One good reason to have devilstrand underclothes, inferno cannons.

I have over 600hours in rimworld and i have never seen a more clear and concise breakdown of how to protect your pawns. I appreciate the effort that you put into this, and my pawns may well owe you their lives (or at least their extremities)

Players: "Nooo! You can't just ignore armor and one-shot my pawns!" Lancer: "Haha. Heart goes POOF!"

I'm a scientist by training and profession. These breakdowns are impressive. I'm imagining you pausing the game during a fight, performing some supervised clustering of relevant data, building a small predictive model, unpausing the game for a couple shots, pausing again, updating the data, running the model again,... lol. Keep it up!

i just need one of these tutorial nuggets for melee and ill finally know what im doing in combat

"You can get Bon Jovi'd no matter what you do." -Francis John, 2020

Love these tutorial nuggets. They're the best source of Rimworld info on KZfaq. Most of my insta-deaths weren't from lancers, but unlucky headshots from centipedes and tribal archers on pawns who were wearing flak helmets at the time. Taught me the value of the extra protection afforded by recon and marine helmets. Almost every pawn on my first playthough had a crushed nose.

There's a reason I fight lancers by skipping them into my melee pawns :D And yea, stoneskin glands are amazing. In vanilla they have an added benefit: They don't become tattered. A one time investment, and a pawn that moves slightly slower and is a bit more ugly (mitigated by beauty implants) but is alive is much better than a pretty, dead pawn that was moving a bit faster.

Thanks for showing the absolute shite ton of work needed to get the 100 Lancers, which means there must follow a HUGE THANKS for doing all the science. "THANKS!" GREAT job. cheers Francis.

You actually can have a pawn that is immune to lancer instakill shots. If a tough pawn has every vital part covered by 145 armor layer, no lancer can oneshot it.

Some pretty good info, thanks for taking the time to collect the data! It's nice to know that there's always some risk in combat. Being able to mitigate 100% would get boring fairly quickly.

Wow! The sheer amount of time to make the setup not to mention analize it... FJ you are incredible! Thank you so much!

You should totally dress you "involuntary test subjects" into rimworld equivalent of orange jumpsuits. (SCP reference)

These are by far some of the best tutorials on this game. Fantastic ♥️

Thanks for all the info! Been playing rimworld for more than 1000 hours now, but did not have concrete info on how important armor was. The tests mustve took a while, so thanks for doing them!

I know it's been 10 months, but combine the legendaries cataphract armor and hyperwave with the stoneskin and a pawn with the Tough trait, boom, it's now unkillable

I guess that's why my tribals are doing so well against mechanoids. Bunch of inspired crafts on legendary plasteel plate and the protection with devilstrand shirt n pants is a lovely 150% sharp left my fresh off electricity tribals doing good work. Pretty new to the game so good to know how all this works

Hmm in late game I usually run around with bionics and masterwork/legendary recon armor as well as toughskin gland and thrumbofur skin layer. Thank you for the video. (If anyone is interested in how you can spam masterwork/legendary gear then the answer is called word of inspiration, meaning that you need the royalty dlc and a powerful psycaster or 2)

Charge lancer are the bane of my existence. One shooting pawns zzz

I really enjoy these tutorial nuggets!

So the way mitigation works is one of two ways. The main way I was calculating it was if the outer layer mitigates it, the damage type is changed to blunt, damage gets halved, and then on the next layer the armor calc runs again but vs blunt protection. This is what I found after an exhaustive search of relevant threads on reddit. It also appears to be wrong. The guy who made the "thick armor" mod actually went into the code to find out how it works: if the outer layer mitigates, the damage is changed to blunt, damage is halved, but when it gets to the next layer, despite it now being blunt, its still challenging vs that layers sharp protection value. So yeah, remember back in the single digit episodes where I kept saying armor skin type glands were garbage? I was wrong. When I get home later I'll pull out the spreadsheet I made and find the effective hit point values for each gear setup you went over here. VS both the charge lance and autopistol. For a start tho, I can tell you with certainty that a naked pawn has 100% EHP.

Recently had a pawn take a charge shot to the head, her masterwork recon helmet reduced it to a bruise that turned into a permanent brain injury to the tune of 8/10 hit points. After realizing she was stuck in hospital unable to move for an in game week I realized I could dose her with go juice and get her into a biosculptor pod to fix the permanent injury.

