Persona weapon

Persona weapons are ultra tech weapons that contain a persona - a psychically capable, artificially intelligent personality similar to that in an AI persona core. This persona forms a psychic bond with the weapon's wielder and grants or inflicts certain traits based on the personality of the intelligence. This bond is usually both exclusive of other persona weapons and permanent, lasting until either the wielder dies or the weapon is destroyed. The exception is weapons with the Freewielder trait, which form no permanent bond and do not prevent the use of other persona weapons. Additionally, the bond is broken at the moment of death rather than the state of being dead. The bond remains broken if the wielder is resurrected, though they can relink with the weapon if no-one else has.

In addition to the traits the weapons provide, they also improve the combat capabilities of the weapons compared to the baseline versions. The wielder and weapon synchronize their reflexes and attack with frightening speed, accuracy, and creativity. Statistically, this is not represented by an improvement to base damage, but instead by a decreased cooldown time between attacks of between 20 and 30%, increasing DPS by a similar margin. As the baseline weapons are already incredibly dangerous, this places the persona weapons as the best melee weapons on offer.

There are currently three types of persona weapons, each a variant of another ultra tech melee weapon:

• Persona plasmasword, the persona variant of the plasmasword
• Persona monosword, the persona variant of the monosword
• Persona zeushammer, the persona variant of the zeushammer

Construction of persona weapons is beyond the capabilities of the colony, and is a secret known only by the Empire.

Names

Each persona weapon has a randomly generated name in addition to their regular weapon name. For example, a given persona monosword might be styled as "Ragarmar, persona monosword (Legendary)". These names are randomly generated so repeats are possible even in the same playthough, however the number of potential combinations make this possibility small.

There are 6 possible combinations for name creation, in 3 major formats

Noun-verber

The name is given the structure of Noun-verber, where the noun and noun form of verb are randomly selected from the following list and combined.

Part	Word
Noun	Oath-	Promise-	Death-	Pain-	Blood-	Doom-	Murder-	Justice-	Fear-	Chaos-	Terror-	War-	Order-	Silence-	Debt-
Verber	-keeper	-bringer	-sender	-giver	-maker	-crusher	-breaker	-smasher	-bender	-knower	-doer

Examples:

• Oathmaker
• Warbringer
• Doomknower

Syllable assembly

The name is assembled out of three types of syllable, Beginning Syllables, Middle Syllables and End Syllables, in one of three different structures. Either:

• Beginning Syllable + End Syllable
• Beginning Syllable + Middle Syllable + End Syllable
• Beginning Syllable + Middle Syllable + Middle Syllable + End Syllable

The syllable options are as follows:

Type	Syllable
Beginning	Vi-	Na-	Lo-	Ra-	To-	Ger-	Xan-	Kel-
Middle	-ser-	-gar-	-lor-	-ven-	-zan-	-xal-
End	-ys	-or	-ar	-sum	-dor	-mar	-gur

Examples include:

• Toor (To-or)
• Ragarmar (Ra-gar-mar)
• Viservendor (Vi-ser-ven-dor)

Person names

The name is randomly selected from a large list of names also used by pawns. They are not listed due to length.

Animal names

The name is randomly selected from a large list of names also used by bonded animals. This includes 214 female names, 235 male names, and 1538 unisex names for a total of 1,987 unique name options. They are not listed due to length.

Examples include:

• Belladonna
• Romulus
• Zephyr

Persona traits

Persona weapons have individual traits to reflect their individual personalities. Each weapon will have one or two traits. Some traits are good, some are bad, some are just different. Traits affect the weapon's market value, so a weapon with a negative trait will be cheaper. The traits are:

