Pikeman

Pikemen are a type of slow-moving, long range mechanoid.

Summary

All mechanoids are hostile to the colony, unable to be tamed or trained. They do not eat and are immune to toxic fallout and temperature extremes, despite having a Comfortable Temperature range. Like all mechanoids, they are vulnerable to EMP attacks.

Mechanoids can be found sealed in ancient ruins in all biomes, which spawn inside mountains or outside on the landscape. They may also raid the player's base through events and can also be found in most poison ships and psychic ships. Pikemen are often supported by centipedes, scythers, and lancers, though their speed and range difference often leaves them at the back of the formation.

Pikemen will slowly move 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. Pikemen have moderate resistance to sharp damage and very small resistance to blunt damage, making them trivial to disable if one can get close enough to them.

Pikemen have a shooting accuracy of 96%, equivalent to a pawn with a Shooting skill of 8. They have a melee hit chance of 62%, equivalent to a pawn with a melee skill of 4.

Combat

Centipedes are always equipped with needle gun, which doesn't deal too much damage, but has aan extremely long range and also better-than-average armor penetration. They also able to engage in (less effective) melee combat with colonists.

Armor

Armor

Analysis

Main article: Defense tactics#Pikemen

Pikemen play a supportive role, providing firepower at long range to keep your colonists' heads down while the other mechs deal the damage.

Their damage output is atrocious: their needle gun deals a measly 15 damage, has a slow fire rate, and pikemen themselves are not good snipers, equivalent to a level 8 shooter only. However the needle gun has a huge range, analogous to a sniper rifle, and its piercing value means it can be lethal even against well armored pawns if the pikeman is lucky enough to hit the right bodypart. In large groups they are not to be underestimated by unshielded units, and don't expect basic mini-turrets to be able to hit them.

As the description says, engaging pikemen at close range can be a viable way to take them down, once all others have been dealt with.

Health

Note, that due to mechanoids having different body part structures, this table is only provided as a rough guide.

Body part	Health
Head	21
Skull	21
Brain	9
Nose	9
Neck	21
Jaw	17
Eye ^[1] (left, right)	9
Ear (left, right)	9
Body	34
Kidney^[2] (left, right)	13
Lung^[2] (left, right)	13
Liver^[2]	17
Heart^[2]	13
Spine^[2]	21
Stomach^[2]	17
Limbs (left, right, fore, hind)	26
Appendage (left, right, fore, hind)	17

↑ Located inside of Head.
↑ ^2.0 ^2.1 ^2.2 ^2.3 ^2.4 ^2.5 Located inside of Body.

Trivia

The line in the description, "Veterans of mechanoid wars know that often, the safest place to be around a pikeman is touching it." is copied almost verbatim from a previous version of the Lancer's description, namely: "Veterans of mechanoid wars know that often, the safest thing to do against a lancer is to charge."

Version history

Introduced in 1.1.

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

[Head-1] Located inside of Head.

[Body-2] 2.0 ^2.1 ^2.2 ^2.3 ^2.4 ^2.5 Located inside of Body.

[1]

[2]