Colony Aides
Colony Aides
Colony Aides are persistent NPC helpers recruited with Pinecones. They belong to your account rather than to one colony, so they can travel with you through the life of the game without becoming ordinary pets.
What Makes an Aide Different from a Pet?
Aides are reliable specialists. They do not use normal pet breeding, aging, sickness, hunger, thirst, bedding, or Sleeping Den capacity. Their fiction is that they handle their ordinary personal needs off-screen.
They also have a firm training ceiling. Normal pets can keep developing beyond an aide, while each aide is capped at 50 STR, 50 AGI, and 50 INT.
Your Traveling Roster
You may own up to 5 aides at a time. Ownership is account-level.
An aide in the Traveling Roster still belongs to you, but is not currently assigned to colony duty. If you leave your colony, switch colonies, have no active colony, or the colony falls, affected aides automatically stand down and return to this roster.
Aides never automatically deploy into the next colony. Choose which helpers you want on duty after you settle somewhere new.
Colony Duty Slots
The current colony-duty limit is 2 active aides per colony. This is deliberately smaller than the five-aide ownership limit so colonies cannot stack large numbers of permanent automated workers.
Putting an aide on duty reserves one of those slots. An aide can be:
--Traveling Roster - owned by you, not assigned to a colony.
--On Duty - Idle - using a colony duty slot and ready for work.
--Working - completing a timed task inside the colony.
--Away - completing a timed task outside or around the colony.
The Aide Work Dashboard
Use Colony Aides to manage work. The dashboard is split into My Aides, Recruit, and Activity tabs so you do not have to scroll through every part of the system at once.
Each owned aide card shows the aide's permanent appearance, role, STR/AGI/INT, duty state, current work, work location, return/completion timer, and recent activity.
When an aide is On Duty - Idle, its work orders appear as visual cards. Each card explains what the job does, where it happens, whether the aide leaves the colony, the current estimated duration for that aide, the role stats that help it, and whether the task can become a Standing Duty.
Timed work uses a server-recorded finish time. Closing the page does not pause the job. The normal site worker can finish due jobs while you are away, and opening the Aide pages also catches up completed work.
One-Off Work and Standing Duties
Start once runs one normal timed cycle and stops.
Set standing duty is available on selected maintenance/support jobs. A Standing Duty automatically begins another timed cycle after a completed cycle while the aide remains on valid colony duty. Every repeated cycle still takes its normal time; training can shorten that time only within the same existing cap.
Standing Duties are deliberately bounded by a per-server-day cycle limit:
--Comfort rounds - up to 4 standing cycles per day.
--Bedding refresh - up to 2 standing cycles per day.
--Nursery rounds - up to 4 standing cycles per day.
--Minor upkeep - up to 2 standing cycles per day.
--Route survey - up to 3 standing cycles per day.
--Perimeter sweep - up to 3 standing cycles per day.
--Healer rounds - up to 3 standing cycles per day.
--Guard shift - up to 3 standing cycles per day.
--Safe Supply Run is one-off only. It cannot be made a Standing Duty because automatic repeat gathering would turn aide convenience into an unattended resource farm.
When a Standing Duty reaches its daily cap, the aide remains on colony duty in Standing Rest. It does not keep producing effects. The standing assignment automatically becomes eligible to resume on the next server day.
Stopping or Recalling Work
Stop repeating turns off future Standing Duty cycles but lets the current timed cycle finish normally.
Recall & cancel is stronger. It cancels the unfinished current cycle, produces no result from that unfinished cycle, clears the standing assignment, and returns the aide to your Traveling Roster.
Roles
Every role has a Primary stat and a Helpful secondary stat. The Aide pages highlight these so you know where training is most useful.
--Caretaker - 18 Pinecones. Baseline STR 2 / AGI 3 / INT 5. Primary INT; Helpful AGI. Handles small comfort rounds.
--Wetnurse - 20 Pinecones. Baseline STR 3 / AGI 2 / INT 5. Primary INT; Helpful STR. Supports young residents through nursery rounds.
--Builder - 24 Pinecones. Baseline STR 5 / AGI 2 / INT 3. Primary STR; Helpful INT. Performs bounded upkeep and repairs real structure wear.
--Scout - 24 Pinecones. Baseline STR 2 / AGI 5 / INT 3. Primary AGI; Helpful INT. Can make small safe supply runs or survey existing routes.
--Perimeter Keeper - 28 Pinecones. Baseline STR 3 / AGI 5 / INT 2. Primary AGI; Helpful STR. Checks colony boundaries and refreshes old patrol coverage.
--Healer Aide - 30 Pinecones. Baseline STR 1 / AGI 3 / INT 5. Primary INT; Helpful AGI. Provides conservative basic recovery support.
--Warrior - 40 Pinecones. Baseline STR 5 / AGI 4 / INT 2. Primary STR; Helpful AGI. Performs bounded guard shifts and approach checks.
