses or am I doing something wrong? Is there any other way to get cool bionics?

Btw, I think getting a mutation is easier than a bionic since I currently know about 14 mutagens (and serums) while only knowing 6 CBMs. But mutation sucks (I don’t have a robust genetics trait and I recently had got jittery and forgetful traits from injecting a medical serum which I crafted thinking that I would get past the threshold, thankfully I had a few flasks of purifiers), at least for me.

Thanks.

[Hoa_Binh]

I would also like to know the answer to this, I have so far just assumed that it was completely random what you got but if the quality of butchering matters I’ll make sure to bring a better knife.

[BeerBeer]

Speculation:

• Your survival skill might count, as it does count for butchering animals.
• Your electronics, mechanics or first-aid skills might count, as they count for installing bionics.
• Did you say you have the trait Jittery? That might matter, depending whether it was gained before or after trying to salvage the CBMs.
• Low dexterity or intelligence might hamper CBM salvage attempts.

Edit:
Oh, wait… Wiki says survival skill matters, so that might be the only factor.
http://www.wiki.cataclysmdda.com/index.php?title=Bionics
"…although if your survival skill isn’t high enough you might not get any, or only burnt out bionics"

[hexman]

[quote=“BeerBeer, post:3, topic:8626”]Speculation:

• Your survival skill might count, as it does count for butchering animals.
• Your electronics, mechanics or first-aid skills might count, as they count for installing bionics.
• Did you say you have the trait Jittery? That might matter, depending whether it was gained before or after trying to salvage the CBMs.
• Low dexterity or intelligence might hamper CBM salvage attempts.

Edit:
Oh, wait… Wiki says survival skill matters, so that might be the only factor.
http://www.wiki.cataclysmdda.com/index.php?title=Bionics
"…although if your survival skill isn’t high enough you might not get any, or only burnt out bionics"[/quote]

I removed the jittery mutation (along with the forgetful mutation) using flasks of purifier. And no I never butchered while having the mutation (in fact after getting both mutations, I gulped purifier and threw all of the medical mutagen I had crafted, away). My intelligence is good, dex is 11+2 (due to some CBM, i don’t remember which one), electronics is 10, mechanics is 28, first aid is 8, survival is 11. I don’t have any idea about how butchering quality or any of these skills affect attempts to salavage CBMs.

My questions is:

How to increase the chance of getting working CBMs after butchering zombies?

[BeerBeer]

I’m afraid the only sure way to find out is to gawk at the source code and its comments, and try to figure out the mechanic. The other way is to make a backup of your save game right before you’re about to butcher a zombie that likely carries a CBM. Load up the game, use the debug console to give your character maximum Survival, then butcher, and check the results. Quit, wipe the save, restore the backup and repeat a few times.

Also, some CBMs can be crafted, and burnt out bionic modules are a crafting component. This wiki article contains a (partial or full) list of craftable CBMs. Read it at your discretion.
http://www.wiki.cataclysmdda.com/index.php?title=Burnt_out_bionic

[Coolthulhu]

You need survival at 3 and dex at 8 to have 100% chance of recovering CBMs.
If you have str below 4 or a bad cutting tool (butchering quality below 0), you have a much lower chance of recovering CBMs.

If your dex is lower than 8 or survival than 3, you can still make up for it with the other one, but it’s not guaranteed to happen.

If you have str >= 4 and a good cutting tool, you need to pass a roll:
rng(0, survival - 3) + rng(0, (dex-8)/4) >= 0

You can’t control which CBMs you find or even if they are burned out. That’s pure chance.

Most CBM zeds drop two CBMs: one random (dependent on zombie type) and one battery. Each of those has a 50% chance of being burned out instead.

[Closet_Pankin]

Survival skill and butchering skill DO matter. Though it could also be bad luck.

[AllisonW]

On people talking about considering bringing a better knife: the answer is always Yes, even if it apparently doesn’t actually affect chance of getting CBMs outside of at least having a tool with Butchering above 0. It’s easy to stick a hunting knife (failing that, a butcher knife; failing that, a steak knife) in your boot as part of your standard layout.

[hexman]

On people talking about considering bringing a better knife: the answer is always Yes, even if it apparently doesn’t actually affect chance of getting CBMs outside of at least having a tool with Butchering above 0. It’s easy to stick a hunting knife (failing that, a butcher knife; failing that, a steak knife) in your boot as part of your standard layout.

Yeah, I always keep a sheathed hunting knife with me. But I doubt that the butchering quality of the weapon affects the chance of getting a working bionic from a zombie corpse.

Btw, if you’ve multiple weapons with varying butchering quality and you (B)uthcher a corpse, then which one will be used? The one in hand (wielded) or the weapon with the highest butchering quality?

[hexman]

[quote=“BeerBeer, post:5, topic:8626”]Also, some CBMs can be crafted, and burnt out bionic modules are a crafting component. This wiki article contains a (partial or full) list of craftable CBMs. Read it at your discretion.
http://www.wiki.cataclysmdda.com/index.php?title=Burnt_out_bionic[/quote]

I didn’t knew that many bionics can be crafted, at present I only know 6 bionics (including power storage bionics). The wiki has the wrong crafting template (I’ve first aid 8, and electronics 10 atm and I still don’t know how to craft all those alloy platings), I think those recipes are found in rare books.

Do you guys have any idea where those books can be found? (Of all of the libraries I’ve raided until know, only 3-4 seemed to contain useful stuff, others had redundant books and empty bookcases)

At present I’m looking for the “lab journal- Herrera” and “Robots For Fun And Profit”; Both are supposed to be containing the recipe for a control laptop besides many useful recipes.

