Power claw

Power claws are artificial hand replacements that also function as moderately powerful melee weapons at the expense of slowing a pawn's moving.

Acquisition

In the core game, the power claws cannot be crafted. Instead they can only be obtained via trade, given as a quest reward, found in quest item stashes. or found in ancient shrines.

With the Royalty DLC, Power claws can be crafted at a machining table once the specialized limbs research project has been completed. Note that this research requires a techprint. Each requires 40 Steel, 8 Components, 15,000 ticks (4.17 mins) of work modified by the general labor speed of the crafter, and a crafting skill of 5.

Summary

Body part

Power claws replace the user's organic hand, including the fingers. They are universal and can be installed on either the left or right. The power claw has a part efficiency of 100%. This fully replaces the functionality of a normal hand but provides no enhancement - when coupled with the hand body part having a Manipulation importance of 50%, it results in an increase in manipulation of up to 50% when replacing a missing or totally inoperable hand. Manipulation, in turn, affects a great many stats. For a full list of affected stats, see Manipulation

Other effects

Each power claw inflicts a −8% Moving penalty. Moving, in turn, affects the following stats: Hunting Stealth, Melee Dodge Chance, Move Speed. This results in a directly proportional change to a pawn's move speed, and a reduction in melee dodge chance equivalent to losing −1.44 levels of Melee skill per hand replaced.

Combat

A power claw replaces the natural "Fist" attack of the replaced hand with a significantly more powerful Scratch attack. When social fighting, colonists will not use the power claw to attack their opponent.

Name		Damage	DPS	AP	Damage Type
	Human Fist	8.2	4.1	12%	Blunt
	Power claw	22		33%	Scratch

Installation

A power claw can only be installed on a natural arm. It cannot be installed on artificial body parts that replace the entire arm, such as the bionic arm, and will cause the removal of any parts installed into the hand, such as the hand talon . It also will replace or be replaced by any other part that replaces the hand, such as the field hand . If a power claw is installed on an arm which then gets replaced with an artificial arm, the claw will be removed for later reuse.

Installing the part requires 2,500 ticks (41.67 secs) of work, 2x medicine of herbal quality or better, and a Medical skill of 4.

Removing the part requires 2,000 ticks (33.33 secs) of work, 1x medicine of herbal quality or better, and has no Medical skill requirements.

If the operation fails, the part will be destroyed, like other prosthetics.

Analysis

In terms of DPS, the power claw is the strongest body part weapon in the game, and the only dedicated example available without the Royalty DLC. Overall, the power claw offers a way for ranged pawns to defend themselves in melee, at the cost of their Moving. It can also be used as a dedicated melee weapon during the early game.

A power claw, on its own, is competitive with a normal quality plasteel longsword, though with a Moving penalty. They can also be obtained very early in the game, even before Smithing, through trade or quests. This makes the claw a powerful melee weapon in the early game, both strong and cheap. But as power claws are not impacted by quality, they will fall behind dedicated melee weapons which do more DPS and don't decrease Moving or Melee Dodge Chance. Regular weapons are also not incompatible with bionic and archotech arms, both of which increase Melee Hit Chance instead. Finally, note that power claws require surgery, which is risky without a good doctor and a clean hospital.

If a pawn is already holding a stronger melee weapon, adding a power claw would offer a marginal benefit. Because of the melee verb selection mechanic, pawns will use their "Best" attacks 75% of the time, and "Mid" attacks the rest of the time. The power claw falls into the "Mid" category alongside fist and/or handle attacks even when wielded with relatively accessible melee weapons such as Normal quality plasteel longswords or Good quality uranium maces. The end result in a DPS improvement of only +5.6% and +5% respectively, and the relative improvement only shrinks with higher qualities. And this still comes at the cost of Moving and Melee Dodge Chance.

The melee verb system also means that installing 2 claws is essentially never beneficial. If it is the "Best" category, it either won't improve DPS or it will improve DPS more to drop the equipped weapons. If its in "Mid", the actual effect on DPS of further diluting the handle attacks is tiny.

One of the key advantages of body part weapons is that they can be "wielded" with a ranged weapon, allowing a gunner to also be effective in melee. Shooting Accuracy also doesn't benefit from bionic arms, and Moving is less important to ranged fighters, reducing the tradeoffs associated with the power claw.

