Focus

Focus is a level psycast that enhances the capacities of its target for its duration. 
== Acquisition ==
== Summary ==
Upon casting, Focus grants a target pawn the Psychic focus hediff for , scaling with the target's Psychic Sensitivity. While it persists, Psychic focus grants the target pawn a multiplier to Sight, Moving, and Hearing, improving all stats derived from these capacities. This multiplier applies after any base factors or offsets to said capacities, such as go-juice or a bionic eye. Valid targets for Focus include any psychically sensitive pawns within 28 tiles, respecting line of sight. 
== Analysis ==
Focus is an extremely basic psycast with a fairly useful effect, though not nearly as impactful as other psycasts of a similar level. Despite its single target nature and relatively low impact per cast, its fairly low psyfocus cost and extremely low neural heat gain allow it be to cast several times in succession, enhancing the combat prowess of all or several of one's pawns. However, the somewhat low duration and the low (but not negligible) psyfocus cost can make maintaining the effects prohibitive, especially so during protracted engagements. This, combined with the somewhat minor impact of the stat improvements render Focus best used when one has either a surplus of psyfocus in reserve, or no better psycasts to spend it on.
In terms of direct combat effectiveness, the increase to both Sight and Moving improves several vital combat related stats. Sight impacts Shooting Accuracy, Melee Hit Chance, and Melee Dodge Chance, while Moving impacts Move Speed and Melee Dodge Chance. Before going into the details of Focus' impact on these stats, please note that the information provided below is merely the information relevant to Focus only - it is recommended you visit the pages listed above for detailed information on the calculations which determine each of these stats.
For Shooting Accuracy, the increase to Sight is equivalent to an additional 3.6 levels in Shooting (mathematically, not functionally, as skills are only calculated as whole numbers). Due to the exponential decay of accuracy over range, this increased accuracy is negligible at low ranges but becomes more impactful as the distance between target and shooter increases. As an example, a Shooting 10 pawn can expect to see an increase in accuracy of approximately , if engaging targets within a 15 to 30 tile range. Note that pawns with extremely low Shooting skill will see a significant improvement - upwards of - in their accuracy from Focus, due to the post-processing curve heavily penalizing low Shooting skill (and impaired capacities). For the full impact of Shooting skill (and by extension, Focus) on DPS, please visit the Shooting Accuracy page for the associated graph.
For Melee Hit Chance, the impact from Focus is significantly lesser. While, as with Shooting Accuracy, an unskilled or incapable pawn will see the most benefit from Focus, at best one will only see an increase to Melee Hit Chance at Melee 0, to only a increase at Melee 10. However, the improvement for Melee Dodge Chance is significantly higher. While the increase is only roughly depending on skill level and capacities, said increase translates to approximately more effective HP in terms of melee combat, rendering affected pawns much more durable in melee combat. As above, please visit the associated pages for an in-depth look at the stats provided above.
For Move Speed, Focus provides a flat increase to Moving, applying after offsets but before external factors, such as weather and terrain. As such, pawns with increased or reduced Moving, or additional offsets applied, will see a proportionally higher or lower direct impact on their move speed as a result of Focus. In terms of combat, while Move Speed does not directly improve a pawn's damage or survivability, it improves their performance in combat in several ways, including but not limited to: moving to and from cover faster, rescuing downed pawns more effectively, approaching or fleeing enemies faster, easier kiting, to name a few.
With all this said, a reasonable conclusion can be drawn that, while Focus provides nothing outstanding, the overall improvement to a pawn's combat effectiveness is significant, and especially so when cast on several pawns at once. In particular, melee combatants benefit the most, as not only do they receive buffs to both their damage output and survivability, but the increase to Move Speed in particular allows them to reach their targets faster, and acquire new ones faster once dispatched, helping to mitigate the main weakness of melee combatants - their low range. Additionally, Focus' low neural heat gain and psyfocus cost enable it to be used to great effect on a swarm of attack animals, magnifying their threat and enabling them to easily chase down distant or fleeing targets. This is of particular note as while colonists are capable of carrying drugs such as go-juice to achieve similar (frankly, superior) buffs to their combat capabilities, animals require an operation to be administered drugs, barring accidental ingestion. Doing so is not only cumbersome to the point of absurdity with more than a few animals, but also fairly time-intensive for an action ostensibly taken directly prior to combat, placing Focus as the most practical option for buffing non-human pawns. With that said, while Focus can be used on allied mechanoids (specifically, those controlled by a mechanitor), their reduced psychic sensitivity renders the uptime of Focus quite low, and generally not worth the psyfocus expended. 
Lastly, note that Focus has some limited use outside of direct combat. The increase to Moving can be useful for pawns caught out in the open when a surprise raid or manhunter appears, enabling them to flee to relative safety. Additionally, while the low duration of Focus renders its improvements to most work types fairly inconsequential for the micro required (barring a massively increased Psychic sensitivity), the improvement to both Medical Tend Speed and Medical Tend Quality can be relevant, as tending is generally a high-impact, low duration work type. In particular, Focus can be useful for emergency triage in combat, allowing your doctors to tend more quickly and effectively while under fire, and away from medicine stockpiles. Alternatively, Focus can be used to maximize tend quality for pawns facing life threatening infections or diseases, where a single poor quality tend can make the difference between life and death.
== Version history ==
* Royalty DLC Release - Added.
* 1.4.3613 - Fix: Typo "capactities" in Focus hediff.
Category: Psycasts