| Tachyon Lance
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| General Information
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A burst operated beam that delivers a devastating amount of damage with a cascading EMP component. The EMP arcs have a chance to pass through shields based on the target's hard flux level.
A weapon so rare and powerful that it has achieved mythical status in the Sector, the Tachyon Lance uses core technology based on the principles of an experimental FTL communication system prototype, but with a twist. Instead of using the hyperdimensional properties of the tachyon particle for communication, n-brane manipulation and anti-plasma generators create a charged tachyon stream that travels in hyperspace. Minimum energy requirements are staggering and this amount of power can only be generated for a few seconds by the largest power capacitors, which are housed within the weapon system.
Unlike the beams fired from normal beam weapons, the tachyon stream is not lensed or altered in any way - in fact once the initial tachyon marker is actuated the reaction takes on a life of its own, rapidly consuming the power stored in the capacitors and unleashing destruction. When normal space is exposed to such high levels of anti-plasma, a combined electromagnetic, gravitic and thermal cavitation effect shreds anything that stands in its way, while also severely damaging nearby electronics equipment.
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–In-Game Description
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Notes
The Tachyon Lance has a weapon-specific effect of being able to pierce its EMP through shields, with the chance of this occurring related to the targets hard flux level.
This weapons is also good vs armor due to being a burst beam. See Armor page for details of beam vs armor.
When used en masse it can completely overwhelm defenses of most ships in the game (although one has to be careful of own flux pool), but the low DPS compared to other large weapons can sometimes make this monster almost useless if one cannot get through the defenses of enemies, so in overwhelming scenarios it's less useful than other large energy weapons.
Weapon data as of version 0.96 specifies the weapon as 3000 flux to fire, 0.5s chargeup, 1s burst, 1s chargedown, 4s delay. Nominal DPS is stated as 1500 (thus 750 is used for armor damage reduction calculations).
Animation
Historical
As of patch 0.7.2a, the Tachyon Lance is now a burst fire strike weapon with the ability to cause shield bypassing EMP arcs across the target ship, provided the target is at a higher hard flux level.
The Tachyon Lance has received multiple balance revisions throughout the years - perhaps the most of any weapon. Its first implementation was an extremely long range burst beam (could fire several screen lengths into the distance) with equally high damage. It then became a shorter ranged weapon (but still the longest in the game) with pitiful damage but a very high EMP component. Now, its hallmark extreme range has been sacrificed but it has regained some of its powerful burst damage in addition to a lower OP cost and faster refiring time.
Only up to date for
version 0.95.1a. It is likely still broadly correct but not verified for the most up to date data yet. Please double check the
Version History.
