Beam (Weapons)

Beam weapons cut across multiple rooms, allowing them to damage several systems and deal large amounts hull damage. Some beams deal no damage to systems or hull, but instead start fires or hurt crew.

Beams do not deplete shield layers, and most are completely blocked by shields, making them ineffective without support.

Beams are the only weapons that never miss. They hit the first room instantly, then rapidly track along their path. As they are not projectiles, beams cannot collide with anything; for example, they cannot be intercepted by a stray laser or asteroid.

Beam targeting and damage mechanics

Unlike other weapons, beams allow players to target any part of a room. The first click sets the starting point and displays a line indicating the beam length, which can be rotated to set the end point. The second click fires the beam.

Even catching a room with the tiniest edge of a beam will deal full hull and system damage. The damage is applied at the first moment that a beam enters a room. Enemies target beams inefficiently, starting the beam in the centre of a room.

The damage of a beam is reduced by one for every shield layer, giving the most powerful beams some ability to pierce shields. For example, a 2-damage Halberd Beam can deal 1 damage (per room) through 1 shield layer.

Crew damage works differently: it's applied when a beam first enters the tile that a crew member occupies. Similarly, the Fire Beam starts fires on a per-tile basis, so hitting more tiles can start more fires.

Zoltan Shields take double damage from beams (in two "ticks"). Despite doing no hull damage, the Fire Beam and Anti-Bio Beam do 2 damage to Zoltan Shields.

List of Beams

Mini Beam

Mini Beam

"Extremely cheap and weak beam weapon."

• Costs 20 (cannot be bought or found)
• Deals 1 damage per room hit, with low chance of fire.
• Requires 1 power and takes 12 seconds to charge up.
• Beam length: 45 (1 tile diagonally).
• Comes equipped on The Nesasio and Simo-H.

Pike Beam

Pike Beam

"Can cut across entire ships, assuming there's no shield to stop it."

• Costs 55
• Deals 1 damage per room hit.
• Deals 15 damage to crew members.
• Requires 2 power and takes 16 seconds to charge up.
• Beam length: 170 (3.8 tiles diagonally).
• Comes equipped on Noether.

Halberd Beam

Halberd Beam

"Slow but reliably powerful standard beam weapon."

• Costs 65
• Deals 2 damage per room hit.
• Requires 3 power and takes 17 seconds to charge up.
• Beam length: 80 (1.8 tiles diagonally).
• Comes equipped on The Adjudicator.
• Can target 3-4 rooms straight, 2-3 diagonally, 5 max.
• Will ignore level 1 shields for 1 less damage.

Fire Beam

Fire Beam

"This terrifying beam does no physical damage but ignites fires."

• Costs 50
• Deals no damage, but has high chance of fire.
• Deals 1 point of damage twice against Zoltan shields.
• Requires 2 power and takes 20 seconds to charge up.
• Beam Length: 140 (3.1 tiles diagonally).

Hull Beam

Hull Beam

"This beam is most powerful when targeting large, empty sections of hull."

• Costs 70
• Deals 1 damage per room hit (2 damage on systemless rooms).
• Requires 2 power and takes 14 seconds to charge up.
• Beam length: 100 (2.2 tiles diagonally).

Glaive Beam

Glaive Beam

"One of the most powerful weapons of war ever created. Known to take out some ships in a single blast."

• Costs 95
• Deals 3 damage per room hit.
• Requires 4 power and takes 25 seconds to charge up.
• Beam length: 80 (1.8 tiles diagonally).
• Comes equipped on DA-SR 12.

Anti-Bio Beam

Anti-Bio Beam

"This terrifying beam does no physical damage, but rips through organic material, dealing heavy damage to crew members."

• Costs 50
• Deals 60 damage to crew members (including your own), but does not damage systems or hull.
• Deals half (30) damage to drones (including your boarding drones).
• Deals 1 point of damage twice against Zoltan shields.
• Cannot target your own ship.
• Requires 2 power and takes 16 seconds to charge up.
• Beam length: 140 (3.1 tiles diagonally).
• Comes equipped on Man of War.
• Can be obtained during the Slug Home Nebula Surrender random event.
• Can also be obtained from the Free Weapon random event.
• Enemies never use this weapon.

Boss Beam

Boss Beam

"2 damage beam with a long trail."

• Costs 70 (cannot be bought or found)
• Deals 2 damage per room hit.
• Requires 1 power and takes 26 seconds to charge up.
• Beam length: 100 (2.2 tiles diagonally).
• This is one of the weapons the Rebel Flagship uses. Can only be acquired via cheating.

Artillery Beam

Original appearance for the Artillery Beam.

"Powers a slow, high-powered beam that pierces all shields and does one damage per room hit. More power means faster cooldown."

• Costs 0 (cannot be bought or found)
• Deals 1 damage per room hit and ignores all standard shields.
• Requires 1 power and takes 40 seconds to charge up.
• Beam length: 500 (12.5 tiles diagonally)
• This is a version of the Federation Cruiser artillery beam. This version can only be acquired via cheating. It operates just like a normal weapon.

Trivia

Many of the prefixes for beam weapons are related to medieval polearms, which were used for forcible mechanical removal of crew from warhorses (terrestrial animals used as primitive assault craft). This parallels very well with the beam weapon usage in contemporary spacecraft.

• Pike Beam - a reference to a Pike, a very long medieval polearm that originates in Europe. Follows proven knife-on-a-stick design. The pike stands out by the greater size of a stick compared to earlier designs.
• Halberd Beam - a reference to a halberd, a heavy late medieval polearm that originates in Europe. Revolutionary design featured several different knives on the single stick.
• Glaive Beam - a reference to a glaive, a heavy Renaissance polearm meant to drag riders from their mounts and subsequently disassemble them. Several knives are replaced by one bigger single knife on a stick. Originated in Europe.