Knee spike

Knee spike

A spike that extends at will from a hidden opening on the front of the knee. Appearing without warning, it can be used for devastating stabbing attacks which penetrate even thick armor.

Base Stats

Type

Medical Items – Body Parts

Tech Level

Industrial

Market Value

355 

Ranged Combat

Mode

Melee

Melee Combat

Mode

Melee

Melee Attack 1

Spike
22 dmg (Stab)
38% AP
2.6 seconds cooldown

Body Part

Leg

Creation

Crafted At

Required Research

Compact weaponry

Skill Required

Crafting 5

Work To Make

15,000 ticks (4.17 mins)

Resources to make

40 + 7

Technical

thingSetMakerTags

RewardStandardLowFreq

techHediffsTags

AdvancedWeapon

tradeTags

ImplantEmpireCommon

The Knee Spike is an implant that gives an attack with 38% AP and 8.46 DPS. Like all Implant Weapons, it can only be installed on a natural limb, not a prosthetic or bionic limb.

Acquisition

Knee spikes can be crafted at a machining table once the compact weaponry research project has been completed. Note that this research requires a techprint. Each requires  40 Steel,  7 Components, 15,000 ticks (4.17 mins) of work modified by the general labor speed of the crafter, and a crafting skill of 5.

It can also be found on Raiders, bought at traders and acquired through Quests

Summary

<Summary stuff goes here>

Installation

Installing the part requires 2,500 ticks (41.67 secs) of work, 2x medicine of herbal quality or better, and a Medical skill of 5.

Removing the part requires 2,500 ticks (41.67 secs) of work, 1x medicine of herbal quality or better, and a Medical skill of 5.

If the operation fails, the part will be destroyed.

Analysis

The Knee Spike is slightly superior to a steel longsword of normal quality, with 0.98x the DPS made up for by 1.15x the AP. This means it is a relatively powerful weapon early on, however as knee spikes are not affected by quality or material bonuses, their relevance for melee pawns diminishes in the mid game. They may still generally increase DPS by replacing or supplementing the weaker Handle attacks that occur 25% of the time, but the gain is small and the trade-off in bionics discussed below may not be worth it. Note that by adding additonal attack 'verbs' (as colonists normally cannot attack with their legs) you may make attacks with the more powerful melee options less likely.

As ranged weapons typically fare poorly when used in melee combat and knee spikes can be installed on pawns without preventing them from carrying ranged weapons, they can be useful to give a ranged pawn a decent melee option. This both expands their versatility in combat and mitigates a key weakness to melee enemies. However, the knee spike cannot be installed on bionic or archotech legs. The movement buff leg replacements provide can be key in improving pawn survivability, and are a significant boon in day-to-day duties. Therefore, installing the otherwise-inferior Elbow blade and forgoing a bionic or archotech arm may be a better option. As the effect of Manipulation on Shooting Accuracy is capped at 100%, the buffs provided by the arms do not significantly improve a ranged pawn's combat abilities, so it can be a more palatable trade-off assuming a pawn's non-combat duties would not benefit from heightened manipulation ability, such as hunters, haulers and cleaners. For pawns using drill arms, the knee spike is a clear choice as the benefit of the arms is huge and cannot be outmoded by skill or other buffs. If both bionic arms and legs are preferred, Venom fangs offer both significantly lower DPS and AP than either of the other two but do not conflict with any other beneficial prosthesis.

As of the changes to melee verb selection in 1.1.2610, installing more than one knee spike is redundant in all but some very niche circumstances, as is installing more than one of the implant weapons.

Slave weapon

Similar to the Elbow Blade, the Knee Spike does not count as a weapon in regards to slave suppression. If managing slave weaponry is too cumbersome or your slaves are frequently in danger this can provide some help, at the cost of increasing the danger posed by slave rebellion (not the frequency, but the potentially rebelling slaves now deal more damage)

Trivia

The stats page of the knee spike claims it replaces the leg, femur, tibia, foot, and toes; but this is incorrect. The knee spike is an implant and does not replace any body parts. The elbow blade and hand talon share this mistake.

Version history

• Royalty DLC Release - Added.
• 1.1.2598 - Buffed from 22% AP -> 38% AP and 7.50 DPS -> 8.46 DPS.

---

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