Charge rifle

Charge rifle

A charged-shot assault rifle. Pulse-charge technology charges each shot with unstable energy as it leaves the barrel. Released on impact, the charged energy greatly increases the damage done.

Base Stats

Type

Equipment – Weapons

Tech Level

Spacer

Weapon Class

Spacer

Market Value

1010 

Mass

4.6 kg

Ranged Combat

Mode

Burst

Damage

15 dmg (Bullet)

Armor penetration

35%

Warm-Up

60 ticks (1 sec)

Cooldown

120 ticks (2 secs)

Range

25.9 tile(s)

Accuracy

55% - 64% - 55% - 45%

Avg. accuracy

58.8%

Velocity

70 (m/s)

Burst Count

3 (per burst)

Burst Ticks

12 ticks (0.2 secs)
(300 RPM)

DPS

13.24 (7.78)

Stopping power

0.5

Melee Combat

Melee Attack 1

Stock
9 dmg (Blunt)
13% AP
2.0 seconds cooldown

Melee Attack 2 

Barrel
9 dmg (Blunt)
13% AP
2.0 seconds cooldown

Melee Attack 3 

Barrel
9 dmg (Poke)
13% AP
2.0 seconds cooldown

Melee Average DPS

4.5

Melee Average AP

13%

Creation

Crafted At

Required Research

Pulse charged munitions

Skill Required

Crafting 7

Work To Make

45,000 ticks (12.5 mins)

Resources to make

50 + 2

Technical

weaponTags

Gun, SpacerGun

thingSetMakerTags

RewardStandardLowFreq, RewardStandardQualitySuper

The charge rifle is a spacer-tech weapon that fires 3-round bursts. It has good armor penetration, moderate range, and slightly lower accuracy

Acquisition

Charge rifles can be crafted at a Fabrication bench once the Pulse charged munitions research project has been completed. They require  50 Plasteel,  2 Advanced components, 45,000 ticks (12.5 mins) of work, and a Crafting skill of 7.

Charge rifles can also be found in ancient shrines, or purchased from outlander and orbital combat suppliers, or outlander faction bases. The Rich Explorer starting scenario begins with a single charge rifle.

Human raiders never use charge rifles in RimWorld Core , however if the Royalty DLC is active, they may be obtained from the following Empire pawn kinds:

Raider Kind	Chance	Average Quality	Health
Janissary	?	?	70-230%
Cataphract	?	?	70-230%
Stellic Defender	?	?	100%

Analysis

Charge rifles are endgame tier weapons. In terms of DPS, the charge rifle is only beaten by the chain shotgun and minigun, after considering accuracy. The former has a rather short range, and the latter carries a massive cooldown cycle. The charge rifle has none of their downsides; its moderate range, higher AP, and powerful, three shot burst make it a flexible weapon. A minor downside is that it can't stagger humans.

The main issue with using charge rifles is cost. They require advanced components - which are largely impractical to amass before Advanced Fabrication is available. Raiders outside of the Empire won't ever carry the charge rifle and their appearance in trade inventories is rare, expensive, and limited in quality compared to crafting. For most of the game, you'll have to rely on cheaper weapons.

Quality also has a major impact - you could get a normal quality charge rifle by trading, but it could be matched or outperformed by an excellent heavy SMG or assault rifle your colony created. For example: before AP, a masterwork assault rifle outperforms all charge rifles of a lower quality, and has a superior range. You can often create double the amount of assault rifles for the same investment.

This makes mass producing high quality, lower tech weapons a viable alternative when resources and crafting expertise are limited. Even when resources are no longer an issue, other weapons may have a niche.

Compared to assault rifles

Charge rifles, as general purpose 3-burst firearms, are very similar to assault rifles. The latter is noticeably cheaper, but also comes with several advantages.

For the same quality, a charge rifle has roughly +20% more pre-accuracy DPS, +50% damage per shot, and twice the armor penetration. At all qualities, charge rifles do more post-accuracy, pre-armor DPS at touch, short, and medium range than an equivalent quality assault rifle, even before accounting for the superior AP. In some specific cases and range bands, this disparity can be even jump an additional quality level. For example, a good charge rifle is superior to an excellent assault rifle at touch and short ranges, though it remains inferior at medium and long.

However, the charge rifle also has 5 tiles less range, allowing the AR to outrange the majority of enemies and lay fire for longer before melee enemies can close the distance. Therefore, ARs can still be the more appealing choice when a higher enough quality assault rifle is available, or when range is beneficial, such as when kiting.

• Quality

In general, an assault rifle ~1 quality level is better at and past the medium range band, before considering AP. Because of the significant impact of quality at masterwork and legendary, a masterwork AR is better at any range than an excellent charge rifle, again before considering AP.

Stats

Against an unarmored human, a charge rifle can kill with 3 hits to the torso, 2-3 hits to the head, 2 hits to the neck, or 1 hit to the brain; cripple limbs in 2 hits; and cripple or destroy eyes and digits with a single hit. It'll generally take around 5 hits (~9.7 seconds average) to incapacitate that human from pain shock.

Overall, the charge rifle is best paired with a careful shooter up to level 16, and with a trigger-happy shooter beyond that point.

