Beam repeater

The beam repeater is an ultratech weapon that fires 30-round bursts, the largest burst of all weapons. It has low damage per shot and a long warm-up and cooldown time, but has excellent armor penetration, slightly below-average range, and moderate accuracy.

Acquisition[edit]

Beam repeaters can be crafted at a fabrication bench once the Beam weapons research project has been completed. Each requires 40 Plasteel, 30 Steel, 3 Advanced components, 60,000 ticks (16.67 mins) of work modified by the general labor speed of the crafter, and a crafting skill of 8.

Analysis[edit]

The beam repeater is single target shield piercing DPS weapon with a very long warm-up, burst, and cooldown time. Unlike most ranged weapons it deals beam damage, which interacts with heat armor. As heat armor is usually low, it is extremely powerful against highly armored targets. Normal quality repeaters can fully penetrate flak armor, masterwork repeaters can do up to good marine armor, and legendary repeaters leaves 3% armor left on excellent cataphract armor used by the Empire's Stellic Defender/Warden. Quality repeaters can be treated as completely bypassing armor on non-mechanoids. However all mechanoids have 200% heat armor, making even legendary beam repeaters do only 18.75% of their listed DPS. For reference, against a centipede a legendary greatbow will have more DPS than a legendary beam repeater.

It ignores shields, making it a strong weapon against shielded enemies. It can also shoot through Low-shield pack, however it is fairly ineffective at destroying the burnout low-shield structure due to both poor accuracy and low damage when targeting it.

The Beam Repeater is typically best aimed at whatever enemy has the largest HP pool or the best armor- when an enemy hit by a beam repeater dies the weapon immediately goes on cooldown and must be aimed again, meaning that the weapon is especially prone to losing out on potential damage after killing weaker targets. Swarms of small manhunting animals such as squirrels, rats, or crows present perhaps the absolute worst use case for a beam repeater.

Unique variants[edit]

Unique variants of this weapon can be found during quests or in the wild. Noteworthy traits are frequency amplifier (More range and a DPS increase of 28%, unique to this weapon), extended magazine (DPS increase of 24%), and rapid fire (DPS increase of 26%).

Stats[edit]

Comparisons[edit]

Comparison to charge rifles[edit]

The beam repeater is superior to charge rifles in some ways. It shines against (groups of) armored humanoid enemies, shielded enemies, or targets with lots of health. The long warm-up and cooldown time and relatively short range makes it hard to use in the open since it is easily outranged by most enemies. However, if you are able to counter this (like in Killbox), it outshines the charge rifle in almost every situation except against mechanoids.

On paper, beam repeaters and charge rifles have comparable raw DPS. Unlike beam repeaters, legendary charge rifles are unable to fully ignore normal quality flak jackets and flak vests worn by mercenaries. The jacket barely offers any protection at 2.5% effective armor, but the vest's 47.5% will still reduce the rifle's damage on torso hits by ~36% on average. As a reminder, this does not translate into 36% worse performance. There's quite a bit more to human combat than just average DPS to the torso.

However beam repeaters do not work well in mixed arms settings and kill boxes. As a solid chunk of its damage relies on its target surviving for most of the 5 second burst, focused fire from other weapons downing the target mid burst can significantly degrade its performance. Its long burst and cooldown time also makes it a poor choice for kiting and being mobile, such as when facing shambler hordes and grenades/fire. If rapidly downing single pawns via focused fire from multiple guns is the plan, then charge rifles work better by being less impacted by having its burst interrupted.

Comparison to assault rifles[edit]

Within beam repeater range, assault rifles are largely just worse charge rifles. Outside of beam repeater range, assault rifles are more effective at kiting unarmored enemies. See the above section or the charge rifle's comparison section for more details on the three weapons.

Comparison to heavy SMGs[edit]

Beam repeaters are more accurate at 21 tiles, and are far better against armor. They deal similar damage at close range to unarmored pawns.

But by the time beam repeaters are craftable, heavy SMGs are mainly used by spare pawns with poor shooting skills as a cheaper alternative to masterwork+ chain shotguns for impromptu self defense and drafting. The weapon is mainly used at close to touch range against enemies that suddenly appear next to the pawn, such as wild animals hunting them for food, sight stealers, and drop pod raids. The heavy SMG is more likely to get a volley off before the enemy closes to melee, which makes it superior in all but the drop pod scenario.

