Learn how to properly use the Sentient Catalyst to make background animals work in Rimworld’s Odyssey expansion.

Rimworld Odyssey provides players with the building blocks of a perfect sci-fi paradise. The Odyssey expansion brings with it gameplay mechanics like building a gravship, biomes, and landmarks. The game’s procedural nature makes every session vastly different and experiential. The base game has overwhelmingly positive reviews on Steam and was released in 2018. The Odyssey expansion, however, was released in July 2025 and has also been received favorably.
This article will focus on how you can acquire and use a Sentient Catalyst on untrainable animals. A sentience catalyst can make animals like walruses and flamingos be useful to mine, haul, and even fight for your colony. This makes the Sentience Catalyst an incredibly useful tool to further develop your sci-fi colony.
How the Sentient Catalyst Works
A Sentient Catalyst is a single-use ultratech injection. After applying it on an animal, new training options will be available in the animal’s lab. These include options like hauling, mining, guarding, and other work-based tasks. You’ll still need to train the animal the regular way. A colonist with higher animal skills will speed this training up. The trained animal will keep its abilities just like any other work pet.
Where To Find the Sentient Catalyst
You can’t craft Sentient Catalysts. You can randomly find them with:
- Ultrafaction traders
- As quest rewards
- Salvage from old and derelict ships
They’re highly limited. So you’ll have to save them for the animals you plan to train later.
Best Animals To Upgrade
You should only use Sentient Catalysts on animals that can’t usually be trained. Using it on a husky or bear is a complete waste of the consumable. Some good picks for the Sentient Catalyst are:
- Walrus: Slow but enough health, good for hauling and combat.
- Crow: Sneaky and clever, great scavenger.
- Peacock: Great beauty score helps with hauling and mood
- Flamingo: Fast, good at running supply lines and dodging.
- Cat or Dog: Gain frequent mood boosts from frequent nuzzling.
Each species of different animals gets a different combo of jobs and passive effects from the injection.
How To Use the Sentient Catalyst
To apply a Sentient Catalyst in Rimworld Odyssey:
- Select your desired animal.
- Use the catalyst as a drug.
- Open the training tab, and you’ll see new options.
- Assign tasks and begin training the animal.
Then, you can assign jobs through animal zones or let them follow commands in combat. Some animals also unlock unique abilities after injection of the catalyst, depending on their species.
Conclusion
The Sentient Catalyst lets you turn useless animals into contributing colony members. Use it wisely, as it’s one of the most powerful upgrades from the Odyssey expansion. As it’s highly limited, don’t inject it into something boring.
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