EMP grenades

EMP grenades are short ranged, thrown weapons that have a forced miss radius but deal EMP damage in a small radius around their target, allowing them to stun mechanical targets and deplete shields.

Note that EMP grenades, once equipped, can be thrown infinitely; they are not consumed by use.

Acquisition

EMP grenades can be crafted at a Machining table once the Microelectronics research project has been completed. They require 20 Steel, 6 Components and 24,000 ticks (6.67 mins) of work.

They can also be purchased from orbital pirate merchants and orbital combat suppliers, outlander faction bases, and can be recovered after defeating the following raider types:

Raider Kind	Chance	Average Quality	Health
EMP Grenadier	100%	Normal	70-230%

Summary

For a full exploration of the effects of EMP damage, see EMP.

EMP grenades deal 50 EMP within their very short range of 12.9, and with a moderate aiming time. Once landed, grenades have a 100 ticks (1.67 secs) delay before exploding in a 3.5 tile radius. They have a forced miss radius of 1.9 tiles, meaning an unobstructed grenade will always land within 1 grid tile of their target (including diagonals), and will always hit the intended tile. This means Shooting skill, shooting accuracy, and health of the grenadier is irrelevant. Aiming time effects do still apply however.

EMP damage does not deal physical damage. Instead, EMP grenades stun turrets, mechanoids, and mortars for 50 EMP damage, or 25 seconds. After being stunned, mechanoids become "Adapted" and gain immunity against further stuns for 2,200 ticks (36.67 secs). Immunity is applied on stun, and will not be extended by stunning an adapted or already stunned mechanoid. EMP also disables shield belts and causes Brain shock on humanoids with brain implants, and vomitting on those with certain stomach implants.

Grenades are treated as a proper weapon, so can't be wielded with another one. Each set of EMP grenades can be thrown infinitely; they are not consumed by use. They are thrown with the same animation as of shooting, they cannot be used over walls and must have a direct line of sight. A circular zone will generate to indicate range, then another 3x3 indicator with a circular center will become the aiming spot.

When throwing a grenade down an 1-tile wide alley, a pawn can consistently throw a grenade 4 tiles, not including the tile the pawn is standing on, without intersecting the two side walls. Beyond 4 tiles, there is a risk of hitting the wall and dropping short. This can be relevant to prevent friendly fire during combat.

When damaged with Flame damage^{[How much?]}, the grenade item may explode. The grenades will spark and emit a hissing sound shortly before exploding some time later. The explosion deals 50 EMP damage in a 2.66 tile radius around itself.

EMP grenades have no quality - every set of grenades will have the same stats, regardless of the skill of the crafter.

Analysis

While harmless against most organic life, EMP weaponry is incredibly useful against mechanoids, such as centipedes, a decisive advantage against some of the toughest enemies in the game. Due to the forced miss radius, EMP grenades are a viable combat alternative for those with health issues or low shooting skill. Trigger-happy is beneifical, while the careful shooter trait is strictly detrimental.

Usage without oversight is prone to vulnerable positioning, inefficiency against moving target, and unwanted collateral damage. It therefore is a good idea to manually aim EMP grenades instead of relying on the colonists' AI to do that. They will not lead a moving target and will not attack targets which can only be hit by area of effect (e.g. well behind the corner of a wall). Repeated throwing will effect stun adaptation, but won't increase stun duration.

With the Royalty DLC active, they also play a vital role in suppressing low-shield packs and downing mech low-shields , ensuring that colonists can maintain damage output. There are also niche uses in brain shocking pawns with certain implants to safely down them as a method of safely downing berserking supersoldier colonists or rebellious slaves. Finally, EMP Grenades are also particularly useful against mechanoid clusters if they don't have proximity activators.

Comparison to EMP launchers

See also: EMP launcher

The key differences between EMP grenades and launchers are: Range, Rate of Fire, Blast Radius, and Quality.

While both have the same miss radius, grenades have a significantly larger blast radius. This means that grenades will always hit their intended tile, while the launcher may miss. Grenades are also faster to throw, which is a key advantage in most practical situations.

Launchers have a higher radius, which may be useful with good terrain or against low shield packs or mechanoid shields. However, all mechanoids will outrange the launcher.

Unlike grenades, launchers are affected by quality. Masterwork and Legendary launchers in particular see an increase in damage (i.e. stun duration). Legendary launchers will stun for long enough that mechanoid adaptation ends before the stun, making it technically possible to 100% stun lock them. In practice, it is almost impossible to get the timing perfect even before accounting for the risk of missed shots, unless you have multiple colonists with legendary launchers. Conversely, this makes grenades relatively better if you don't have good crafters - Awful launchers are worse at their job.

In summary, grenades are often the stronger and more practical choice. Their higher accuracy, faster fire rate makes up for the relatively low benefit of range.

Source	Damage	Stun Duration	Post-Stun Adaption Duration	Ideal Stun Uptime
Awful EMP launcher	45	1,350 ticks (22.5 secs)	850 ticks (14.17 secs)	61.36%
EMP Grenades, Poor/Norm/Good/Exc EMP launcher	50	1,500 ticks (25 secs)	700 ticks (11.67 secs)	68.18%
Masterwork EMP launcher	62.5	1,875 ticks (31.25 secs)	325 ticks (5.42 secs)	85.23%
Legendary EMP launcher	75	2,250 ticks (37.5 secs)	0 ticks (0 secs) (-50 ticks (-0.83 secs))	100%