Breach Cutter
 Unlocked through an assignment.
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Requires Engineer  15
Purchased for:
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| “ | The Breach Cutter releases directional blasts of sonically-charged plasma powerful enough to deal with most any alien in your path. Originally a mining tool, it's now been frequency-tuned to crack open flesh and bone rather than the sediment deposits it was designed for - often with quite spectacular results! |
| — Weapon Description |
The Breach Cutter is an unlockable secondary weapon used by the Engineer. Once used as a mining tool, it has since been converted into a weapon. Batteries are loaded into the top of the weapon which fire horizontally expanding plasma blades, focused by the barrel on the front of the weapon. The Breach Cutter is among the biggest weapons in the game in terms of size.
When fired the plasma blade will expand and travel as a long purple line, then close up a second and a half later. The plasma blades deal damage for every tick they come into contact with an enemy.
The plasma blades are infinitely piercing and can cleave through as many enemies as they like, as well as passing through any terrain without damage losses, allowing the user to hit targets behind walls.
Modifications
There are five tiers of modifications and each tier has two to three upgrades. Only one modification can be equipped per tier.
| Breach Cutter Modifications | ||||||||||||
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| Mod | Effect | In Game Description | Price | |||||||||
| Tier 1 |  Prolonged Power Generation |
+1.5s Projectile Lifetime | "The projectile is able to travel for a longer period of time before collapsing" |
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 High Capacity Magazine |
+3 Magazine Size | "The good thing about clips, magazines, ammo drums, fuel tanks ...you can always get bigger variants." |
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| Tier 2 6
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 Expanded Ammo Bags |
+6 Max Ammo | "You had to give up some sandwich-storage, but your total ammo capacity is increased!" |
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 Condensed Plasma |
+175 Beam DPS | "The good folk in R&D have been busy. The overall damage of your weapon is increased." |
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 Loosened Node Cohesion |
+1.5m Plasma Beam Width | "Get a significantly wider plasma line that can hit more targets at once." |
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| Tier 3 10
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 Quick Deploy |
-0.2s Plasma Expansion Delay | "The line projectile opens almost immediately and can hit multiple targets at very close range." |
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 Improved Case Ejector |
-0.6s Reload Time | "A heavily preloaded spring combined with a smaller latch shorten the time it takes to reload." |
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| Tier 4 14
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 Armor Breaking |
+200% Armor Breaking | "Greatly improves the armor breaking capabilities of the plasma beam." |
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 Disruptive Frequency Tuning |
+100% Stun Chance
+3s Stun Duration |
"The plasma beam will stun most of the denizens of Hoxxes on contact." |
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| Tier 5 18
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 Explosive Goodbye |
+Explosive Goodbye | "The projectile explodes at the end of its lifecycle when the nodes collapse damaging anything unlucky enough to be near by and leaving a residual plasma field for a short time. You can also manually trigger the explosion by pulling the trigger a second time while the projectile is in flight." |
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 Plasma Trail |
+Plasma Trail | "The beam leaves behind a residual trail of plasma that will continuously damage any enemy that gets too close." |
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Triple Split Line |
+Triple Split Line | "The plasma beam is split into 3 lines that cover a taller area making it possible to hit multiple targets at various heights." |
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Overclocks
Overclock calculations happen after modifiers.
 Breach Cutter [Expand/Collapse]
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| Overclock | Effect | In Game Description | Price | ||||||||
Light-Weight Cases
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"Bring more ammo with you and slam those cases in faster!" |
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Roll Control
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"A few tweaks to the launcher cause it to add roll to the projectile after it is ejected thus covering a larger area as it travels. Holding down the trigger as the line leaves the gun activates a remote connection which lets you steer the projectile as long as the trigger is held down. On the release of the trigger the connection is broken and the projectile continues in a straight line. The projectile is also able to travel further before collapsing." |
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Stronger Plasma Current
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"By improving the node's efficiency you can up the raw damage without too much fuss and it lasts a bit longer too!" |
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Return to Sender
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"Holding down the trigger after the line leaves the gun activates a remote connection which on the release of the trigger causes the line to change direction and move back towards the gun." |
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High Voltage Crossover
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"By passing an electric current through the plasma, the beam electrocutes anything it touches but the bulky hardware limits magazine capacity." |
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Spinning Death
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"These modified plasma nodes convert most of the forward momentum into angular momentum stretching out the beam and continuously doing damage to the immediate area where it was launched. The nodes run for a longer duration but deal less damage every second. Due to the weight both magazine and total capacity is greatly reduced." |
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Inferno
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"Turn your Breach Cutter into a tool of burning death and destruction at the cost of direct damage and armor breaking. As a bonus the extreme internal heating keeps the targets burning for an extended period." |
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+3 Max Ammo 
-6 Max Ammo
Stats Breakdown
Understanding the Weapon
- Beam DPS is the total amount of damage that is dealt over the course of one second against any enemy that is within contact of the beam.
