Beam

Beam's default gun.

Beam is the default secondary gun for Lt. Col. Carl. By default, having at least 1 point in Beam adds a buildup beam weapon which is charged by holding down the Fire input, up to a maximum amount of accumulated power; subsequently releasing the Fire input discharges an enemy- and shield-piercing attack from the ship's nose. It costs four green quantium powerups (Q40) to upgrade the Beam stat.

• Beam weapons are unable to deal critical strikes.

Default weapon stats

• Number of shots: 1 all-piercing buildup beam lasting for 1 second
• Base damage per full-buildup shot: ~13.0 @ 1 Beam (all other stats at 0), spread among 10 damage ticks per second.
  • @ 1 Beam, 1 Power (all other stats at 0): ~13.9 base (~14.9 with +6.5% damage from Power)
  • Armor piercing?: No
  • Bonus damage against environment: 0%
• Base time to full buildup: ~1.2 seconds @ 1 Beam (all other stats at 0)
  • Buildup rate at 1 Beam: ~11.4 beam damage accumulated per second (unaffected by fire rate modifiers or Rapid Fire)
  • Minimum time to full buildup: ~0.8 seconds
• Base damage per minimum-buildup shot: ~9.2
  • Base time to minimum buildup: ~0.8 seconds (scales inversely with buildup rate)

Buildup Mechanics

According to a certain end-of-level tip, the maximum buildup of the default buildup beam increases not only with the Beam stat, but also with the Spread, Side, Power and Plasma stats. In-game tests, however, indicate that the actual scaling mechanics do not entirely follow this guidance:

• The Speed, Spread, Missile and Drone stats have no effect on the buildup beam by default.
  • With Drone To Beam active, Drone now has a major effect on the buildup beam, adding ~4.6 base damage to the full-charge beam for every point in Drone.
• The Side, Power and Plasma stats have a minor effect on the buildup beam by default, adding ~13 base damage to the full-charge beam for every 15 points in these stats (~0.9 per point).
  • With Power to Beam active, Power's effect on the buildup beam is increased significantly, now adding ~4.7 base damage to the full-charge beam for every point in Power (but nullifying its normal bonus to ship damage).
• The Beam stat has a moderate effect on the buildup beam, adding ~3.3 base damage to the full-charge beam for every point in Beam after the first.
  • In addition, the rate at which the buildup beam accumulates buildup is increased by ~40% for every point in Beam after the first (approx. 3x buildup rate at 6 Beam).

Ultimates scaling with this stat

• Big Biff Beam (Biff)

Attachments associated with this stat

Modules

• Autobeam (Adj / Imp)
• Beam Emitter (Adj / Imp)
• Beam Freak
• Beam Mastery
• Beam Rerouting
• Beam Saw
• Evasive Beam Saw
• Synergizing Diversity

Weapons

• Back Beam
• Distant Laser Drones
• Drone To Beam (Adj / Imp)
• Drone-Laser Rerouting
• Ion Beam
• Laser Beam
• Lasererang (Adj / Imp)
• Linked Beam
• Linked Laser Beam
• Marked For Death
• Nano Beam
• Nano Laser
• Nano Laserang
• Nano Tesla
• Outward Beam Drones
• Plasma Beam
• Power to Beam
• Prismatic Beam (Prototype / Adj)
• Pulse Beam
• Pulse Laser Beam
• Split Beam
• Star Laser (Proto / Adj)
• Tesla Cannon (Prototype / Adj)
• TriPhased Beam