I'd love to see a breakdown on prisoner recruitment, I can't find anything really definitive. What is the absolutely ideal condition to keep a prisoner in, and how can you do it most efficiently early. Really excited for a new rimworld series!

First ONI, now Rimworld. You spoil us with these half hour videos, FJ. It is appreciated!

Thanks for testing this for us. I was wondering about the same question but was too lazy to do the testing myself.

Best rimworld tutos I've met so far, insta sub, and ty o/

I can only imagine the amount of Labor it took to make this video. Thank you so much for the knowledge bomb. Very useful

Thanks for making this video. I'll focus on getting flak vests over helmets done next time I start a new colony.

I really like these tutorial videos. Super useful.

Have a pawn with Armour Skin Gland, Full Legendary Cataphract Armour, the Tough trait and Trigger Happy to have the ultimate soldier. Also known as Doom Guy.

Damn FJ you're a saint for datamining this for us plebs

I fucking love your series and these tutoriales are so fantastic you're everything I've ever hoped for rimworld

This channel is like Project Farm, but for RimWorld. Incredible detail!

I like the break down at the end. *nods* neat!

massive points for the data collection! epic work!

"Alright Neo! We'll call it a draw!"

*sees all you did to test this game* clearly your patience is legendary!

I absolutely loved the video , and I have to say , I always liked to use Recon armor with Marine helmet (since they don't reduce speed) with devilstrand underclother because of fires and heat in general and after the introduction of cataphract I even thought about the possibility of using everyone with cataphract but it's way too expensive to have in everyone, soo i change the marine to the cataphract helmet and that is my set to everyone unless they are 100% melee at this point I would just use a shield belt with full Cataphract . just to explain how much cheaper it's , with 4 Advanced component you can make someone , recon armor (3 adv components) + Cataphract helmet (1 adv components), instead of paying 7 for each colonist , to have full cataphract , 3 adv may sound a small amount but I don't think it's actually ,I have a colony with 19 people that mean I saved 57 adv component , If someone take a shot and for some reason something in them get destroy , I can just replace by something bionic with 4 adv meaning i could repair or replace 8 people if they for some reason lose something , but believe me at this point your turrets can just tank and explode in the enemy's faces while you shoot from the back . you also could build another 19 charge rifles and still saved 19 adv components and if that it's not enough and you just wants money you could saved 200 silver per adv components meaning around 11000 silver even if your social colonist is garbage. cataphract it's good but it's too expensive. English it's my first language obviously soo don't be to harsh but I would love to hear your opinion.

Wow this must have been a pain to tabulate. You're what keeps the community alive and well, thank you!

Dang, another amazing science vid. Thanks!

I hope you have pawns working around the clock to make a suitable legendary statue in memorial of the brave pawns that took the hits so that other pawns could benefit!

i have over 1100 hours of rust and i still enjoy your tutorial videos :D

super amazing video i'm surprised you didn't add the toughness trait as well though. not sure if there are other traits that affect damage but toughness is insane for sticking a pawn in heavy fire.

Thanks this was a huge help

Don't even play rimworld myself but watching this anyway c:

19:05 the game (in Vanilla) treats bionics as if the dependent parts (i.e. hands, fingers, feet, toes) no longer exist which is why you don't see damage those those parts in pawns with bionics

I love the simulation approach used to answer these questions.

dont forget to add the tough trait!, those pawns will never die!

Great vids as always.. My go to gear at late game is full bionic, asethic shaper and nose(to counter the neg beauty from stoneskin), stoneskin and pheonix armor and A few thing i might add.. - U can change the setting on one shoot kill on 1.2 if u want or just play ce - And shield belt isnt a problem if u manage it well by using shocklance or skip them near ur pawn before they drop the shield and emp grenade usually dont work very well cos u need to get close.. Emp launcher however work wonder..

12:04 - Sure, only one was _incapacitated,_ but the data clearly shows there was also one who was *incapicated.*

Another question that came to my mind, if bionic limbs are naturally protected, will having a bionic heart also reduce their chance of dying? What about a prosthetic heart?

