Word of joy

Word of joy is a level psycast that improves the target's mood at the cost of a penalty to consciousness. 
== Acquisition ==
== Summary ==
Upon casting, Word of joy applies the Joyfuzz hediff to the target pawn for (5 in-game days), reducing their consciousness by and giving them for the duration. Valid targets for Word of joy include any non-hostile, psychically sensitive, humanoid pawns, that are neither in a mental break nor unconscious. Like most other non-combat psycasts, the caster must be directly adjacent to their target to use Word of joy.
Additionally, note that despite the seemingly positive effect, Word of joy is considered a harmful ability, and will incur a goodwill penalty of when cast on pawns from a neutral or allied faction.
== Analysis ==
Word of joy is an extremely potent mood control tool with a commensurate negative - it's functionally a temporary joywire. A bonus of mood is staggeringly high, enough to keep all but the most melancholic pawns out of mental break range, and will max out an already-happy pawn's mood. However, the penalty to consciousness is rather severe, significantly impacting several capacities; most importantly their Manipulation and Moving. This malus renders affected pawns much less capable in both combat and also nearly all forms of work. As such, Word of joy should only be used when the impact of the mood gain is worth having the target pawn rendered incompetent for several days, such as when a mental break seems unavoidable.
Word of joy faces competition as an on-demand mood control option from several sources - the most direct comparisons being yayo and the aforementioned joywire. In the case of yayo, it grants a slightly higher mood bonus of , while also granting a few minor benefits besides. However, it incurs the risk of addiction and overdose. Additionally, with the effects only lasting 12 in-game hours, one would need 10 doses of yayo to maintain the mood bonus for an equivalent duration to a single cast of Word of joy, which would compound the aforementioned addiction and overdose risks significantly. However, yayo's discrete dosage allows for more control over the duration of the effects, whereas Word of joy lasts for 5 days, including the attached consciousness penalty. As such, yayo can be superior for mood control on a shorter time frame, such as after an insulting spree, while Word of joy is better suited for long-term unhappiness, such as the death of a friend or relative. Note that due to their smaller body size, children are at significantly higher risk of a dangerous overdose. As such, for them word of joy represents a significantly safer option than drugs.
Relative to the joywire, Word of joy is indisputably superior, except in situations one would already be inclined to use a joywire, such as for slaves or prisoners. As an installed joywire is ostensibly a permanent condition, using it on one's own pawns is unappealing prospect in most cases, whereas the temporary nature of Word of joy makes it much more palatable to use for mood control, as most sources of negative mood are temporary, whereas a joywire - and the associated consciousness malus - is permanent. However, for more disposable pawns, or those for whom the downsides of the joywire aren't relevant (such as a Gauranlen tree pruner), joywires are strictly superior to Word of joy, as they require no manual interaction nor psyfocus costs to upkeep.
Lastly, a few notable quirks of Word of joy. Firstly, despite the potent mood buffs, Word of joy's status as a harmful psycast renders it less than ideal for mood control for lodgers during the royal ascent or hospitality quests, though not unusable. However, if the hospitality quest consists of prisoners rather than colonists, Word of joy can be used freely without penalty. Secondly, Word of joy can be cast on babies. While seemingly innocuous on the surface, not only are babies functionally unaffected by the consciousness penalty, but babies with high mood will giggle significantly more often and cry significantly less, providing a hefty mood bonus for your colony at little cost, and at the very least preventing the widespread mood penalties from hearing a crying baby.
== Version history ==
* 1.2.2719 - Added.
* 1.3.3066 - Fix: Word of Joy counts as a hostile act.
Category: Psycasts