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
Tech Level
Spacer
Market Value
785 Silver
Mass
0.1 kg
HP
50
Flammability
100%
Body Part
Ear

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 artificial body part that replaces the ear and provides 125% part efficiency, improving the hearing of the implantee.

Acquisition[edit]

Bionic ears can be crafted at a fabrication bench once the bionic replacements research project has been completed. Each requires Plasteel 10 Plasteel, Advanced component 3 Advanced components, 26,000 ticks (7.22 mins) of work modified by the general labor speed of the crafter, and a crafting skill 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[edit]

Bionic ears replace the user's organic ear. They are universal and can be installed on either the left or right side. It has a part efficiency of 125%, which impacts Hearing. It also removes the "Disfigured" opinion penalty from other pawns when missing an ear.

The more capable ear is responsible for 75% of Hearing. For pawn with 2 healthy ears, installing a 1 bionic ear increases hearing by 19%. Note that as of the time of writing, hearing over 100% does not improve any stat beyond that which an healthy pawn would already have.

Installation[edit]

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

Removing the part requires 2,000 ticks (33.33 secs) of work, 1x medicine of herbal quality or better, and has no Medical skill requirements.

If the operation fails, the part will be destroyed.

Analysis[edit]

The hearing capacity only affects two different work types:

  1. Social - Wardening and Trade; and
  2. Animals - Taming and Training

Hearing also affects social interaction between pawns, so an implant will slightly increase their chances to share a double bed. Hearing also affects the Trade Price Improvement stat. Hearing of 80% or better gives maximum effect for trade prices.

While superior to a cochlear implant, bionic ears only affect those 2 work types, and only up to 100% Hearing. The only pawns that will benefit from a bionic ear are those who serve one/both of those roles and have damaged hearing. There is 0 benefit to installing a bionic ear on a healthy pawn, except for body modders and transhumanistsContent added by the Ideology DLC but unless they are performing the social/animal roles, the cheaper cochlear implant serves just as well.

A pawn with hearing loss will reach >100% hearing with 1 bionic ear. A pawn deaf in or missing both ears would get only 94% Hearing from a single bionic ear, but a bionic ear + cochlear implant would push hearing to 110%.

Hearing Right ear
Deaf Hearing loss Cochlear implant Organic ear Bionic ear
Left ear Deaf 000% 037.5% 049% 075% 094%
Hearing loss 037.5% 050% 061.25% 087.5% 106.25%
Cochlear implant 049% 061.25% 065% 091% 110%
Organic ear 075% 087.5% 091% 100% 119%
Bionic ear 094% 106.25% 110% 119% 125%