Explosives (skill)

*This article is about a skill. For a class of weapons, see Explosives (weapons).*

Skill

## Explosives

### ID

`explosives`

Skill "Explosives" determines your ability to work with everything that is capable of exploding.

* Each invested skill point increases damage of your explosives by 5%, also increases throwing distance for grenades.
* Each skill level allows using and creating more advanced explosives, improves success rate at defusing and helps you detect enemy mines from longer distance.

## Usage

Explosives are weapons that have some of the highest damage and destructive capabilities in the game, capable of quickly eliminating enemies that are caught in the blast radius, or breaking through walls and doors that no other weapon type can.

There are several types of explosives that you can use for combat. In order to effectively use explosives, you must have a certain level of skill, displayed in the weapon's stats.

If your skill level is higher then the requirement for a weapon, it gets an additional 10% damage bonus for every level you are above the requirement, capping at 50% damage bonus for level 0 weapons at skill level 5.

Note: Grenades, mines and bombs are all incapable of taking advantage of critical hits (grenades/bombs doing normal damage on critical hit, and mines being unable to crit at all), only receive 2.5% damage bonus per skill point instead of 5%, and do not receive the damage bonus for being a higher level then their requirement. This can result in the estimated damage being far higher then the actual damage of the explosive.

For a list of explosives, see Explosives.

### Grenades

Being 1 level below a grenade's skill level will reduce your damage and range by -20%, lowering it's effective power and distance, and increases AP cost by 33%. Being 2 levels below will reduce it by -40% and increases AP cost by 100%. If you are even lower, you cannot use the grenade at all.

Example, the impulse grenade is level 3, meaning you must be at least level 1 in explosives to use it, but you'll suffer a -40% damage and range penalty. Being level 2 gives you a -20% damage and range penalty. Being level 3 or higher gives you no penalty.

Grenade trajectory is affected by gravity, meaning they will be thrown in an arc. They will also bounce off any walls they hit before detonating after a certain amount of time.

Grenades can be grabbed in your telekinesis, changing their trajectory. This allows you to bring grenades into places where you normally couldn't throw them or have trouble getting them to detonate. They can also be thrown far away with the help of Zero point magical field manipulator perk.

Using S.A.T.S. with grenades will show you how they will be thrown, giving you a good estimate to where they will land.

Note: Intelligent enemies (Such as raiders and mercenaries) will run away from thrown grenades, reducing the effectiveness at using them against them.

### Mines

Mines are traps laid down to catch targets unaware. They cannot be used at all unless you are at their specified skill level.

After laying down a mine, it will take a few seconds to arm. Once they are armed, if an enemy gets within range it will beep once, then detonate. Enemies can activate mines even from the other side of closed doors, so be careful when setting mines close to doors - if an enemy is standing close enough, the mine will detonate in your face. Enough damage (Even by other mines without the Expert sapper perk) will cause the mine to detonate regardless of nearby targets.

Your mines will not detonate if you approach them. If you need to recover a mine, disarming it will always succeed.

### Bombs

Bombs (Dynamite pack, Hoofmade bomb and The explosive C4) are explosives that have less combat use then others. Instead they have high destructive power, capable of breaking through powerful walls and doors that most other explosives can't.

Bombs are thrown similar to grenades, except with a far shorter range. Instead of bouncing off walls they will stick to the first wall it hits before detonating. With practiced timing this allows them to be used as high damage traps.

Safes that are locked can be blown open using bombs. Throwing a bomb at a safe will cause it to attach to the safe, causing it to open from the blast. However this comes at the cost of the quality of the safe's contents being lowered. Any alarms on the safe will also be triggered.

### Launchers

Being 1 level below a launcher's skill level will give you a 20% chance to miss and increases AP cost by 33%, similar to Firearms and Energy weapons. Being 2 levels below will give you a 40% miss chance and increases AP cost by 100%. If you are even lower, you cannot use the launcher at all.

Grenade launcher trajectory is affected by gravity, while the missile launcher and balefire egg launcher will fire in a straight line. Unlike grenades, launchers suffer no damage penalty when below it's level.

### Disarming explosives

The explosives skill will also allow you to disarm enemy explosives. These can be mines, grenade bouquets and explosives strapped to safes and checkpoints. Higher levels will give you a better chance to disarm them.

Moving your mouse over an explosive will give you the prompt to disarm it. ([E] hold - disarm) Depending on your skill level and the level of the explosive, the difficulty will vary. Difficulty ranges from easy, average (no difficulty rating), hard, very hard and unreal. Explosives that are hard or tougher have a chance to accidentally detonate, potentially harming you.

Grenade bouquets have a skill level that must be achieved, otherwise they cannot be disarmed at all.

### Crafting explosives

Some of the explosives you'll come across can be crafted at a workbench. These require a certain level of skill in order to do so.

Hoofmade mine
 2
 3
Cryomine
 5
Pulse bomb
Sparkle grenade

## Perks

There are several perks associated with explosives:

* Light step (Level 12, Sneak 4, Explosives 2): You never activate traps or pressure plates, and enemy mines are triggered with a delay.
* Danger zone (Explosives 3): Increases the blast radius of your explosives by 25%.
* Explosions fan (Level 6, Explosives 3): Increases your blast damage resistance by 25%.
* Expert sapper (Explosives 4): Increases your mine damage by 25%, and they do not detonate from nearby explosions.
* Grenader (Explosives 4): Your grenades and bombs will automatically explode when they come into contact with an enemy. Holding [Shift] when throwing prevents this.
* Friendly fire (Explosives 5, Survival 3): You only take 25% damage from your own explosives, including special varieties.

## Explosives alternatives

There are several ways to avoid having to use explosives:

* Telekinesis: Enemy mines may be moved elsewhere, however this runs the risk of the mines detonating anyway. Self-levitation perk can also be used to avoid mines.
* Firearms/Energy weapons: Simply shooting enemy mines will cause them to blow up, and you won't take damage if you're far enough. Energy Weapons also covers EMP, plasma, fire and freezing damage.
* Magic: Explosion, plasma, fire and freezing damage can be covered by offensive spells. Teleportation perk can let you teleport past enemy mines.
* Lockpicking/Science: Lockpicking allows you to open safes directly rather then blowing them open. Science can be used to hack terminals, allowing you to open some mined safes without risk.
* Survival: Potion of shadows and potion of flight can be used to completely bypass enemy mines.