Phoenix armor

Phoenix armor is a type of advanced armor introduced by the Royalty DLC that provides excellent temperature resistance and protection against fire, as well as containing a flamebolt launcher at the expense of inflicting a move speed penalty. It is a variant of cataphract armor and forms a full set of armor along with the Cataphract helmet.

Acquisition[edit]

Phoenix armor can be crafted at a fabrication bench once the Cataphract armor research project has been completed. Note that this research requires two techprints. Each requires 150 Plasteel, 50 Uranium, 6 Advanced components, 75 Steel, 4 Components, 40 Chemfuel, 75,000 ticks (20.83 mins) of work modified by the general labor speed of the crafter, and a crafting skill of 8.

Alternatively, the armor can be received as a quest reward or purchased from traders and faction bases.

Summary[edit]

5x5 area of effect of the integrated launcher

Gizmo for launching the incendiary

While less protective against sharp and blunt attacks compared to the base cataphract armor, it is much more protective against Flame and Heat damage and temperature extremes. It also reduces the flammability of the wearer by -0.68. Humans have a base flammability of 70%. This reduces the chance of being set on fire from taking Flame damage from 100% to just 1.4%. This stacks with the reduced chance to take Flame damage in first place offered by the armor's excellent Heat armor value. Note that while the armor value scales with quality, the flammability reduction does not.

When equipped, a phoenix armor reduces the pawn's base move speed by −0.50 c/s. As offsets such as these apply before multiplicative effects such as from Moving capacity, the actual impact on move speed can be larger or smaller than this value. For example, a pawn with 125% Moving would have their speed decreased by −0.625 c/s, while a pawn with only 50% Moving would only have their speed decreased by −0.25 c/s. See Move Speed for details.

A phoenix armor has a slave suppression offset of −30%. When worn by a slave, this acts as an offset to the rate at which the slave loses suppression. Note that by default, slaves lose between −5% and −20% suppression per day depending on their current level of suppression. This loss rate stacks additively with all sources of slave suppression offset, with a minimum of 0% loss per day.

Phoenix armor increases the vacuum resistance of its wearer by +30%. Quality does not affect this resistance.

Flamebolt launcher[edit]

The armor contains an integrated flamebolt launcher which gives the user the ability to launch up a single large incendiary grenade at will before requiring a reload. This weapon is similar to an incendiary launcher with a shorter range and significantly larger area of effect but does not prevent the wearer from using another weapon nor a utility item.

This incendiary grenade moves slower and has less range than an incendiary launcher but damages and creates a chemfuel puddle 5x5 square rather than a 3x3 cross. One grenade can be launched before the launcher must be reloaded with 40 chemfuel. The reloading process takes 60 ticks (1 sec). The pawn will never automatically use the launcher - instead it must be manually activated by the player by use of the "Launch Incendiary" gizmo, similar to using Utility items. It is unclear if this restriction also applies to NPCs. This gizmo will only appear when the pawn is drafted. NPCs will only use the launcher if they are not holding a weapon.

Similarly to weapons, the damage dealt by the flamebolt launcher of awful, masterwork, and legendary phoenix armor will have a damage quality multiplier of 90%, 125%, and 150% respectively. Meaning that a legendary phoenix armor will deal 15 damage instead of the base 10.

The warmup time before firing the launcher is affected by the Aiming Time stat of the wearer.

Wearing a shield belt prevents firing the flamebolt launcher.

Analysis[edit]

Like regular cataphract armor, phoenix armor is an expensive, slow, but heavily protective set of armor. In order to craft it, it needs a hefty amount of research, two techprints, and a lot of resources. It cannot spawn on empire raiders, while trade is very costly and likely provides worse quality than what the colony can make. This makes it reserved for the lategame colonies in most cases.

Phoenix armor has two unique features:

It greatly reduces flammability of pawns, with base humans going from a 70% to 2% flammability, greatly reducing the chance of being lt on fire. Pawns lit on fire will run around randomly, breaking cover and getting into bad positions. Thus, it is a very valuable traits for pawn safety.
It has an incendiary bolt. The ability is niche and has several downsides: it deals little damage, has middling range, is limited to a single shot, and lighting pawns on fire can be detrimental in a melee block or killbox setting. However, because it doesn't take up an equipment slot, it provides extra flexibility. It can allow sniper rifle pawns to attack at close range, or help flush out raiders in cover. More importantly, fire can be a great option to fight against certain entities, although a more dedicated option like incinerators will be better for this task.

Phoenix armor is particularly useful to pawns with a heat and fire weakness, such as sanguophages and pawns using the metalblood serum. It is less useful for impids and other pawns with the fire resistant gene, but phoenix's flammability reduction still reduces the ignite chance even further.