Attack table

Ranged

Charge rifle			Accuracy (Touch)	Accuracy (Short)	Accuracy (Medium)	Accuracy (Long)	DPS (Optimal)	DPS (Touch)	DPS (Short)	DPS (Medium)	DPS (Long)	Market value
Quality	Dam.	AP
Awful	13.5	31.5%	44%	51.2%	44%	36%	11.92	5.24	6.08	5.24	4.29	505
Poor	15	35%	49.5%	57.6%	49.5%	40.5%	13.24	6.62	7.68	6.62	5.43	755
Normal	15	35%	55%	64%	55%	45%	13.24	7.28	8.47	7.28	5.96	1010
Good	15	35%	60.5%	70.4%	60.5%	49.5%	13.24	8.08	9.27	8.08	6.62	1260
Excellent	15	35%	66%	76.8%	66%	54%	13.24	8.74	10.19	8.74	7.15	1515
Masterwork	18.75	43.75%	74.25%	86.4%	74.25%	60.75%	16.55	12.25	14.23	12.25	10.1	2525
Legendary	22.5	52.5%	82.5%	96%	82.5%	67.5%	19.86	16.48	19.07	16.48	13.5	4010

^{For the full effects of qualities, see Quality. Values shown in Red indicate the weapon is out of range at the reference point for this range band. The value is provided due to the interpolated nature of accuracy between range points.}

Melee

Feature	Toggle
Attacks

Charge rifle			Stock (Blunt)					Barrel (Blunt)					Barrel (Poke)					Human: Left & rigth fist (Blunt)					HP	Value
Quality	DPS	AP	Dam.	Cool.	AP	DPS	Chance	Dam.	Cool.	AP	DPS	Chance	Dam.	Cool.	AP	DPS	Chance	Dam.	Cool.	AP	DPS	Chance
Awful	3.98	11.6%	7.2	2s	10.4%	3.6	8.33%	7.2	2s	10.4%	3.6	8.33%	7.2	2s	10.4%	3.6	8.33%	8.2	2s	12%	4.1	2× 37.5%	100	505
Poor	4.07	11.82%	8.1	2s	11.7%	4.05	20%	8.1	2s	11.7%	4.05	20%	8.1	2s	11.7%	4.05	20%	8.2	2s	12%	4.1	2× 20%	100	755
Normal	4.4	12.75%	9	2s	13%	4.5	25%	9	2s	13%	4.5	25%	9	2s	13%	4.5	25%	8.2	2s	12%	4.1	2× 12.5%	100	1010
Good	4.74	13.73%	9.9	2s	14.3%	4.95	25%	9.9	2s	14.3%	4.95	25%	9.9	2s	14.3%	4.95	25%	8.2	2s	12%	4.1	2× 12.5%	100	1260
Excellent	5.08	14.7%	10.8	2s	15.6%	5.4	25%	10.8	2s	15.6%	5.4	25%	10.8	2s	15.6%	5.4	25%	8.2	2s	12%	4.1	2× 12.5%	100	1515
Masterwork	5.92	17.14%	13.05	2s	18.85%	6.53	25%	13.05	2s	18.85%	6.53	25%	13.05	2s	18.85%	6.53	25%	8.2	2s	12%	4.1	2× 12.5%	100	2525
Legendary	6.59	19.09%	14.85	2s	21.45%	7.43	25%	14.85	2s	21.45%	7.43	25%	14.85	2s	21.45%	7.43	25%	8.2	2s	12%	4.1	2× 12.5%	100	4010

^{For the full effects of qualities, see Quality.}

Trivia

According to the lore, charged-shot weapons fire projectiles coated in a matrix of magnetically-contained charged particles. On impact, the energy in the particles is released in a very efficient explosion and greatly increasing the damage done.

In the now-obsolete Quick Primer, charge weapons were also referred to as Tokamak weapons and required high amounts of power to fire. This necessitated powering by hex-cells at small scales (like Charge Rifles), or fusion reactors in the case of large cannons. With the obsolescence of that fiction primer, and the publication of a new primer that omits, but does not contradict, those details, the canonicity of this lore is now unclear.

Version history

• 0.0.245 - Now has a unique sound.
• Approximately A9 - Renamed from R-4 Charge Rifle to Charge rifle.
• 0.12.910 - Rebalanced.
• Beta 18 - Received a nerf to damage.
• Beta 19 - Received a damage and range buff, and accuracy and fire rate nerf. Its recipe was also changed, and raiders no longer use charge rifles.

• 

  Original R-4 Charge Rifle sprite

---

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Breach axe • Club • Ikwa • Knife (Jade) • Spear

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Ultra

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Improvised

Beer • Elephant tusk • Thrumbo horn • Wood

Ranged | Neolithic

Greatbow • Pila • Recurve bow • Short bow • Flamebow

Industrial

Assault rifle • Autopistol • Bolt-action rifle • Chain shotgun • Heavy SMG • Launcher (EMP, Incendiary, Smoke, Toxbomb ) • LMG • Machine pistol • Minigun • Pump shotgun • Revolver • Sniper rifle

Spacer

Charge lance • Charge rifle

Consumables

Doomsday rocket launcher • Triple rocket launcher

Throwables

EMP grenades • Frag grenades • Molotov cocktails • Tox grenades

Mechanoid

Heavy charge blaster • Inferno cannon • Needle gun • Thump cannon • Beam graser • Charge blaster turret • Hellsphere cannon • Mini-flameblaster • Mini-shotgun • Slugthrower • Spiner • Toxic needle gun

Structures

Autocannon • Mini-turret gun • Mortar (Weapon) • Uranium slug cannon • Auto-mortar • Inferno cannon (Turret) • Light charge blaster • Mini-slugger • Tactical turret gun