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. Damage to crew drones is halved.

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.

Zoltan Shield piercing mechanics and tips: part 1, part 2, part 3.

Regular damage beams can be used as Anti-Bio Beam analogs, e.g.: Pike-bio Beam. Similarly, Mini Beam can be used as Fire Beam, albeit weaker, analog: a beam swipe must be started just before shield depletion - fire occurs even on the initial swipe tile (without dealing hull damage).

Beams can have very damage-efficient swipes against certain ships, e.g.: (Cheeky) Pike Beam swipes

Beam weapons table

Weapon	Price	Power	Charge time	Beam length	Damage	Fire %	Speed	Rarity
Mini Beam	Sells for 10	1	12	45	1	10	3	0
Pike Beam	55	2	16	170	1	-	13	2
Hull Beam	70	2	14	100	1*	-	5	3
Halberd Beam	65	3	17	80	2	-	5	2
Glaive Beam	95	4	25	80	3	-	5	5
Fire Beam	50	2	20	140	0	80	5	3
Anti-Bio Beam	50	2	16	140	0*	-	13	5
Artillery Beam	N/A	1-4*	50 -- 20*	500*	1*	10	13	0
Boss Beam	N/A	3*	19.5 -- 32.5*	100	2	-	5	0

List of Beam weapons

Mini Beam

  "Extremely cheap and weak beam weapon."

• Sells for: 10 (cannot be bought or found)
• Power requirement: 1 power
• Charge time: 12 seconds
• Beam length: 45 (1 tile diagonally)
• Damage: 1 damage per room hit
• Crew damage: 15 HP per room tile
• Effect: 10% chance to start fire (per tile)
• Comes equipped on Stealth A and Stealth C

Pike Beam

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

• Purchase price: 55  (Store rarity: 2)
• Power requirement: 2 power
• Charge time: 16 seconds
• Beam length: 170 (3.8 tiles diagonally)
• Damage: 1 damage per room hit
• Crew damage: 15 HP per room tile
• Effect: -
• Comes equipped on Zoltan B

Hull Beam

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

• Purchase price: 70  (Store rarity: 3)
• Power requirement: 2 power
• Charge time: 14 seconds
• Beam length: 100 (2.2 tiles diagonally)
• Damage: 1 damage per room hit (2 damage on systemless rooms)
• Crew damage: 15 HP per room tile
• Effect: -

Halberd Beam

  "Slow but reliably powerful standard beam weapon."

• Purchase price: 65  (Store rarity: 2)
• Power requirement: 3 power
• Charge time: 17 seconds
• Beam length: 80 (1.8 tiles diagonally)
• Damage: 2 damage per room hit
• Crew damage: 30 HP per room tile
• Effect: -
• Comes equipped on Zoltan A
• Can target 3-4 rooms straight, 2-3 diagonally, 5 max.
• Still deals 1 damage per room through 1 shield

Glaive Beam

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

• Purchase price: 95  (Store rarity: 5)
• Power requirement: 4 power
• Charge time: 25 seconds
• Beam length: 80 (1.8 tiles diagonally)
• Damage: 3 damage per room hit
• Crew damage: 45 HP per room tile
• Effect: -
• Comes equipped on Stealth B
• Still deals 1 damage per room through 2 shields, or 2 damage per room through 1 shield

Fire Beam

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

• Purchase price: 50  (Store rarity: 3)
• Power requirement: 2 power
• Charge time: 20 seconds
• Beam length: 140 (3.1 tiles diagonally)
• Damage: -
• Crew damage: -
• Effect: 80% chance to start fire (per tile)
• Deals 1 point of damage twice against Zoltan Shields

Anti-Bio Beam

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

• Purchase price: 50  (Store rarity: 5)
• Power requirement: 2 power
• Charge time: 16 seconds
• Beam length: 140 (3.1 tiles diagonally)
• Damage: -
• Crew damage: 60 HP per room tile
• Effect: -
• Deals 1 point of damage twice against Zoltan Shields
• Enemies never use this weapon
• Comes equipped on Slug A
• Can be obtained in the Slug Home Nebula Surrender event
• Damages crewmembers and crew drones (including your own).
• Must hit the TILE of the room a crew member is in to inflict damage. You don't have to hit the crew member exactly, but merely hitting the room they're in isn't enough.

Artillery Beam

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

• Availability: only available (pre-installed) on Federation Cruiser Layout A and Layout B
• Artillery system: with 4 system levels maximum
• Charge time (depends on system level): 50s for level 1, reduced by 10 seconds for each level above 1 to a minimum of 20s for level 4
• Firing mode: auto-fire
• Beam length: 500 (12.5 tiles diagonally)
• Deals 1 damage per room hit and ignores all standard shields
• Crew damage: 15 HP per room tile
• Effect: 10% chance to start fire (per tile)

Boss Beam

 

• Availability: only used by the Rebel Flagship in phase 1-2
• Artillery system: with 3 system levels maximum
• Charge time depends on system level: 32.5s for level 1, 26s for level 2, 19.5s for level 3
• Beam length: 100 (2.2 tiles diagonally)
• Deals 2 damage per room hit