Other than the paramedic, mechanoids will not seek out fires to fight on their default work mode. Even a diabolus will only take 150 steel to revive, which is <300 silver at a bulk goods trader. A scyther/lancer will take less than 100 silver worth of steel to revive. Resurrecting a mechanoid is dirt cheap and only takes steel + time, do not be afraid to lose them or invest plasteel/components into building the higher tier mechs as soon as you have the chance. Just make sure if this pawn is your mechanitor that they don't go above Praetor or they'll lose the ability to smith. A second knight/dame or using honor to call 2 back to back can take care your waste problems until the endgame if you manage your combat mech energy well when not in use.

If you're going to be utilizing Royalty mechanics then getting a pawn to Knight/Dame and the shuttle permit can get rid of 166 waste every 40 days(~4 per day). I personally ignore the fuel cost as it's more renewable, but depending on your map this may be worth considering as well. It costs ~3 steel per waste to dispose of it with transport pods (25 waste per pod, 72 steel including a fabricated component). Keeping a higher lower boundary(~25% for example) for charging when working will help with staggering recharge times, and ensure that your mechanoids can keep working continuously even when another mech has a recharger occupied or you need them urgently when they're due for a recharge. There isn't a great way to calculate the actual usage for combat mechs however, as repairs for damage sustained during combat will impact this. Bots that aren't fully committed 24/7 will produce less, but generally I prefer to overestimate. 42(5 every 12 days) waste per day per bandwidth when active & allowed to recharge. Hopefully those will be popping up in a more digestible format soon but for now I hope this helps anyone interested in preparation for playing with mechanitors or just wants to check in on what other people are doing. As I wrap up my first mechanitor colony, there are a lot of things that I thought were worth sharing and I haven't found guides with much granularity on specific tips vs a more generic broad overview of the mechanics together yet.

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