War queen

Occurrence

One or more war queens can spawn in mechanoid raids when sufficient raid points are available for them, however they are also involved in the mechanitor progression and can be specifically summoned by the player.

Summoning a hostile war queen requires a mechanitor and a mechband antenna, destroying the antenna in the process. Constructing a mechband antenna requires the Standard mechtech research.

When summoned, it will be accompanied by other mechanoids. The amount of other mechanoids depends on how many times you have summoned a War queen before, but is independent of wealth, time, or colony progress. They will crash down in a ship after a random amount of time ranging from a few in game hours to days. They will not attack immediately, but will instead act like a raid and "prepare" before launching their assault.

Summoning:

1x War queen with heavy shield unit, 5x pikeman, 2x scyther
1x War queen with heavy shield unit, 7x militor, 2x centipede (burner)
1x War queen with heavy shield unit, 5x pikeman, 2x tesseron, 3x tunneler
2x War queen with heavy shield unit, 8x militor, 4x lancer, 2x centipede (burner)
2x War queen with heavy shield unit, 5x pikeman, 5x lancer, 3x legionary, 3x centipede (burner)
2x War queen with heavy shield unit, 14x scyther, 4x centipede (burner), 1x centurion
2x War queen with heavy shield unit, 8x centipede (burner), 18x scorcher
3x War queen with heavy shield unit, 6x scyther, 6x lancer, 3x legionary, 8x centipede (burner), 1x centurion

Like the other mechanoid bosses, after being summoned 8 times, the next summon will be the same as wave 3. The wave count is per playthrough, not per colony or map. If the war queen is summoned once on one map, summoning another on a second map will bring the second wave. The Archonexus colony reset does reset this progression.

Acquisition

War queens can be gestated by a mechanitor at a large mech gestator once the ultra mechtech research project has been completed. Note that this research requires a nano structuring chip to unlock. Each requires 600 Steel, 300 Plasteel, 3 Advanced components, 1 Nano structuring chip, 1 High subcore and 12 gestation cycles taking 1,800 ticks (30 secs) each to initiate. They take up 5 bandwidth from their linked mechanitor.

Dead, friendly war queens can also be resurrected at the large mech gestator using the "Resurrect ultraheavy mechanoid" bill. This requires the corpse of the friendly War queen, 150 steel, and 1 gestation cycle taking 1,800 ticks (30 secs) to initiate.

Summary

As mechanoids, every war queen is immune to fire, Flame and Heat damage, and temperature extremes, despite having Comfortable Temperatures defined. They have 100% Toxic Resistance and Toxic Environment Resistance, making them immune to toxic buildup, rot stink and other toxic effects. They do not need to eat, rest, and have no mood. They will be stunned by EMP attacks for a time proportional to the EMP damage inflicted and will "adapt" and rendered immune to further EMP strikes for 2,200 ticks (36.67 secs). War queens have a 70% EMP resistance, meaning they are stunned for 70% less time.

Dead war queens may be shredded at the machining table or crafting spot for 50 steel and 20 plasteel. However, these values are affected by mechanoid shredding efficiency, as well as missing parts on the war queen.

Defeating a hostile War queen rewards the player with a Powerfocus chip. Studying one is required to research High Mechtech, and they can also be used to create various mechanitor gear.

Combat

Equipped with a charge blaster turret.
Spawns war urchins; the queen can make up to 3 war urchins at a time. Each war urchin costs 25 steel to make. The war queen generates with 600 steel.
- This steel is not recovered upon killing the queen or shredding her at a Machining table
- If the queen is killed before the urchins, they all die immediately
May come with an energy shield. 300 HP, recharges at a 0.5 rate.
MeleeDoorDamageFactor = 1.5

As an ally

It costs 25 steel to create each war urchin. Dead war urchins can be shredded at a machining table for up to 10 steel, so the actual cost of single urchin is closer to 15 steel, assuming you can retrieve their corpses intact. When summoning, you can summon 3 at a time every 15 seconds, for a total batch cost of 75 steel. The War Queen can hold up to 600 steel at a time, and the target level can be set by the player.

Player urchins cannot be operated manually, nor can they be zoned, but they respect forbidden doors. Otherwise they just behave like ally pawns from NPC factions, moving towards the nearest enemy on the entire map.

War queens cannot release war urchins while dormant self-charging, and the operation mode of a mech cannot be changed when the overseer is unavailable. However, a war queen moving due to factors like zoning restrictions are not considered as dormant self-charging and can release war urchins.

Analysis

As an enemy

Despite their description in a Biotech preview, rushing the war queen is generally not the best strategy. The war queen will only begin to deploy urchins when she is within range of an enemy, so it can be advantageous to let her come to you. Furthermore, the war queen can only build a finite number of urchins, so it is quite viable to hunker down and win a battle of attrition. Aiming for the queen can help, but you'll need to use EMP and rush it down very quickly, lest the swarm takes you out. Letting all the urchins be deployed allows for more steel to be recovered, as they can be shredded after, but any remaining steel inside the queen is lost.

The real threat isn't so much the war queen as the escorts she spawns with. The first summon comes with 5(!!) pikemen, and later fights only get harder. Pikemen in particular can snipe from a long range, making it extra difficult to interrupt the constant flow of war urchins. You might want to construct a close quarter combat arena in order to counter this.

As an ally

The war queen is the single most durable mech you can gestate, boasting the highest health scale and 2nd highest armor in the game. Even if the war queen never fires, it makes for an amazing distraction. This is further enhanced by the war urchins it can deploy. If a doomsday rocket launcher hits a war urchin, little is lost. War urchins aren't nearly as durable, but due to their small body size, they are hard to hit.

