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

Acquisition

s can be crafted, each requiring and Expression error: Unexpected < operator. of work modified by the general labor speed of the crafter.

Charge lances can also be found in ancient shrines or purchased from outlander and orbital combat suppliers, as well as outlander faction bases.

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 damage per shot and AP of all non-explosive ranged weapons, so has gained a reputation for dismembering and outright killing people alongside the pila and sniper rifle. It can also stagger humans and slightly larger targets like megaspiders. Range is also above average, just below the assault rifle.

But, for an endgame weapon, the charge lance's overall DPS is actually quite low. Charge rifles only have 4 tiles less range, and outdamage the charge lance against any reasonable target. As both weapons cost the same and are unlocked from the same research, the charge rifle is the preferred option.

Moreover, the lance faces heavy competition with the assault rifle. The assault rifle has more range, and greater unarmored DPS at any range. Armor is relevant; against centipedes, charge lances end up having 17% more DPS from medium range (assuming equal quality). However, the AR is much cheaper and much easier to acquire through trade or loot, with only enemies from the DLC carrying a droppable version of the weapon. The range advantage allows the AR to outrange lancers and more easily kite centipedes. And, if the assault rifle is of a higher quality, then the analysis skews heavily towards the AR; it'd be roughly equal vs. armor and much better vs. unarmored. Against unarmored targets, a normal quality charge lance has similar DPS to a masterwork greatbow.

The high damage per shot means that it can dismember pawns in a single shot. Not a great quality against human raiders, as higher DPS kills faster on average (through pain shock and/or combined consciousness loss) than organ loss. However, it is a very dangerous property when used against your colony, as raiders far outnumber colonists. A colony will kill hundreds of raiders, but a single lucky shot can permanently cripple an important colonist and the high AP makes it difficult to defend against. As a result, lance-wielding enemies should be priority targets, especially before you have easy access to artificial body parts. This also results in a noticeable uptick in survivability once an armor rating reaches 145% as it guarantees that the damage will at least be mitigated, halving the damage, and preventing the majority of one shot kills from lances.

Stats

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 (~14.9 seconds average) to incapacitate that human from pain shock. A legendary-quality charge lance can destroy any body part or organ in a human pawn's body with a single shot, and with an armor penetration of 67.5%, can do so against even quite heavily armored targets.

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

Spacer Weapons (Error: Page has no Property:Image) Spacer Weapons	Dam.	AP	Accuracy (Touch)	Accuracy (Short)	Accuracy (Medium)	Accuracy (Long)	DPS (Optimal)	DPS (Touch)	DPS (Short)	DPS (Medium)	DPS (Long)	Market value
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^{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.}

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

Weapons

Melee | Neolithic: Breach axe • Club • Ikwa • Knife (Jade) • Spear

Medieval: Gladius • Longsword • Mace • Axe • Warhammer

Ultra: Eltex staff • Monosword (Persona) • Plasmasword (Persona) • Zeushammer (Persona)

Improvised: Beer • Elephant tusk • Thrumbo horn • Wood

Ranged | Neolithic: Greatbow • Pila • Recurve bow • Short bow • Flamebow

Medieval: Nerve spiker

Industrial: Assault rifle • Autopistol • Bolt-action rifle • Chain shotgun • Heavy SMG • Launcher (EMP, Incendiary, Smoke, Toxbomb ) • LMG • Machine pistol • Minigun • Pump shotgun • Revolver • Sniper rifle • Hellcat rifle • Incinerator

Spacer: Charge lance • Charge rifle

Consumables: Doomsday rocket launcher • Triple rocket launcher

Throwables: EMP grenades • Frag grenades • Molotov cocktails • Tox grenades

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

Structures: Autocannon • Mini-turret gun • Mortar (Weapon) • Uranium slug cannon • Auto-mortar • Inferno cannon (Turret) • Light charge blaster • Mini-slugger • Tactical turret gun

Related | Body part weapons: Prosthetic arm • Bionic arm • Archotech arm • Power claw • Field hand • Drill arm • Venom talon • Venom fangs • Knee spike • Elbow blade • Hand talon • Flesh whip

Integrated weapons: Grenadier armor • Phoenix armor

The charge rifle is a spacer-tech weapon that fires 3-round bursts. It has good armor penetration, moderate range, and slightly lower accuracy

Acquisition

s can be crafted, each requiring and Expression error: Unexpected < operator. of work modified by the general labor speed of the crafter.

Charge rifles can also be found in ancient shrines, or purchased from outlander and orbital combat suppliers, or outlander faction bases. The Rich Explorer starting scenario begins with a single charge rifle.

Human raiders never use charge rifles in RimWorld Core , however if the Royalty DLC is active, they may be obtained from the following Empire pawn kinds:

Raider Kind	Chance	Average Quality	Health
Janissary	?	?	70-230%
Cataphract	?	?	70-230%
Stellic defender	?	?	100%

Analysis

Charge rifles are endgame tier weapons. In terms of DPS, the charge rifle is only beaten by the chain shotgun and minigun, after considering accuracy. The former has a rather short range, and the latter carries a massive cooldown cycle. The charge rifle has none of their downsides; its moderate range, higher AP, and powerful, three shot burst make it a flexible weapon. A minor downside is that it can't stagger humans.

