Pikeman

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Pikeman

Pikeman

A clunky multi-legged combat mechanoid specialized as a long-range weapons platform. While effective at distance, it is weak in close-range fights and in melee combat.
Veterans of mechanoid wars know that often, the safest place to be around a pikeman is touching it.

Base Stats

Type
Mechanoid
Market Value
1200 Silver

Armor

Armor - Sharp
40%
Armor - Blunt
20%
Armor - Heat
200%

Pawn Stats

Combat Power
110
Move Speed
2.5 c/s
Health Scale
85% HP
Body Size
1
Mass
60 kg
Pack Capacity
35 kg
Carrying Capacity
75 kg
Filth Rate
1
Life Expectancy
2500 years
Comfortable Temp Range
-100 °C – 250 °C (-148 °F – 482 °F)

Melee Combat

Attack 1
Front left leg
12 dmg (Blunt)
18 % AP
2 second cooldown
Attack 2
Front right leg
12 dmg (Blunt)
18 % AP
2 second cooldown
Attack 3
Head
8.5 dmg (Blunt)
13 % AP
2 second cooldown
0.2 chance factor
Average DPS
3.36

Creation

Crafted At
Large mech gestator
Required Research
Standard mechtech
Gestation Cycles
2
Resources to make
Steel 100 + Plasteel 40 + Component 4 + Standard subcore 1
Technical
weaponTags
MechanoidGunLongRange


Pikemen are a type of slow-moving, long range mechanoid.

Occurrence[edit]

Raids = Yes. When?

Ancient shrines = Yes

Clusters = Yes

Diabolus summons = Waves 2, 3, 6

War queen summons = Waves 1, 3, 5

Apocriton summons = No.

Acquisition[edit]

Pikemans can be gestated by a mechanitor at a large mech gestator once the standard mechtech research project has been completed. Note that this research requires a signal chip to unlock. Each requires Steel 100 Steel, Plasteel 40 Plasteel, Component 4 Components, Standard subcore 1 Standard subcore and 2 gestation cycles taking 1,800 ticks (30 secs) each to initiate.

Dead, friendly pikemans can also be resurrected at the large mech gestator using the "Resurrect medium mechanoid" bill. This requires the corpse of the friendly Pikeman, Steel 50 steel, and 1 gestation cycle taking 1,800 ticks (30 secs) to initiate.

Summary[edit]

As mechanoids, every pikeman is immune to fire, Flame and Heat damage, and temperature extremes, despite having Comfortable Temperatures defined. They have 100% Toxic Resistance and Toxic Environment Resistance, making them immune to toxic buildup, rot stink and other toxic effects. They do not need to eat, rest, and have no mood. They will be stunned by EMP attacks for a time proportional to the EMP damage inflicted and will "adapt" and rendered immune to further EMP strikes for 2,200 ticks (36.67 secs).

Dead pikemen may be shredded at a machining table or crafting spot for Steel 15 steel, though these values are affected by mechanoid shredding efficiency as well as any missing parts on the pikeman.

As an enemy[edit]

Pikemen will slowly move until they are at range, in which they will stay at maximum range to fire. They will not move around to seek cover, or avoid incoming fighters. Pikemen have moderate resistance to sharp damage and very small resistance to blunt damage, making them trivial to disable if one can get close enough to them.

Mechanoids can raid the player's base through events, and are found in most poison ships, psychic ships, and mech clustersContent added by the Royalty DLC. Pikemen are often supported by centipedes, scythers, and lancers, though their speed and range difference often leaves them at the back of the formation.

Combat[edit]

Pikemen are always equipped with needle gun. It doesn't deal too much damage, but has an extremely long range, and better-than-average armor penetration. Like any other weapon, the needle gun has the possibility of getting a lucky shot to the head. They are also able to engage in (less effective) melee combat with colonists.

Pikemen have a shooting accuracy of 96%, equivalent to a pawn with a Shooting skill of 8. They have a melee hit chance of 62%, equivalent to a pawn with a Melee skill of 4.

Armor[edit]

Armor

As an ally[edit]

Mechs under player control require power: pikemen use 10% of their power per day while active. If set to dormant self-charging, they instead recharge for 1% power / day, without pollution. They recharge in a large mech recharger (400W), for 50% power/day, creating 10 wastepacks whenever the recharger's waste is filled up.

