Lancer

Lancers are a type of fast-moving mechanoid with strong mid-long range firepower. They come equipped with the charge lance which can deal 30 damage per hit, making them a threatening foe.

They can be found sealed in ancient ruins in all biomes, either spawned inside mountains or outside on the landscape. They may also raid the player's base through a random raid-type event and can also be found in most poison ships and psychic ships.

Lancers are often supported by centipedes and scythers, though they outrun centipedes by a huge margin, and will not stop to let them catch up.

Like other mechanoids, lancers are sentient machine-like creatures which do not need to eat, cannot be tamed or trained, and are always hostile to the colony. Lancers have a moderate resistance to sharp damage and a small resistance to blunt damage but somewhat low health, making them trivial to disable at range with sufficient firepower. Lancers are vulnerable to spike traps, with only a few hits required to kill them.

Lancers will quickly charge until they are at range, in which they will stay at maximum range to fire. They will not move around to seek cover, or avoid incoming fighters.

Dead lancers may be shredded at the machining table or crafting spot for 15 steel though these values are affected by mechanoid shredding efficiency as well as missing parts on the lancer.

Combat & Strategy

Main article: Defense tactics#Lancers

Lancers play an offensive role, providing firepower to pick off lone colonists while centipedes mow down groups and scythers charge your gunners.

Lancers will quickly charge until they are in range, at which point they will stay at maximum range to fire. They will not move around to seek cover, or avoid incoming fighters.

They should be priority targets during the early game, as your pawns will likely lack armor to prevent dismemberment.

The DPS of a lancer is low compared to a centipede or scyther, but their charge lance deals tremendous damage: enough to take out most limbs and organs in 1 hit if not wearing armor.

As the description says, charging lancers can be a viable way to take them down, once you have taken care of any scythers.

Armor

Armor

Health

Biology

Lancers, although mechanical and not very human-looking, are actually almost the same in structure as a typical human (minus the organs). However, they're more durable than humans, don't feel pain and do not fear for their life - they don't even use cover. This can make them very dangerous to fight against when under-armed. They have two arms, run on two legs, and (surprisingly) have a neck and make vocal communication. Why a machine would use standard human-like air-based vocalization is unknown at this time - especially when Centipedes are completely unable to manually communicate.

Diet

Much like Centipedes, it's unknown what exactly drives a Lancer, but it's likely it would be similar to whatever powers the Centipede.

Body Parts (Summary)

Lancers, again, are practically humans in biology, although they lack many of the human organs and bones.

Body Part Name	Health (×1.5 Health Scale)	Base Health	Quantity	Coverage (per part)^[1]	Group	Function / Required for following System	Effect if Destroyed/Removed
Mechanical Thorax	40	40	1	?	Core part	Functioning in general	Machine failure
Mechanical Neck	30	30	1	8.0%	Top of Thorax	Communication (vocal), connector of thorax and head	Machine failure
Mechanical Head	30	30	1	75%	Neck	Houses Artificial Brain, Sensors	Machine failure
Artificial Brain	30	30	1	15%	Head	Dataprocessing	Machine failure
Sight Sensor	10	10	2	15%	Head	Sight	Loss of sight/Blindness
Hearing Sensor	10	10	2	5.0%	Head	Hearing	Loss of hearing/Deafness
Smell Sensor	10	10	1	10%	Head	-	-
Arm	30	30	2	10%	Thorax	Manipulation	Loss of manipulation ability/Unable to work (if both lost)
Hand	20	20	2	20%	Arm	Manipulation	Loss of manipulation ability
Fingers	7	7	10	5.0%	Hand	Manipulation	Loss of manipulation ability (minor)
Leg	30	30	2	10%	Thorax	Moving	Unable to move
Foot	20	20	2	20%	Leg	Moving	Loss of moving ability
Toes	10	10	10	5.0%	Foot	Moving	Loss of moving ability (minor)

↑ Coverage determines the chance to hit this body part. It is dependent on which group the body part is part of, so, for example, you can't shoot someone in the toe and hit them in the brain.

Trivia

A real life “Lancer” is a soldier who is armed with a Lance, and while the Lancer isn’t armed with a traditional lance the charge lance variant they wield gives them their “Lancer” status.

Version history

In 1.1 they now have 200% heat armor, essentially making them completely immune to fire damage. Since the charge lance was nerfed, they also suffered from a range reduction.

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

[coverage-1] Coverage determines the chance to hit this body part. It is dependent on which group the body part is part of, so, for example, you can't shoot someone in the toe and hit them in the brain.

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