Power claw

Power claws are artificial hand replacements that also function as moderately powerful melee weapons at the expense of slowing a pawn's moving.

Acquisition

In the core game, the power claws cannot be crafted. Instead they can only be obtained via trade, given as a quest reward, found in quest item stashes. or found in ancient shrines.

With the Royalty DLC, power claws can be crafted at a Machining table once the Specialized limbs research project has been completed. Note that this research requires a techprint. They require 40 Steel, 8 Components, 15,000 ticks (4.17 mins) of work, and a Crafting skill of 5.

Summary

The power claw replaces the left or right hand of the pawn it is installed on. It has a part efficiency of 100% and replaces the natural 8.2 Blunt damage "Fist" attack of the replaced hand with a 22 damage Scratch attack. It also reduces the Moving capacity by 8%, in turn reducing the following stats: Hunting Stealth, Melee Dodge Chance, Move Speed. It otherwise functions as a normal hand, offering the full Manipulation capability of a healthy human hand.

When social fighting, colonists will not use the power claw to attack their opponent.

Installation

A power claw can only be installed on a natural arm. It cannot be installed on artificial body parts that replace the entire arm, such as the bionic arm, and will cause the removal of any parts installed into the hand, such as the hand talon . It also will replace or be replaced by any other part that replaces the hand, such as the field hand . If a power claw is installed on an arm which then gets replaced with an artificial arm, the claw will be removed for later reuse.

Installing the part requires 2,500 ticks (41.67 secs) of work, 2x medicine of ??^{[What Quality?]} quality or better, and a Medical skill of 4.

Removing the part requires 2,500 ticks (41.67 secs) of work, 1x medicine of ??^{[What Quality?]} quality or better, and a Medical skill of ?.

If the operation fails, the part has a chance^{[What Chance?]} to be destroyed.

Analysis

The power claw has the highest damage, AP, and DPS of all artificial body parts, and is as a moderately powerful melee weapon in its own right - attacking 25% faster than a normal steel longsword, but with otherwise equivalent stats, and producing a DPS competitive with a normal plasteel longsword. Additionally, like all body part weapons, a pawn can be equipped with both a power claw and a ranged weapon. However, there are a variety of ramifications from its use that limit its utility, depending on what it is compared to.

Note, that no matter what role the power claw is placed into, there is little reason to install more than one.

Melee weapons

Compared to actual melee weapon, a power claw acquired through trade or quest reward shines in the early game before Smithing and/or Long blades have been researched, or before high quality crafters and materials like uranium and plasteel become common. However, this lifespan is limited by the claw's lack of Quality multipliers. Crafted melee weapons of the right material quickly begin to outshine the power claw's attack in the midgame. More importantly, unlike the claw, those weapons can be used with bionic and archotech arms which increase Manipulation and Melee Hit Chance and don't decrease Moving and Melee Dodge Chance. Thus, a melee pawn armed with only an equivalent melee weapon can still be superior to one armed with a power claw.

Body part weapons

Compared to other body part weapons, there are different considerations. All such weapons fall into the same issue of being replaced by high quality, good material melee weapons. Instead, they typically act as sidearms for ranged fighters so that they don't have to rely on their using their ranged weapon's mediocre melee attacks should they or the enemy close. In this role, the power claw is a serious contender as the most powerful of any such weapon. Only the hand talon provides comparable DPS, but does so with less than half the AP. The power claw remains incompatible with other hand and arm bionics however, and depending on the non-combat role of the pawn, other options may offer a way to increase both the melee potential and work output of pawns that the power claw does not. For example, the knee spike is compatible with all hand and arm, but not leg, bionics, and the elbow blade which is compatible with hand and leg, but not arm, bionics. And in return, they lose approximately 20% of their DPS compared to the power claw. For example, a ranged-fighting planter will perform significantly better with two field hands and bionic legs and is fully compatible with the elbow blade, but not the power claw. The loss of DPS in the rare instances that they close is likely acceptable.

The moving penalty offered by the power claw also negatively affects some comparisons as well. While likely not relevant on a researcher who sits all day, planter or hauler who spends a significant proportion of their time walking to their tasks will be have their work rate significantly reduced.

Slaves

Slaves represent a unique use case for body part weapons. As melee weapons increase chance of rebellions, arming slaves is often inadvisable, but combat slaves can be very useful. Body part weapons do not have this downside - while they are still more dangerous when they do rebel, slaves implanted with these weapons are no more likely to rebel in the first place. The easy acquisition and disposable nature of slaves also means that the power claw's inferiority to dedicate melee weapons is also less relevant.

Prosthesis

Finally there is the use as a prosthesis. Despite primarily being a weapon, the power claw does fully replace the functionality of a damaged or missing hand. If a power claw is available, but a bionic or archotech arm is not, or are otherwise contraindicated, such as on a pawn that will eventually host a currently unavailable field hand, they are a useful and low cost way to regain full capability. The penalty to moving must be considered however.

Version history

0.7.581 - Added
B19 - Body part efficiency increased from 92% -> 100%.
Royalty DLC Release - Crafting Recipe added.
1.1.2587 - DPS was buffed but it also slowed movement.

Artificial body parts

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