Difference between revisions of "Joywire"

Latest revision as of 12:05, 27 September 2024

The joywire is a brain implant that grants a permanent but substantial mood boost in return for a permanent but substantial consciousness penalty. After implantation, it cannot be removed.

Acquisition[edit]

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. Note that this research requires a techprint. Each requires 20 Steel, 4 Components, 15,000 ticks (4.17 mins) of work modified by the general labor speed of the crafter, and a crafting skill of 5.

Summary[edit]

The joywire provides a permanent +30 Joywire mood 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 Eating, Manipulation, Moving, Reading Speed, Talking capacities, and these in turn affect most stats. See those pages for details.

Installation[edit]

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 traditionally once installed. For non-traditional methods, see the Analysis section.

If the operation fails, the part is always destroyed.

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

Analysis[edit]

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 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 page for details. A joywire can also be installed into Royal quest guests without penalty. Conceited nobles 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 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 or lavish meals, and beautiful rooms. Joywires could be useful for less useful colonists with Depressive or other traits that will cause mental breaks. 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 is analogous as a stat increase, though doesn't have the same costs as luciferium.

Alternatives[edit]

The Very happy and Happy 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 30 Bioferrite , a Bliss lobotomy provides a smaller +20 mood buff, while reducing Global Learning Factor by −50%, disabling the Cook, Construct, Grow, Mine, Plant Cut, Smith, Tailor, Craft, Research and Dark Study work types, and increasing Prison Break Interval by 1000%. This procedure can also be removed with a Healer mech serum or Unnatural healing .

Unlike a joywire, neither alternatives reduce the Consciousness of affected pawns.

Removal[edit]

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.

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, there the risks normally associated with resurrection remain, including dementia, blindness, and resurrection psychosis.

Trivia[edit]

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[edit]

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

@@ Line 21: / Line 21: @@
 | techHediffsTags = Advanced
 | thingSetMakerTags = RewardStandardLowFreq
-}}{{info|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.}}
+}}{{info|The '''joywire''' is a brain implant that grants a permanent but substantial [[mood]] boost in return for a permanent but substantial [[consciousness]] penalty. 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 shrine]]s.
-With the [[Royalty DLC]], joywires can be crafted at a [[{{P|Production Facility 1}}]] once the [[Research#{{P|Required Research}}|{{P|Required Research}}]] research project has been completed. They require {{Required Resources}}, {{Ticks|{{P|Work To Make}}}} of work, and a [[{{P|Skill 1}}]] skill of {{P|Skill 1 Level}}.
+With the [[Royalty DLC]], {{Acquisition}}
 == Summary ==
-{{Stub|section=1|reason=Short summary of the things that consciousness affects needed}}
+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.
-The joywire provides a permanent +30 [[mood]] buff at the cost of a -20% [[consciousness]] malus. This malus is an offset, so is additive 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===
+=== 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.
-'''It cannot be removed once installed.'''
+'''It cannot be removed traditionally once installed.''' For non-traditional methods, see the [[#Removal|Analysis]] section.
 If the operation fails, the part is always destroyed.
@@ Line 41: / Line 40: @@
 == 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.
+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.
-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.
+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.
-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.
+[[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.
-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.
+=== Alternatives ===
+The [[Genes#Very happy|Very happy]] {{BiotechIcon}} and [[Genes#Happy|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, neither alternatives 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]].
+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, there the risks normally associated with resurrection remain, including [[dementia]], [[blindness]], and [[resurrection psychosis]].
 == Trivia ==