| “ | Be it an obstacle or a particularly thickheaded adversary, a good ol' Satchel Charge usually gets the job done. Stand well back before hitting the trigger. |
| — Item Description |
About
The Satchel Charge is a Utility Tool for the Driller. It is a remotely detonated explosive, designed to clear rocks or bugs or both. When placed, the charge is replaced with a remote switch similar to the Laser Pointer.
The Satchel Charge is deployed by throwing it down. Upon clicking, the Driller throws the charge out like a grenade, though its travel arc is much lower. He will always call out "Explosives placed!" upon throwing the charge. Once the charge lands, it will emit a beeping noise and project a red spherical hologram which projects out to its maximum blast radius. The charge has an infinite lifetime, and can be detonated at any time by clicking again as soon as the Driller pulls out the detonator. Only one Charge may exist at once, as the Driller is forced into using his detonator to blow up the existing Charge before he can place another one.
The Satchel Charge boasts an extraordinarily high area damage value of 375, the highest of any available weapon in the game. With mods this can be further increased up to 875, which is more than enough to instantly kill anything in its radius except for the mightiest of foes. On lower hazard difficulties, or with few players, the charge will often be able to take out high-HP foes such as Glyphid Praetorians and Glyphid Wardens.
As well as killing hostiles with ease, the Charge can also be used to clear out terrain. It leaves a much more smooth and consistent crater upon detonation (which can be expanded via modifications). This has several uses, such as extracting embedded gemstones such as Aquarqs out of walls which cannot be easily reached with the Reinforced Power Drills. The large crater forces grounded enemies (such as Glyphids) to run through it, which leaves them vulnerable to luring devices and explosives when thrown inside the existing crater.
The Satchel Charge is highly limited in terms of ammunition. By default only two charges can be carried, which means the Driller has to be highly selective as to where and when he uses them. Using them to clear space is often not as useful as killing a large amount of bugs in one shot, but the sluggish throwing arc and detonation process makes the Satchel Charge hard to use in active combat. Furthermore, its extraordinarily high damage can also affect teammates quite severely. Even with friendly fire reduction your allies will take extreme damage from the Satchel Charge, often enough to down them instantly. Make absolutely certain that there are no nearby teammates to accidentally injure when using the Charge.
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Usage & Strategies
- Best used with luring tools, such as the Scout's Pheromone Canister or the Engineer's L.U.R.E., to wrangle as many enemies together for the ultimate destructive payoff.
- Although this device is notorious for friendly fire incidents, it can be used to great effect to clear out enemies surrounding a downed ally. Drop the explosive onto the ally from a safe distance, blow up any surrounding enemies and pick them up.
- Take care when using the Charge on narrow walkways or suspended platforms; if it blows up the sections connecting to other parts of the cave it could potentially cause the whole platform to crumble, causing you to fall to your doom.
- The "Carve Diameter" statistic refers to the size of the crater left behind from the satchel charge, which for unknown reasons is bigger than its damage radius.
- Take care when using the Satchel Charge in the Magma Core, as the crater will reveal a huge amount of molten slurry which can damage you and your teammates.
Modifications
There are four tiers and each tier has one to three upgrades, only one upgrade can be equipped per tier.
| Driller Upgrades | ||||||||||
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| Mod | Effect | Description | Price | |||||||
| Tier 1 |  Fragmentary Shell |
+3m Effect Radius | Larger damage radius |
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 Extra Satchel Charge |
+1 Carried Amount | Can carry one more explosive pack |
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 Bigger Charge |
+250 Area Damage | More damage |
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Tier 2 5
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 Kill Switch |
+Can be picked up | Disarm and pick up an unused charge |
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| Tier 3 10
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Extra Satchel Charge |
+1 Carried Amount | Can carry one more explosive pack |
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Volatile Compound |
+250 Area Damage +Unstable Explosives |
More explosive power but the device will detonate if damaged |
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| Tier 4 15
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 Big Bang |
+10m Extra Fear Radius (100% Fear Factor) | Chance to scare enemies far from the blast |
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 Stun |
+10m Extra Stagger Radius (100% Stun chance, lasts for 5s) | Stuns enemies far from the blast |
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 Rock Mover |
+9m Carve Diameter | Blast carves a much larger area |
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Trivia
- The Satchel Charge used to be available to both the Gunner and the Driller as their quaternary support tool, but this was changed in Update 19 as the Gunner had it replaced with the Shield Generator.
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