[AllisonW]

I wanna craft bionics and I’m lookin’ for Herrera’s lab journal

Keep searchin’ labs for Herrera’s journal. That contains some more bionic crafting recipes in addition to its other stuff, including that armour-skin you want. Dunno where to find the robotics book off the top of my head myself, but my best guess is that it might be a rare spawn on zombie scientists (like SICP) or in electronics stores or something. Also try school libraries; they often have unusually badass books for an elementary school. It’s not super-unusual to find books on chemical warfare or historical armoursmithing in school libraries, so I wouldn’t be surprised if the robotics book has a chance of making an appearance, too.

[hexman]

[quote=“hexman, post:10, topic:8626”]I wanna craft bionics and I’m lookin’ for Herrera’s lab journal

Keep searchin’ labs for Herrera’s journal. That contains some more bionic crafting recipes in addition to its other stuff, including that armour-skin you want. Dunno where to find the robotics book off the top of my head myself, but my best guess is that it might be a rare spawn on zombie scientists (like SICP) or in electronics stores or something. Also try school libraries; they often have unusually badass books for an elementary school. It’s not super-unusual to find books on chemical warfare or historical armoursmithing in school libraries, so I wouldn’t be surprised if the robotics book has a chance of making an appearance, too.[/quote]

Well, zombie scientists contain useful bionics but I’ve never found a book on them. Cooking and mutagen recipes books are all over the lab I’m exploring (thats the reason that I’ve found crafting recipes for most of the mutagens, except cephlapod, triglobite and alpha; but most of these are sh*t and come with catastrophic drawbacks that I don’t want to deal with). I hope that I’ll find one.

[AllisonW]

[quote=“AllisonW, post:11, topic:8626”][quote=“hexman, post:10, topic:8626”]I wanna craft bionics and I’m lookin’ for Herrera’s lab journal

Keep searchin’ labs for Herrera’s journal. That contains some more bionic crafting recipes in addition to its other stuff, including that armour-skin you want. Dunno where to find the robotics book off the top of my head myself, but my best guess is that it might be a rare spawn on zombie scientists (like SICP) or in electronics stores or something. Also try school libraries; they often have unusually badass books for an elementary school. It’s not super-unusual to find books on chemical warfare or historical armoursmithing in school libraries, so I wouldn’t be surprised if the robotics book has a chance of making an appearance, too.[/quote]

Well, zombie scientists contain useful bionics but I’ve never found a book on them. Cooking and mutagen recipes books are all over the lab I’m exploring (thats the reason that I’ve found crafting recipes for most of the mutagens, except cephlapod, triglobite and alpha; but most of these are sh*t and come with catastrophic drawbacks that I don’t want to deal with). I hope that I’ll find one.[/quote]

Zombie scientists can drop books. I’ve found copies of SICP on them.

[hexman]

Zombie scientists can drop books. I’ve found copies of SICP on them.

Yeah, I remember getting lab journal-dionne and pe065 chimera books on zombie scientists. But this is somewhat rare and even rarer to find a bionics book on them. The ones I found were for mutagen recipes and an electronics book (I think).

[Darkfirephoenix]

I found “Robots for fun and profit” on a random NPC that decided he wanted to mug me with a baseball bat, while I had a katana and a fully loaded shotgun… I wasn’t too mad about the stupidity of the NPC.
You can also find some rare books in bank vaults and in spider basements. (got a Rivtech binder from a bank and some other high skill books from basements)

[hexman]

[quote=“Darkfirephoenix, post:15, topic:8626”]I found “Robots for fun and profit” on a random NPC that decided he wanted to mug me with a baseball bat, while I had a katana and a fully loaded shotgun… I wasn’t too mad about the stupidity of the NPC.
You can also find some rare books in bank vaults and in spider basements. (got a Rivtech binder from a bank and some other high skill books from basements)[/quote]

Yeah basements are full of cool stuff, especially the ones infested by those black widows (though with high dodging skill and a good melee weapon they’re nothing). I got my first “cache” of weapons from a basement, also got a book on crafting caseless ammunition, which was in a spider infested basement. I also katana, rapier and other cool melee weapons too from basements (But I still used my reinforced machete just for fun). Unfortunately, I’ve looted most of the houses in my town and I’m running out of houses with basements. And I’ve made my base large and full of stuff that I cannot make it a moving base without dismantling multiple RVs (I should’ve made a moving base in the beginning but now its too large and stuffed with supplies that I cannot undertake this boring task). I guess I’ll just have to travel to other cities in my small mobile house. Thanks for the tip man, appreciate it.

[BrightOrangePants]

[quote=“hexman, post:9, topic:8626”]Yeah, I always keep a sheathed hunting knife with me. But I doubt that the butchering quality of the weapon affects the chance of getting a working bionic from a zombie corpse.

Btw, if you’ve multiple weapons with varying butchering quality and you (B)uthcher a corpse, then which one will be used? The one in hand (wielded) or the weapon with the highest butchering quality?[/quote]

I’ve had this same question for awhile now. Anyone have the answer?

[Nopkar]

[quote=“BrightOrangePants, post:17, topic:8626”][quote=“hexman, post:9, topic:8626”]Yeah, I always keep a sheathed hunting knife with me. But I doubt that the butchering quality of the weapon affects the chance of getting a working bionic from a zombie corpse.

Btw, if you’ve multiple weapons with varying butchering quality and you (B)uthcher a corpse, then which one will be used? The one in hand (wielded) or the weapon with the highest butchering quality?[/quote]

I’ve had this same question for awhile now. Anyone have the answer?[/quote]

I think kevin or KA has said before that the highest butcher quality will be used, regardless of being wielded or in a sheath. So if you’ve got a hunting knife, combat knife and a steak knife, one wielded, one in a boot and one in your pack the highest quality will be used no matter what