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This article relates to content added by Royalty (DLC). Please note that it will not be present without the DLC enabled. |
Skip
Teleport the target to a desired position not too far from its starting point. Objects which are too large cannot be teleported.
Base Stats
- Type
- Psycast
Ability
- Psylink Level
- 4
- Psyfocus Cost
- 2%
- Neural Heat Gain
- 25
- Casting Time
- 15 ticks (0.25 secs)
- Range
- 27.9 tiles
- Goodwill Impact
- -15
- Caster Must Be Capable of Violence
- False
Skip is a level 4 psycast that can teleport a target pawn or item to a desired position.
Acquisition[edit]
There are two ways to acquire the skip psycast:
- Upon reaching psylink level 4, a random psycast of level 4 is granted regardless of how this level up is achieved. This won't apply if the psycaster already knew one or more level 4 psycast.
- Skip can also be acquired from a psytrainer naming it. See the psytrainer page for further details.
Summary[edit]
Upon casting, Skip will skip the target pawn or item to a nearby target destination. Valid targets for Skip include any pawn with a body size of 3.5 or less, and any haulable items within 28 tiles of the caster, respecting line of sight. Valid destinations for Skip are any walkable tiles within 28 tiles of the target of Skip, respecting line of sight of the target - the target location does not need to be within 28 tiles of the caster, nor within their line of sight - only within range and sight of the target. For a list of pawns of body size ≤3.5, see here. Note that despite having a body size of 1, Apocritons
cannot be targeted by Skip, by reason of "Psychic Resistance".
Upon arriving at their destination, pawns will be very briefly stunned for 30 ticks (0.5 secs), preventing them from moving or taking action for the duration.
Additionally, note that Skip is considered a harmful ability, and will incur a goodwill penalty of −15 when cast on pawns from a neutral or allied faction. However, Skip will not apply a goodwill penalty if used on temporary colonists, such as quest lodgers or an imperial laborer gang.
Psychic sensitivity has no impact on being skipped, psychically deaf raiders and hunter drones
are just as vulnerable to being skipped around as any other valid pawn.
Analysis[edit]
Skip is considered by many to be the single best psycast in the game, and for good reason. The ability to near-instantly reposition pawns within a considerable range allows one to almost entirely dictate the flow, and outcome of combat. Additionally, Skip's low neural heat gain and psyfocus cost allow it to be used several times in succession, allowing for unparalleled battlefield control. Used well, Skip can trivialize combat encounters, though not necessarily all on its own.
While the only real limit on the use of Skip is one's imagination, there are several obvious uses for it:
- Moving enemies to a disadvantageous location: Skip can be used to move melee attackers away from your own pawns, or place ranged attackers outside of cover, potentially within range of your melee fighters. Skipping a ranged attacker into melee is especially effective, as otherwise deadly attackers like centipedes are toothless in melee, and Skip itself has great range (better or slightly worse than most weapons).
- In addition, skip can be used to bring enemies of any type into actively harmful positions, such as on top of an IED, fire, or on a thrown frag grenade. It can also cluster enemies together for a berserk pulse or vertigo pulse, though the high range and area of effect of the latter render this mostly unnecessary.
- Moving colonists into combat: This involves skipping your melee fighters directly into the enemy's ranks, or skipping your ranged pawns into flanking positions behind enemy cover. However, in terms of offensive measures, using Skip on enemies tends to be a better value proposition, as brining fighters into the enemy's lines is a big risk. Still, with expendable fighters such as ghouls
or tamed megasloths (or perhaps an especially well-armored pawn), teleporting into the enemy lines can be highly disruptive.
- Saving pawns: Skip can bring an injured or downed pawn into relative safety. Or it can send pawns undergoing a mental break away from combat. The same applies to pawns lit on fire. Or it can remove pawns from an imminent threat like a frag grenade or a diabolus' hellsphere cannon.
- Self-skip: Skip can be used to allow the psycaster to travel blindingly fast. The skip user can blink to a downed pawn and blink out, allowing the caster to act as a superb paramedic. It is worth noting that skipping a downed pawn from another faction inflicts a goodwill penalty, but carrying said pawn and casting skip on the carrier does not.
- Fleeing raiders: Skip can be used to retrieve any fleeing raiders, should one be inclined to attempt capture. Bleeding pawns can be skipped away from the map edge repeatedly until extreme blood loss renders them unconscious, allowing one to bypass the extra death on down chance.
Finally, while Skip's ability to target objects is generally less useful than relocating pawns, it still has some merit. It can act as a superior Chunk skip, creating a wall of cover and/or taking the enemy's cover away. In terms of offensive measures, Skip can also be used to skip stacks of chemfuel or more commonly mortar shells directly on top of enemies - preferably once already damaged and "hissing", as enemies will attempt to flee from the imminent explosion, if provided the chance. However, the practical applications of this are rather dubious, as if given the opportunity to set up and prime said items, the time would likely have been better spent setting up IEDs and placing enemies on top of them, instead. While the explosive items can be teleported on an enemy group, doing this requires a nearby supply of shells, the shells to be within line of sight of the enemies, and a weapon capable of damaging them (as most ranged weapons can't target shells).
Version history[edit]
- Royalty DLC Release - Added.
- 1.1.2598 - Fix: Using skip, some areas are painted as if you can teleport there, but there are walls. Also, Fix: Can’t use skip psycast on top of power conduits.
- 1.1.2647 - Skip range and radius increased from 25 to 28.
- 1.2.2719 - Visual effects redone for all skip psycasts. It now has a resemblance to a charged black hole or a spherical cut in spacetime. The new effect is more science-themed and avoids magic-like elements to focus on the hard sci-fi RimWorld feel. Also, Fix: Mechanoids not waking up if you skip them.
- 1.23 (Console} - Fix: "Skip" psy power causing game errors when using
- 1.3.3117 - Fix: Skip abilities don't update cover grid.
- 1.3.3159 - Fix: Skip psycast can cause duplication bugs.
- 1.4.3523 - Now has a maximum body size of 3.5.
- 1.6.4535 - Fix: UI cascade error when pawn targeted with skip dies.