Skilltrainer

Skilltrainer

A one-use super-dose of mechanites which trains a specific skill.
The dose is administered through the orbit of the eye. Once released into the brain, the mechanites quickly improve the subject's skills in a specific area, transmuting themselves into neural tissue as needed.

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Type

Exotic Item

Stack Limit

1

Base Stats

Flammability

0.2

Market Value

750

Mass

0.2

Max Hit Points

80

Stat Modifiers

The neurotrainer mech serum is a rare item that will give a significant skill increase to the colonist using it. It is a one-time use and will disappear afterwards. Any neurotrainer is attuned to a specific skill and will increase this skill only. The skill it will upgrade is listed as a prefix, e.g. "melee neurotrainer mech serum".

Using the device gives 50,000 base experience, multiplied by the colonist's passion factor, effectively giving 35%, 100% or 150% XP depending on skill passion. It will have no effect on a colonist that is incapable of using that skill, but the item will still be used up.

A skill upgraded above level 10 is still subject to decay, as if the skill was learned in the natural way.

To use the device, select a colonist, right-click the neurotrainer, then click "Use neurotrainer". It is consumed upon use. The game will alert you of the fact that skill has been acquired with an on-screen message.

Traits like "Too smart" or "Fast learner" have no effect when using the neurotrainer.

The learning penalty from reaching the "soft cap" of 4000 XP per day is ignored. The neurotrainer applies the full gain even for colonists who have reached the XP cap for the day.

Obtaining

The item can be bought from traders, obtained as a quest reward and found in item stashes.

Strategy

Since skill passions are in effect when learning from this item, it is most effective when used by a colonist with a low skill but high passion for the skill, especially in cases where naturally training the skill is difficult (either for lack of opportunity, or because training would require spending resources).

Using a serum to train a passionate, but low-skilled miner for example, will instantly allow you to mine valuable ores without wasting yield from the ore mine. This can even recoup the cost of the serum if there is no other miner available at this point.

Training a skill close to level 10, but not beyond, has the most value, because below that level the skill will never decay naturally, and the full value from the item will be retained. Eventually this could become moot if the skill was to be trained beyond the decay point in any case.

In many cases, skill levels have diminishing returns. Getting a person from level 2 to level 9 in a skill is often more useful than getting them from level 16 to level 18. Use the serum accordingly.

Version history

In Beta 18 the name of the item and its description was changed.