Molotov cocktails

Molotov cocktails are short ranged, thrown weapons that have a forced miss radius but deal flame damage and set a 3x3 "plus-shaped" (+) area on fire where they land.

Note that molotov cocktails, once equipped, can be thrown infinitely; they are not consumed by use.

Acquisition

Molotov cocktails can be crafted at a Machining table once the Machining research project has been completed. They require 25 Cloth, 80 Chemfuel and 6,000 ticks (1.67 mins) of work.

They can also be purchased from orbital pirate merchants and orbital combat suppliers, outlander faction bases, or obtained from the following raider kinds:

Raider Kind	Chance	Average Quality	Health
Grenadier	50%	Normal	70-230%

Summary

Molotov cocktails range and AoE

Molotov cocktails have very short range, moderate aiming time, and no delay before exploding on the target and 1 additional tile in each of the cardinal directions, causes 10 Flame damage to targets in its area, possibly igniting them, and creating chemfuel puddles which will then ignite and burn.^{[Puddle behavior?]} Each set of molotov cocktails can be thrown infinitely; they are not consumed by use.

They are thrown with the same animation as of shooting, they cannot be used over walls and must have a direct line of sight. A circular zone will generate to indicate range, then another indicator with a circular center will become the aiming spot. The character cannot hold both the cocktails and another weapon at the same time.

Cocktails will always land within 1 tile of their targeted tile, including on the diagonal, unless the path of the cocktail intersects with a wall or object. This forced miss radius means that Shooting skill and shooting accuracy of the grenadier is irrelevant. The cocktails will not get any more or less accurate based on the skills or health of the thrower. Aiming time effects do still apply however.

When throwing a cocktail down an 1-tile wide alley, a pawn can consistently throw a cocktail 4 tiles, not including the tile the pawn is standing on, without intersecting the two side walls. Beyond 4 tiles, there is a risk of hitting the wall and dropping short. This can be relevant to prevent friendly fire or damaging defenses during combat.

When damaged with Flame damage^{[How much?]}, they may explode. The cocktails will spark and emit a hissing sound shortly before exploding some time later. The explosion deals 10 Flame damage in a 2.66 tile radius around itself.^{[Chemfuel puddles?]}

Molotov cocktails have no quality - every set of molotovs will have the same stats, regardless of the skill of the crafter.

They cannot be smelted in an electric smelter.

Pyromaniac pawns equipped with molotov cocktails will have a +5 Pyromaniac has incendiary weapon mood buff.

Analysis

A dubious combat weapon, accuracy is poor on moving targets and damage is slow over time. Molotovs are significantly cheaper to produce and fire faster than an incendiary launcher, but have poor range and projectile speed.

As with all Flame damage, it will ignite basically any non-mechanoid target that it successfully damages because a Flammability of under 30% is needed to prevent guaranteed ignition, and this is only present on mechanoids, who are immune to Flame damage anyway, and pawns wearing phoenix armor which does not spawn on enemy pawns. Note that is damages, and not hits. As such, good heat armor, such as from devilstrand or hyperweave clothes, can make this significantly less reliable by negating the damage. A mitigation will not prevent ignition however.

Watch out when using these in place of frag grenades when melee blocking, as the fire can allow enemies to clip past your blockers, allowing them to surround the blockers or attack your backline.

Good for disposing of corpses or equipment rapidly, though be aware of flammability of nearby flooring and walls; using a large, natural area of rough stone as your disposal zone is handy and safe.

One way to defend a base using molotovs is to drop some on stone floors/walls so that enemies have a difficult time getting in and are "softened" when passing through the flame, without burning the base itself.