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.
When you use it, it is paramount to keep your colonists in a closed room until the danger has passed.
Psychic animal pulsers are 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 attack your colonists after some time. Be prepared to stay inside for a day or two as you wait for the animals to calm down.
Pulsers can also be used for defense 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, they can reliably decimate all but the strongest lategame raids. Due to their rarity, they should only be used if you think other defensive measures will fail.
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.