EMP grenades

EMP grenades are short ranged, thrown weapons that have a forced miss radius but deal EMP damage in a small radius around their target, allowing them to stun mechanical targets and deplete shields. They are not consumed on use and do not use any ammo.

Acquisition

EMP grenades can be crafted at a Machining table once the Microelectronics research project has been completed. They require 20 Steel, 6 Components and 24,000 ticks (6.67 mins) of work.

They can also be purchased from orbital pirate merchants and orbital combat suppliers, outlander faction bases, and can be recovered after defeating the following raider types:

Raider Kind	Chance	Average Quality	Health
EMP Grenadier	100%	Normal	70-230%

Summary

Weapon

For a full exploration of the effects of EMP damage, see EMP.

EMP grenades are weapons. They take up the weapon slot and will not run out of ammo. Grenades are blocked by walls, but the blast ignores cover. When choosing a target, a circular zone will generate to indicate range, then another 3x3 indicator with a circular center will become the aiming spot.

EMP grenades deal 50 EMP damage in a 3.5 tile radius. They are thrown from a very short range of 12.9 tiles, and have moderate aiming time. Once landed, grenades have a 100 ticks (1.67 secs) delay before exploding. With a forced miss radius of 1.9 tiles, an unobstructed grenade always lands within 1 grid tile (including diagonals) of the target. Therefore, the blast will always hit the intended tile. This means Shooting skill, shooting accuracy, and health of the grenadier is irrelevant. Aiming time effects still apply, however.

EMP does not deal physical damage. Instead, EMP grenades stun turrets, mechanoids, and mortars for 50 EMP damage, or 25 seconds. After being stunned, mechanoids become "Adapted" and gain immunity against further stuns for 2,200 ticks (36.67 secs). Immunity is applied on stun, and further EMPs won't extend adaptation. EMP also disables shield belts, causes brain shock on humanoids with brain implants, and vomiting on those with certain stomach implants.

Item

When damaged with Flame damage^{[How much?]}, the grenade item may explode. The grenades will spark and emit a hissing sound shortly before exploding some time later. The explosion deals 50 EMP damage in a 2.66 tile radius around itself.

EMP grenades have no quality - every set of grenades will have the same stats, regardless of the skill of the crafter.

Analysis

While harmless against most organic life, EMP weaponry is incredibly useful against mechanoids, like centipedes, a decisive advantage against some of the toughest enemies in the game. Due to the forced miss radius, EMP grenades are a viable combat alternative for those with health issues or low shooting skill. Trigger-happy is beneifical, while the careful shooter trait is strictly detrimental.

Usage without oversight is prone to vulnerable positioning, inefficiency against moving target, and unwanted collateral damage. It therefore is a good idea to manually aim EMP grenades instead of relying on the colonists' AI to do that. They will not lead a moving target and will not attack targets which can only be hit by area of effect (e.g. well behind the corner of a wall). Repeated throwing will affect stun adaptation, but won't increase stun duration.

When throwing a grenade down an 1-tile wide alley, a pawn can consistently throw a grenade 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.

With the Royalty DLC active, they also play a vital role in suppressing low-shield packs and downing mech low-shields , ensuring that colonists can maintain damage output. Mech clusters are another great target of EMPs, even if their proximity activators prevent the best firing angle. There are also niche uses in brain shocking pawns with certain implants to safely down them as a method of safely downing berserking supersoldier colonists or rebellious slaves.

Comparison to EMP launchers

See also: EMP launcher

The key differences between EMP grenades and launchers are: Range, Rate of Fire, Blast Radius, and Quality.

While both have the same miss radius, grenades have a significantly larger blast radius. This means that grenades will always hit their intended tile, while the launcher may miss. Grenades are also faster to throw, which is a key advantage in most practical situations.

Launchers have a higher range, which may be useful with good terrain/cover or against low shield packs or mechanoid shields. However, most mechanoids will still outrange the launcher, including all mechanoids without the Biotech DLC. The militor and diabolus in particular are vulnerable to the launcher's extra range - the rest really aren't.

Unlike grenades, launchers are affected by quality. Masterwork and Legendary launchers in particular see an increase in damage (i.e. stun duration). Legendary launchers will stun for long enough that it's technically possible to 100% stun lock those without EMP resistance. In practice, it is almost impossible to get the timing perfect even before accounting for the risk of missed shots, unless you have multiple colonists with legendary launchers. Conversely, this makes grenades relatively better if you don't have good crafters - Awful launchers are worse at their job.

Overall, grenades are often the stronger and more practical choice. Their higher blast radius and faster fire rate make up for the range.

Source	Damage	Stun Duration	Post-Stun Adaption Duration	Ideal Stun Uptime
Awful EMP launcher	45	1,350 ticks (22.5 secs)	850 ticks (14.17 secs)	61.36%
EMP Grenades, Poor/Norm/Good/Exc EMP launcher	50	1,500 ticks (25 secs)	700 ticks (11.67 secs)	68.18%
Masterwork EMP launcher	62.5	1,875 ticks (31.25 secs)	325 ticks (5.42 secs)	85.23%
Legendary EMP launcher	75	2,250 ticks (37.5 secs)	0 ticks (0 secs) (-50 ticks (-0.83 secs))	100%