Experimental Plasma Charger

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Experimental Plasma Charger
Equipment Details
Type	Pistol
Used by	Driller
Slot	Secondary
Hitscan	No
Availability	Unlock

“	Bullets are so last year. Instead, why not incinerate your enemies from the inside out with a highly experimental anti-matter-powered gun firing supercharged plasma bolts? What's the worst that could happen? (If you find out, please report to R&D)
	— Weapon description

About

The Experimental Plasma Charger (shortened to EPC) is an unlockable secondary weapon used by the Driller. It is a semi-automatic futuristic plasma pistol with two spinning gyros on the bottom. It feeds from a large battery contained inside the weapon with no obvious loading port. The weapon has several aesthetic qualities which indicate to its highly experimental and potentially unsafe nature, such as the electrical crackling heard when firing shots.

The EPC is by far one of the most unique weapons to use in Deep Rock Galactic's arsenal. It feeds from a single large ammo pool and has an overheating mechanic – both qualities similar to the Powered Minigun. It boasts two firing modes; uncharged shots by tapping the fire button and charged shots by holding the fire button down and releasing. Either firing mode will produce purple plasma blasts which are considered projectiles and must physically travel through the world before they hit a target, comparable to other projectile weapons such as the Breach Cutter. Both firing modes will produce heat, measured by a gauge on the weapon. If this gauge peaks the weapon will overheat and become inoperable for a short duration.

The EPC's dual firing mode gives it a wide variety of applications. Regular shots deal high amounts of damage and can quickly cut through enemies, while charged shots are crowd-clearing tools which are almost as effective as grenades, given their wide radius and area damage. The plasma projectiles deal two types of damage at once, as listed in the Initial Stats category.

The EPC has some learning curve however, as the user must adapt to firing projectiles through a hitscan-type weapon, which takes practice (particularly with distant enemies). Due to its unique projectiles the weapon cannot deal extra weakpoint damage as is found with many other weapons, which can hinder its damage output. The weapon is also limited by a very small ammo pool; a mix of regular and charged shots can chew through the ammo count quickly, meaning that mods to ammo count are recommended. And as with the Minigun, care must be taken to ensure that the weapon does not overheat while firing.

Unlocked through an assignment
Requires Driller 15 Purchased for: 8200 Credits 70 Jadiz 25 Magnite 110 Enor Pearl

Initial Stats
Damage 20 Charged Damage 60 Charged Area Damage 60 Charged Damage Radius 2 Max Battery 120 Rate of Fire (per second) 8.0 Cooling Rate (per second) 100% Charged Shot Ammo Use 8 Charge Speed 0.8s Maximum heat 1

Modifications

There are five tiers and each tier has two to three upgrades, only one upgrade can be equipped per tier.

