Mindscrew

The Mindscrew is an implant that permanently inflicts Pain to a pawn.

Acquisition

Mindscrews can be crafted at a Machining table once the Brain wiring research project has been completed. The required techprint can be obtained either by trade or completing quests for the Empire. They require 15 Steel, 4 Components, 15,000 ticks (4.17 mins) of work, and a Crafting skill of 5.

Summary

The mindscrew is installed in the brain. Once installed, it adds +20% Pain to the pawn. This directly gives a −4% Consciousness malus, which itself reduces many stats, and the pain brings a pawn closer to the Pain Shock Threshold.

Installation

Installing the part requires 2,500 ticks (41.67 secs) of work, 2x medicine of ?? quality or better, and a Medical skill of 5.

If the operation fails, the part has a chance^{[What Chance?]} to be destroyed.

Once installed, it cannot be removed.^{[Fact Check]}

Analysis

May be useful on masochists to give a permanent mood boost (+10) to them, making them slightly less effective for work and combat. Followers of an ideoligion{{IdeologyIcon} with the Pain is Virtue meme also benefit (+5 mood). On non-masochist pawns, the pain from the mindscrew gives a −10 mood penalty.

The faster Pain Shock can be somewhat useful, as a downed pawn is taken out of combat. Pain can also be useful on psycasters, since they recover from neural heat faster when in pain.^{[How much?]}

There is also potential synergy with the psychic harmonizer when used on prisoners, as psychic harmonizers only affect pawns of the implantee's faction.

Removal

While you cannot traditionally remove the mindscrew, it is possible to remove it indirectly by destroying the head of the implanted pawn and then resurrecting the pawn using a resurrector mech serum.

This is not without issues however. First, consistently destroying the head can be difficult. With the Ideology DLC, extracting the skull from a dead pawn will do this reliably and safely, but without it, the best way is allow colonists to eat sections of the corpse, at the risk of consuming the entire body and permanently losing the pawn. Furthermore, no matter how successful the head removal, there is always the risks normally associated with resurrection, including dementia, blindness, and resurrection psychosis.

Alternatively, the effects of the mindscrew can be mitigated through the use of either a painstopper or pain-reducing drugs such as go-juice, with the usual downsides associated with those options.

History

? - Wimp trait's Pain Shock Threshold increased from -80% to -50%

Artificial body parts

Arm/Hand: Archotech arm • Bionic arm • Power claw • Prosthetic arm • Wooden hand • Drill arm • Elbow blade • Field hand • Hand talon • Venom talon • Flesh tentacle • Flesh whip
Head: Archotech eye • Bionic eye • Bionic ear • Bionic jaw • Bionic tongue • Cochlear implant • Denture • Aesthetic nose
Head implants: Joywire • Painstopper • Circadian assistant • Circadian half-cycler • Gastro-analyzer • Learning assistant • Mindscrew • Neurocalculator • Psychic harmonizer • Psychic reader • Psychic sensitizer • Venom fangs • Control sublink (Standard, High) • Mechlink • Mech gestation processor • Remote repairer • Remote shielder • Repair probe
Spine: Bionic spine • Revenant vertebrae
Stomach: Bionic stomach • Nuclear stomach • Reprocessor stomach • Sterilizing stomach • Fleshmass stomach
Heart: Bionic heart • Prosthetic heart • Heart • Adrenal heart • Corrosive heart • Metalblood heart
Lung: Lung • Detoxifier lung • Fleshmass lung
Kidney: Kidney • Detoxifier kidney
Organs: Liver
Visceral implants: Death acidifier • Aesthetic shaper • Coagulator • Healing enhancer • Armorskin gland • Stoneskin gland • Toughskin gland • Immunoenhancer • Love enhancer • Ghoul plating • Ghoul barbs
Leg/Foot: Archotech leg • Bionic leg • Prosthetic leg • Peg leg • Wooden foot • Knee spike
Related: Psylink neuroformer • Xenogerm
Deprecated: Scyther blade • Psychic silencer