Beam repeater

For the unique variant of this weapon, see Unique 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.

Beam repeaters can also be generated as unique weapons. In addition, cataphract imperials may appear wielding them.

Summary[edit]

Deals Beam damage, which checks Heat armor.
Ignores shields.
Unlike the beam graser, the beam repeater fires like a regular ranged weapon, and cannot be fired when wearing a shield belt.

When equipped, a beam repeater reduces the pawn's base move speed by −0.25 c/s. As offsets such as these apply before multiplicative effects such as from Moving capacity, the actual impact on move speed can be larger or smaller than this value. For example, a pawn with 125% Moving would have their speed decreased by −0.3125 c/s, while a pawn with only 50% Moving would only have their speed decreased by −0.125 c/s. See Move Speed for details.

Analysis[edit]

The beam repeater has great single target DPS in theory, penetrates shields, and its AP is enough to shred through the armor of just about any non-mechanoid enemy. For reference, regular beam repeaters almost completely pierce through normal marine armor, and legendary beam repeaters almost completely pierce through excellent cataphract armor - the best armor worn by raiders. However, it has a very long warm-up, burst, and cooldown time. If the intended target dies, the beam repeater immediately stops firing, resulting in wasted DPS. In addition, while mechs are not compltely immune to Beam damage, they have 200% Heat armor, making 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.

The beam repeater is typically best aimed at whatever enemy has the largest HP pool or the best armor, as this minimizes the chance of wasted damage. Swarms of small manhunting animals such as squirrels, rats, or crows present perhaps the absolute worst use case for a beam repeater. This can be mitigated to an extent by aiming at at a target at the back of a group, allowing missed shots to hit other targets, increasing the time to kill the nominal target but ensuring more damage is done as a whole.

Overall, the beam repeater is a relatively niche weapon, as it is clunky and slow, and the long burst times will result in wasted damage. Even if the DPS waste wasn't an issue, such as when fighting against large targets, it competes with the charge rifle. Charge rifles have a significantly higher max range, shorter firing times, and do not slow their wielder down.

Beam repeaters can pierce through shields. While their building damage penalty means they are poor at taking out mech low-shields and enemy low-shield packs, they can be combined with skipshields in order to fire at enemies without taking return fire.

Comparisons[edit]

Comparison to minigun[edit]

The beam repeater and minigun are similar as they fire massive bursts and have large warmups/cooldowns. The beam repeater has less range and takes more time to fire, but is much more accurate. Despite their similarities, due to the beam repeater's accuracy, they perform different roles. The beam repeater is better for single targets, while the minigun excels versus groups of targets.

Comparison to charge rifles[edit]

On paper, beam repeaters and charge rifles have comparable raw DPS, although beam repeaters are stronger in theory. Beam repeaters also perform better against groups of highly armored enemeis, shielded enemies, or high HP targets. Note that charge rifles do have respectable AP, but a beam repeater will still be better at ignoring armor. For reference, a normal flak vest will reduce a legendary charge rifle's damage on torso hits by ~36% on average. Beam repeaters can also be stronger against clumped up enemies as missed shots can hit other nearby enemies.

Still, charge rifles are more practical. A killbox would seemingly be a great place for a beam repeater, as a killbox would mitigate many of the repeater's disadvantages (low range, movement speed debuff). However, charge rifles would perform better in that setting - a well-designed killbox should restrict enemies to coming in one at a time, and with enough colonists raiders should die immediately before a beam repeater would even have a chance to warmup. Charge rifles also perform better out in the open and/or when being mobile, due to their higher range and lack of a move speed penalty. This is before considering that beam repeaters are terrible against mechs, which become increasingly more common in the late game.

Thus, beam repeaters are primarily restricted to fighting large organic targets like hive queens or being used with skipshield to get free attacks in. Heavily armored humans and shield belts are not very common, enemy low-shield packs are usually very easy to mitigate by retreating, and high HP enemies are generally animals which can be handled by melee blocking even with a worse-performing charge rifle.

Comparison to industrial weapons[edit]

Assault rifles are essentially worse charge rifles with 3 tiles more range. Thus, the comparison is similar: assault rifles are better in a lot of general cases to their flexibility. Also, they are much cheaper and are unlocked earlier.

Heavy SMGs deal similar damage at the close range band. Heavy SMGs are more accurate and have a shorter warmup, and are also more accessible. By the time beam repeaters are craftable, heavy SMGs are usually reserved by low skill pawns for impromptu self defense and drafting, such as against mad animals, center drop pod raids, and sightstealers. In this role, the heavy SMG is more likely to get a volley off before the enemy closes to melee, which makes it superior in the aforementioend cases.

The chain shotgun has superior pre-armor DPS at all ranges it can shoot at. Specifically, it beats the beam repeater until ~49% armor at masterwork, and ~61% armor at legendary. This means that flak vest+ drop pod raiders will be better handled by repeaters with micro management used to avoid overkill. Without carefully controlled fire to avoid massively overkilling single pawns, chain shotguns are more effective. Chain shotguns are 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.

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	-	1,235
Good	5	50%	71.5%	79.2%	71.5%	66%	12.68	9.13	10.02	9.13	-	1,545
Excellent	5	50%	78%	86.4%	78%	72%	12.68	9.89	10.9	9.89	-	1,850
Masterwork	6.25	62.5%	87.75%	97.2%	87.75%	81%	15.85	13.95	15.37	13.95	-	3,085
Legendary	7.5	75%	97.5%	100%	97.5%	90%	19.02	18.64	19.02	18.64	-	4,235

^{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	1,235
Good	4.78	17.85%	12.87	2.6s	19.8%	4.95	75%	8.2	2s	12%	4.1	2× 12.5%	100	1,545
Excellent	5.13	19.2%	14.04	2.6s	21.6%	5.4	75%	8.2	2s	12%	4.1	2× 12.5%	100	1,850
Masterwork	6.03	22.58%	16.97	2.6s	26.1%	6.53	75%	8.2	2s	12%	4.1	2× 12.5%	100	3,085
Legendary	6.75	25.28%	19.31	2.6s	29.7%	7.43	75%	8.2	2s	12%	4.1	2× 12.5%	100	4,235

^{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