Charge rifle

The charge rifle is a spacer-tech weapon that fires 3-round bursts. It has good armor penetration, moderate range, and slightly lower accuracy

Acquisition

Charge rifles can be crafted at a Fabrication bench once the Pulse charged munitions research project has been completed. They require 50 Plasteel, 2 Advanced components, 45,000 ticks (12.5 mins) of work, and a Crafting skill of 7.

Charge rifles can also be found in ancient shrines, or purchased from outlander and orbital combat suppliers, or outlander faction bases. The Rich Explorer starting scenario begins with a single charge rifle.

Human raiders never use charge rifles in RimWorld Core , however if the Royalty DLC is active, they may be obtained from the following Empire pawn kinds:

Raider Kind	Chance	Average Quality	Health
Janissary	?	?	70-230%
Cataphract	?	?	70-230%
Stellic Defender	?	?	100%

Analysis

Charge rifles are endgame tier weapons. In terms of DPS, the charge rifle is only beaten by the chain shotgun and minigun, after considering accuracy. The former has a rather short range, and the latter carries a massive cooldown cycle. The charge rifle has none of their downsides; its moderate range, higher AP, and powerful, three shot burst make it a flexible weapon. A minor downside is that it can't stagger humans.

The main issue with using charge rifles is cost. They require advanced components - which are largely impractical to amass before Advanced Fabrication is available. Raiders outside of the Empire won't ever carry the charge rifle and their appearance in trade inventories is rare, expensive, and limited in quality compared to crafting. For most of the game, you'll have to rely on cheaper weapons. Quality has a major impact - you could get a normal quality charge rifle by trading, but it could be matched or outperformed by an excellent heavy SMG or assault rifle your colony created.

The disparity in cost becomes even more relevant when mass producing weapons in hopes of rolling higher qualities. For example: before AP, a masterwork assault rifle outperforms all charge rifles of a lower quality, and has a superior range. You can often create double the amount of assault rifles for the same investment. This makes mass producing high quality, lower tech weapons a viable alternative when resources and crafting expertise are limited.

Stats

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.

Comparisons

Comparsion to assault rifles

Charge rifles, as general purpose 3-burst firearms, are very similar to assault rifles. The latter is noticeably cheaper, but also comes with a few advantages.

For the same quality, a charge rifle has roughly +20% more pre-accuracy DPS and +20% armor penetration. For post-accuracy DPS, the charge rifle is superior to the AR for all ranges it can reach - even against unarmored targets. The exact effect of the charge rifle's AP depends on target armor and weapon quality.

In exchange, the assault rifle has 5 tiles more range. This allows the AR to outrange the majority of enemies and lay fire for longer, before melee enemies can close the distance. Therefore, ARs can still be the more appealing choice when a higher enough quality weapon is available, or when range is beneficial, such as when kiting.

In general, an assault rifle ~1 quality level above is roughly equal to a charge rifle. A good charge rifle is superior to an excellent assault rifle at touch and short ranges. The assault rifle would be better at medium and long ranges, though this is before considering AP. The higher quality assault rifle is much cheaper, so if given the choice, buy that. Because of the significant impact of quality at masterwork and legendary, a masterwork AR is better at any range than an excellent charge rifle, even after AP.

Comparison to heavy SMGs

Heavy SMGs are another general purpose weapon. While the assault rifle is a medium-long range weapon, both the SMG and charge rifle are focused on short-medium range.

For the same quality, the heavy SMG beats the charge rifle for up to 10 tiles of range. However, the charge rifle is much better at the medium range band. This results in the charge rifle being a more practical weapon - most fights will start beyond 10 tiles. If you'd using the heavy SMG just because it's better at short range, you'll likely be better off using chain shotguns instead, which are much stronger than both the HSMG and charge rifle.

The heavy SMG is much cheaper, and shares a similar practical range to the charge rifle. Therefore, the charge rifle is best seen as an upgrade. Use heavy SMGs at first, and start creating charge rifles once you can afford them. Heavy SMGs can still be used by 0-skill shooters, who would have trouble hitting anything past 10 tiles anyways.

For differing quality: A heavy SMG 2 quality levels can beat a charge rifle at "short-medium" range. For example, a normal charge rifle beats an excellent heavy SMG past ~17 tiles of range. HSMGs retain their advantage with shorter distances. Due to the large benefits given by masterwork and legendary weapons, a masterwork heavy SMG beats a good charge rifle at all ranges it can reach.