Trait name	Description	Effects	Value	Exclusivity	Commonality
Psychic hypersensitizer	This weapon amplifies the wielder's psychic sensitivity by 40%. This only applies while the weapon is held.	+40% Psychic Sensitivity	0	Other Psychic Sensitivity Modifiers	0.75
Psychic sensitizer	This weapon amplifies the wielder's psychic sensitivity by 20%. This only applies while the weapon is held.	+20% Psychic Sensitivity	0	Other Psychic Sensitivity Modifiers	0.75
Psychic quiet	This weapon suppresses the wielder's psychic sensitivity by 15%. This only applies while the weapon is held.	−15% Psychic Sensitivity	0	Other Psychic Sensitivity Modifiers	0.75
Psychic fog	This weapon suppresses the wielder's psychic sensitivity by 30%. This only applies while the weapon is held.	−30% Psychic Sensitivity	0	Other Psychic Sensitivity Modifiers	0.75
Kind thoughts	This weapon's persona is kind and supportive. It whispers kind thoughts to whoever it is bonded with, increasing their mood.	+6 <NAME>'s kind thoughts mood[When equipped?]	+500	Other Bonded Thought Traits Freewielder	1
Calm thoughts	This weapon's persona is relaxed and steady. It whispers calming thoughts to whoever it is bonded with, increasing their mood.	+3 <NAME>'s calm thoughts mood[When equipped?]	+300	Other Bonded Thought Traits Freewielder	1
Mad muttering	This weapon's persona is neurotic and unstable. It mutters mad thoughts to whoever it is bonded with, reducing their mood.	−3 <NAME>'s muttering mood[When equipped?]	-500	Other Bonded Thought Traits Freewielder	1
Mad wailing	This weapon's persona is highly disturbed and won't shut up about it. It wails mad notions to whoever it is bonded with, suppressing their mood.	−6 <NAME>'s wailing mood[When equipped?]	-1000	Other Bonded Thought Traits Freewielder	1
Kill-focused	This weapon's persona focuses on deaths. If the weapon kills someone, the wielder will instantly gain 20% psyfocus.	Instantly gain +20% psyfocus on killing another pawn, including humans, animals, and mechanoids.	+500	Kill Thought Traits	1
Kill-happy	This weapon's persona loves to kill. If this weapon kills someone, its joy will transmit psychically to the wielder, making them happier for a few days.	+6 <NAME>'s kill happiness mood for 3 days after killing a pawn.[Details]	+500	Other Kill Thought Traits	1
Kill-sorrow	This weapon's persona hates killing. If this weapon kills someone, its sorrow will transmit psychically to the wielder, reducing their mood for a few days.	−3 <NAME>'s kill sorrow mood for 3 days after killing a pawn.[Details]	-500	Other Kill Thought Traits	1
Kill thirst	This weapon's persona find purpose in bloodshed. If it does not kill for 20 days, it will become angry and psychically complain to whoever is bonded to it.	−3 <NAME>'s kill thirst mood after 20 days without killing a pawn.[Details]	-700	Kill Thought Traits Traits Freewielder	1
Psy-meditative	This weapon's persona is naturally meditative and helps its wielder focus in psychic meditation. The wielder gains an extra 10% psyfocus per day of meditation, as long as the weapon is held.	+10% psyfocus gain rate	+500	None	1
Painless	This weapon's persona has some method of psychically disabling pain. The one holding the weapon will feel no pain of any kind.	Psychic Painlessness: Pain is disabled by the psychic influence of a wielded weapon. 0x Pain multiplier	+400	None	1
Fast mover	This weapon's persona has a sense of motion. It confers this onto the wielder, making them move 15% faster as long as the weapon is held.	Psychic Speed: Movement is sped up by the psychic influence of a wielded weapon. +15% Moving	+600	None	1
Hunger pangs	This weapon's persona loves food, and transmits that onto whoever bonds with it. The bonded person's hunger rate will be 50% higher.	Psychic Hunger: Hunger is increased by the psychic influence of a bonded weapon. +50% Hunger Rate Factor	-600	None	1
Neural cooling	This weapon's persona has the ability to help dissipate the wielder's neural heat. The wielder's neural heat dissipation is improved by 0.15 per second.	Assisted neural cooling: Neural heat dissipation is improved by the psychic influence of a bonded weapon. +0.15/s Neural Heat Recovery Rate	+500	None	1
Freewielder	This weapon's persona does not form bonds in the normal way. Anyone can pick it up and use it.	Does not bond	0		1
Jealous	This weapon's persona becomes angry when the bonded individual uses another weapon, thus reducing their mood.	−15 <NAME>'s jealousy mood when a weapon other than the bonded weapon is equipped.	-600	Freewielder	1