The main issue with using charge rifles is cost. They require advanced components - difficult to amass before Advanced Fabrication is available. Raiders outside of the Empire won't ever carry the charge rifle and their appearance in trade inventories is rare, expensive, and limited in quality compared to crafting. For most of the game, you'll have to rely on cheaper weapons. Quality has a major impact - you could get a normal quality charge rifle by trading, but it could be matched or outperformed by an excellent heavy SMG or assault rifle.

The disparity in cost becomes even more relevant when mass producing weapons, in hopes of rolling higher qualities. For example: before AP, a masterwork assault rifle outperforms all charge rifles of a lower quality, and has a superior range. You can often create double the amount of assault rifles for the same investment. This makes mass producing high quality, lower tech weapons a viable alternative when resources and crafting expertise are limited.

Stats

Against an unarmored human, a charge rifle can kill with 3 hits to the torso, 2-3 hits to the head, 2 hits to the neck, or 1 hit to the brain; cripple limbs in 2 hits; and cripple or destroy eyes and digits with a single hit. It'll generally take around 5 hits (~8.2 seconds average) to incapacitate that human from pain shock.

Overall, the charge rifle is best paired with a careful shooter up to level 16, and with a trigger-happy shooter beyond that point.

Comparisons

Comparison to assault rifles

Charge rifles, as general purpose 3-burst firearms, are very similar to assault rifles. The latter is noticeably cheaper, but the charge rifle comes with a few advantages.

For the same quality, a charge rifle has roughly +20% more pre-accuracy DPS and +20% armor penetration. For post-accuracy DPS, the charge rifle is superior to the AR for all ranges it can reach - even against unarmored targets. The exact effect of the charge rifle's AP depends on target armor and weapon quality.^[1]

In contrast, the assault rifle has a clear focus towards long-range combat. With 5 tiles more range, the AR outranges lancers, centipede blasters, and centipede burners. It more comfortably outranges tribals, termites, and other enemies. For kiting, when both range and DPS are highly important, the AR comes out on top - even when cost and quality are ignored. An assault rifle of higher quality will also come out ahead in many other scenarios.

In general, an assault rifle ~1 quality level above is roughly equal to a charge rifle. A good charge rifle is superior to an excellent assault rifle at touch and short ranges. The assault rifle would be better at medium and long ranges, though this is before considering AP. The higher quality assault rifle is much cheaper, so if given the choice, buy that. Because of the significant impact of quality at masterwork and legendary, a masterwork AR is better at any range than an excellent charge rifle, even after AP.

Notes:

¹ For every 1% of armor below (100% + AP%), damage is reduced by an average of 0.75% (See Apparel#Protection for detail). Every 1% of AP subtracts 1% of armor. So against scythers and lancers, a normal quality charge rifle would have ×143% DPS pre-accuracy. After accuracy: worst case scenario, ×121% more damage.

Masterwork and legendary weapons increase both weapon's AP, meaning it takes more armor for the same benefit. However, damage is also multiplied. Therefore, the charge rifle remains superior against light targets and even better against armored targets.

Comparison to heavy SMGs

Heavy SMGs are another general purpose weapon. Both weapons focus on short-medium range combat, as opposed to the assault rifle.

For the same quality, the heavy SMG beats the charge rifle for up to 10 tiles of range, before AP. However, the charge rifle is much better at the medium range band. This results in the charge rifle being a more practical weapon - most fights will start beyond 10 tiles. If you'd using the heavy SMG just because it's better at short range, you'll likely be better off using chain shotguns instead, which are much stronger than both the HSMG and charge rifle.

The heavy SMG is much cheaper, and shares a similar practical range to the charge rifle. Therefore, the charge rifle is best seen as an upgrade. Use heavy SMGs at first, and start creating charge rifles once you can afford them. Heavy SMGs can still be used by 0-skill shooters, who would have trouble hitting anything past 10 tiles anyways.

For differing quality: A heavy SMG 2 quality levels can beat a charge rifle at "short-medium" range. For example, a normal charge rifle beats an excellent heavy SMG past ~17 tiles of range. HSMGs retain their advantage with shorter distances. Due to the large benefits given by masterwork and legendary weapons, a masterwork heavy SMG beats a good charge rifle at all ranges it can reach.

Attack table

Spacer Weapons (Error: Page has no Property:Image) Spacer Weapons	Dam.	AP	Accuracy (Touch)	Accuracy (Short)	Accuracy (Medium)	Accuracy (Long)	DPS (Optimal)	DPS (Touch)	DPS (Short)	DPS (Medium)	DPS (Long)	Market value
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^{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.}

Trivia

According to the lore, charged-shot weapons fire projectiles coated in a matrix of magnetically-contained charged particles. On impact, the energy in the particles is released in a very efficient explosion and greatly increasing the damage done.

In the now-obsolete Quick Primer, charge weapons were also referred to as Tokamak weapons and required high amounts of power to fire. This necessitated powering by hex-cells at small scales (like Charge Rifles), or fusion reactors in the case of large cannons. With the obsolescence of that fiction primer, and the publication of a new primer that omits, but does not contradict, those details, the canonicity of this lore is now unclear.

Version history

0.0.245 - Now has a unique sound.
Approximately A9 - Renamed from R-4 Charge Rifle to Charge rifle.
0.12.910 - Rebalanced.
Beta 18 - Received a nerf to damage.
Beta 19 - Received a damage and range buff, and accuracy and fire rate nerf. Its recipe was also changed, and raiders no longer use charge rifles.