Penguin

Based on game build 714014 | Last updated: 2026-03-06

Overview

The penguin prefab defines two entities: the standard penguin and its mutated variant. It manages core animal behaviors including combat retargeting, team formation via teamattacker and teamleader, hunger management, egg storage in an inventory, and seasonal lifecycle (auto-removal in late winter). It integrates with the penguinspawner system for colony tracking, supports moon mutation via halloweenmoonmutable, and persists colony membership across saves. The component functions as a game entity definition, not a reusable component, initializing many core systems in its constructor.

Usage example

While this file defines prefabs (not reusable components), a modder would typically instantiate one via:

-- Spawn a standard penguin
local penguin = SpawnPrefab("penguin")

-- Spawn a mutated penguin
local mutated = SpawnPrefab("mutated_penguin")

-- Access properties set during initialization
penguin.colonyNum = 5
penguin.eggsLayed = 0
penguin.eggprefab = "bird_egg"

Dependencies & tags

Components used: combat, health, hunger, lootdropper, homeseeker, knownlocations, herdmember, teamattacker, eater, sleeper, inspectable, inventory, halloweenmoonmutable, locomotor.

Tags: penguin, animal, smallcreature, herdmember, scarytoprey (mutated only), lunar_aligned (mutated only), mutated_penguin (mutated only), soulless (mutated only).

Properties

Property	Type	Default Value	Description
colonyNum	number?	nil	The colony ID this penguin belongs to; restored on load via penguinspawner.
eggsLayed	number	0	Counter of eggs laid by this penguin.
eggprefab	string	"bird_egg" or "rottenegg"	Prefab name for eggs laid; defaults to standard egg, changed to rotten egg in mutated form.
nesting	boolean	false	Set by OnEnterMood/OnLeaveMood; indicates if the penguin is in nesting mood.
spawn_lunar_mutated_tuning	string	"SPAWN_MOON_PENGULLS"	Key used for lunar mutation event configuration.

Main functions

Retarget(inst)

• Description: Attempts to find a new valid target when the penguin is starving; may trigger team formation if no team exists. Only used in the pristine penguin's combat component.
• Parameters: inst (Entity) - the penguin instance.
• Returns: nil if not starving, otherwise potentially returns the new target. May trigger MakeTeam.
• Error states: Returns early with nil if hunger:IsStarving() is false.

MutatedRetarget(inst)

• Description: Similar to Retarget but used by the mutated penguin; has a wider scan radius (4 vs. 3) and different target tags. Also triggers team formation.
• Parameters: inst (Entity) - the mutated penguin instance.
• Returns: nil or the new target; may trigger MakeTeam.
• Error states: None beyond target-finding failure.

MakeTeam(inst, attacker)

• Description: Spawns a teamleader prefab and configures it with the penguin as the first teammate, setting team properties like attack interval, size, and type.
• Parameters: inst (Entity) - the penguin initiating the team; attacker (Entity) - the threat being responded to.
• Returns: Nothing (side effects only).
• Error states: None; always spawns and configures the team leader.

OnAttacked(inst, data)

• Description: Event handler called when the penguin is attacked; attempts to form a team if needed and shares the attacker with nearby penguins if the team is active.
• Parameters: inst (Entity) - the penguin; data (table) - combat event data containing attacker.
• Returns: Nothing.
• Error states: Returns early if no teamattacker component exists.

GetStatus(inst)

• Description: Human-readable status string for inspectable component; reports STARVING or HUNGRY based on hunger percentage.
• Parameters: inst (Entity) - the penguin instance.
• Returns: "STARVING" or "HUNGRY" or nil.
• Error states: Returns nil if hunger is normal (>=50% full).

SaveCorpseData(inst, corpse)

• Description: Returns colony membership data to serialize on corpse creation; used to preserve colony assignment.
• Parameters: inst (Entity) - the penguin; corpse (Entity) - the corpse being saved.
• Returns: { colonyNum = number } or nil.
• Error states: Returns nil if colonyNum is not set.

LoadCorpseData(inst, corpse)

• Description: Loads colony membership from corpse data and registers with the penguinspawner.
• Parameters: inst (Entity) - the penguin (usually the spawned corpse); corpse (Entity) - the source corpse.
• Returns: Nothing (side effects only).
• Error states: Does nothing if no colonyNum is present in corpse.corpsedata.

Events & listeners

• Listens to: entermood - calls OnEnterMood, sets nesting = true.
• Listens to: leavemood - calls OnLeaveMood, sets nesting = false.
• Listens to: onignite - calls OnIgnite, cooks eggs in inventory.
• Listens to: attacked - calls OnAttacked, initiates team formation and target sharing.
• Pushes: None directly (events are handled by other components, not fired by this file's logic).