Trait Analysis

Psychic hypersensitizer

Stat	Increase
Psychic Sensitivity	+40%
Neural Heat Limit	+32

The increase of 40% psychic sensitivity increases the neural heat limit 32 neural heat units. In comparison, a normal Eltex Staff increases psychic sensitivity by 2 percentage points more than a persona weapon with this trait (42%), bringing the neural heat limit buff to 33. The 40% increase in sensitivity also means that psychic soothes have a mood bonus of 22, initial [[psychic drone]s have a mood debuff of 17, medium psychic drones have a mood debuff of 31, high psychic drones have a mood debuff of 42, and an extreme psychic drone has a mood debuff of 60. If there is an high or extreme psychic drone, the pawn will suffer horribly unless you tell him/her to drop it. The sword is extremely useful when you need to cast multiple combat psycasts such as two berserk pulses in quick succession.

Psychic sensitizer

Stat	Increase
Psychic Sensitivity	+20%
Neural Heat Limit	+16

The increase of 20% psychic sensitivity increases the neural heat limit 16 neural heat units. In comparison, a normal Eltex Staff increases psychic sensitivity by 22 percentage points more than a persona weapon with this trait (42%), bringing the neural heat limit buff to 33. The 20% increase in sensitivity also means that psychic soothes have a mood bonus of 18, initial [[psychic drone]s have a mood debuff of 14, medium psychic drones have a mood debuff of 26, high psychic drones have a mood debuff of 36, and an extreme psychic drone has a mood debuff of 48. If there is an high or extreme psychic drone, the pawn will suffer (albeit at a lower level than with a weapon with the Psychic Hypersensitizer) unless you tell him/her to drop it. The sword is useful when you need to cast multiple combat psycasts such as two berserk pulses in quick succession.

Psychic Quiet

Stat	Increase
Psychic Sensitivity	-20%
Neural Heat Limit	-16

The decrease of 20% psychic sensitivity decreases the neural heat limit 16 neural heat units. This also means that psychic soothes have a mood bonus of 12, initial [[psychic drone]s have a mood debuff of 10, medium psychic drones have a mood debuff of 18, high psychic drones have a mood debuff of 24, and an extreme psychic drone has a mood debuff of 32. This sword is useful for non-psychic melee pawns or non-combat psycasters that do not need a high neural heat limit. Similar to the Psychic Foil Helmet, it is a portable and removable version of the trait Psychically dull.

Psychic fog

Stat	Increase
Psychic Sensitivity	-30%
Neural Heat Limit	-24

The decrease of 30% psychic sensitivity decreases the neural heat limit 24 neural heat units. This also means that psychic soothes have a mood bonus of 11, initial [[psychic drone]s have a mood debuff of 8, medium psychic drones have a mood debuff of 15, high psychic drones have a mood debuff of 21, and an extreme psychic drone has a mood debuff of 28. This sword is useful for non-psychic melee pawns or non-combat psycasters that do not need a high neural heat limits. Similar to the Psychic Foil Helmet, it is a portable and removable version of the trait Psychically dull.

Kind thoughts

The +6 mood it provides is equivalent to the mood buff given by being very comfortable, being an optimist, or the buff from an extremely impressive dining/rec/bedroom.

Calm thoughts

The +3 mood it provides is equivalent to the mood buff given by sleeping in an unbelievably impressive barrack, or the buff from an slightly impressive dining/rec/bedroom.

