Venom talon

A venom talon gives a pawn that's been implanted with it an attack with 15% AP, 7.33 DPS, and inflicts 1.5% toxic buildup per point of damage.

Acquisition[edit]

Venom talons can be crafted at a machining table once the poison synthesis research project has been completed. Note that this research requires a techprint. Each requires 40 Steel, 7 Components, 15,000 ticks (4.17 mins) of work modified by the general labor speed of the crafter, and a crafting skill of 5.

They can also be traded from exotic traders, and can be earned as a quest reward.

Summary[edit]

Installation[edit]

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

Removing the part requires 2,500 ticks (41.67 secs) of work, 1x medicine of herbal quality or better, and a Medical skill of 5.

If the operation fails, the part will be destroyed.

Effectiveness[edit]

The venom talon is a modestly powerful melee implant that can inflict the toxic buildup debuff when used. It is comparable to a normal quality steel longsword against unarmored enemies, the toxic buildup it inflicts making up for the lower DPS, however it is significantly weaker against armored foes due to its poor armor penetration. As a dedicated melee weapon it is outclassed slightly by other melee implants like the hand talon, and is massively outclassed by a power claw, plasteel longsword or uranium mace. It should not be considered as a pawn's primary offensive option.

Despite the fact that it is outclassed by similar weapons like the hand talon in terms of melee capabilities, the ability to cause toxic buildup to enemies allows for some very specific but otherwise useful uses. When fighting an enemy raider there is a high, but random, chance they will be dead upon being downed regardless of injuries if the reasons for it are going into painshock or having less than 15% movement. However, if they are downed through other means such as extreme toxic buildup it will bypass this dice roll and they will live. This allows you to capture specific enemy raiders alive in a fairly reliable way.

How to capture an enemy alive[edit]

This exact method is also applicable to venom fangs.

Method[edit]

This method requires both the skip and painblock psycasts. Other psycasts, such as invisibility and neural heat dump, are helpful but not strictly necessary. Make sure your venom talon pawns do not have melee weapons, as otherwise they they will select that more powerful weapon over the talon.

You will need two groups of pawns, a psycaster and venom talon armed pawn(s). While you can have your psycaster also be the one to have the venom talon, this increases the neural heat cost greatly as more skip psycasts will have to be cast. Your psycaster should be well ahead of your colonists, able to cast their skip ability on the incoming raider beyond the range of your colonists guns to ensure they don't get hit due to friendly fire. Your venom talon pawns should be in a sectioned off area either behind a wall or within a bunker with a door held open, though if you have a high number of venom talon pawns such as 4 or 5, you can down raiders quickly and reliably enough such that separating them behind a wall/bunker is not needed.

Find the raider you wish to capture alive and use the skip psycast to move them through the open doorway and in melee range of your venom talon pawns. You may have to use multiple skip psycasts to move them the appropriate distance, and if they are near the back of the enemy group invisibility may be needed to safely get in range. If your psycaster doesn't have enough neural heat capacity then you may have to disable the heat limiter or have a target to cast the neural heat dump psycast on. You must then cast the painblock psycast as otherwise they may go into pain shock before reaching extreme toxic buildup, which will cause the dice to roll likely killing them. Once this is done run, skip, or jump your psycaster to safety.

Have your venom talon pawns close the door that was held open to ensure the aren't disturbed by other raiders, and the melee the raider you skipped to them. After some attacks the raider should reach extreme toxic buildup and be downed, where you can then move your venom talon pawns to fight the rest of the raid like normal.

Flaws[edit]

This method of capturing enemies alive is not without its flaws however. Firstly, depending on which psycasts you have available, your psycaster may have to place themselves dangerously close to the enemy in order to be able to reach the desired target with the skip psycast's modest range. This risk can be mitigated by the invisibility psycast allowing you to get closer without risk, or the mass chaos skip psycast to spread enemies out, though this can backfire by sending raiders where you don't want them to go.

Secondly, high levels of toxic buildup can cause dementia and carcinoma to form in the people you capture. After 500 tests from 90% toxic buildup there is a:

16.4% chance of dementia
6.8% chance of carcinoma

(Tested on version 1.2.2753)

Dementia causes a permanent -15% brain function, reducing all capacites by -15% while stacking an additional -25% hearing and speaking, bringing those stats down to 60%. Dementia is only curable by a healer mech serum or permanent use of luciferium. Carcinoma, on the other hand, causes extreme amounts of pain in later stages and will destroy the affected part once severity reaches 100%. Carcinoma, however, can be cured with a rather risky operation, costing 4 industrial or glitterworld medicine, a doctor with a skill of 10 or above, and only has a base chance of 70% to succeed.

Finally, there is a chance you may kill the raider you are trying to capture by having them reach 100% toxic buildup. After 500 tests with venom talons there is a 0.8% chance of them dying this way. (Tested on version 1.2.2753)

You may want to consider all of these risks before using this tactic.

Drawbacks[edit]

The main drawback of the venom talon is that it can not be simultaneously used with two bionic or archotech arms. Manipulation above 100% does not affect Shooting Accuracy, and so for a dedicated gunfighter this may not be a significant drawback. However, manipulation increases general labor speed, meaning that if they have a role within your colony beyond fighting affected by manipulation, such as crafting or constructing, they will be less effective at these roles than they otherwise could be. A pawn can still be equipped with one bionic or archotech arm, and one venom talon without it negatively affecting their melee capabilities after 1.1.2610 changed melee verb selection.

If you choose two bionic or archotech arms over one arm and a venom talon but still want venom weaponry you also have the option of the venom fangs. The venom fangs are weaker than the venom talon, but have no conflicts with any implant and so can be used without compromise.