Knee spike

The knee spike is an artificial body part and body part weapon added by the Royalty DLC.

Acquisition[edit]

Knee spikes 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.

It can also be found on Raiders, bought at traders and acquired through Quests

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. Like all implants, it can only be installed on a natural limb, not a prosthetic or bionic limb.

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]

The Knee Spike is approximately equivalent to a steel longsword of normal quality, with slightly lower DPS made up for by slightly higher AP. This means it is a relatively powerful weapon early on, however as knee spikes are not affected by quality or material bonuses, their relevance for melee pawns diminishes in the mid game. They may still generally increase DPS by replacing or supplementing the weaker Handle attacks that occur 25% of the time, but the gain is small and the trade-off in bionics discussed below may not be worth it. Note that by adding additonal attack 'verbs' (as colonists normally cannot attack with their legs) you may make attacks with the more powerful melee options less likely.

As ranged weapons typically fare poorly when used in melee combat and knee spikes can be installed on pawns without preventing them from carrying ranged weapons, they can be useful to give a ranged pawn a decent melee option. This both expands their versatility in combat and mitigates a key weakness to melee enemies. However, the knee spike cannot be installed on bionic or archotech legs. The movement buff leg replacements provide can be key in improving pawn survivability, and are a significant boon in day-to-day duties. Therefore, installing the otherwise-inferior Elbow blade and forgoing a bionic or archotech arm may be a better option. As the effect of Manipulation on Shooting Accuracy is capped at 100%, the buffs provided by the arms do not significantly improve a ranged pawn's combat abilities, so it can be a more palatable trade-off assuming a pawn's non-combat duties would not benefit from heightened manipulation ability, such as hunters, haulers and cleaners. For pawns using drill arms, the knee spike is a clear choice as the benefit of the arms is huge and cannot be outmoded by skill or other buffs. If both bionic arms and legs are preferred, Venom fangs offer both significantly lower DPS and AP than either of the other two but do not conflict with any other beneficial prosthesis.

As of the changes to melee verb selection in 1.1.2610, installing more than one knee spike is redundant in all but some very niche circumstances, as is installing more than one of the implant weapons.

Slave weapon[edit]

Similar to the Elbow Blade, the Knee Spike does not count as a weapon in regards to slave suppression. If managing slave weaponry is too cumbersome or your slaves are frequently in danger this can provide some help, at the cost of increasing the danger posed by slave rebellion (not the frequency, but the potentially rebelling slaves now deal more damage)

Attack table

Feature	Toggle
Attacks

Knee spike		Spike (Stab)					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
7.57	31.5%	22	2.6s	38%	8.46	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 knee spike claims it replaces the leg, femur, tibia, foot, and toes; but this is incorrect. The knee spike is an implant and does not replace any body parts. The elbow blade and hand talon share this mistake.