Mad muttering

The -3 mood it provides is equivalent to the mood debuff given by sleeping in an decent barrack, having a colonist banished, or the debuff from being uncomfortable. It is easily countered by eating fine meals. It is worth it because these potent weapons are usually acquired in the mid-to-late game, where mood is generally not a problem.

Mad wailing

The -6 mood it provides is equivalent to the mood debuff given by being hungry, being drowsy, and also when humans are butchered. It is mostly countered by eating fine meals. It is worth it because these powerful weapons are usually acquired in the mid-to-late game, where mood is generally not a problem.

Kill-focused

The wielder of a kill-focused persona weapon regains 20% of their psyfocus every time they kill another pawn with the weapon up to their normal maximum of 100%. Despite the description, this killed pawn does not have to be an enemy and the psyfocus will even be granted when executing downed enemies, killing wild animals and when slaughtering tamed animals.

A single kill is equivalent to over 5 hours of meditation with the best possible focus, or 10 hours without one. As psyfocus is one of the primary limiting factors for psycasters, this makes this trait incredibly powerful and easily a candidate for the best trait on offer.

The most obvious role is using the weapon in the thick of combat to keep up psycast support and it is very powerful doing so. It not only allows for more psycasting, it also allows the caster to be flexible with their casts and not have to worry about holding back for fear of not having focus when needed later. Pawns with high Psychic Sensitivity are especially ideal as wielders, as they can cast more before before exceeding their Neural Heat Limit and thus better exploit the additional focus. But the benefits aren't limited to only combat.

Simply by manually melee-hunting small animals such as squirrels and rats, psycasters can repeatedly cast Word of Inspiration to mass produce legendary items, Word of Trust to recruit large numbers of pawns quickly, or always have several Berserk Pulses ready to wreak havoc with raids. All this without having to dedicate much of a pawns life to meditation. This out-of-combat use means that even bad quality persona weapons with this trait are very valuable, as any weapon is sufficient to kill downed enemies or small animals. It also synergizes incredibly well with Freewielder, as a single weapon can then provide all the psyfocus needed for all the psycasters in the colony with some micromanagement. Melee hunting can be dangerous however - smaller, weaker animals are ideal to prevent injury to the wielder, but any animal works. Kill-focused plasmaswords may be better for this as being on fire will prevent the animal from attacking, however care should still be taken, especially with herd animals.

Kill-happy

+6 mood, 5 stack limit, 0.25 stack multiplier, lasts 3 days. The +6 mood it provides is equivalent to the mood buff given by being very comfortable, being an optimist, or the buff from an extremely impressive dining/rec/bedroom. The max of +8 is equivalent to the warmth of a beer, attending a party, and having a wondrously impressive bedroom/rec room/dining room. The max mood bonus is also equivalent to a bloodlust pawn witnessing a kill.

Kill-sorrow

-3 mood, 5 stack limit, 0.25 stack multiplier, lasts 3 days. The -3 mood it provides is equivalent to the mood debuff given by sleeping in an decent barrack, having a colonist banished, or the debuff from being uncomfortable. It is easily countered by eating fine meals. It is worth it because these potent weapons are usually acquired in the mid-to-late game, where mood is generally not a problem. The max mood debuff of -4 is equivalent to sleeping on the ground, sleeping outside, sleeping in the cold, sleeping in the heat, or having the pawn's uncle, aunt, cousin, grandparent, or kin die.

Kill thirst

The wielder must kill every 20 days or suffer a -4 mood debuff. The max mood debuff of -4 is equivalent to sleeping on the ground, sleeping outside, sleeping in the cold, sleeping in the heat, or having the pawn's uncle, aunt, cousin, grandparent, or kin die.

Psy-meditative

+10% psyfocus per time meditating The effect of this trait is negligible. An entire day of meditating will provide a base of 50 percent psyfocus, but with the psy-meditative trait, you can increase the amount of psyfocus to 55 percent per day. But because a pawn generally meditates for only around 4 hours a day, 8 percent psyfocus is gained, and with psy-meditative, 9 percent psyfocus is gained. The extra one percent is almost useless.

