Spoilers

Dread, deep-touched settlers and stillness

Dread follows the calendar

Dread runs from 0 to 100 for each settler in a Fortress colony that records the deep. Open Settlers, choose the person and open Deep to see the current causes. Base dread gained each in-game hour is 0.5 in the Deep Stone, 1 in the First Caverns, 2 in the Fossil Galleries, 3 in the Flooded Stair and Hearth, 5 in the Crystal Lattice and 8 in the Undermaw. The new colony clock has more actions in each hour, but the hourly dread rate stays tied to the calendar.

Sleeping and being alone

Sleeping below the Bedrock adds half of the depth rate again. Being alone adds another half. Together these double the depth contribution. Company uses the ordinary Social reach: up to two connected cardinal steps on the same level, with no conversation through a wall. Any qualifying nearby settler removes the alone penalty. Only company from a settler who is not deep-touched gives the separate relief of 1 dread an hour. Standing on grey blight adds 2 dread an hour, and an open breach adds 0.3 everywhere. These additions are separate from the depth rate.

Relief and the Shrine of the Green

For an ordinary settler, uncovered surface daylight removes 3 dread an hour. Surface night or a roof removes 1, and the shallow cellars remove 0.5. A lit hearth in an enclosed room removes 2. A standing torch or candle stand in an enclosed room removes 1. These kinds of relief can add together. A settler with at least 15 dread can spend leisure at a reachable Shrine of the Green for another 8 relief an hour. At the shrine, hunger and thirst must both be below 60 to receive that relief. The hourly causes readout includes shrine relief separately from the ordinary dread tick.

Stages and lingering memories

Dread reaches Uneasy at 25, Haunted at 50 and Nightmares at 75. These stages add ordinary Social memories that can last after dread has fallen. At 75 or more, a sleeping settler also gains 0.5 fatigue per calendar tick, reducing the benefit of sleep. This is an added fatigue amount, so it does not halve every kind of rest. Memory strength, refresh, duration and caps still apply. Hauling keeps its ordinary exemption from Social work pace effects.

Becoming deep-touched

At the dread check, a settler at 100 who has never been deep-touched becomes permanently deep-touched and dread resets to 60. Their depth contribution is halved, including the extra portions from sleeping and being alone. Grey blight and the open breach are separate additions. A deep-touched settler gets no surface relief, even at night or under a roof. Nearby ordinary settlers gain 0.5 dread an hour from their presence. A deep-touched settler works 15% faster below the Bedrock on jobs affected by deep work pace. Hauling is excluded. This work bonus does not directly change walking speed.

Crystalline arrest and stillness

Time in the Crystal Lattice, at depths 19 to 23, accumulates separately from dread. Sleeping counts 1.5 times as fast. At 40 weighted hours the settler is Veined, at 100 Quieting, at 180 Cooling and at 260 Still. Work pace falls to 90%, 75% and 50% before stillness. Ordinary hunger increases more slowly, while waking fatigue rises more quickly. Leaving the Lattice stops further exposure, but keeps both the accumulated time and the reached stage. Lowering dread does not reverse it. Stillness is permanent. The settler remains in the register as a figure in the rock, with no ordinary body to bury or rise again.

Finishing cheese work below

Completing a cellar recipe below the Bedrock also adds dread to its worker. Dusted ageing adds twice as much as another cellar recipe at the same depth. This happens when the job finishes, separately from ordinary hourly exposure. The completed-job amount follows the colony clock rules, so a newly founded colony and an older colony can add different amounts per finished batch.