Psychic animal pulser
Psychic animal pulser
A one-use broad-wave psychic effector. The psychic pulse fills lower minds with terrifying imagery, driving all animals in the region into a manhunting rage. Animals currently under your control will not be affected.
Base Stats
- thingSetMakerTags
- RewardStandardHighFreq
A psychic animal pulser is a single-use artifact, which can be used to drive all wild animals on the map into a manhunter rage, attacking every human or mechanoid they see, regardless of faction.
Acquisition[edit]
Psychic animal pulsers cannot be crafted. They can only be obtained through trade with faction bases or exotic goods traders, as a reward from quests, or by finding them in ancient shrines.
Summary[edit]
A psychic animal pulser is a single-use artifact, which can be used to drive all non-player-owned animals on the map into a manhunter rage. Manhunting animals will attack any humans and mechanoids they see, but will not attack closed doors unless they see a target pass through them. Animals belonging to the player are not affected. Animals that spawn in after the pulser is used will also be unaffected. If the pulser affects tame animals belonging to a neutral/friendly faction (e.g in a trade caravan), it will set the faction's goodwill to −100, making them hostile.
Manhunting animals will become peaceful again after falling asleep.
It can be used by right-clicking the artifact with a colonist selected and clicking 'Activate'. You can also select the pulser itself and click "use psychic animal pulser" gizmo, which will prompt you to choose a colonist to activate it.
Once it has been used once, the pulser disappears completely. It cannot be reloaded, nor can any resources be salvaged from it.
Analysis[edit]
The utility of the pulser depends heavily on what animals are present. If a herd of elephants just arrived, it can be very potent. But if every animal larger than a squirrel has been hunted, it will not. This can depend on biome; it will obviously be of little use in the animal sparse ice sheet and sea ice biomes. Due to their rarity, they should only be used if you think other combat measures will fail.
When you use it, it is paramount to keep your colonists in a closed room until the danger has passed.
Pulsers are good defenses against raids. Whether they can defeat the raid fully depends on how the animals present and the strength of the raid. In animal-rich biomes with many big animals, the pulser can reliably decimate all but the strongest late game raids. Even in the late game, it can still be valuable as a distraction, great for luring out doomsday rocket launchers and other single-use items and abilities. They are particularly effective against yttakin pirates
, who will arrive with animals.
Psychic animal pulsers are also a great way to attack enemy faction bases in animal-rich biomes without risking your colonists' lives. If you do, you'll need to build your shelter quickly, as the enemy will eventually attack.
Comparison to shard pulsers[edit]
Shard animal pulsers
have an identical effect but can be crafted, although at the cost of a shard. Shards are rare and better used for other purposes for most of the game, while psychic animal pulsers are not excessively rare as outlander traders can stock them.
Biomutation pulsers turn all non-colonist animals into fleshbeasts, resulting in a similar effect, but they also require a shard to craft. Fleshbeasts are stronger than smaller animals. Biomutation pulsers have a notable advantage against infestations, as turning insectoids into fleshbeasts means they won't maintain hives anymore and the infestation won't grow.
Lore[edit]
Psychic effectors, like the psychic animal pulser, are mentioned in the Lore Primer. They are described as archotech in origin, with a completely unknown method of operation.