There was a long discussion about mimics (and other armed entities) with non-sword weapons, but currently disarmed, regaining their weapon and whether this should push or kill monsters. This was fixed by bringing everything into line with the behaviour that would be predicted from the following rules:
(1) A disarmed entity regaining a pickaxe pushes in the direction of movement, even if the move was blocked and the entity only bumps;
(2) A disarmed entity regaining a spear stabs in the direction of movement, even if the move was blocked and the entity only bumps.
Decoys weren't discussed in that topic, but the current behaviour is that a decoy regaining a caber kills the entity under its tile, but a decoy regaining a pickaxe, spear, staff or dagger does nothing; the weapon just appears on the same tile as the entity.
This is consistent with the idea that a decoy regaining its weapon has no movement component, and the pickaxe, spear, staff and dagger all require a movement component either to kill or push. As would be expected, initially placing a mimic or decoy with one of these weapons on an entity also neither kills nor pushes it.
But I've noticed a problem with orbs and seeding beacons. (For brevity, I will use "
orb"
to refer to both. Everything I say from here on applies to both orbs and seeding beacons.) Unlike killing and pushing enemies, activating orbs does
not require a movement component; infamously, if a decoy is placed with its sword on an orb, it activates it every turn unless the architect was considerate enough to place a hot tile.
That means that we should expect:
(1) Initially placing a mimic or decoy with any weapon so that its weapon hits an orb should activate it. (It doesn't, either for mimics or decoys.)
(2) If a mimic or decoy has any weapon on an orb, waiting should repeatedly activate it. (Again, this doesn't work with either.)
(3) If a disarmed mimic or decoy regains its weapon so that it hits an orb (in the case of a mimic, have it blocked by the orb so it doesn't move during the turn), it should activate it. This currently works for mimics, but
not for decoys. Even if the devs decide (1) and (2) are intended, mimics and decoys behaving differently here is definitely an inconsistency -- especially since the mimic will activate the orb
either with pickaxe or spear, indicating that direction of motion isn't relevant.
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50th Skywatcher