- Damage (per tick): 11.5
- Damage type: 50% Electric / 50% Fire
- Tick interval: 0.02s
- Friendly Fire Modifier: x0.15
- Projectile Lifetime is the amount of time that the beam is able to travel before dissipating.
- Projectile velocity: 10m/s
- Creatures in contact with the beam are slowed by 70%
- The beam deals 50 additional fire damage when initially colliding with a creature. This damage is not dealt if Spinning Death is equipped.
- Friendly Fire Modifier: x0.1
- The Breach Cutter's damage is unique in that while it is spread out over an Area, ignores armor, and is unaffected by the Frozen status it is still able to deal increased damage to enemy Weakpoints.
- The Breach Cutter's beam deals full damage to any creature touching the beam, allowing a single beam to damage several creatures at once.
Unique Modifications
| Unique Modifications | ||
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Explosive Goodbye |
Explosive Goodbye is a modification that allows the Breach Cutter's beam to explode. The beam naturally explode at the end of its lifetime, or can be manually detonated by hitting the [Fire] button at least 0.4s after the beam leaves the weapon. Exploded beams will leave a plasma field that slows and damages enemies. |
Explosion stats
Field Stats
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Plasma Trail |
Plasma Trail is a modification that causes the Breach Cutter's beam to leave a trail of plasma as it travels. This trail damages any enemy that cones into contact with it. The duration is extended by 0.6 seconds if any enemies either enter or leave the trail. This extension can only occur once per trail. Does not stack if multiple trails are applied, or when the same trail is reapplied to an area, such as with the Return to Sender or Spinning Death Overclocks. |
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Triple Split Line |
Triple Split Line is a modification that causes two extra beams to appear in parallel with every beam. Equipping Triple Split Line itself will not increase the beam damage, however it will increase the beams surface area. Increased surface area means a beam can potentially deal more damage, as it can extend how long the beam stays in contact with each creature. | |
Unique Overclocks
| Unique Modifications | ||
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Roll Control |
Roll Control is a clean Overclock that causes the Breach Cutter’s beam to roll as it flies. Continuing to hold the [Fire] button after firing allows the player to steer the beam. The beam will not aim at what the player is looking at, but will turn in the same direction as the movement of the crosshair. Strafing and jumping have no effect; the steering is only affected by the player's facing direction. Releasing [Fire] will cause the beam to continue moving forwards along its current direction until the beam expires. |
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Return To Sender |
Return To Sender is a Balanced Overclock that allows the Breach Cutter’s beam to reverse directions. Continuing to hold the [Fire] button after firing has no immediate effects, but upon releasing [Fire] the beam will reverse directions. Tapping [Fire] causes the beam to be fired normally, moving forwards for its whole duration. Reversing the beam has no effect on its duration, meaning for the beam to return to the point it was fired from, the player must release [Fire] half way through the beam's duration, otherwise the beam will expire before reaching its starting point. | |
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High Voltage Crossover |
High Voltage Crossover is a Balanced Overclock that causes any enemy hit by the Breach Cutter’s beam to be electrocuted. |
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Spinning Death |
Spinning Death is an unstable Overclock that causes the breach cutters beam to move incredibly slowly, while rapidly spinning along the yaw axis. Spinning Death removes the beams additional fire damage when initially colliding with a creature. |
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Inferno |
Inferno is an unstable Overclock that causes the Breach Cutter’s beam to rapidly heat up any creature that comes into contact with it. Additionally it causes the beam to apply a hidden DoT that further heats up creatures. Inferno is currently bugged, dealing 140% of the damage listed on its DPS value as Fire damage. This means when Inferno is equipped (with no other modifications) the Breach Cutters beam DPS is effectively 560. |
DoT stats
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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 (12) modifications – The Company Special Weapon Paintjob
Skins
Full gallery of all Frameworks and Paintjobs can be seen at Weapon Cosmetics.
Gallery
Trivia
- According to the Breach Cutter's description, it was originally a mining tool used to clear sediment deposits before eventually being converted into a weapon. Mission Control remarks upon this when the weapon is unlocked, joking that Planet Hoxxes "sure does breed innovation".
- The Breach Cutter's internal name is "Line Cutter", its name and design being a reference to two weapons from the Dead Space franchise: the Plasma Cutter and the Line Gun respectively.
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