Great video, now I know why my best colonists keep dying instantly to mech raids. Now I can give em a good duster, helmet and flak vest and they will be a-ok!

thanks this is jsut crazy... work you did there

thanks for all the data @Francis John

I liked the technical details at the end credits

8:25 Nearly 2 years later, and he's equipping a full colony in masterwork+ gear. Production specialists from the ideology DLC are beasts at their job. Even now, this guide is still extremely handy. Sidenote for Royalty expansion: dusters and capes have near identical stats, the only real difference is market value. Dusters are still the safer option for wealth management reasons, and they're quicker to produce as well. Formal shirts, meanwhile, are more expensive than button downs in both wealth AND raw material, with less insulation.

The dedication of this man... dammmnnnn. I can barely even finish a sandwich

great video!

awesome content

I have a pawn that has tough and a burning passion for melee. Threw stoneskin on him and cataphract armor, and I was able to seems him in to any problem and they weren't a problem anymore.

The flak vest neck armour would probably be explained by something like the ILR 6b45 body armour, and many others, which do have neck protection

This is why bionics arent always better than normal ogans. a lance shot doing 30 dmg might hit a bionic arm and take it off - but if it is a human arm, there is a chance it just takes off a finger.

I do not know why I watched the whole video but I just... didn't feel like turning it off :P Good job haha.

Dear Francis John, Might I recommend a study which evaluates armour performance during a sustained fire-fight. Specifically how armour improves survivability against multiple shots. Perhaps a smaller sample of pawns, being hit multiple times until death or incapacitation. I would be very curious what the likelihood of sustaining multiple hits to the torso in the same fight is

22:55 "tis but a flesh wound!"

I believe that when a shot gets halved from the first layer, it gets converted to blunt damage, but if it hits another layer the calculations are still made using the sharp armor, not the blunt armor. It is a bullet, still after all. Theres no reason to calculate it based on the blunt armor Especially since the only reason blunt armor in this game is so low is to make people use blunt weapons. It's always calculated using the sharp armor, but when it finally hits, it hits with blunt damage

21:50 i was about to comment my disappointment with the non-bonjoviness quotes.thank u for that

tbh the flak vests we were using in the military had a neck ring that is supposed to be closed in the front as well

i been doing armor wrong all this time, thanks

There acually is a way to avoid insta kills Its called shild belt Al tho only for your melee pawn but still very good

This is really good to know. I have a bad habit of sacrificing everything to get that amazing marine helmet when my pawns don't have torso protection. Clearly that is an awful decision.

23:00 dude, if only that marine armor was black Holy crap Tynan that is too perfect

Well, you deserve a like. And a comment for the algorithm

Now imagine that Neo test against all those machine pistols but add some psycast to him LOL

in min 26 you have a colonist surrounded by a barricade and 3 stones on top, so i was wondering, do the cover of the barricade and the cover of the stones % stack?

Alright so finally getting around to getting these numbers. Vs Charge lance, 45 ArPen Baseline/Naked: 100% EHP Heavy Fur Duster (48.4% sharp) and wool undergarments: 102.62% EHP. Flak Jacket/Wool undies (52% Sharp): 105.54% EHP Devistrand Duster/Flak Vest/Wool undies (54.6/130 sharp): 297.27% EHP Plasteel Flak Helmet (103.74% sharp): 178.75% EHP. Flak Jacket/Flak Vest/Wool undies: 291.15% EHP. Cataphract Armor/wool undies (156% sharp): 449.44% EHP. Marine Armor (137.8%): 328.95% EHP Phoenix Armor (149.5): 418.85% Legendary Cataphract (200%): 888.89% EHP. Legendary Cataphract/Legendary Hyperweave Undies (200/72): 1,114.59% EHP Legendary Cataphract/Legendary Hyperweave Undies/Stoneskin (200/72/70): 1,371.81% EHP Vs Machine Pistol, 9 ArPen Legendary Cataphract/Legendary Hyperweave Undies: 8,425.49% EHP Legendary Cataphract/Legendary Hyperweave Undies/Stoneskin: 15,530.85% EHP Other setups vs machine pistol: Heavy Fur Duster/Wool undies: 142.33% EHP Flak Jacket/Wool: 148% Devilstrand/Flak Vest: 771.58% Plasteel Flak Helmet: 346.42% Flak Jacket/Vest/Wool: 749.37% Cataphract/Wool: 756.76% (wait what? It's because with ArPen so small, multiple layers of good protection become much better than one layer of superb protection) Marine Armor: 556.32% Phoenix Armor: 674.09% Legendary Cataphract/Wool: 4,456.48%

Add tough, jogger and psicasts like Focus or Skip and play predator

I dont own Rimworld (yet!). But I am enjoying all your Rimworld series along with the ONI series. Watched this episode just to give my boy the view counts 😅. Addicted to Squad these days.

