Elbow blade

The elbow blade is an artificial body part and body part weapon added by the Royalty DLC.

Acquisition[edit]

Elbow blades can be crafted at a machining table once the compact weaponry 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.

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

Summary[edit]

Elbow blades are implanted into the arm of a pawn. They are universal and can be installed in either the left or right arm. As implants, they do not replace any body part or change the functionality of the limb they are implanted into. They also require the presence of the body part to be implanted and are lost if the body part is destroyed. The presence of child parts is not required - i.e. an elbow blade can be installed into an arm missing a hand.

Similarly, as an implant, the elbow blade does not replace any natural attack, and instead simply adds another. How often this attack is used will depend on the other melee verbs available to the pawn, including those added by traditional melee weapons. For further details on how this system functions, see the Weapons page.

Name		Damage	DPS	AP	Damage Type
	Elbow blade	18		27%	Cut

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.

Analysis[edit]

Effectiveness and uses[edit]

The elbow blade is a relatively powerful implant melee weapon, having the second highest DPS of all of the implants given by the Compact Weaponry research. The elbow blade is roughly equal to a normal quality steel longsword against unarmored enemies, however due to its only modest amount of sharp penetration falls short against armored foes. Against unarmored foes, it is not quite as powerful as the hand talon, and falls significantly short when compared to a power claw, plasteel longsword, or uranium mace, and so is not particularly useful for a dedicated melee pawn if you have access to these more effective options.

Its greatest benefit comes in fitting it to ranged pawns, as it gives them the ability to be effective in melee combat while still being able to hold a gun. Being able to give a ranged pawn the melee capabilities of a pawn with a steel longsword means that if an enemy raider closes to melee range, your pawn isn't completely defenseless. It also makes your pawns more versatile as they can switch from a ranged to melee role in an instant, and still be effective. This is useful if you need another melee fighter immediately for any reason, whether that be to melee block a choke point but no melee pawn is near/has been downed, or simply see that melee locking an enemy is a more effective way to combat them as they can't shoot back.

For pawns with a skill in Plants, the elbow blade has the additional benefit of being compatible with both field hands and bionic or archotech legs. This allows the full suite of work-related bionics to be added while also improving melee capability.

Drawbacks[edit]

The main drawback of the elbow blade 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 elbow blade 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 an elbow blade, you also have the option of the knee spike. The knee spike is not as effective in combat as the elbow blade however, and has the significant drawback that you then can't install two bionic or archotech legs, which are arguably more important than the arms. In this case you can install venom fangs which, while the weakest implant of all those mentioned, does not conflict with anything.

Attack table

Feature	Toggle
Attacks

Elbow blade		Blade (Cut)					Human: Left & right fist (Blunt)					HP	Value
DPS^[1]	AP^[1]	Dam.	Cool.	AP	DPS	Chance^[2]	Dam.	Cool.	AP	DPS	Chance^[2]	HP	Value
7.78	23.25%	18	2s	27%	9	75%	8.2	2s	12%	4.1	2× 12.5%	100	355

↑ ^1.0 ^1.1 Note: This is the actual base average derived from the melee verb system updated in 1.1.2610, it may sometimes disagree with the listed value in the in-game infobox.
It may also change depending on the stats and the melee verbs available to the wielder if the weapon is wielded by some other than a baseline human.
↑ Chance for attack to be selected, assuming the weapon is wielded by a baseline human. It may change depending on the melee verbs available to the wielder

Trivia[edit]

The stats page of the elbow blade claims it replaces the arm, humerus, radius, hand, and fingers; but this is incorrect. The elbow blade is an implant and does not replace any body parts. The knee spike and hand talon share this mistake.