"Lead Storm" Powered Minigun
| “ | What's more effective than bullets? A whole LOT of bullets. With a fire rate of more than 3 500 rounds per minute, the Minigun remains a mainstay of any heavy engagement. |
| — Item Description |
The "Lead Storm" Powered Minigun is one of the Gunner's primary weapons. It's a huge, triple-barreled gatling gun which shows evidence of much use, such as the straps around the upper handle. A circular gauge on the top indicates the weapon's current temperature, which gradually fills up and shifts from green to red as temperature increases. It violently pops out in the event of overheat.
The gun does not utilize a reloading system and instead draws from one pool of reserve ammo, being fed from a large drum underneath the weapon. It has a spin-up period which must be overcome before the weapon can fire, and has a built-in gyro stabilizer which causes the gun to become more accurate the longer it fires. The bullets also have a chance to stun the enemies.
Firing for extended periods will cause the gun to emit smoke and make a rattling sound, which are early warning signs of an overheat. The gun's temperature can be measured by the gauge on the top. If it fills up all the way, the mechanism will jam and remain unusable for the overheat duration.
Pressing the reload key will cause the gunner to spin the barrels with his hand. He will watch them spin freely for a moment before returning the gun to its ready position. This does not cool the gun down faster.
NOTE: Although the weapon's stats indicate that it is capable of firing 30 rounds per second, it is a common misconception that the weapon is capable of outputting as much damage as it describes. In actual gameplay, the Minigun has half the effective amount of bullets; this means that for every 2 ammo the gun uses, only 1 bullet is fired out, and only 1 bullet's worth of damage is being dealt.
Use the values with tooltips for damage calculation; values in brackets are for in-game reference.
Modifications
There are five tiers of modifications and each tier has two to three upgrades. Only one modification can be equipped per tier.
| "Lead Storm" Powered Minigun Modifications | ||||||||||||
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| Mod | Effect | In Game Description | Price | |||||||||
| Tier 1 |  Magnetic Refrigeration |
+1.5 Cooling Rate -0.15 Cooling Delay |
"Increases the cooling rate and cooldown begins almost immediatly after you stop firing." |
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 Improved Motor |
+2 (+4) Rate of Fire | "Increased rate of fire and faster gyro stabilization" |
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 Improved Platform Stability |
x0.25 Base Spread | "Increased Accuracy" |
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Tier 2 4
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 Oversized Drum |
+300 (+600) Max Ammo | "Expanded Ammo Bags" |
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 High Velocity Rounds |
+2 Damage | "The good folk in R&D have been busy. The overall damage of your weapon is increased." |
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| Tier 3 8
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 Hardened Rounds |
+200% Armor Break Bonus | "Improved armor breaking" |
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 Improved Stun |
+2s Stun Duration +20% Stun Chance |
"Stun enemies more often and for a longer time!" |
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 Blowthrough Rounds |
+1 Max Penetrations | "Shaped bullets capable of passing through a target!" |
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| Tier 4 12
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Variable Chamber Pressure |
+15% Max Stabilization Damage Bonus | "Damage increase when fully stabilized" |
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 Lighter Barrel Assembly |
-0.4s Spinup Time | "Start killing things sooner with a shorter spinup time" |
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 Magnetic Bearings |
+1s Spindown Time +0.75s Max Accuracy Duration |
"Barrels keep spinning for a longer time after firing, keeping the gun stable for longer" |
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| Tier 5 16
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 Aggressive Venting |
+Critical Overheat -5s Overheat Duration |
"Burn everything around you and send enemies running when the minigun overheats. The extreme heat dumping method also helps to significantly shorten downtime." |
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Cold As The Grave |
+Heat Removed on Kill (-0.6 Heat per kill) |
"Every kill cools the gun" |
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 Hot Bullets |
+50% Hot Bullets (adds Heat, calculated as 50% of damage, when the Heat meter is red) |
"Rounds fired when the heat meter is red will burn the target" |
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Overclocks
Overclock calculations happen after modifiers.
 "Lead Storm" Powered Minigun [Expand/Collapse]
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| Overclock | Effect | In Game Description | Price | ||||||||
A Little More Oomph!
