Incendiary launcher

Incendiary Launcher

"Incendiary bolt launcher. Starts fires."

Base Stats

Type

Equipment – Weapons

"Advanced Weapons" is not in the list (Neolithic Weapons, Medieval Weapons, Industrial Weapons, Spacer Weapons, Ultra Weapons, Mechanoid Weapons) of allowed values for the "Class" property.

Weapon Class

Advanced

Mass

3.4 kg

Ranged Combat

Mode

Single-Shot

Damage

10 dmg

Warm-Up

180 ticks (3 secs)

Cooldown

240 ticks (4 secs)

Range

24 tile(s)

Accuracy

79% - 42% - 18% - 6%

Velocity

40 (m/s)

Burst Count

1 (per burst)

Blast Radius

1.1

DPS

1.43

The incendiary launcher is a moderately-heavy, single-shot weapon in RimWorld with medium effective damage per shot; very low fire rate; short-medium range; and decent effective accuracy. The incendiary launcher is unique in the respect that it's currently the only weapon with explosive projectiles that doesn't have a forced miss radius in RimWorld - as of Alpha 17. As the name suggests, its projectiles are incendiary, so it'll ignite anything that it hits; this can be particularly useful for effectively disabling tough raiders, but also for destroying insect hives when infestations occur. However, raiders equipped with incendiary launchers can also do the same to your colonists and animals - and considering the incendiary launcher's real accuracy, these raiders can become very problematic if not dealt with quickly; your colonists will helplessly run out typically into the open, while cunning pirates/outlanders will take shots at them and down them - and then that pawn may even burn to death if not rescued quickly enough.

As touched on earlier, the incendiary launcher's accuracy stat is actually very deceiving of how accurate the weapon really is: its explosion affects the tile it lands on, as all directly adjacent tiles; and because a missed shot only lands directly adjacent or diagonal to the target (for weapons without a forced miss radius), the incendiary launcher actually still has up to a 50% chance of hitting the target when the shot itself misses. As a result, the incendiary launcher's effective accuracy will never be less than 50% against targets that aren't moving, who also don't have any walls or other impassable structures around them - regardless of the shooter.

A similar effect applies to damage; the initially low 10 damage actually turns out to be around 16 (on average), as pawns will typically take damage two times from the fire before extinguishing themselves - at least in a non-combat scenario - therefore, the incendiary launcher's effective damage per shot is around 16.

As it's hard to miss with the incendiary launcher against immobile targets, any shooter will generally fare well with the incendiary launcher, making it a very skill-friendly weapon. It's recommended to prioritise giving trigger-happy colonists an incendiary launcher over anybody else to halve its lengthy warmup time, while not adversely affecting its accuracy.

Obtaining

Incendiary launchers can be purchased from outlander combat suppliers and towns, or from an orbital weapons trader - or from incapacitated outlander, pirate, or mercenary raiders. Incendiary launchers can also be manufactured at a machining table once the machining research has been completed; for 75 steel, 4 components, and 22,000 ticks (6.11 mins) of work.

Conclusion & Comparison

All-in-all, the incendiary launcher is a dangerous weapon that's not to be underestimated - as it can easily be underestimated due to its apparently lacklustre stats. Capable of causing widespread destruction in drier climates, incendiary launcher-wielding raiders should ideally be dealt with carefully - as well as being tactical with the use of them yourself.

The incendiary launcher is significantly more accurate and long-ranged than molotov cocktails, but less effective than the high-end doomsday rocket launcher overall - but the latter is only single-use. However, the incendiary launcher will gain redundancy in the late game in typical combat scenarios as your stock of charge rifles increases - or any other high-tier ranged weapons, but it still remains a very good weapon when paired with a bionic colonist in regards to dealing with insect hives. Therefore, it's going to be most effective in the mid-game, but it still retains some form of usefulness throughout.

Graphs

The following graphs take the incendiary launcher's effective damage and accuracy into account:

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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