Charge rifle

The charge rifle is a slightly heavier, multi-shot ranged weapon in RimWorld which fires 3-shot bursts of rounds which deal a slightly higher amount of damage each; a moderate delay between each shot; a moderate time between bursts; moderate range and slightly lower overall accuracy.

Acquisition

Charge rifles can also be crafted at a fabrication bench once the pulse-charged munitions research has been completed; from 50 plasteel, 2 advanced components and 45,000 ticks (12.5 mins) of work. A crafting skill of at least 7 is required.

Charge rifles can be purchased from outlander and orbital combat suppliers, or outlander settlements. Raiders never use charge rifles. A charge rifle is also the starting weapon in the rich explorer scenario.

Overview

Combining a solid per-shot damage with a 3-shot burst naturally makes for a dangerous weapon, which is exactly what the charge rifle is. Range is also fairly good for a multi-shot weapon, being identical to that of the LMG's. Armor penetration is also surprisingly high, being comparable to the sniper rifle's, despite the aforementioned weapon having a significantly higher per-shot damage.

Overall single-target damage output is the second highest out of all player-usable weapons in the game, beaten only by the minigun. Close-up damage output is weaker though relative to cheaper ranged weapons such as the chain shotgun, overall only being comparable to the heavy SMG - still decent in absolute terms though.

Accuracy is also fairly poor, being almost identical to the chain shotgun's. This means that the charge rifle sees a big advantage against large enemies, or even against tightly-packed groups of enemies - though higher-quality LMGs will still fare slightly better in these situations. Additionally, stopping power is lackluster meaning that the charge rifle can't stagger humans, instead being limited to the likes of tortoises and boomrats. The warmup/cooldown cycle is also quite long for a multi-shot ranged weapon, only being slightly shorter than the bolt-action rifle's.

Finally, the charge rifle is very difficult to acquire until lategame since its production requirements are high and because raiders don't use charge rifles.

Overall, the charge rifle is best suited as somewhat of an offensive weapon due to its overall damage output, being fairly consistent across all distances which the charge rifle can cover. The charge rifle's also a decent hunting weapon due to its solid per-shot damage combined with moderate range.

Against an unarmored human, a charge rifle can kill with 3 hits to the torso, 2-3 hits to the head, 2 hits to the neck, or 1 hit to the brain; cripple limbs in 2 hits; and cripple or destroy eyes and digits with a single hit. It'll generally take around 5 hits (~9.7 seconds average) to incapacitate that human from pain shock.

Overall, the charge rifle is best paired with a careful shooter up to level 16, and with a trigger-happy shooter beyond that point.

Melee Combat

Tool	Attack	Damage Type	Power	AP	Cooldown	Likelihood	Base DPS
Overall	-	-	9	13%	2.00s	-	4.50
Grip	Blunt	Blunt	9	13%	2.00s	50.00%	4.50
Barrel	Blunt	Blunt	9	13%	2.00s	25.00%	4.50
Barrel	Poke	Blunt	9	13%	2.00s	25.00%	4.50

Quality table

Quality	Beauty	Deterioration rate	Market Value	Accuracy (close)	Accuracy (short)	Accuracy (medium)	Accuracy (long)	Damage	Armor Penetration	Melee Damage Per Second	Melee Armor Penetration
Awful	-3	4/day	$505	44%	51%	44%	36%	14	32%	3.6	11%
Poor	-3	3/day	$760	50%	58%	50%	40%	15	35%	4.05	12%
Normal	-3	2/day	$1010	55%	64%	55%	45%	15	35%	4.5	13%
Good	-3	1.6/day	$1265	60%	70%	60%	50%	15	35%	4.95	15%
Excellent	-3	1.2/day	$1520	66%	77%	66%	54%	15	35%	5.4	16%
Masterwork	-3	0.6/day	$2530	74%	86%	74%	61%	19	44%	6.53	20%
Legendary	-3	0.2/day	$4010	83%	96%	83%	67%	22	52%	7.42	22%

Graphs

The below graphs assume an unmodified shooter using a Normal quality weapon.

Trivia

Charged-shot weapons are also referred to as Tokamak weapons in the fiction primer. They fire projectiles coated in a matrix of magnetically-contained charged particles. On impact, the energy in the particles is released in a very efficient explosion. These require high amounts of power to fire and are powered by hex-cells at small scales (like Charge Rifles), or fusion reactors in the case of large cannons.

Version history

0.0.245 - now has a unique sound.
Approximately A9 - Renamed from R-4 Charge Rifle to Charge rifle.
0.12.910 - Rebalanced.
Beta 18 - received a nerf to damage.
Beta 19 - received a damage and range buff, and accuracy and fire rate nerf. Its recipe was also changed, and raiders no longer use charge rifles.