Painblock

Painblock

Block pain pathways in the target's brain for a short time. This can allow a person to move and act even with grievous injuries which would normally incapacitate them.

Base Stats

Type

Psycast

Ability

Psylink Level

1

Psyfocus Cost

2%

Neural Heat Gain

8

Casting Time

15 ticks (0.25 secs)

Range

24.9 tiles

Duration

7,200 ticks (2 mins)
(Modified by Psychic Sensitivity)

Caster Must Be Capable of Violence

False

Painblock is a level 1 psycast that significantly reduces the pain felt by its target for the duration.

Acquisition

There are two ways to acquire the psycast Painblock:

1. Upon reaching psylink level 1, a random psycast of level 1 is granted regardless of how this level up is achieved. This won't apply if the psycaster already knew one or more level 1 psycast.
2. Painblock can also be acquired from a psytrainer naming it. See the psytrainer page for further details.

Summary

On cast, Painblock grants the target the Psychic Anesthesia hediff for 7,200 ticks (2 mins) (modified by Psychic Sensitivity) which grants a ×10% Pain modifier, rendering a pawn effectively unaffected by pain for the duration. Painblock can be cast on any psychically sensitive pawn within range, including enemies, animals, and the caster themselves, but excluding mechanoids, though this is likely due to their lack of capacity for Pain. In spite of this, the game lists the reason "Target is not psychically sensitive" to disqualify mechs, despite their (limited) psychic sensitivity.

Analysis

Painblock is a double edged sword that should not be used carelessly. Pain shock serves not only to disable pawns in active combat once they have sustained enough damage, but also to allow players a chance to save their injured pawns before they suffer a killing blow, as pain shock is generally more likely to occur before death by part destruction. By using Painblock, you allow your pawns a chance to continue fighting longer at the cost of placing their lives in greater danger. As such, it is unwise to use Painblock recklessly if you value the lives of your pawns. However, it is not without merit.

Firstly, despite the potentially lethal downsides of ignoring pain, Painblock almost entirely removes the effect of pain on Consciousness, reducing the impact of injury on combat effectiveness. This also extends to any preexisting sources of pain, such as muscle parasites, aching scars, or food poisoning, though this will not alleviate any of the other penalties they inflict. Additionally, it will also limit the effect of intentionally inflicted pain for psycasters intending to benefit from the increased neural heat recovery rate, such as a mindscrew or a torture crown.

Secondly, If you have several pawns downed in combat and the situation looks desperate, Painblock can give some of your downed fighters a chance to help turn the tide. Or, if you have a downed pawn that you'd like to retreat out of combat, but can't spare a pawn to rescue them, Painblock can allow them to evacuate themselves while the rest focus on the battle (though downed pawns will already attempt to crawl to safety, rendering this function largely unnecessary.)

Lastly, Painblock is also effectively without consequence for pawns that one considers expendable, such as attack animals or quest joiners, allowing one to push them to their limits as combatants and meat shields without fear of repercussion.

However, Painblock faces competition from both the Painstopper and more critically, Go-juice. While Painblock does the advantage of being functionally free, being limited by only neural heat and psyfocus, of which it both generates and uses little, it also has appropriately far less use. Go-juice grants the same pain reduction as painblock, lasts eight times longer (before Psychic Sensitivity modifiers), and grants valuable bonuses to several other relevant capacities. If, however, one is unwilling or incapable of using Go-Juice, then Painblock can still see some purpose. As for the painstopper, it has the advantage of requiring no intervention on the part of the player, and an unlimited duration, leaving the player free to spend their attention and psyfocus on other matters.

As an aside, Painblock can see very limited use outside of combat. In a less-than-established colony, combat can often leave your doctors wounded and in pain, which reduces their abilities to treat your injured. Painblock can be used to alleviate the consciousness malus inflicted by pain to somewhat improve their relevant capacities, though this will do nothing to reduce the penalties incurred from the associated injuries and blood loss. Even more niche is the potential to use Painblock to alleviate pain incurred by a chronic condition, such as the aforementioned aching scars and muscle parasites. However the relatively low duration of Painblock would require regular use to remain effective. Although several accessible methods of increasing psychic sensitivity exist, including psychophagy, bioferrite, and voidsight serum, the amount of micromanagement required on the player's part render it vastly inferior to other chronic pain management options, such as the aforementioned Painstopper, or drugs such as smokeleaf or yayo. However, for pain caused by short-term injuries, Painblock can help offset the mood malus caused by pain during recovery.

Version history

• Royalty DLC Release - Added.
• 1.1.2571 - Duration increased from 30 to 120.

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Psycasts

Psycasts | Level 1

Burden • Painblock • Stun • Chunk skip • Solar pinhole • Word of trust

Level 2

Blinding pulse • Waterskip • Neural heat dump • Word of joy

Level 3

Beckon • Chaos skip • Vertigo pulse • Word of love

Level 4

Smokepop • Skip • Focus • Wallraise • Word of serenity

Level 5

Berserk • Farskip • Flashstorm • Invisibility • Word of inspiration

Level 6

Berserk pulse • Mass chaos skip • Skipshield • Neuroquake • Manhunter pulse

Stats

Psyfocus

Related

Psylink neuroformer