Painless

A pawn wielding a persona weapon with the Painless trait will not feel pain. The pro of this is that the pawn will not go down, but the side effect of this is that the pawn will keep fighting until they die. It gives an effect similar to that of the painstopper.

Fast mover

The Fast mover trait improves the Moving capacity of the wielder by 15% while the weapon is held.

Most obviously this improves the Move Speed stat, increasing a base-line healthy pawn's move speed by 0.69 c/s - this is a significant increase in speed, a pawn affected by this trait wearing cumbersome marine armor is still faster than a naked Fast walker. This makes it a valuable effect for some forms of kiting, on pawns whose primary role involves walking - such as planters, and just in making almost every task slightly faster to complete. Additionally, given the melee nature of all current persona weapons, this reduces the time required to close on ranged enemies and, thus, risk before their ranged attack is nullified.

However, the trait affects the capacity, rather than just the Move Speed stat like other gear, which means it also improves other dependent stats. Therefore, it also improves the Melee Dodge Chance of a pawn by the equivalent of almost 3 levels of the Melee skill - the exact significance of this varies based on the other factors of the stat, as detailed on that page, but it but for most pawns with some skill in Melee this results in an additional ~6% chance to dodge melee attacks. This is a significant decrease in incoming DPS, and given the melee power of persona weapons, it synergizes very well with them.

Technically, this also results in a 15% improvement to Hunting Stealth, meaning only 87% of the required skills are required for the same level of stealth, however, as Hunting Stealth only applies to ranged weapons, the persona weapon must be wielded for the effect to be applied, and there currently are no ranged persona weapons, it is impossible to actually benefit from this buff.

Overall, the fast mover trait is one of the better traits available, one that synergizes well with the weapon itself, and one that will likely benefit any wielder that takes up its host weapon. On the other hand, it also does not offer any truly unique advantages that cannot be obtained elsewhere, such as through traits or drugs. Thus, while it is a boon on any weapon acquired with it, it is not something that is likely to be specifically sought out.

Hunger pangs

The cost of wielding a persona weapon with this trait will cause the pawn to get hungry 1.5x quicker than normal. This weapon is generally worth it, because these potent weapons are usually acquired during the mid-to-late game, when food is not an issue.

Neural cooling

Similar to psy-meditative, the effect is negligible. A level 6 psylink psycaster loses 35 points of neural heat per 20 seconds, but with neural cooling, the person loses 36.5 points of neural heat per 20 seconds. The 1.5 points of neural heat is negligible, as most higher level psycasts give 40-60 neural heat. The extra one and a half point loss is almost useless. Much less useful than the eltex staff, which increases neural heat recovery of 8.3 percent, but also increases neural heat limit by 42 points.

+15% Neural Heat Recovery Rate, only applies while weapon is held.

Freewielder

Freewielder is arguably the best trait, tied with kill-focused, because it does not bond. When paired with kill-focused, however, you will get a weapon that instantly provides large amounts of psyfocus on demand. It is very good for non-combat psycasters, because those psycasts require large amounts of psyfocus. It is also useful because anyone can use the sword, unlike other persona weapons, which become useless if the bonded person dies or becomes permanently incapacitated. It is incompatible with Jealous.

Jealous

This weapon gives a hefty -15 mood penalty when a bonded pawn equips a weapon other than the the monosword. If a pawn is good at melee and not a bit good at shooting, this weapon may be worth it. Otherwise, it is advised to use another persona weapon, because the ability to shoot until enemies get close and then grabbing a persona weapon from a nearby shelf to melee fight is a good tactic.

Version history

• Royalty DLC release - Added
• 1.1.2647 - Persona weapons no longer damage relations with the Empire when used without the necessary titles. Previously, a title of Knight or Dame was required.
• 1.2.2719 - Pawns can now only bond one persona weapon at a time (otherwise trait effects can stack in broken ways).