Difference between revisions of "Joywire"

Revision as of 18:58, 18 November 2022

The joywire brain implant grants a permanent +30 mood boost. However, the bearer suffers a permanent -20% to consciousness. After implantation, it cannot be removed.

Acquisition

In the base game, the joywires cannot be crafted. Instead they can only be obtained via trade or found in ancient shrines.

With the Royalty DLC, joywires can be crafted at a Machining table once the Brain wiring research project has been completed. They require 20 Steel, 4 Components, 15,000 ticks (4.17 mins) of work, and a Crafting skill of 5.

Summary

The joywire provides a permanent +30 mood buff at the cost of a −20% Consciousness malus, which is subtractive. The Consciousness penalty causes a decrease in most stats, directly impacting all of: Eating, Manipulation, Moving, Reading Speed, Talking. See those pages for details.

Installation

Installing the part requires 2,500 ticks (41.67 secs) of work, 2x medicine of Herbal quality or better, and a Medical skill of 5.

It cannot be removed once installed.

If the operation fails, the part is always destroyed.

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

Analysis

Due to its hefty conciseness debuff, it is generally a bad idea to install joywires on your colonists. While a substantial increase, the +30 mood buff can be achieved via many other ways and the Consciousness penalty makes the pawn significantly slower and/or worse at almost every task. Even cleaning, hauling, or simply walking is performed 20% slower. Conversely, a joywire can be installed into Royal quest guests, keeping them happy even if you neglect some of their royal needs.

Joywires work best with the psychic harmonizer, especially on an already useless pawn. The harmonizer will spread the joywire's buff to other colonists. You can put one on a comatose pawn to make the mood buff stable; see this section for details.

Without the Royalty DLC, a joywire can be useful for colonists with Depressive or other traits that will cause mental breaks, who are not vital to your colony. However, these traits can often be handled by other methods, like a social drug policy, fine and lavish meals, or beautiful rooms. Failing that, it may be wiser to abandon that pawn and recruit another.

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 is analogous as a stat increase, though doesn't have the same costs as luciferium.

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

0.12.906 - Added

Artificial body parts

Arm/Hand: Archotech arm • Bionic arm • Power claw • Prosthetic arm • Wooden hand • Drill arm • Elbow blade • Field hand • Hand talon • Venom talon • Flesh tentacle • Flesh whip
Head: Archotech eye • Bionic eye • Bionic ear • Bionic jaw • Bionic tongue • Cochlear implant • Denture • Aesthetic nose
Head implants: Joywire • Painstopper • Circadian assistant • Circadian half-cycler • Gastro-analyzer • Learning assistant • Mindscrew • Neurocalculator • Psychic harmonizer • Psychic reader • Psychic sensitizer • Venom fangs • Control sublink (Standard, High) • Mechlink • Mech gestation processor • Remote repairer • Remote shielder • Repair probe
Spine: Bionic spine • Revenant vertebrae
Stomach: Bionic stomach • Nuclear stomach • Reprocessor stomach • Sterilizing stomach • Fleshmass stomach
Heart: Bionic heart • Prosthetic heart • Heart • Adrenal heart • Corrosive heart • Metalblood heart
Lung: Lung • Detoxifier lung • Fleshmass lung
Kidney: Kidney • Detoxifier kidney
Organs: Liver
Visceral implants: Death acidifier • Aesthetic shaper • Coagulator • Healing enhancer • Armorskin gland • Stoneskin gland • Toughskin gland • Immunoenhancer • Love enhancer • Ghoul plating • Ghoul barbs
Leg/Foot: Archotech leg • Bionic leg • Prosthetic leg • Peg leg • Wooden foot • Knee spike
Related: Psylink neuroformer • Xenogerm
Deprecated: Scyther blade • Psychic silencer

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 == Analysis ==
-Due to its hefty conciseness debuff, the joywire is generally a bad idea to install it onto your colonists. While a substantial increase, the +30 mood buff can be achieved via many other ways and the [[consciousness]] penalty makes the pawn significantly slower and/or worse at almost every task. Even cleaning, hauling, or simply [[move speed|walking]] is performed 20% slower.
+Due to its hefty conciseness debuff, it is generally a bad idea to install joywires on your colonists. While a substantial increase, the +30 mood buff can be achieved via many other ways and the [[Consciousness]] penalty makes the pawn significantly slower and/or worse at almost every task. Even cleaning, hauling, or simply [[move speed|walking]] is performed 20% slower. Conversely, a joywire can be installed into Royal [[quest]] guests{{RoyaltyIcon}}, keeping them happy even if you neglect some of their royal needs.
-The consciousness penalty can be partially offset by putting the bearer on [[Luciferium]] but this only brings their consciousness to 95% and isn't recommended until you've got a reliable trade partner faction, ideally [[Outlanders]], and a sustainable economy, such as manufacturing and selling [[Flake]]. Alternatively, a [[Neural supercharger]]{{ideologyIcon}} can do the same. However, consideration must be given to the opportunity cost of this - the same improvements could be used to enhance an un-penalized pawn, resulting in similar quantitative gains over a normal pawn as they provide over to a joywired pawn over an unimproved joywired pawn. That is, the total penalty is still 20% of a pawns productivity for the same cost.
+Joywires work best with the [[psychic harmonizer]]{{RoyaltyIcon}}, especially on an already useless pawn. The harmonizer will spread the joywire's buff to other colonists. You can put one on a comatose pawn to make the mood buff stable; see [[Psychic harmonizer#Comatose pawns|this section]] for details.
-Due to the heavy debuff, its primary use is for colonists who will often go on mental breaks due to traits like [[Depressive]] and are generally not vital to the colony's survival. However, because of the penalty, in most cases it would be better to either recruit a different pawn or manage the penalty some other way. The depression of the pawn can be managed in the late game with a social [[drug]] policy, [[Fine meal|fine]] or [[lavish meal]]s, and beautiful rooms instead of a joywire.
+Without the [[Royalty DLC]], a joywire can be useful for colonists with [[Depressive]] or other traits that will cause [[mental break]]s, who are not vital to your colony. However, these traits can often be handled by other methods, like a social [[drug]] policy, [[Fine meal|fine]] and [[lavish meal]]s, or beautiful rooms. Failing that, it may be wiser to abandon that pawn and recruit another.
-Normally it is only worth it to install it onto Royal [[quest]] guests{{RoyaltyIcon}}, since this allows you to ignore some of the need of their title and ensures they stay happy. It has some synergy with the [[Psychic harmonizer]] {{RoyaltyIcon}}, as it spreads the joywire's mood bonus to nearby pawns.  This is especially useful on pawns that already have reduced consciousness as it allows a permanent, stable mood buff. See  [[Psychic harmonizer#Comatose pawns| this section]] for details.
+[[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.
 == Trivia ==