Ghoul plating

Ghoul plating is an implant added by Anomaly DLC that gives a ghoul increased resistance against damage at the cost of move speed.

Acquisition[edit]

Ghoul platings can be crafted at a crafting spot or bioferrite shaper once the Ghoul enhancements research project has been completed. Note that this research requires dark study to unlock. Each requires 70 Bioferrite and 9,000 ticks (2.5 mins) of work modified by the general labor speed of the crafter.

Summary[edit]

When installed into a ghoul,^[Where?] ghoul plating multiplies their Incoming Damage Multiplier by ×50%, halving all incoming damage. This stacks multiplicatively with other multipliers to the factor such as the Tough trait and the Robust gene. For example, a ghoul with ghoul plating, the Tough trait and the Robust gene will see their total incoming damage reduced to only ×19%.

Plating also reduces the ghoul's base move speed by −0.70 c/s. As offsets such as these apply before multiplicative effects such as from Moving capacity, the actual impact on move speed can be larger or smaller than this value. For example, a pawn with 125% Moving would have their speed decreased by −0.875 c/s, while a pawn with only 50% Moving would only have their speed decreased by −0.35 c/s. See Move Speed for details.

Installation[edit]

Ghoul plating can only be installed in ghouls. Note that despite the description noting pain as the reason it cannot be installed in other pawns, methods of pain nullification such as painstoppers do not allow the plating's installation into other pawns.

Installing the part requires 2,500 ticks (41.67 secs) of work. It doesn't anesthetize the ghoul, requires no medicine, cannot fail and has no skill requirements.

Analysis[edit]

While their regeneration and lack of pain make ghouls durable by default, they can often be overwhelmed and downed by mid- and late-game raids, especially when used for melee blocking. Unable to wear traditional armor, ghoul plating is one of the key ways that ghouls can compete with end-game human melee pawns in this role. When stacked with other reductions of incoming damage multiplier, or with other improvements to durability such as metalblood and stoneskin glands, it makes ghouls into top of the line melee tanks, and with the right build, premier melee units generally. Every ghoul should have ghoul plating equipped, and besides ghoul barbs, a body part weapon and some select gene options, it should be the prioritised over most other upgrades.

Because of the large impact on move speed, and because other upgrades will reduce it further, plating all but necessitates ways to counter the penalty unless intending to use them in a fairly static melee blocking role and keep them near their expected battlefield at all times. Otherwise, prioritise move speed buffs such as bionic legs and move speed genes.