Aides are intentionally useful without replacing trained player pets. Their jobs are bounded, their stat ceiling is fixed, and the strongest roles cost more Pinecones.
Aide Training
Aide Training is separate from normal pet Training Grounds. Open Aide Training to improve or manage an owned aide.
Training is deliberately simple:
--1 Pinecone = +1 stat point.
--Each stat has a hard maximum of 50.
--Bulk buttons offer +1, +5, +10, and +15 where those amounts fit.
--An amount that would cross 50 is disabled rather than wasting Pinecones.
--A smaller exact +N to MAX option may appear near the ceiling.
--At 50/50, upgrade buttons disappear and the stat shows MAX.
The server checks the current stat and remaining room again before spending Pinecones. A stale page or direct request cannot charge you for points the aide cannot actually receive.
You may train any aide stat. The highlighted Primary and Helpful stats are recommendations for that role, not restrictions.
Changing an Aide's Role
You are not permanently stuck with the role you originally recruited.
Role retraining keeps the aide's identity and appearance, but resets STR, AGI, and INT to the baseline for the new role. Purchased stat training from the old role is lost and is not refunded.
The retraining screen shows your current stats beside the new baseline, highlights the new role's useful stats, and requires an explicit reset confirmation.
Retraining costs a small 5-Pinecone service fee plus any positive difference between the old and new role's recruitment prices. This prevents a cheap contract from becoming an expensive specialist for only a token fee.
An aide must be off duty before changing roles.
Returning an Aide
If you no longer want an aide, stand them down and use the Return option on Aide Training.
Returning permanently removes that aide from your active roster, frees one of your five ownership slots, and refunds 50% of the aide's original recruitment price. Pinecones spent on later stat training or role retraining do not increase the return value.
Learning the System
Mouse explains the Aide page you currently have open, including the dashboard tabs, visual work-order cards, one-off versus Standing Duty choices, daily standing caps, Standing Rest, stop-versus-recall controls, highlighted stats, timers, disabled controls, and Pinecone safety.
Ham has a readable Colony Aides lesson covering the work dashboard, bounded Standing Duties, and Aide Training. The lesson teaches the system without requiring you to buy, run work to a daily cap, return, or otherwise sacrifice an aide just to finish the guide.
--Colony Aides Work Dashboard
--Aide Training
--Ham's Guides
--Mouse, Ham, and Pinecones
Colony Aides are persistent NPC helpers recruited with Pinecones. They belong to your account rather than to one colony, so they can travel with you through the life of the game without becoming ordinary pets.
What Makes an Aide Different from a Pet?
Aides are reliable specialists. They do not use normal pet breeding, aging, sickness, hunger, thirst, bedding, or Sleeping Den capacity. Their fiction is that they handle their ordinary personal needs off-screen.
They also have a firm training ceiling. Normal pets can keep developing beyond an aide, while each aide is capped at 50 STR, 50 AGI, and 50 INT.
Your Traveling Roster
You may own up to 5 aides at a time. Ownership is account-level.
An aide in the Traveling Roster still belongs to you, but is not currently assigned to colony duty. If you leave your colony, switch colonies, have no active colony, or the colony falls, affected aides automatically stand down and return to this roster.
Aides never automatically deploy into the next colony. Choose which helpers you want on duty after you settle somewhere new.
Colony Duty Slots
The current colony-duty limit is 2 active aides per colony. This is deliberately smaller than the five-aide ownership limit so colonies cannot stack large numbers of permanent automated workers.
Putting an aide on duty reserves one of those slots. An aide can be:
--Traveling Roster - owned by you, not assigned to a colony.
--On Duty - Idle - using a colony duty slot and ready for work.
--Working - completing a timed task inside the colony.
--Away - completing a timed task outside or around the colony.
The Aide Work Dashboard
Use Colony Aides to manage work. The dashboard is split into My Aides, Recruit, and Activity tabs so you do not have to scroll through every part of the system at once.
Each owned aide card shows the aide's permanent appearance, role, STR/AGI/INT, duty state, current work, work location, return/completion timer, and recent activity.
When an aide is On Duty - Idle, its work orders appear as visual cards. Each card explains what the job does, where it happens, whether the aide leaves the colony, the current estimated duration for that aide, the role stats that help it, and whether the task can become a Standing Duty.
Timed work uses a server-recorded finish time. Closing the page does not pause the job. The normal site worker can finish due jobs while you are away, and opening the Aide pages also catches up completed work.
One-Off Work and Standing Duties
Start once runs one normal timed cycle and stops.
Set standing duty is available on selected maintenance/support jobs. A Standing Duty automatically begins another timed cycle after a completed cycle while the aide remains on valid colony duty. Every repeated cycle still takes its normal time; training can shorten that time only within the same existing cap.
