Best Non-lethal weapons?

[ScumWatcher]

Normally I usally end-up with a person that i like to call the jade wielder, basically a melee only janitor that retrieves mental colonist and prime enemys. I usally have them wield a jade club then a jade mace as a sort of a tribe momento. It worked wonderfully till now. the last two people i sent her to retrive she killed with one hit. crushed their torso and the other she just bashed their head off.......both were not a big loss but now i'm scared to use her. Is their a slightly better non-lethal approch? like something new i have't played the new updates yet and i've stated a new game.

[Jigain]

The absolute best way to down pawns is to down them with pain, not with damage. So what you'd ideally want is a weapon that specializes in high pain, low damage hits. As far as I know there's no such thing in vanilla, but I know the Glitter Tech mod adds OC Pacifiers which do that.

If you're going for a strictly vanilla approach, or just don't want to use that mod, blunt weapons (so they don't cause bleeding out as easily) that do low damage is probably the best you can do. Which would be one of the stone blocks materials (marble, slate, granite, sandstone, limestone).

[Blazikasu]

Originally posted by Jigain:

If you're going for a strictly vanilla approach, or just don't want to use that mod, blunt weapons (so they don't cause bleeding out as easily) that do low damage is probably the best you can do. Which would be one of the stone blocks materials (marble, slate, granite, sandstone, limestone).

Wooden clubs are better than stone clubs for... pacifying targets. It's blunt dmg multiplier is x0.9, compared to stone materials x1. As an alternative, if you have a doctor nearby, is a low dmg knife, get enough cuts on the target so he'll bleed a lot, and run away while he limps and bleeds out. He'll eventually fall from the blood loss. Still, the surefire way for when you really want a pawn is the shock lance I guess, as enemy pawns downed from damage always have a pretty big chance of straight up dying.

[HunterSilver]

Fire damage induces a lot of pain without dealing a lot of damage and is a great way to down targets. Incen launchers and molotovs can panic and down targets without killing them.

Otherwise bleed them. Inflict bleeding wounds then kite them till they go down from blood loss.

If you have access to psychic powers, Vertigo Pulse can cause enough consciousness loss due to sickness to cause an injured target to go down.

[Glerk]

Originally posted by HunterSilver:

Fire damage induces a lot of pain without dealing a lot of damage and is a great way to down targets. Incen launchers and molotovs can panic and down targets without killing them.

Otherwise bleed them. Inflict bleeding wounds then kite them till they go down from blood loss.

But both of those have the possibility of infection, unlike blunt attacks. 1-30% wooden club is best imo for pacifying someone.

[KalkiKrosah]

Fire and blunt is the way to go if you want to down someone.

Fire is very likely to down an enemy but it will keep hitting them once they're downed. It can burn off fragile body parts (eyes, toes, fingers, ears) which could cause bleeding, but the internal organs come out unharmed for thr most part.

Blunt is more consistent but has more risk involved. As of now there is no ranged form of blunt damage. And blunt damage can prove lethal if they keep hitting the same spot. Internal organs can be reached via blunt damage so there's that too.

Lastly is heat. It's very tricky to pull off. You keep the temperature at a point where it is high enough to cause heat stroke but low enough that that don't burst into flames. And you have to expose them to this heat for a considerable length of time. It's the only guaranteed way I know of but it needs to run perfectly or else it won't work at all.

[Bambles]

I mean... pawns have fists, those are generally nonlethal, that is, until your warden literally bites the head off a prisoner.

[HunterSilver]

Originally posted by GlerkTheFlurp:

But both of those have the possibility of infection, unlike blunt attacks. 1-30% wooden club is best imo for pacifying someone.

Everything has risks except for the psychic shock lance and neural heat dump. Being in melee range with an enemy with a wooden club is also a risk. The question is just if you want to risk injuries on your colonist or risk an infection on enemies. Both can be treated and both are entirely viable.

[Narrowmind]

The psychic shock lance also has a risk of brain damage. I also don't think the percentage of a weapon affects its usefulness any longer - only the quality does that. It used to be affected by percentage like armor, but no longer. Correct me if I'm wrong.

[ScumWatcher]

Originally posted by Bambi Booza:

I mean... pawns have fists, those are generally nonlethal, that is, until your warden literally bites the head off a prisoner.

I've had them bite noses off and scar eyes......

[HunterSilver]

Originally posted by Ratlegion:

The psychic shock lance also has a risk of brain damage. I also don't think the percentage of a weapon affects its usefulness any longer - only the quality does that. It used to be affected by percentage like armor, but no longer. Correct me if I'm wrong.

I think you're right, or at least the numbers that show up reflect this. Whether the displayed numbers and actual numbers are different is incredibly difficult to tell.

[Hydra]

Uranium mace and just charge down anyone you want to capture

[Bambles]

Originally posted by Laughing Crow:

Originally posted by Bambi Booza:

I mean... pawns have fists, those are generally nonlethal, that is, until your warden literally bites the head off a prisoner.

I've had them bite noses off and scar eyes......

A small price to pay.

[gussmed]

For prisoners, I send in my guys armed with firearms and force them to use melee.

The idea is that you want to do as little damage as possible with each hit, so they don’t go beyond pain and into limb destruction or death. Rifles used as clubs are generally good for this.

Sure, it’s not the fastest way to win the fight, but with 3-4 colonists beating on the prisoner, the outcome is generally good.

Now and then someone gets an arm pulped, but I don’t think I’ve ever had a death from this.

[Tohtori Leka]

Fists, melee with ranged weapons or a wooden knife.

[Panzerechse]

Mods: keyword "stun"

There is a selection of tazers and stun guns....