Stun (psycast)
 | This article relates to content added by Royalty (DLC). Please note that it will not be present without the DLC enabled. |
Stun
Momentarily disrupt motor function in the target's brain, preventing any movement.
Base Stats
- Type
- Psycast
Ability
Stun is a level 1 psycast that momentarily stuns its target.
Acquisition[edit]
There are two ways to acquire the stun psycast:
- Upon reaching psylink level 1, a random psycast of level 1 is granted regardless of how this level up is achieved. This won't apply if the psycaster already knew one or more level 1 psycast.
- Stun can also be acquired from a psytrainer naming it. See the psytrainer page for further details.
Summary[edit]
As the name implies, the Stun psycast stuns a selected target for 180 ticks (3 secs). Valid targets include any psychically sensitive pawn within range and line of sight. The duration of the stun scales proportionally to the target's psychic sensitivity - a pawn with 200% sensitivity would be stunned for 360 ticks (6 secs), while a pawn with 0% cannot be targeted.
When used on factions with Neutral or Allied relations, goodwill will decrease by −15.
Analysis[edit]
Stun is a highly versatile psycast that can see use in almost any combat encounter. The ability to prevent an enemy from taking action is universally useful, and the low psyfocus cost and neural heat gain allow the player to make liberal use of it in any given battle, given a sufficiently capable psycaster. The uses listed below are by no means an all-encompassing list of every scenario in which Stun can be used - only a small sampling.
Primarily, Stun is a tool to deny enemy attackers from both moving and attacking for a brief period of time. Generally speaking, the best use for Stun is whatever enemy poses the largest threat to you - whether that be a melee attacker closing the gap to your wall of fire, or a centipede preparing to launch a devastating hail of bullets, Stun allows you to temporarily disable them until your pawns can deal with them. Stun is particularly effective against ranged attackers with long firing times, as said firing time will be reset every time the stun wears off, giving you ample time to stun them again and indefinitely stall them out. This includes the aforementioned centipedes, as well as pawns wielding the devastating doomsday or triple rocket launchers.
Outside of direct combat, Stun can see some minor use in day-to-day colony life. Early in a colony, hunting large animals such as megasloths or thrumbos can be a risky but rewarding endeavor. With Stun, however, one can keep them stunlocked long enough for your pawns to dispatch them effortlessly, gaining their valuable meat and hides at no risk to your own pawns. Additionally, mental breaks such as murderous rage or tantrums can be particularly damaging to a colony, and your pawns will not always be able to reach the rampaging pawn before the damage is done. Stun can allow your pawns to halt them in their tracks, giving you a chance to down or arrest them.
Despite its strengths, Stun has two notable weaknesses - the range, and its single target nature. While the range of 25 tiles is by no means limiting, it is outranged by several ranged weapons, including assault rifles, bolt-action rifles, a pikeman's needle gun, and notably both of the aforementioned rocket launchers, requiring your pawn to close the distance in order to disable them. However, this can be remedied with a competent killbox, forcing enemies to take engagements within range of your psycasters. However, the second weakness is more difficult to fix. Stun's limitation to affecting one target per cast is inconsequential during the early days of a colony, where the number of enemies in a raid can be counted on one hand, but becomes much more limiting as the number of enemies per raid increases from ones to tens to over a hundred. While Stun still sees use for disabling the aforementioned priority targets, other psycasts such as Vertigo pulse and Berserk become much more effective forms of crowd control in comparison.
Version history[edit]
- Royalty DLC Release - Added.
- 1.1.2559 - Entropy cost increased from 10 to 12. Range decreased from 25 to 20.