Analysis[edit]

As an enemy[edit]

Pikemen play a supportive role. While their damage output is atrocious, their range is massive, analogous to a sniper rifle. Thus, a pikeman serves a few functions:

  • They make kiting a group of mechanoids, i.e. firing and backing away from them, more difficult. Kiting a lone centipede is easy, but kiting a centipede with a pikeman firing potshots is very difficult.
  • They allow crashed ship parts and mech clustersContent added by the Royalty DLC to fire from far away.
  • They have a small chance to instantly kill a pawn. If the needle gun hits the right body part (brain, heart) without protection, it can flat out kill.

In large groups, they are not to be underestimated, and don't expect basic mini-turrets to be able to hit them.

As their description says, engaging pikemen at close range can be a viable way to take them down, though you'll have to deal with their comrades first. Their gun is weak, but their melee is even weaker.

As an ally[edit]

Pikemen are quite weak. Enemy pikemen can be threats as they can headshot colonists, but a tiny chance to instakill a raider doesn't really matter. Thus, they aren't the best for combat. Enemies almost always have larger numbers than you, so occasional lucky kills are not impactful and good overall DPS is much more reliable and useful metric - and one where the pikeman lags behind. Once you've researched High Mechtech, lancers become a better option for general combat: they move much faster and have a much greater DPS.

Therefore, the pikeman is a niche support unit, using its massive range to its advantage. While any pawn can boast the same range with a sniper rifle, pikemen are safer to use due to being eminently replaceable. When fighting enemy snipers, a colonist risks getting their head lobbed off but pikemen can easily be revived, so this is not a problem. Thus, pikemen can be used to lure sieges into attacking, pick off preparing raiders, or hunt animals. When using one, beware of their rather slow movement speed. They typically will not be able to run far before aggroed enemies catch up with them - even at maximum range, human enemies will typically catch up to the pikeman within at most 21 tiles of its starting position. Keep your fighting force ready and somewhere nearby when triggering or baiting an attack.

Health[edit]

Note, that due to mechanoids having different body part structures, this table is only provided as a rough guide.


Body Part Name Health Quantity Coverage[1] Target Chance[2] Subpart of Internal Capacity[3] Effect if Destroyed/Removed
Thorax 34 1 100% 4% N/A[4] Ex.png - Death
Will never take permanent injury
Neck 25.5 1 10% 2% Thorax Ex.png Communication Death
Will never take permanent injury
Head 25.5 1 80% 2.7% Neck Ex.png - Death
Will never take permanent injury
Artificial Brain 8.5 1 10% 0.8% Head Check.png Data Processing Death
Will never take permanent injury
Sight Sensor 8.5 2 20% 1.6% Head Ex.png Sight −25% Sight. −100% if both lost.
Will never take permanent injury
Hearing Sensor 8.5 2 5% 0.4% Head Ex.png Hearing −25% Hearing. −100% if both lost.
Will never take permanent injury
Chemical Analyzer 8.5 1 6% 0.48% Head Ex.png - Will never take permanent injury
Leg 25.5 4 18% 9% Thorax Ex.png Moving −25% Moving.
Will never take permanent injury
Foot 17 4 50% 9% Leg Ex.png Moving −25% Moving.
Will never take permanent injury
Reactor 17 1 6% 6% Thorax Check.png Power Generation Death
Will never take permanent injury
Fluid Reprocessor 12.75 2 4% 4% Thorax Check.png Fluid Reprocessing Death if both lost
−50% Fluid reprocessing
Will never take permanent injury
  1. Coverage determines the chance to hit this body part. It refers to the percentage of the super-part that this part covers, before its own sub-parts claim their own percentage. For example, if the base coverage of the super-part is 100%, and the coverage of the part is 20%, 20% of hits would hit the part, and 80% the super-part. If the part had its own sub-part with 50% coverage, the chances would be 10% sub-part, 10% part, 80% super part.
  2. Target Chance is the actual chance for each part to be be selected as the target when each part's coverage has been taken into account(I.E. Neck covers 7.5% of Torso but Head covers 80% of Neck so it actually has only a 1.5% chance to be selected). This is not pure hit chance, as different damage types propagate damage in different ways. See that page for details.
  3. Note that capacities can affect other capacities in turn. Only the primary effect is listed. See specific pages for details.
  4. This is the part that everything else connects to to be considered 'connected'.

Trivia[edit]

The line in the description, "Veterans of mechanoid wars know that often, the safest place to be around a pikeman is touching it." is copied almost verbatim from a previous version of the Lancer's description, namely: "Veterans of mechanoid wars know that often, the safest thing to do against a lancer is to charge."

Version history[edit]