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"Get the most out of each shot without compromising any of the gun's systems." |
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Thinned Drum Walls
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"Stuff more bullets into the ammo drum by thinning the material in non-critical areas." |
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Burning Hell
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"Turn the area just infront of the minigun into an even worse place by venting all the combustion gasses forward. However, it does overheat rather quickly." |
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Compact Feed Mechanism
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"More space left for ammo at the cost of a reduced rate of fire." |
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| Exhaust Vectoring
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"Increases damage at a cost to accuracy." |
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| Rotary Overdrive
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"Overtunes the electric drive pushing the fire rate to its limit! But the resulting increase in heat buildup requires a mechanism allowing injections of Quik-Chill coolant fluid by pushing reload. This coolant reduces heat buildup and can take the weapon out of an overheated state. Only a limited amount of coolant can be carried, and must be replenished via resupplies." |
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Bullet Hell
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"Special bullets that ricochet off all surfaces and even enemies going on to hit nearby targets. However they deal less damage and are less accurate overall." |
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| Lead Storm
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"Pushing things to the limit this overclock greatly increases damage output at the cost of consistently stunning targets and the kickback makes it almost impossible to move." |
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+1 Damage 
+50% Heat Generation
Stats Breakdown
Understanding the Weapon
The Minigun has multiple components to its firing sequence.
Spin
When the trigger is first pulled, the barrel will spin up over time, at a rate governed by the Spinup Time statistic. The Minigun will not fire until the barrel is spinning at maximum speed. When the trigger is released, the barrel will gradually spin down to a stop, at a rate governed by the Spindown Time statistic. If the trigger is held or released for shorter periods, the weapon can spin up or down partially.
Stability
The Minigun's accuracy is governed by a special spread curve, shown in the image. The horizontal axis, or input, is internally called "spread", but is better thought of as stability. Stability starts at zero, increases by 0.2 for each shot fired, and decays continuously at a rate of 1 per second, even while firing. The vertical axis, or output, is the Minigun's bloom. As stability increases, the bloom decreases according to the spread curve. A shot can deviate from the player's aim point by no more than (Base Spread + Bloom)/2 degrees.
At a stability of 3 or above, the bloom reaches zero; the weapon is fully stabilized and the Variable Chamber Pressure upgrade will apply its damage bonus. If the player continues shooting, the stability value can increase beyond full stabilization, up to a limit of 3.5. This allows up to 0.5 extra stability to be accumulated, which can keep the weapon fully accurate for 0.5s after the player stops shooting. This extra stability capacity is described as the Max Accuracy Duration statistic. The Magnetic Bearings upgrade increases the stability limit from 3.5 to 4.25, resulting in 1.25s Max Accuracy Duration.
Heat
While fully spun up, the Minigun will begin accumulating Heat at a rate of 1 Heat per second of sustained fire, up to a maximum of 9.5 Heat (leading to a default firing duration of 9.5 seconds). Upon reaching 9.5 Heat, it will Overheat and be disabled for 10 seconds.
The Heat Meter displayed on the Minigun's model is non-linear and does not correspond to the internal linear heat gain. For example, the Hot Bullets upgrade activates at 50% heat as shown by the visible meter, which is actually ~3.17805 Heat.
'Reloading' the Minigun does not serve any function. Specifically, it does not improve cooling.
Unique Modifications
| Unique Modifications | ||
|---|---|---|
 Aggressive Venting |
Aggressive Venting is a tier 5 mod for the Powered Minigun. When it is equipped, the Minigun will release a blast of heat when it overheats. |
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Unique Overclocks
| Unique Overclocks | ||
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Burning Hell |
Burning Hell is a Balanced Overclock. It adds an Area of Effect damage zone that extends about 5m in front of the Minigun's muzzle. |
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Bullet Hell |
Bullet Hell is an Unstable Overclock | |
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
- Before Update 11: Dead And Gun, the Powered Minigun had an ammo clip, similarly to Autocannon, but it was still able to overheat.
- The minigun fires depleted uranium according to one of the Gunner's class selected voice lines. This material is extremely dense, twice that of lead, and as such it makes optimal munitions.
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