Knee spike
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Knee spike
A spike that extends at will from a hidden opening on the front of the knee. Appearing without warning, it can be used for devastating stabbing attacks which penetrate even thick armor.
Base Stats
- Type
- Medical Items – Body Parts
- Tech Level
- Industrial
- Market Value
- 355
Melee Combat
- Mode
- Melee
- Melee Attack 1
- Spike
22 dmg (Stab)
38% AP
2.6 seconds cooldown - Body Part
- Leg
- Melee Average DPS
- 8.46
- Melee Average AP
- 38%
Creation
- Crafted At
- Required Research
- Compact weaponry
- Skill Required
- Crafting 5
- Work To Make
- 15,000 ticks (4.17 mins)
- Resources to make
40 + 
7
- thingSetMakerTags
- RewardStandardLowFreq
- techHediffsTags
- AdvancedWeapon
- tradeTags
- ImplantEmpireCommon
The Knee Spike is an implant that gives an attack with 38% AP and 8.46 DPS. Like all Implant Weapons, it can only be installed on a natural limb, not a prosthetic or bionic limb.
Acquisition
Knee spikes can be crafted at a Machining table once the Compact weaponry research project has been completed. The required techprint can be obtained either by trade or completing quests for the Empire. They require 40 Steel, 7 Components, 15,000 ticks (4.17 mins) of work, and a Crafting skill of 5.
It can also be found on Raiders, bought at traders and acquired through Quests
Summary
<Summary stuff goes here>
Installation
Installing the part requires 2,500 ticks (41.67 secs) of work, 2x medicine of herbal quality or better, and a Medical skill of 5.
Removing the part requires 2,500 ticks (41.67 secs) of work, 1x medicine of herbal quality or better, and a Medical skill of 5.
If the operation fails, the part will be destroyed.
Analysis
The Knee Spike is slightly superior to a steel longsword of normal quality, with 0.98x the DPS made up for by 1.15x the AP. This means it is a relatively powerful weapon early on, however as knee spikes are not affected by quality or material bonuses, their relevance for melee pawns diminishes in the mid game. They may still generally increase DPS by replacing or supplementing the weaker Handle attacks that occur 25% of the time, but the gain is small and the trade-off in bionics discussed below may not be worth it. Note that by adding additonal attack 'verbs' (as colonists normally cannot attack with their legs) you may make attacks with the more powerful melee options less likely.
As ranged weapons typically fare poorly when used in melee combat and knee spikes can be installed on pawns without preventing them from carrying ranged weapons, they can be useful to give a ranged pawn a decent melee option. This both expands their versatility in combat and mitigates a key weakness to melee enemies. However, the knee spike cannot be installed on bionic or archotech legs. The movement buff leg replacements provide can be key in improving pawn survivability, and are a significant boon in day-to-day duties. Therefore, installing the otherwise-inferior Elbow blade and forgoing a bionic or archotech arm may be a better option. As the effect of Manipulation on Shooting Accuracy is capped at 100%, the buffs provided by the arms do not significantly improve a ranged pawn's combat abilities, so it can be a more palatable trade-off assuming a pawn's non-combat duties would not benefit from heightened manipulation ability, such as hunters, haulers and cleaners. If both bionic arms and legs are preferred, Venom fangs offer both significantly lower DPS and AP than either of the other two but do not conflict with any other beneficial prosthesis.
Similar to the Elbow Blade, the Knee Spike does not count as a weapon in regards to slave suppression. If managing slave weaponry is too cumbersome or your slaves are frequently in danger this can provide some help, at the cost of increasing the danger posed by slave rebellion (not the frequency, but the potentially rebelling slaves now deal more damage) As of the changes to melee verb selection in 1.1.2610, installing more than one knee spike is redundant in all but some very niche circumstances, as is installing more than one of the implant weapons.
Trivia
The stats page of the knee spike claims it replaces the leg, femur, tibia, foot, and toes; but this is incorrect. The knee spike is an implant and does not replace any body parts. The elbow blade and hand talon share this mistake.
Version history
- Royalty DLC Release - Added.
- 1.1.2598 - Buffed from 22% AP -> 38% AP and 7.50 DPS -> 8.46 DPS.
- Arm/Hand
- Archotech arm • Bionic arm • Power claw • Prosthetic arm • Wooden hand • Drill arm
• Elbow blade • Field hand • Hand talon • Venom talon - Head
- Archotech eye • Bionic eye • Bionic ear • Bionic tongue • Cochlear implant • Denture • Aesthetic nose
- Head implants
- Joywire • Painstopper • Circadian assistant • Circadian half-cycler • Gastro-analyzer • Learning assistant • Mindscrew • Neurocalculator • Psychic harmonizer • Psychic reader • Psychic sensitizer • Venom fangs • Control sublink (Standard, High)
• Mechlink • Mech gestation processor • Remote repairer • Remote shielder • Repair probe - Spine
- Bionic spine
- Stomach
- Bionic stomach • Nuclear stomach • Reprocessor stomach • Sterilizing stomach
- Organs
- Bionic heart • Heart • Kidney • Liver • Lung • Prosthetic heart • Detoxifier kidney • Detoxifier lung
- Visceral implants
- Death acidifier • Aesthetic shaper • Coagulator • Healing enhancer • Armorskin gland • Stoneskin gland • Toughskin gland • Immunoenhancer • Love enhancer
- Leg/Foot
- Archotech leg • Bionic leg • Prosthetic leg • Peg leg • Wooden foot • Knee spike
- Related
- Psylink neuroformer • Xenogerm
- Deprecated
- Scyther blade • Psychic silencer