Centipede

Centipede

Centipede

"Heavy combat mechanoids that glide on dozens of tiny legs. Their heavy armor and firepower makes them very effective against bunched-up static defenders. They are somewhat vulnerable to mobile hit-and-run tactics."

Base Stats

Type

Mechanoid – Characters

Apparel

Armor - Sharp

70%

Armor - Blunt

40%

Pawn Stats

Move Speed

1.9 c/s

Health Scale

1.2

Production

Melee Combat

Attack

Head
11.7 dmg (Blunt)
18 % AP
156 second cooldown

Average DPS

0.05

Centipedes are mechanoids which do not eat, cannot be tamed or trained, and are always hostile to the colony. They can be found sealed in ancient ruins in all biomes, spawn inside mountains or outside on the landscape. They may also raid the player's base through events and can also be found in most poison ships and psychic ships. They will target doors, walls, base production tables and furniture.

Centipedes are often supported by scythers or lancers, though they usually outpace the centipedes by a great margin and won't stop to wait for them.

Dead centipedes may be disassembled at the machining table for 50 steel, 10 plasteel, and 2 components, though these values are affected by mechanoid disassembly efficiency as well as missing parts on the centipede.

Combat & Strategy

Centipedes are slow-moving and highly resistant to sharp damage, which includes bullets, so they require many shots to take down with guns. Centipedes are equipped with a heavy charge blaster or an inferno cannon.

Slow movement speed is a significant weakness of this enemy, providing an effective way to take them down. A pawn with a default movement speed using a long-ranged weapon (sniper rifle or charge lance) should be able to safely take a shot and move away before a Centipede is able to respond.

Melee swarms are possible with little risk of long-term injuries, provided pawns can safely close the distance. Shield belts, drawing their fire from a different direction, or simply using walls and terrain to block projectiles are all good ways to move in. Centipedes with the heavy charge blaster must be simultaneously engaged in melee to make sure none of them can use their weapons, otherwise they can eviscerate your colonist at point-blank before you can get the victim to escape.
Micromanagement should make sure that weaker fighters are targeted first, so that better ones can fight for longer before passing out from bruise pain.

Centipedes are good at crowd control, but struggle against single or widely scattered targets. One effective way of distracting fire from them (if they are not equipped with the inferno cannon or supported by lancers) is to simply let a colonist with a shield belt stand in front of other colonists; the centipedes will focus fire on the shielded colonist, allowing your other colonists to fire at the centipedes without getting hurt.

If you can spare the resources, uranium slug turrets can be an extremely effective counter to Centipedes, as they outrange them greatly and their shots are powerful enough to pierce their thick armor. Their tendency to stay at range keeps them roughly within the slug turret's effective range.