Experimental Plasma Charger Modifications
	Mod	Effect	Description	Price
Tier 1	Increased Particle Density	+5 Damage	Improves the damage caused by the normal shots.	1000 Credits 20 Enor Pearl
	Larger Battery	+24 Battery Capacity	The good thing about clips, magazines, ammo drums, fuel tanks ...you can always get bigger variants.	1000 Credits 20 Bismor
	Higher Charged Plasma Energy	+15 Charged Damage +15 Charged Area Damage	More bang for the buck! Increases both the direct and area damage of the charged projectile!	1000 Credits 20 Bismor
Tier 2 6	Expanded Plasma Splash	+1m Charged Effect Radius	Greater damage radius for the charged projectile explosion.	1800 Credits 18 Croppa 12 Jadiz
	Overcharged Plasma Accelerator	x1.25 Normal Projectile Velocity	You need to be a physicist to understand how it works but this little wonder increases the velocity of the EPC's normal projectile.	1800 Credits 12 Enor Pearl 18 Bismor
	Reactive Shockwave	+15 Charged Damage +15 Charged Area Damage	More bang for the buck! Increases the damage done within the Area of Effect!	1800 Credits 12 Croppa 18 Bismor
Tier 3 10	Improved Charge Efficiency	-2 Charged Shot Ammo Use	Each charged shot uses less energy.	2200 Credits 30 Magnite 20 Enor Pearl
	Crystal Capacitors	x2.5 Charge Speed	Prepare a charged shot much faster.	2200 Credits 30 Croppa 20 Jadiz
	Tweaked Radiator	+50% Cooling Rate	Increases the rate at which the weapon sheds heat, letting you shoot more rounds before overheating and also recovering faster from an overheat.	2200 Credits 30 Umanite 20 Enor Pearl
Tier 4 14	Heat Shield	x0.4 Heat Buildup When Charged	Reduces how fast the weapon overheats when holding a charged shot.	3800 Credits 25 Jadiz 15 Umanite 36 Enor Pearl
	High Density Battery	+24 Battery Capacity	The good thing about clips, magazines, ammo drums, fuel tanks ...you can always get bigger variants.	3800 Credits 15 Bismor
Tier 5 18	Flying Nightmare	+ Flying Nightmare ---- x0.55 Effect Radius x0.8 Charge Speed	A deffuse plasma makes the charged projectile pass through all enemies deadling damage in a wide sphere while it flies but it takes longer to charge up and no longer explodes on impact.	4400 Credits 40 Croppa 110 Jadiz 60 Magnite
	Thin Containment Field	+No Charged Shot Insta-Overheat +Thin Containment Field x0.8 Normal Shot Heat Generation	A weaker containment field takes less energy to create thus producing less heat for both charged and normal shots. Be aware that any high-energy impact will destabilize the charged projectile, causing a large area implosion.	4400 Credits 40 Croppa 110 Jadiz 60 Magnite
	Plasma Burn	+Plasma Burn	A modified containment field causes regular shots to heat up the target proportionally to the amount of damage dealt.	4400 Credits 60 Jadiz 40 Magnite 110 Enor Pearl

Overclocks

Experimental Plasma Charger [Expand/Collapse]
Overclock	Effect	In Game Description	Price
Energy Rerouting	+16 Battery Capacity x1.5 Charge Speed	"A masterwork of engineering that improves charge speed and energy efficiency without affecting overall performance!"	7300 Credits 100 Jadiz 65 Umanite 130 Bismor
Magnetic Cooling Unit	+0.1 Cooling Rate x0.7 Heat Buildup When Charged	"A high-tech solution to cleanly improve the cooling rate. The result is an increased number of shots that can be fired before overheating, a faster recovery from an overheat and an extended duration that a full charge can be maintained."	8900 Credits 95 Croppa 80 Jadiz 125 Umanite
Heat Pipe	-2 Charged Shot Ammo Use x1.3 Charge Speed x2 Charged Shot Heat Generation    x2 Heat Buildup When Charged	"By channeling exhaust heat back into the charge chamber a shot can be charged faster while using less energy. Unfortunately this process generates a lot more heat."	7450 Credits 95 Jadiz 125 Umanite 60 Bismor
Heavy Hitter	x1.6 Damage -32 Battery Capacity x1.5 Normal Shot Heat Generation	"Some extensive tweaking to how the shots are prepared can increase the pure damage of the weapon but at the cost of more heat per shot and a reduced battery size."	8100 Credits 60 Magnite 105 Umanite 140 Bismor
Overcharger	x1.5 Charged Damage x1.5 Charged Area Damage x1.2 Charged Effect Radius +2 Charged Shot Ammo Use -0.1 Cooling Rate	"Pushing the EPC to the limit will give you a significant increase in charge shot damage and a boost in the size of the explosion but at the cost of thermal efficiency and energy consumption."	7050 Credits 95 Croppa 60 Enor Pearl 120 Bismor
Persistent Plasma	+Persistent Plasma -15 Charged Damage -15 Area Damage	"By changing how the plasma is layered within the charged projectile a slow and persistent discharge can be achieved upon impact. However this does reduce the instant damage done."	8150 Credits 75 Croppa 130 Jadiz 95 Magnite

