Burden
 | This article relates to content added by Royalty (DLC). Please note that it will not be present without the DLC enabled. |
Burden
Slow the target for a short time by suppressing motor activity in the brain.
Base Stats
- Type
- Psycast
Ability
Burden is a level 1 psycast that slows a single target for its duration.
Acquisition
There are two ways to acquire the burden psycast:
- Upon reaching psylink level 1, a random psycast of level 1 is granted regardless of how this level up is achieved. This won't apply if the psycaster already knew one or more level 1 psycast.
- Burden can also be acquired from a psytrainer naming it. See the psytrainer page for further details.
Summary
Psychically-induced difficulty in locomotion.
— Psychic burden description
The burden psycast inflicts the "Psychic burden" hediff on its singular target. This target must be in line of sight but can be any human, animal, or mechanoid with a psychic sensitivity above 0%. The hediff has only one effect, capping the Moving capacity of the target at 40% for 1,200 ticks (20 secs). Note that this is not a multiplier or offset. It does not stack with other effects on the Moving capacity - if a pawn's Moving would be below 40% anyway, then it has no effect, and an enemy won't reach below the cap from injuries or other effects any faster. Conversely this means that Moving buffs cannot mitigate the effect either.
Moving, in turn, affects the following stats: Hunting Stealth, Melee Dodge Chance, Move Speed. Assuming a baseline of 100% Moving, this results in a directly proportional change to the target pawn's move speed, and a change in melee dodge chance equivalent to losing 10.8 levels of Melee skill. Due to how the stat is fit to a post-process curve, this will result in the melee dodge chance dropping to 0% for pawns with skill under 16. Note that additive buffs to move speed like the jogger trait or speed penalties obtained from various sources like wearing plate armor do still affect move speed as they are added before the Moving multiplier.
Analysis
 | This section is suggested to be rewritten. Reason: Currently just a Copy-paste of minor tactics previously on Psycasts - needs verification, rewriting, formatting, and expansion. You can help the RimWorld Wiki by improving it. |
- Very useful for getting one or two more shots on melee attackers before they close the distance. Effective for this reason with a killbox setup as well.
- Excellent debuff against strong melee pawns.
- Useful for hunters in case of revenge, especially for larger, dangerous animals like thrumbo.
Version history
- Royalty DLC Release - Added.
- 1.1.2559 - Range increased from 25 to 30.
- 1.1.2571 - Duration decreased from 30 to 20.