@Francis John, does this go to show the Toughness perk is super OP? Considering its basically a built in suit of armor that never deteriorates, doesn't slow you down, weighs nothing, doesn't add value to colony for raids

a deal: your time. for? the knowledge to conquer worlds. francis awaits your answer

Its worthy to note with damage testing that the number of bionics that a pawn has does increase the chances of the pawn getting shot in the torso or head. When they get a bionic, technically the limb is gone and can't be shot so the shots go to the torso instead

I wonder how well a pawn would do with maxed out blunt damage against one in that armor.

Ren shall from now on be known as "Mat"

If you play with the Alpha Animals mod black insect chitin is by far the best early/mid-game leather, bordering on OP.

It's funny that gloves and boots aren't a thing in this game. So you get guys in full power armor with bare feet and exposed hands. I imagine them as 40k space marines with bare feet and no gloves.

not gonna lie but i think the IMP vs shield thing is the one I wanna try more out of this video.

It would be fun to know what the numbers look like on tough pawns with the robust gene.

About the clothing, what about heavy fur as button down shirts instead since they also provide additional sharp protection compared to wool. And also what about devil strand? I'd assume that'd be a slightly better alternative than heavy fur and since its a crop, would be more feasible once you've got a stable colony.

This was very helpful. Could I ask for some clarification, though? First, does this mean that armor layers are discrete? So a hit to the torso of a pawn wearing a thrumbo fur duster (60% sharp) and shirt (40% sharp) the damage vs. the duster is calculated first, then the remaining damage is calculated against the shirt? Second, does all damage passing through armor become blunt, or only for advanced armors?

Hmm, I wonder how the robust gene factors in? Theory crafting has that it can nudge you over the threshold to stop instant death by anything other than diabolus hellsphere cannon.

I had a weird thing happen with damage. I pawn was hit with an arrow. It destroyed their spine, but did no other damage. The pawn was at still at full health, no bleeding. It was like psychic surgery.

My organs ache just from thinking about the charge lance.

WOW !!!! And you still have a life !!! Awesome job !!! LOL

Going from 19% to 15% is actually very significant. Think of it this way: If at 19% you got hit X times, at 15% you would be hit 3/4X. So despite it being declared as 4 percent difference, it is actually one quarter of the remainder.

bravo!

Tough trait could make a difference if the colonist is lucky to have it regarding headshots. High quality cataphract helmet only reducing a charge lance to half, tough would reduce it again to about 7 damage. But they will still die to a second hit and theres no way to fully restore a brain to max health outside a very few number of mods out there. One i can think of is expanded bionics and organs forked, in addition to letting you increase brain max hp(and other body parts, it can be potentially op on a tough pawn).

"it's like they don't exist or something" They actually don't; looking at cyborgs via debug hediff remover rather than the health tab reveals a bunch of hidden "missing bodypart" hediffs from the replaced limb. So a bionic arm would come with the flesh arm itself, all the fingers, the hand and all bones listed as "gone". I tried to restore those "missing" parts while the robo arm was still on but the game started screaming error messages so I didn't go too deep.

Hi still a beginner in Rimworld, On end-game, is it good to have a combination of charge rifles / assault rifles and charge lances? As mechanoids feels like the most deadly one, is it always good to have 2 charge lance to destroy the tanky centipedes? Or just go with AR or Charge rifles or even melee??

I noticed that too, once you have a bionic arm it's all just the same part, no fingers no hand, speaking off which I'm wondering how the chance is affected: a shot that would hit the hand maybe simply hits the bionic arm directly, so it's actually a bigger target now, which makes it a big deal since it can just be flat out destroyed more easily, but that might be mitigated by the total hit points of the part compared to the total of a natural arm plus hand and fingers, I would have to look it up

Thoughts on doing a save our ship play through????