Charge lance

Charge lance

A pulse-charged rail-assisted lance weapon. It fires a single shot at high velocity, charging it with unstable energy as it leaves the acceleration rail.

Base Stats

Type

Equipment – Weapons

Weapon Class

Spacer

Market Value

1355 

Mass

8 kg

Ranged Combat

Mode

Single-Shot

Damage

30 dmg (Bullet)

Armor penetration

45%

Warm-Up

102 ticks (1.7 secs)

Cooldown

162 ticks (2.7 secs)

Range

29.9 tile(s)

Accuracy

65% - 85% - 85% - 75%

Velocity

120 (m/s)

Burst Count

1 (per burst)

DPS

6.82

Stopping power

1.5

Melee Combat

Melee Attack 1

Stock
9 dmg (Blunt)
13% AP
2.0 seconds cooldown

Melee Attack 2 

Barrel
9 dmg (Blunt)
13% AP
2.0 seconds cooldown

Melee Attack 3 

Barrel
9 dmg (Poke)
13% AP
2.0 seconds cooldown

Creation

Crafted At

Required Research

Pulse charged munitions

Skill Required

Crafting 9

Work To Make

60,000 ticks (16.67 mins)

Resources to make

60 + 3

Technical

weaponTags

Gun, SpacerGun, MechanoidGunMedium

thingSetMakerTags

RewardStandardLowFreq, RewardStandardQualitySuper

The charge lance is a heavy, single-shot ranged weapon which deals a high amount of damage per shot with commensurate AP, a longer time between shots, an above-average range and high overall accuracy.

Acquisition

Charge lances can be produced at a fabrication bench with a minimum crafting skill of 9 once the pulse charged munitions research has been completed for  60 Plasteel,  3 Advanced components and 60,000 ticks (16.67 mins) of work. Charge lances can also be purchased from outlander and orbital combat suppliers, as well as outlander settlements.

Lancers are the only enemy in the core game to use charge lances, but they aren't dropped when the lancer dies. Therefore, there is no way to acquire charge lances from raiders in the core game. With the Royalty DLC enabled, however, Janissaries, Cataphracts, and Stellic Defenders from the Empire have a possibility to spawn with a charge lance equipped.

Analysis

The charge lance deals the highest amount of damage per shot out of all non-explosive ranged weapons in the game, and therefore has gained quite the reputation for dismembering and outright killing people alongside the pila and sniper rifle. This is combined with the highest projectile velocity ingame, as well as decent range and accuracy. Stopping power is also good: high enough to stagger humans, as well as slightly larger creatures such as cougars and all insectoid variations.

In addition to its high damage, its also has the highest armor penetration of any hand-held weapon, making the charge lance an excellent weapon against more heavily-armored opponents such as mechanoids or late-game raiders. Since it fires relatively slowly with very high damage per shot, it is also exceptionally good at quickly killing targets, for example by destroying vital organs or body parts like the head. This also makes it exceptionally dangerous in the hands of hostiles, as the high damage and armor penetration make the charge lance unusually capable of one-shotting colonists. As a result, lancers, charge lance wielding mechanoids and raiders should be priority targets, especially earlier in the game, lest you want your pawn dismembered or killed outright.

Rate of fire is quite slow; slower than the bolt-action rifle and significantly slower than the charge rifle, but significantly faster than the sniper rifle. DPS output is rather poor at shorter ranges and middle-of-the-road at medium range. Also, similarly to the charge rifle, the charge lance is very difficult to acquire until late-game, since it's expensive to produce and either unobtainable from raiders entirely or only obtainable from difficult Empire raiders .

In terms of usage in combat, the charge lance is best suited as a medium-to-long-range support or targeted assassination weapon (especially against heavily-armored targets), or in field combat. The charge lance can also be used as a powerful hunting weapon, though its tendency to destroy entire body parts can reduce the butcher yield on the resulting corpse.

Against a human target with 45% or lower armor on all layers, a normal-quality charge lance can kill with 2 hits to the torso, 1-2 hits to the head, or 1 hit to the neck or brain; cripple or destroy limbs with a single hit; and destroy eyes and digits with a single hit. It'll generally take around 3 hits (~16.6 seconds average) to incapacitate that human from pain shock. A legendary-quality charge lance can 1-shot any body part or organ in a human pawn's body, and with an armor penetration of 67.5%, can do so against even quite heavily armored targets.