Standing Duties are deliberately bounded by a per-server-day cycle limit:
--Comfort rounds - up to 4 standing cycles per day.
--Bedding refresh - up to 2 standing cycles per day.
--Nursery rounds - up to 4 standing cycles per day.
--Minor upkeep - up to 2 standing cycles per day.
--Route survey - up to 3 standing cycles per day.
--Perimeter sweep - up to 3 standing cycles per day.
--Healer rounds - up to 3 standing cycles per day.
--Guard shift - up to 3 standing cycles per day.
--Safe Supply Run is one-off only. It cannot be made a Standing Duty because automatic repeat gathering would turn aide convenience into an unattended resource farm.
When a Standing Duty reaches its daily cap, the aide remains on colony duty in Standing Rest. It does not keep producing effects. The standing assignment automatically becomes eligible to resume on the next server day.
Stopping or Recalling Work
Stop repeating turns off future Standing Duty cycles but lets the current timed cycle finish normally.
Recall & cancel is stronger. It cancels the unfinished current cycle, produces no result from that unfinished cycle, clears the standing assignment, and returns the aide to your Traveling Roster.
Roles
Every role has a Primary stat and a Helpful secondary stat. The Aide pages highlight these so you know where training is most useful.
--Caretaker - 18 Pinecones. Baseline STR 2 / AGI 3 / INT 5. Primary INT; Helpful AGI. Handles small comfort rounds.
--Wetnurse - 20 Pinecones. Baseline STR 3 / AGI 2 / INT 5. Primary INT; Helpful STR. Supports young residents through nursery rounds.
--Builder - 24 Pinecones. Baseline STR 5 / AGI 2 / INT 3. Primary STR; Helpful INT. Performs bounded upkeep and repairs real structure wear.
--Scout - 24 Pinecones. Baseline STR 2 / AGI 5 / INT 3. Primary AGI; Helpful INT. Can make small safe supply runs or survey existing routes.
--Perimeter Keeper - 28 Pinecones. Baseline STR 3 / AGI 5 / INT 2. Primary AGI; Helpful STR. Checks colony boundaries and refreshes old patrol coverage.
--Healer Aide - 30 Pinecones. Baseline STR 1 / AGI 3 / INT 5. Primary INT; Helpful AGI. Provides conservative basic recovery support.
--Warrior - 40 Pinecones. Baseline STR 5 / AGI 4 / INT 2. Primary STR; Helpful AGI. Performs bounded guard shifts and approach checks.
Aides are intentionally useful without replacing trained player pets. Their jobs are bounded, their stat ceiling is fixed, and the strongest roles cost more Pinecones.
Aide Training
Aide Training is separate from normal pet Training Grounds. Open Aide Training to improve or manage an owned aide.
Training is deliberately simple:
--1 Pinecone = +1 stat point.
--Each stat has a hard maximum of 50.
--Bulk buttons offer +1, +5, +10, and +15 where those amounts fit.
--An amount that would cross 50 is disabled rather than wasting Pinecones.
--A smaller exact +N to MAX option may appear near the ceiling.
--At 50/50, upgrade buttons disappear and the stat shows MAX.
The server checks the current stat and remaining room again before spending Pinecones. A stale page or direct request cannot charge you for points the aide cannot actually receive.
You may train any aide stat. The highlighted Primary and Helpful stats are recommendations for that role, not restrictions.
Changing an Aide's Role
You are not permanently stuck with the role you originally recruited.
Role retraining keeps the aide's identity and appearance, but resets STR, AGI, and INT to the baseline for the new role. Purchased stat training from the old role is lost and is not refunded.
The retraining screen shows your current stats beside the new baseline, highlights the new role's useful stats, and requires an explicit reset confirmation.
Retraining costs a small 5-Pinecone service fee plus any positive difference between the old and new role's recruitment prices. This prevents a cheap contract from becoming an expensive specialist for only a token fee.
An aide must be off duty before changing roles.
Returning an Aide
If you no longer want an aide, stand them down and use the Return option on Aide Training.
Returning permanently removes that aide from your active roster, frees one of your five ownership slots, and refunds 50% of the aide's original recruitment price. Pinecones spent on later stat training or role retraining do not increase the return value.
Learning the System
Mouse explains the Aide page you currently have open, including the dashboard tabs, visual work-order cards, one-off versus Standing Duty choices, daily standing caps, Standing Rest, stop-versus-recall controls, highlighted stats, timers, disabled controls, and Pinecone safety.
Ham has a readable Colony Aides lesson covering the work dashboard, bounded Standing Duties, and Aide Training. The lesson teaches the system without requiring you to buy, run work to a daily cap, return, or otherwise sacrifice an aide just to finish the guide.
--Colony Aides Work Dashboard
--Aide Training
--Ham's Guides
--Mouse, Ham, and Pinecones