Compared to cataphract[edit]

When compared to regular cataphract armor, phoenix armor has −5% Sharp and −5% Blunt armor, but +15% Heat armor, before quality. As mentioned above, phoenix armor also offers a reduction to flammability and the incendiary bolt. The former can be lifesaving, while the -5% Sharp/Blunt protection is relatively minor.

If both armors are legendary quality, phoenix is an almost strictly better option. Both legendary cataphract and legendary phoenix armor reach the 200% Sharp armor cap, meaning the only downside of phoenix is the -9% Blunt Armor, and it comes with all the fire-related upsides.

In the vacuum of space, fires will extinguish very quickly, so regular cataphract is better there.

Compared to flak vest + duster[edit]

Devilstrand dusters deserve a special mention, as devilstrand's Heat armor is even better than phoenix armor. However, devilstrand does not improve flammability, so it is worse against enemies with fire. Also, the devilstrand duster + flak vest combination provides less Sharp/Blunt protection (to all parts) if quality is equal. The devilstrand duster + flak vest combo is much cheaper, is easier to farm for quality, and does not slow movement as much.

Thrumbofur, hyperweave, and thrumbomane dusters with a flak vest will offer better protection against Sharp against the torso and neck. The exact comparison depends on quality, with higher quality and lower AP making the vest combination better in that regard. At legendary quality, the duster + vest combo is especially good for Sharp armor, as phoenix armor is limited by the 200% armor cap. However, the vest combo still lacks the flammability reduction and flame launcher, has worse Blunt armor, and worse limb protection. In addition, thrumbofur and thrumbomane have worse Heat armor.

Stats table

Phoenix armor	Sharp	Blunt	Heat	HP	Insulation - Cold	Insulation - Heat	Market Value
Quality	Sharp	Blunt	Heat	HP	Insulation - Cold	Insulation - Heat	Market Value
Awful	69%	27%	45%	400	-56 °C (-100.8 °F)	+80 °C (144 °F)	1,740
Poor	92%	36%	60%	400	-63 °C (-113.4 °F)	+90 °C (162 °F)	2,610
Normal	115%	45%	75%	400	-70 °C (-126 °F)	+100 °C (180 °F)	3,480
Good	132.25%	51.75%	86.25%	400	-77 °C (-138.6 °F)	+110 °C (198 °F)	3,980
Excellent	149.5%	58.5%	97.5%	400	-84 °C (-151.2 °F)	+120 °C (216 °F)	4,480
Masterwork	166.75%	65.25%	108.75%	400	-105 °C (-189 °F)	+150 °C (270 °F)	5,480
Legendary	200%	81%	135%	400	-126 °C (-226.8 °F)	+180 °C (324 °F)	6,480

^{For the full effects of qualities, see Quality.}

Attack table

Phoenix armor			DPS (Optimal)	Market value
Quality	Dam.	AP	DPS (Optimal)	Market value
Awful	9	0%	3.6	1,740
Poor	10	0%	4	2,610
Normal	10	0%	4	3,480
Good	10	0%	4	3,980
Excellent	10	0%	4	4,480
Masterwork	12.5	0%	5	5,480
Legendary	15	0%	6	6,480

^{For the full effects of qualities, see Quality.}

Protection Charts[edit]

Comparisons assume normal quality armor. Lower is better.

Sharp Armor

Blunt Armor

Trivia[edit]

Phoenix armor may have the most complex single step crafting recipe in the game, with 6 different ingredient types required.

Version history[edit]

1.2.2719 - Added.
1.2.2753 - Icons of spacer armor now display as off-white instead of dark gray. Projectiles are now rendered with a visual arc and ground shadow.
1.3.3066 - Wearing a shield belt now prevents firing the flamebolt launcher. Previously it could be fired but could only target only adjacent squares (including diagonals), meaning that self-immolation was inevitable. However, the heat armor offered by phoenix armor meant that the damage to the user will be small, making it a dangerous but potentially useful option in emergencies.
1.6.4518 - Move speed debuff reduced from −0.8 c/s to −0.5 c/s. Cold insulation improved from 36 °C (64.8 °F) -> 70 °C (126 °F). Slave suppression offset of −30% added.

See also[edit]

Incendiary launcher - a weapon with similar stats to the integrated launcher.
Cataphract armor - the base model. Slightly more protective against sharp and blunt, but without the increased heat and temperature resistance and no incendiary launcher.
Prestige cataphract armor - a variant of Cataphract armor that both pleases nobles and improves psychic ability.

Apparel