Mindscrew

Mindscrew

Inflicts continuous pain on the user. Mindscrews are used by some authorities as a long-term punishment. Some even install them voluntarily as a demonstration of ideological or religious devotion.

Base Stats

Type

Medical Items – Body Parts

Tech Level

Industrial

Market Value

210 

Mass

4 kg

HP

50

Flammability

100%

Creation

Crafted At

Required Research

Brain wiring

Skill Required

Crafting 5

Work To Make

15,000 ticks (4.17 mins)

Resources to make

15 + 4

Technical

thingSetMakerTags

RewardStandardLowFreq

techHediffsTags

PainCauser

tradeTags

ImplantEmpireCommon

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. Note that this research requires a techprint. Each requires  15 Steel,  4 Components, 15,000 ticks (4.17 mins) of work modified by the general labor speed of the crafter, and a crafting skill of 5.

Summary

The mindscrew is installed in the brain. Once installed, it inflicts +20% Pain on the pawn. With no other sources of pain, this inflicts a −4% Consciousness malus, which in turn reduces many stats, and a −10/+10/+5 moodlet for normal, masochist, and Pain Idealizing pawns. The pain also brings a pawn closer to the Pain Shock Threshold. Finally, for psycasters, pain also adds a multiplier of 100% + 3 × Pain percentage to Neural Heat Recovery Rate, or ×160% assuming no other sources of pain besides the mindscrew.

Note that the effects of pain on mood and consciousness are not strictly linear, and the values may be different for pawns with other sources of pain. See the Pain article for details.

Installation

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.

If the operation fails, the part will be destroyed.

Once installed, it cannot be traditionally removed from a pawn, however see Removal below.

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 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 for psycasters, as a substantial increase in heat recovery rate that stacks multiplicatively with other boosts.

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

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 either a resurrector mech serum or death refusal.

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 or animals 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 the risks normally associated with resurrection remain, 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 benefits, side-effects, and downsides associated with those options.

Version history

• Royalty DLC Release - Added.

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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

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Leg/Foot

Archotech leg • Bionic leg • Prosthetic leg • Peg leg • Wooden foot • Knee spike

Related

Psylink neuroformer • Xenogerm

Deprecated

Scyther blade • Psychic silencer