Bionic ear

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Bionic ear

Bionic ear

An advanced artificial ear implant. A collection of invisible subdermal microphones capture sound and transmit it to a biogel nerve interface that links directly with the auditory nerve. It's sensitive enough to hear a cat before you see it, can't be damaged by loud noise, and automatically tunes itself to pick out meaningful sounds in noisy environments.

Base Stats

Type
Medical ItemsBody Parts
Market Value
785 Silver
Mass
0.1 kg
HP
50
Flammability
100%

Creation

Crafted At
Fabrication bench
Required Research
Bionic replacements
Skill Required
Crafting 8
Work To Make
26,000 ticks (7.22 mins)
Resources to make
Plasteel 10 + Advanced component 3
Technical
techHediffsTags
Advanced
tradeTags
TechHediff, Bionic


A Bionic ear is an ear replacement that has 125% efficiency, increasing hearing by providing 25% better part efficiency.

Acquisition

Bionic ears can be crafted at a Fabrication bench once the Bionic replacements research project has been completed. They require Plasteel 10 Plasteel, Advanced component 3 Advanced components, 26,000 ticks (7.22 mins) of work, and a Crafting of 8

They can also be bought from exotic traders, Empire traders, and at Outlander faction bases. They are also sometimes offered as a quest reward.

Summary

Significantly better than a Cochlear implant, 125% vs. 65% compared to a natural ear. Hearing cannot be improved past 100%, and the only stats "hearing" effects are Social (trading) and Animal Training, so the only pawns that could use a (single) bionic ear are colonists who serve those roles and have hearing damage.

If your colonist only suffers from hearing loss (rather than true deafness), since hearing is weighted 75% for the better ear, replacing just one pushes hearing over the max of 100% - one is all they need.

Body modders, of course, will benefit from anything that does not hurt their functionality in the colony, but unless they are performing the social/animal roles, the cheaper cochlear implant serves just as well.

Installation

Installing the part requires 2,500 ticks (41.67 secs) of work, ?x medicine of ?? quality or better, and a Medical skill of 5.

Removing the part requires ? of work, ?x medicine of ?? quality or better, and a Medical skill of ?.

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

Analysis

Since the game gives a greater weighting on the more capable part when calculating hearing, with it contributing to 75% of a pawn's hearing capability, installing a single bionic ear increases hearing by 19%, and a second increases it by 6% to the expected 125%.

A colonist with hearing loss or a cochlear implant in the non-bionic ear will still have over 100% hearing.

Hearing impacts only social skills and animal taming/training. However, all hearing-based stats have a 100% cap on the amount of hearing considered — there is no benefit to having a hearing higher than 100%. This makes bionic ears only useful when a colonist already has damaged hearing and for pleasing someone with the Body modder trait.