Shard shock lance

The shard shock lance is a two-use artifact that can be equipped by pawns in the Utility slot and manually activated to inflict psychic shock on a target, rendering them unconscious.

The shard shock lance is largely identically to the psychic shock lance, but craftable and shorter ranged.

Acquisition[edit]

Shard shock lances can be crafted at a bioferrite shaper once the Insanity weaponry research project has been completed. Note that this research requires dark study to unlock. Each requires 1 Shard, 60 Bioferrite, 18,000 ticks (5 mins) of work modified by the general labor speed of the crafter, and a crafting skill of 4.

Summary[edit]

When equipped, a shard shock lance is worn in the waist utility slot. Pawns that are incapable of violence can equip, but not use, the lance. Once the wearer is drafted, it can be manually activated by the player to target a pawn within 16.9 tiles and within line of sight. The lance has 2 charges and cannot be recharged - when both charges are expended, the item disappears completely and no resources can be salvaged from it.

After a 144 ticks (2.4 secs) warm-up, the target will immediately be affected by psychic shock, setting their consciousness to a maximum of 10% and rendering them unconscious and downed. The warmup time before firing is affected by the Aiming Time stat of the wearer. This shock lasts for 7,500 ticks (2.08 mins). There is also a 30% chance that the target will be set on fire and given brain damage in the form of a burn scar. When targeting colonists, this 30% chance is multiplied by the Friendly Fire Chance in the difficulty settings.

Pawns with 0% psychic sensitivity, such as those with the psychically deaf trait, cannot be targeted by the lance. Sensitivity does not otherwise modify the effect. The three mechanoid commanders and the dreadmeld are also immune to psychic lances.

If used on a non-hostile faction's pawn, it will decrease goodwill with that faction by −200 points.

Like all utility items, a shard shock lance is treated largely like any piece of apparel, however some exceptions exist. Utility items are worn on the waist and are mutually exclusive only with each other, regardless of the layer or coverage of other apparel worn. Additionally, utility items never become tainted, deteriorate from being worn, or inflict a worn-out or tattered mood debuff when damaged.

Analysis[edit]

Compared to the Psychic shock lance, there are benefits and downsides. Shard shock lances have reduced item health (60 vs 80), a greater weight (0.70kg vs 0.50kg), are less valuable (510$ vs 550$), and are less effective to use: A psychic shock lance has a warmup of 2.2 seconds and an astonishing range of 41 tiles ahead of a pawn, while a shard shock lance has a slower warmup of 2.4 seconds, and only 16 tiles ahead of a pawn.

The main upside of a shard shock lance, then, is that it can be crafted by the colony, whereas traditional psychic lances are not craftable, offered only as quest rewards or purchasable from trader stocks, which rotate through items, and thus may not be available at any given time. Despite it's shortcomings in comparison to the superior version, any breed of shock lance is a valuable utility: The ability to instantly down a pawn, provided that they don't have 0% psychic sensitivity, enables safe capture of potential recruits with desirable skills or traits.

In the context of Anomaly, while it is less useful for recruiting random pawns, as the Skip abduction ritual covers that role, it is capable of downing Entities in a single use, and it's much shorter range can be made easier to handle using invisibility from an installed Revenant vertebrae. However, the cost of a shard for two uses means that it is an expensive option, and most entities are not worth the investment, even splitting the cost in half across both uses. If without a reliable source of shards, Shard Shock Lances should be made only if you have a plan in need of them, as early shards are either better preserved for the deactivation of certain anomalies, or for Ghouls.

This item has particular synergy with the Provoke pit gate ritual, which is where it is the most useful. While the Dreadmeld inside cannot be captured by a shock lance, Bulbfreaks will spawn in the undercave. While difficult Entities to capture, due to their propensity for exploding into far less valuable fleshbeasts with any level of physical force, a Shock Lance of some description is one of the only reliable ways to capture them. With two charges, capturing two bulbfreaks with one lance alone will provide 14 Bioferrite per day, which will pay for the 60 bioferrite of the lance in 5 days. In addition, defeating the Dreadmeld in the pit will produce a guaranteed 3 Shards, some of which can be put towards the creation of new Shard shock lances. While Bulbfreaks have associated complications with obtaining them, it is an extremely lucrative core loop to engage with.

Version history[edit]

Anomaly DLC Release - Added.

Utility

Utility: Firefoam pop pack • Orbital bombardment targeter • Orbital power beam targeter • Psychic shock lance • Psychic insanity lance • Shield belt • Smokepop pack • Tornado generator • Low-shield pack • Jump pack • Orbital mech cluster targeter • Bandwidth pack • Control pack • Tox pack • Biomutation lance • Deadlife pack • Disruptor flare pack • Shard insanity lance • Shard shock lance • Turret pack • Hunter pack • Cerebrex node

Shard shock lance

Contents

Acquisition[edit]

Summary[edit]

Analysis[edit]

Version history[edit]

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