Farskip
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Farskip
Skip the caster, along with anyone standing near them, to an ally at a distant location. This can send people far across the planet, but only works if there is a willing ally on the other side to use as a navigation beacon. The skipped people will always appear near a random ally on the target map.
Base Stats
- Type
- Psycast
Ability
- Psylink Level
- 5
- Psyfocus Cost
- 70%
- Neural Heat Gain
- 0
- Casting Time
- 300 ticks (5 secs)
- Effect Radius
- 4.9 tiles
- Caster Must Be Capable of Violence
- False
Farskip is a level 5 psycast that teleports the caster and any nearby allies to anywhere in the world that there is an allied pawn.
Acquisition[edit]
There are two ways to acquire the farskip psycast:
- Upon reaching psylink level 5, a random psycast of level 5 is granted regardless of how this level up is achieved. This won't apply if the psycaster already knew one or more level 5 psycast.
- Farskip can also be acquired from a psytrainer naming it. See the psytrainer page for further details.
Summary[edit]
Departure[edit]
Farskip, uniquely, has two ways to be cast.
When a pawn is drafted, it can be cast through the typical pawn gizmo. There will be a cast time of 300 ticks (5 secs), after which the caster and nearby pawns inside the area will be skipped along in a 4.9 tile radius. Temporary faction colonists like refugees or mercenaries cannot be farskipped.[Verify] Affected pawns and the immobile caster remain interactible for the duration of the cast and can be interrupted or downed by any normal means, so it should be done with preparation or awareness of safety in mind.
Alternatively, if cast from a world-traveling caravan, the process is instantaneous and every pawn inside the caravan will be sent - including many more than would fit in the 69 affected cells when cast from a tile. The contents of the caravan will also be skipped including any animals or items. Though normally left behind, this includes the un-minifiable passenger shuttle,[1]
though as a skippable building, specific limitations apply.[2]
While Farskipping from a caravan has no limitations in scale, it cannot be cast while the caravan is overencumbered. In comparison, Farskip from the limited radius of an active tile will bring any amount of stored inventory in affected pawns. Based on carried mass limits, (and ignoring the archotech physics of the psycast itself) this might be considered an exploit.[1]
Lastly, note that player-controlled mechanoids
cannot be skipped directly from a tile, but can be skipped as members of a caravan.
Arrival[edit]
Upon casting Farskip, the player will be shown the world map, where they will be prompted to select a target tile or caravan anywhere in the world or in orbit as a destination.
Completion transports all pawns to within a 4-tile radius of a randomly selected [Verify] colonist present on the target tile, suffering a brief stun for between 3 and 10 seconds.[Detail needed]
If the skip destination is a caravan, the skipped pawns immediately join it.<
A tile or caravan must contain at least one colonist to be a valid target. This can include the active map tile farskip is cast from, but must target a non-farskipping colonist. Any target colonist must be conscious, and must be a standard colonist, which excludes slaves
, ghouls
, and temporary faction members.
World map and cursor which appears as soon as the farskip gizmo is clicked
Analysis[edit]
Farskip is a valuable tool for traversing the world map, filling a similar role to transport pods, with more limitations but also more potential. On the surface, this psycast appears only to be a way to save time on a return trip, due to the caveat of only being able to skip to destinations that already house your pawns. However, it becomes significantly more valuable when combined with transport pods - by using the transport pods to arrive, then farskip to go back, travel times are effectively eliminated. This prevents caravan ambushes, reduces the risk of your pawn(s) being off-map when your base is being raided, and saves time for other actions. It is especially effective under rought terrain.
So long as one pawn is in a location, it can be used as a target for farskip. This can drastically reduce the amount of resources spent on transport pods, by sending one pawn forward, keeping a pawn with farskip in the main base, then farskipping the rest of the pawns and resources. If the single pawn gets ambushed, you use farskip to provide immediate support. It is possible to visit multiple locations with this method - send 1 pawn with farskip to each location, then when the main caravan arrives at one of the locations, farskip to the next one.
Farskip can bring pawns across the entire map, making it very useful for completing the ship to the stars quest, by using the method described above.
This psycast has a hefty 70% psyfocus cost, preventing repeated use. In addition, the pawn will be unable to use level 5-6 psycasts when landing, and barely able to use level 3-4, making them more vulnerable until after meditating for enough time. Therefore, if one intends to make liberal use of Farskip, it is strongly recommended to have multiple pawns capable of casting Farskip, or means of quickly refilling psyfocus, such as a kill-focused persona weapon.
Comparison to shuttles[edit]
The shuttle permit has a 40 day cooldown. While honor can be used to skip the cooldown, this is rather expensive, so farskip has the advantage of faster use. It is possible to combine the imperial shuttle and farskip akin to how transport pods and farskip can be combined.
Passenger shuttles are a strong alternative to farskip. Shuttles have near-zero travel times, and are reusable, enabling round trips and visiting multiple locations at a time. The psycast has multiple advantages: it has no range limit, can carry more weight if using pack animals or bringing many pawns, and psycasts do not contribute towards wealth. In addition, shuttles are a relatively advanced research and require 
250 Steel, 
150 Plasteel, 
6 Components, 
1 Shuttle engine.
Once built, passenger shuttles are overall better for short-distance trips, as they can make round trips without needing transport pods. Farskip still has a niche for long distance travel like the ship to the stars quest, though, and having a backup is not a bad thing.
Version history[edit]
- 1.2.2719 - Added.
- 1.2.2753 - Farskip now affects colony animals if not on the home map. Prevent Farskip when caravan is overweight.
- 1.3.3074 - Fix: Farskip with Relic gives debuff from losing the relic.
- 1.3.3076 - Fix: Prisoners lost during farskip.
- 1.4.3527 - Fix: If a downed enemy is teleported using farskip they will be drafted upon entering the destination map despite being downed.
- 1.4.3555 - Fix: Farskipping a pawn into a range of an expired proximity sensor will trigger it again.