Stats Breakdown

Understanding the weapon

• Battery Capacity is the equivalent of max ammo for other weapons.
• Maximum heat is how much you can fire your weapon before it overheats and you need it to cool down before using it again. By default charged shot achieves 100% heat per shot. The maximum heat value is 1 or 100% and cannot be changed.
• Cooling Rate is how fast your weapon cools down the accumulated heat (be it overheated or not). The base value is 0.4 heat per second so you’ll recover from overheating (100% heat) in 100% / 0.4 = 2.5 seconds
• Charge Speed is how long in seconds it takes you to prepare a charged shot. No heat is generated while charging a projectile.
• Heat Buildup When Charged is, just as the name implies, how much heat is generated per second while holding the charge (i.e. when the projectile is fully charged). The base value is 2, which means that if you hold a charged projectile starting from 0 heat you will overheat after 0.5 seconds.

Normal and Charged Shot Breakdown

Normal Shots

• Damage type: 50 % Kinetic / 50% Electric
• Friendly Fire Modifier: x0.1

Charged Shot

• Single target:
  • Damage type: 50 % Electric / 50 % Fire
  • Friendly Fire Modifier: x0.1
  • Weakpoint Damage x0
• AOE:
  • Damage type: 50 % Explosive / 50 % Fire
  • Full damage radius: 1.5 m
  • Damage radius: 2 m

Heat Buildup When Charged and interactions with TCF

• Holding down the charge will generate 2 heat per second, that means you have 0.5 second to aim before you reach max charge and can shoot the Charged Projectile. With Heat Shield that time can be increased to 1.25 seconds.
• Since TCF reduced the cost of a Charge Shot to 0.25 heat, it means you have 0.75 / 2 = 0.375 seconds to shoot the Charged Shot before the weapon overheat. If that time seems too low, you can consider using a mod or overclock to increase it.
• Using the T4 mod Heat Shield, you will have almost a second to react. (0.75 / (2 x 0.4) = 0.9375 seconds)

Unique Modifications

Flying Nightmare

Flying Nightmare makes the charged projectile pass through all targets, dealing damage in an increased AoE. Projectile no longer detonates on contact with enemy, and dissipates upon impacting terrain.

• Damage: Converted from the Charged Shot direct damage, affected by mods and overclocks.
• Damage type: Fire
• Affected by: Fire resistance

Thin Containment Field

Thin Containment Field causes the charged shots of the Experimental Plasma Charger to explode, carving any terrain and dealing 240 Fire damage to nearby creatures, when hit with a high-impact weapon. Player's can either shoot the charged projectile with EPC's normal shot, use the Driller's Impact Axes, or have another player shoot at the charged shot mid-air to trigger the terrain damage. If the charged shot hits a surface or an enemy, it detonates normally.

• Damage: 240
• Damage type: Fire
• Full damage radius: 3 m
• Damage radius: 3 m
• Affected by: Fire resistance
• Friendly Fire Modifier: x0.5
• Charged shots now increase heat by 25 % instead of 100 %

Plasma Burn

Plasma Burn will cause every regular shot from the Experimental Plasma Charger to apply heat to an enemy based on the amount of damage dealt to it. Enemies with full heat meters will be afflicted by fire damage.

Unique Overclocks

Persistent Plasma

Persistent Plasma is an Unstable Overclock

• Damage: 5
• Damage type: Electric
• Interval: 0.25 - 0.5 s
• Full damage radius: 3 m
• Damage radius: 3 m
• Duration: 7 seconds default duration, with an additional +0.6 seconds added only one time if any enemies either enter or leave the field.

Mastery

Each modification that is purchased advances a mastery bar by one unit.

Mastery unlocks:

• Three modifications – First Stripe Weapon Paintjob
• Seven modifications – Deepcore Weapon Paintjob
• All (14) modifications – The Company Special Weapon Paintjob

Skins

Full gallery of skins can be seen at Weapon Skins.

Gallery

Trivia

• Commonly called "The EPC"
• Mission Control message when you obtain this gun's weapon license will be "Congratulations! Your weapon license has been upgraded. Say hello to The Experimental Plasma Charger. The folks up in R&D are very excited about this one...I'd be worried if i was you."