Comparison to chain shotguns[edit]

The chain shotgun has superior DPS at all ranges it can shoot at against low armor enemies. Specifically ~49% armor at masterwork, and ~61% armor at legendary. Meaning flak vest+ drop pod raiders will be better handled by repeaters with micro to avoid overkill. Without carefully controlled fire to avoid massively overkilling single pawns, chain shotguns are more effective.

Chain shotgun's also better at clearing out insect hives, as all bugs other than the low hp megascarab have low sharp armor.

While beam repeaters are more effective at 20 tiles, it doesn't make much sense to bring a chain shotgun to a medium ranged encounter.

Comparison to minigun[edit]

Compared to the minigun, the beam repeater has a longer warm-up and cooldown time, and a more accurate and longer burst. This makes the beam repeater better for single targets, while the minigun excels versus groups of targets.

Attack table

Ranged

Beam repeater			Accuracy (Touch)	Accuracy (Short)	Accuracy (Medium)	Accuracy (Long)	DPS (Optimal)	DPS (Touch)	DPS (Short)	DPS (Medium)	DPS (Long)	Market value
Quality	Dam.	AP	Accuracy (Touch)	Accuracy (Short)	Accuracy (Medium)	Accuracy (Long)	DPS (Optimal)	DPS (Touch)	DPS (Short)	DPS (Medium)	DPS (Long)	Market value
Awful	4.5	45%	52%	57.6%	52%	48%	11.41	5.93	6.62	5.93	-	615
Poor	5	50%	58.5%	64.8%	58.5%	54%	12.68	7.48	8.24	7.48	-	925
Normal	5	50%	65%	72%	65%	60%	12.68	8.24	9.13	8.24	-	1235
Good	5	50%	71.5%	79.2%	71.5%	66%	12.68	9.13	10.02	9.13	-	1545
Excellent	5	50%	78%	86.4%	78%	72%	12.68	9.89	10.9	9.89	-	1850
Masterwork	6.25	62.5%	87.75%	97.2%	87.75%	81%	15.85	13.95	15.37	13.95	-	3085
Legendary	7.5	75%	97.5%	100%	97.5%	90%	19.02	18.64	19.02	18.64	-	4235

^{For the full effects of qualities, see Quality. Values shown in Red indicate the weapon is out of range at the reference point for this range band.
The value is provided due to the interpolated nature of accuracy between range points.}

Melee

Feature	Toggle
Attacks

Beam repeater			Stock (Blunt)					Human: Left & right fist (Blunt)					HP	Value
Quality	DPS^[1]	AP^[1]	Dam.	Cool.	AP	DPS	Chance^[2]	Dam.	Cool.	AP	DPS	Chance^[2]	HP	Value
Awful	3.95	12.6%	9.36	2.6s	14.4%	3.6	25%	8.2	2s	12%	4.1	2× 37.5%	100	615
Poor	4.08	13.4%	10.53	2.6s	16.2%	4.05	33.33%	8.2	2s	12%	4.1	2× 33.33%	100	925
Normal	4.42	16.5%	11.7	2.6s	18%	4.5	75%	8.2	2s	12%	4.1	2× 12.5%	100	1235
Good	4.78	17.85%	12.87	2.6s	19.8%	4.95	75%	8.2	2s	12%	4.1	2× 12.5%	100	1545
Excellent	5.13	19.2%	14.04	2.6s	21.6%	5.4	75%	8.2	2s	12%	4.1	2× 12.5%	100	1850
Masterwork	6.03	22.58%	16.97	2.6s	26.1%	6.53	75%	8.2	2s	12%	4.1	2× 12.5%	100	3085
Legendary	6.75	25.28%	19.31	2.6s	29.7%	7.43	75%	8.2	2s	12%	4.1	2× 12.5%	100	4235

^{For the full effects of qualities, see Quality.}

↑ ^1.0 ^1.1 Note: This is the actual base average derived from the melee verb system updated in 1.1.2610, it may sometimes disagree with the listed value in the in-game infobox.
It may also change depending on the stats and the melee verbs available to the wielder if the weapon is wielded by some other than a baseline human.
↑ Chance for attack to be selected, assuming the weapon is wielded by a baseline human. It may change depending on the melee verbs available to the wielder