In terms of raw firepower, the war queen is lacking, especially for an ultra-heavy mech. Instead, it relies on the swarm of urchins. Individual urchins are not effective against large enemy forces, so you may want to bunch them up. In order to bunch up your urchins, deploy them inside a room where its doors are forbidden. Once all the urchins are ready, unforbid the doors and unleash the swarm. This can be an effective but expensive way to deploy a lot of firepower.

Health

Body parts

Part Name	Health	Quantity	Coverage^[1]	Target Chance^[2]	Subpart of	Capacity^[3]	Effect if Destroyed/Removed
First body ring	286	1	100%	10%	N/A^[4]	Moving Manipulation	Death −20% Moving −20% Manipulation Will never take permanent injury
Head	156	1	10%	3.4%	First body ring	-	Death Will never take permanent injury.
Artificial brain	52	1	10%	1%	Head	Data Processing	Death Will never take permanent injury.
Sight sensor	52	2	8%	1.3%	Head	Sight	−25% Sight. −100% if both lost. Will never take permanent injury.
Hearing sensor	52	2	8%	1%	Head	Hearing	−25% Hearing. −100% if both lost. Will never take permanent injury.
Chemical analyzer	52	1	8%	1%	Head	-	Will never take permanent injury.
Bulb turret	208	1	5%	5%	First body ring	-	Will never take permanent injury.
Second body ring	286	1	75%	11%	First body ring	Moving Manipulation	Death −20% Moving −20% Manipulation Will never take permanent injury
Reactor	104	1	5%	3.8%	Second body ring	Power Generation	Death. Will never take permanent injury.
Third body ring	260	1	80%	18%	Second body ring	Moving Manipulation	Death −20% Moving −20% Manipulation Will never take permanent injury
Fourth body ring	234	1	70%	17%	Third body ring	Moving Manipulation	Death −20% Moving −20% Manipulation Will never take permanent injury
Fifth body ring	208	1	60%	11%	Fourth body ring	Moving Manipulation	Death −20% Moving −20% Manipulation Will never take permanent injury
Fluid reprocessor	78	1	5%	1.3%	Fifth body ring	Fluid Reprocessing	Death Will never take permanent injury
Forming sack	1040	1	50%	13%	Fifth body ring	-	Will never take permanent injury

↑ Coverage determines the chance to hit this body part. It refers to the percentage of the super-part that this part covers, before its own sub-parts claim their own percentage. For example, if the base coverage of the super-part is 100%, and the coverage of the part is 20%, 20% of hits would hit the part, and 80% the super-part. If the part had its own sub-part with 50% coverage, the chances would be 10% sub-part, 10% part, 80% super part.
↑ Target Chance is the actual chance for each part to be be selected as the target when each part's coverage has been taken into account(I.E. Neck covers 7.5% of Torso but Head covers 80% of Neck so it actually has only a 1.5% chance to be selected). This is not pure hit chance, as different damage types propagate damage in different ways. See that page for details.
↑ Note that capacities can affect other capacities in turn. Only the primary effect is listed. See specific pages for details.
↑ This is the part that everything else connects to to be considered 'connected'.

Gallery

Age 0-99 War queen facing east
Age 0-99 War queen facing north
Age 0-99 War queen facing south

Age 100+ War queen facing east
Age 100+ War queen facing north
Age 100+ War queen facing south

Version history

Biotech DLC Release - Added.
1.4.3531 - Increased EMP resistance from 45% to 70%. Added alert for incoming bossgroup. Fix: Bossgroup mechs do not attack if mechanoid faction is disabled. Fix: War urchins are not newborn when created by a war queen.
1.4.3541 - Fix: When the mechanoid faction is disabled, mech bosses will not attack pawns.
1.4.3555 - Now immune to psychic lances. Super-mechanoids cannot be called when there is already another super-mechanoid on the way.

Mechanoids

Mechanoids | Core: Centipede (Blaster, Burner, Gunner) • Lancer • Pikeman • Scyther • Termite
Combat: Centurion • Legionary • Militor • Scorcher • Tesseron
Command: Apocriton • Diabolus • War queen (War urchin )
Labor: Agrihand • Cleansweeper • Constructoid • Fabricor • Lifter • Paramedic • Tunneler
Cluster | Buildings: Condition causer • Count-down activator • Mech assembler • Mech capsule • Mech drop beacon • Mech high-shield • Mech low-shield • Mech node • Proximity activator • Unstable power cell
Turrets: Auto charge turret • Auto inferno turret • Auto mortar • Mini-slugger turret
Creation | Pawn: Mechanitor
Buildings: Mech gestator • Large mech gestator • Mechband antenna • Mechband dish

[1] Coverage determines the chance to hit this body part. It refers to the percentage of the super-part that this part covers, before its own sub-parts claim their own percentage. For example, if the base coverage of the super-part is 100%, and the coverage of the part is 20%, 20% of hits would hit the part, and 80% the super-part. If the part had its own sub-part with 50% coverage, the chances would be 10% sub-part, 10% part, 80% super part.

[2] Target Chance is the actual chance for each part to be be selected as the target when each part's coverage has been taken into account(I.E. Neck covers 7.5% of Torso but Head covers 80% of Neck so it actually has only a 1.5% chance to be selected). This is not pure hit chance, as different damage types propagate damage in different ways. See that page for details.

[3] Note that capacities can affect other capacities in turn. Only the primary effect is listed. See specific pages for details.

[4] This is the part that everything else connects to to be considered 'connected'.

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

War queen

Contents

Occurrence

Acquisition

Summary

Combat

As an ally

Analysis

As an enemy

As an ally

Health

Body parts

Gallery

Version history

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