Compared to other artificial body parts

In the Royalty DLC, there are many other options for a "sidearm" artificial body parts. The main differences between the various options are: DPS, AP, and which part it attaches to. In addition, the power claw is the only body part weapon that reduces Moving, which has an impact on melee combat.

Hand talons provide very similar DPS, but at −17% AP. However, they do not slow down the user at all. They are attached on the hand and require an organic hand to do so.
Elbow blades attach to the organic arm, and is not incompatible with the field hand. They are weaker than the hand talon but offer slightly more AP.
Knee spikes attach to the organic leg. They are weaker than the hand talon but offer slightly more AP.
Venom fangs attach to the jaws, which no other body part weapon does. They are one of the weaker options, but do not impede the arm or leg. They also cause toxic buildup.

As the power claw incurs a Melee Dodge Chance penalty, other body part weapons may be worth considering. For a ranged fighter, raw DPS may not be a primary concern. Many ranged pawns will rarely need to melee, and the Moving penalty impedes kiting. So if a hand talon is sufficient to distract (and eventually defeat) a melee enemy, then there's no need to install a power claw that penalizes you.

Bionic arms and archotech arms offer a "fist" attack, which are much weaker to the power claw. However, each bionic arm increases Melee Hit Chance by +0.96 Melee levels, and an archotech arm offers double the benefit. Both bionics also offer an increase in Manipulation and no decrease in Moving, which helps with general work tasks.

Unlike hand talons, but like bionic/archotech arms, power claws replace the entire hand. This can be used to replace a missing hand. Compared to the wooden hand, the power claw gives +10% Manipulation for −8% Moving. If you later install a bionic arm (or other hand/full arm replacement), then the power claw will be retrieved safely, so long as the surgery succeeds.

Slaves

Slaves represent a unique use case for body part weapons. As proper melee weapons increase chance of rebellions, arming slaves is often inadvisable, but combat slaves can be very useful. Body part weapons do not have this downside - while they are still more dangerous when they do rebel, slaves implanted with these weapons are no more likely to rebel in the first place. The easy acquisition and disposable nature of slaves also means that the power claw's inferiority to dedicated melee weapons is also less relevant.

Version history

0.7.581 - Added
B19 - Body part efficiency increased from 92% -> 100%.
Royalty DLC Release - Crafting Recipe added.
1.1.2587 - DPS was buffed but it now slows movement.

Artificial body parts

Arm/Hand: Archotech arm • Bionic arm • Power claw • Prosthetic arm • Wooden hand • Drill arm • Elbow blade • Field hand • Hand talon • Venom talon • Flesh tentacle • Flesh whip
Head: Archotech eye • Bionic eye • Bionic ear • Bionic jaw • Bionic tongue • Cochlear implant • Denture • Aesthetic nose
Head implants: Joywire • Painstopper • Circadian assistant • Circadian half-cycler • Gastro-analyzer • Learning assistant • Mindscrew • Neurocalculator • Psychic harmonizer • Psychic reader • Psychic sensitizer • Venom fangs • Control sublink (Standard, High) • Mechlink • Mech gestation processor • Remote repairer • Remote shielder • Repair probe
Spine: Bionic spine • Revenant vertebrae
Stomach: Bionic stomach • Nuclear stomach • Reprocessor stomach • Sterilizing stomach • Fleshmass stomach
Heart: Bionic heart • Prosthetic heart • Heart • Adrenal heart • Corrosive heart • Metalblood heart
Lung: Lung • Detoxifier lung • Fleshmass lung
Kidney: Kidney • Detoxifier kidney
Organs: Liver
Visceral implants: Death acidifier • Aesthetic shaper • Coagulator • Healing enhancer • Armorskin gland • Stoneskin gland • Toughskin gland • Immunoenhancer • Love enhancer • Ghoul plating • Ghoul barbs
Leg/Foot: Archotech leg • Bionic leg • Prosthetic leg • Peg leg • Wooden foot • Knee spike
Related: Psylink neuroformer • Xenogerm
Deprecated: Scyther blade • Psychic silencer