Attack table

Ranged

Charge rifle			Accuracy (Touch)	Accuracy (Short)	Accuracy (Medium)	Accuracy (Long)	DPS (Optimal)	DPS (Touch)	DPS (Short)	DPS (Medium)	DPS (Long)	Market value
Quality	Dam.	AP	Accuracy (Touch)	Accuracy (Short)	Accuracy (Medium)	Accuracy (Long)	DPS (Optimal)	DPS (Touch)	DPS (Short)	DPS (Medium)	DPS (Long)	Market value
Awful	13.5	31.5%	44%	51.2%	44%	36%	11.92	5.24	6.08	5.24	4.29	505
Poor	15	35%	49.5%	57.6%	49.5%	40.5%	13.24	6.62	7.68	6.62	5.43	755
Normal	15	35%	55%	64%	55%	45%	13.24	7.28	8.47	7.28	5.96	1010
Good	15	35%	60.5%	70.4%	60.5%	49.5%	13.24	8.08	9.27	8.08	6.62	1260
Excellent	15	35%	66%	76.8%	66%	54%	13.24	8.74	10.19	8.74	7.15	1515
Masterwork	18.75	43.75%	74.25%	86.4%	74.25%	60.75%	16.55	12.25	14.23	12.25	10.1	2525
Legendary	22.5	52.5%	82.5%	96%	82.5%	67.5%	19.86	16.48	19.07	16.48	13.5	4010

^{For the full effects of qualities, see Quality. Values shown in Red indicate the weapon is out of range at the reference point for this range band.
The value is provided due to the interpolated nature of accuracy between range points.}

Melee

Feature	Toggle
Attacks

Charge rifle			Stock (Blunt)					Barrel (Blunt)					Barrel (Poke)					Human: Left & rigth fist (Blunt)					HP	Value
Quality	DPS^[1]	AP^[1]	Dam.	Cool.	AP	DPS	Chance^[2]	Dam.	Cool.	AP	DPS	Chance^[2]	Dam.	Cool.	AP	DPS	Chance^[2]	Dam.	Cool.	AP	DPS	Chance^[2]	HP	Value
Awful	3.98	11.6%	7.2	2s	10.4%	3.6	8.33%	7.2	2s	10.4%	3.6	8.33%	7.2	2s	10.4%	3.6	8.33%	8.2	2s	12%	4.1	2× 37.5%	100	505
Poor	4.07	11.82%	8.1	2s	11.7%	4.05	20%	8.1	2s	11.7%	4.05	20%	8.1	2s	11.7%	4.05	20%	8.2	2s	12%	4.1	2× 20%	100	755
Normal	4.4	12.75%	9	2s	13%	4.5	25%	9	2s	13%	4.5	25%	9	2s	13%	4.5	25%	8.2	2s	12%	4.1	2× 12.5%	100	1010
Good	4.74	13.73%	9.9	2s	14.3%	4.95	25%	9.9	2s	14.3%	4.95	25%	9.9	2s	14.3%	4.95	25%	8.2	2s	12%	4.1	2× 12.5%	100	1260
Excellent	5.08	14.7%	10.8	2s	15.6%	5.4	25%	10.8	2s	15.6%	5.4	25%	10.8	2s	15.6%	5.4	25%	8.2	2s	12%	4.1	2× 12.5%	100	1515
Masterwork	5.92	17.14%	13.05	2s	18.85%	6.53	25%	13.05	2s	18.85%	6.53	25%	13.05	2s	18.85%	6.53	25%	8.2	2s	12%	4.1	2× 12.5%	100	2525
Legendary	6.59	19.09%	14.85	2s	21.45%	7.43	25%	14.85	2s	21.45%	7.43	25%	14.85	2s	21.45%	7.43	25%	8.2	2s	12%	4.1	2× 12.5%	100	4010

^{For the full effects of qualities, see Quality.}

↑ ^1.0 ^1.1 Note: This is the actual base average derived from the melee verb system updated in 1.1.2610, it may sometimes disagree with the listed value in the in-game infobox.
It may also change depending on the stats and the melee verbs available to the wielder if the weapon is wielded by some other than a baseline human.
↑ Chance for attack to be selected, assuming the weapon is wielded by a baseline human. It may change depending on the melee verbs available to the wielder

Trivia

According to the lore, charged-shot weapons 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 and greatly increasing the damage done.

In the now-obsolete Quick Primer, charge weapons were also referred to as Tokamak weapons and required high amounts of power to fire. This necessitated powering by hex-cells at small scales (like Charge Rifles), or fusion reactors in the case of large cannons. With the obsolescence of that fiction primer, and the publication of a new primer that omits, but does not contradict, those details, the canonicity of this lore is now unclear.

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.