Joywire

2026-08-27T23:27:27Z

2A0C:5A84:A207:1E00:EA82:AF9:4FA6:84CE: /* Acquisition */

{{infobox main|
| name = Joywire
| image = Health item prosthetic.png
| type = Medical Items
| type2 = Body Parts
| tech level = Industrial
| description = A brain implant that stimulates the brain's pleasure centers. While it dramatically improves a user's mood, the blanket of happiness makes it hard to concentrate on anything real. Joywires are illegal on many worlds, and are known for destroying whole cultures.
| mass base = 0.2
| hp = 50
| flammability = 1.0
| work to make = 15000
| production facility 1 = Machining table
| research = Brain wiring
| skill 1 = Crafting
| skill 1 level = 5
| resource 1 = Steel
| resource 1 amount = 20
| resource 2 = Component
| resource 2 amount = 4
| tradeTags = TechHediff
| techHediffsTags = Advanced
| thingSetMakerTags = RewardStandardLowFreq
}}{{info|The '''joywire''' is a brain implant that permanently grants a significant [[mood]] boost in return for a substantial [[consciousness]] penalty. After implantation, it cannot be traditionally removed.}}
== Acquisition ==
In the base game, the joywires cannot be crafted. Instead they can only be obtained via [[trade]], as a [[quest]] reward or found in [[ancient shrine]]s.

With the [[Royalty DLC]], {{Acquisition}}

== Summary ==
The joywire provides a permanent {{Thought| desc=It feels amazing| label=Joywire| value=+30| stack=1}} buff at the cost of a {{--|20%}} [[Consciousness]] malus. Note that this malus is subtractive, not multiplicative. This consciousness penalty in turn negatively affects almost every task a pawn can perform, as it directly affects the {{#ask: [[Consciousness Importance::+]]}} [[capacity|capacities]], and these in turn affect most [[stat]]s. See those pages for details.

=== Installation ===
Installing the part requires {{ticks|2500}} of work, 2x medicine of [[Herbal medicine|Herbal]] quality or better, and a [[Skills#Medical|Medical skill]] of 5.

If the operation fails, the part is always destroyed.

Installing a joywire onto a guest is not considered a harmful operation.

'''It cannot be removed traditionally once installed.'''

For non-traditional methods, see the [[#Removal|Analysis]] section.

== Analysis ==
Joywires are most useful when a pawn's productivity simply does not matter. For example, a lategame colony can use a joywire and [[psychic harmonizer]]{{RoyaltyIcon}} to spread a mood buff to other colonists. This works best if the colonist is already disabled, and even better if comatose - see the [[Psychic harmonizer#Comatose pawns|Psychic harmonizer]] page for details. A joywire can also be installed into Royal [[quest]] guests{{RoyaltyIcon}} without penalty. [[Conceited noble]]s will not do work, and the implant keeps them happy even if you neglect some of their royal needs.

Otherwise, implanting a joywire on a colonist is generally a bad idea. The debuff is hefty; even cleaning, hauling, and [[move speed|walking]] are performed {{--|20%}} slower. In combat, joywires reduce accuracy and increases the chance to die from consciousness loss. While the {{+|30}} mood buff is substantial, increasing mood can be done with many other ways, such as a social [[drug]] policy, [[Fine meal|fine]] or [[lavish meal]]s, and beautiful rooms. Joywires could be useful for less useful colonists with [[Depressive]] or other traits that will cause [[mental break]]s. But, if the other means of mood management aren't sufficient, it may be wiser to just abandon them.

[[Luciferium]] can offset the stat penalty, bringing Consciousness to 95%. While it's still {{--|20%}} Consciousness compared to an ordinary luciferium addict, note that certain stats (like Moving) only scale up to 100% Consciousness. Therefore, the penalty is somewhat smaller compared to a non-drugged pawn gaining a joywire. Of course, you should have some means of obtaining luciferium, like a reliable Outlander [[trade]] faction. A [[neural supercharger]]{{IdeologyIcon}} is analogous as a stat increase, though doesn't have the same costs as luciferium.

=== Alternatives ===
The [[Very happy]]{{BiotechIcon}} and [[Happy]]{{BiotechIcon}} genes provide much smaller {{+|10}} and {{+|5}} mood buffs respectively, in exchange for reduced metabolic efficiency, and requiring the appropriate facilities and extracted genes to modify a pawn. The metabolic penalties may be offset or negated entirely by mixing in other genes depending on what is needed or available.

At the cost of {{Icon Small|Bioferrite||30}} [[Bioferrite]],{{AnomalyIcon}} a [[Bliss lobotomy]]{{AnomalyIcon}} provides a smaller {{+|20}} mood buff, while reducing [[Global Learning Factor]] by {{--|50%}}, disabling the [[Skills#Cooking|Cook]], [[Construct]], [[Skills#Plants|Grow]], [[Mine]], [[Skills#Plants|Plant Cut]], [[Skills#Craft|Smith, Tailor, Craft]], [[Research]] and [[Research#Anomaly|Dark Study]]{{AnomalyIcon}} work types, and increasing Prison Break Interval by 1000%. This procedure can also be removed with a [[healer mech serum]] or [[unnatural healing]].{{AnomalyIcon}}

Unlike a joywire, these alternatives do not reduce the Consciousness of affected pawns.

=== Removal ===
While you cannot traditionally remove the joywire, it is possible to remove it indirectly by destroying the head of the implanted pawn and then resurrecting the pawn using a [[resurrector mech serum]] or [[death refusal]].{{AnomalyIcon}}

This is not without issues however. First, consistently destroying the head can be difficult. With the [[Ideology DLC]], extracting the [[skull]] from a dead pawn will do this reliably and safely, but without it, the best way is allow colonists or animals to eat sections of the corpse, at the risk of consuming the entire body and permanently losing the pawn. Furthermore, no matter how successful the head removal, using a mech serum still still runs the risk of [[dementia]], [[blindness]], and [[resurrection psychosis]]. Death refusal avoids these downsides but has its own constraints.

== Trivia ==
The implant cannot be removed in the game, but according to the Joywire Addict and Addiction Counsel [[backstories]] and the fact the backstories appear on pawns without a joywire installed, this is not the case on other, probably more advanced, worlds.

== Version history ==
* [[Version/0.12.906|0.12.906]] - Added

{{nav|body parts|wide}}
[[Category:Medical Item]] [[Category:Body Part]] [[Category:Implant]]

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Joywire