Regarding shooting traits, a charge lance is best paired with a trigger-happy pawn at shorter ranges and a careful shooter at longer ranges. The exact range transition depends on shooting level, being as low as 4 cells at Shooting level 5 and as high as 24 cells at Shooting level 20. At its maximum range of 30 cells, a charge lance is always better in the hands of a careful shooter than a trigger-happy pawn or one without either trait, regardless of Shooting level.

Attack table

Ranged

Charge lance			Accuracy (Touch)	Accuracy (Short)	Accuracy (Medium)	Accuracy (Long)	DPS (Optimal)	DPS (Touch)	DPS (Short)	DPS (Medium)	DPS (Long)	Market value
Quality	Dam.	AP
Awful	27	40.5%	52%	68%	68%	60%	6.14	3.19	4.17	4.17	3.68	675
Poor	30	45%	58.5%	76.5%	76.5%	67.5%	6.82	4.02	5.25	5.25	4.64	1015
Normal	30	45%	65%	85%	85%	75%	6.82	4.43	5.8	5.8	5.12	1355
Good	30	45%	71.5%	93.5%	93.5%	82.5%	6.82	4.91	6.41	6.41	5.66	1695
Excellent	30	45%	78%	100%	100%	90%	6.82	5.32	6.82	6.82	6.14	2030
Masterwork	37.5	56.25%	87.75%	100%	100%	100%	8.53	7.5	8.53	8.53	8.53	3355
Legendary	45	67.5%	97.5%	100%	100%	100%	10.23	10.03	10.23	10.23	10.23	4355

^{For the full effects of qualities, see Quality. Values shown in Red indicate the weapon is out of range at the reference point for this range band.
The value is provided due to the interpolated nature of accuracy between range points.}

Melee

Feature	Toggle
Attacks

Charge lance			Stock (Blunt)					Barrel (Blunt)					Barrel (Poke)					Human: Left & right fist (Blunt)					HP	Value
Quality	DPS	AP	Dam.	Cool.	AP	DPS	Chance	Dam.	Cool.	AP	DPS	Chance	Dam.	Cool.	AP	DPS	Chance	Dam.	Cool.	AP	DPS	Chance
Awful	3.98	11.6%	7.2	2s	10.4%	3.6	8.33%	7.2	2s	10.4%	3.6	8.33%	7.2	2s	10.4%	3.6	8.33%	8.2	2s	12%	4.1	2× 37.5%	100	675
Poor	4.07	11.82%	8.1	2s	11.7%	4.05	20%	8.1	2s	11.7%	4.05	20%	8.1	2s	11.7%	4.05	20%	8.2	2s	12%	4.1	2× 20%	100	1015
Normal	4.4	12.75%	9	2s	13%	4.5	25%	9	2s	13%	4.5	25%	9	2s	13%	4.5	25%	8.2	2s	12%	4.1	2× 12.5%	100	1355
Good	4.74	13.73%	9.9	2s	14.3%	4.95	25%	9.9	2s	14.3%	4.95	25%	9.9	2s	14.3%	4.95	25%	8.2	2s	12%	4.1	2× 12.5%	100	1695
Excellent	5.08	14.7%	10.8	2s	15.6%	5.4	25%	10.8	2s	15.6%	5.4	25%	10.8	2s	15.6%	5.4	25%	8.2	2s	12%	4.1	2× 12.5%	100	2030
Masterwork	5.92	17.14%	13.05	2s	18.85%	6.53	25%	13.05	2s	18.85%	6.53	25%	13.05	2s	18.85%	6.53	25%	8.2	2s	12%	4.1	2× 12.5%	100	3355
Legendary	6.59	19.09%	14.85	2s	21.45%	7.43	25%	14.85	2s	21.45%	7.43	25%	14.85	2s	21.45%	7.43	25%	8.2	2s	12%	4.1	2× 12.5%	100	4355

^{For the full effects of qualities, see Quality.}

Version history

• Beta 19 - received a slight damage buff (27 --> 30), a slight reduction in time to aim and increase in attack cooldown, leaving fire rate more or less the same. It also received a crafting recipe allowing humans to use them.
• 1.1 - range and long range accuracy was nerfed (37 --> 30; 80% --> 75%).

• 

  Original charge lance sprite

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Spacer

Charge lance • Charge rifle

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Throwables

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Mechanoid

Heavy charge blaster • Inferno cannon • Needle gun • Thump cannon • Beam graser • Charge blaster turret • Hellsphere cannon • Mini-flameblaster • Mini-shotgun • Slugthrower • Spiner • Toxic needle gun

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