Berserk pulse

Berserk pulse

Generate an overwhelming rush of undirected rage in everyone near the target point.

Base Stats

Type

Psycast

Ability

Psylink Level

6

Psyfocus Cost

6%

Neural Heat Gain

65

Casting Time

60 ticks (1 sec)

Range

14.9 tiles

Effect Radius

2.9 tiles

Duration

10 ticks (0.17 secs)
(Modified by Psychic Sensitivity)

Goodwill Impact

-75

Berserk pulse is a level 6 psycast that drives pawns insane in its area of effect.

Acquisition

There are two ways to acquire Berserk pulse:

1. A randomly selected level 6 psycast is granted to the psycaster when they gain psylink level 6. Berserk pulse is one of the options that may be selected. Note that this occurs regardless of how the psylink level is gained.
2. Berserk pulse can also be acquired from a psytrainer naming it. See the psytrainer page for further details.

Summary

All creatures within the radius go berserk, attacking the nearest creature regardless of previous affiliation. Duration scales with target's Psychic Sensitivity

−75 Faction Relations when used on allies.

Analysis

Berserk Pulse causes a dangerous increase in neural heat on all but the most well-equipped of psycasters, but is capable of defeating entire raids using only this psycast. Only the best psycasters can use this twice in a row, unless they have neural heat dump (or are willing to risk heat overflow).

Extremely powerful against tanky enemies, who can kill non-affected enemies for an extended period of time.

Works through walls! The target cell must be within line-of-sight (but can be cast on the wall itself), but the effect also applies to targets in range on the other side of the wall. This can be used to great effect by funneling enemies into a U-shaped pathway around another (unconnected or blocked-by-door) hallway with your caster in it. Berserk Pulse can be targeted at the end of the hallway your pawn is in and hit 13 cells in the U-shaped hallway surrounding it. Since enemies do not have collision with each other until they enter combat, this can potentially catch a very large number of hostiles in the area. Best use is alternating sandbags or stone chunks in that section of the U-shaped hallway to slow down the invading army specifically at that point, causing them to bunch up even more.