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| “ | The Thermal Beam is a fearsome ship Energy weapon developed by VEGA to suppress the miner rebellion. Beam weapons are not easily escaped. | ” |
| — In-Game Description |
| Thermal Beam | I | II | III | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mass | 220t | 396t | 792t | ||||||
| DPS | 22 | 38 | 68 | ||||||
| DPV | 143 | 247 | 442 | ||||||
| Range | 0-3,000 m | ||||||||
| Projectile Speed | 3,000 m/s | ||||||||
| Firing Cycle | C: 1.5 / F: 3.0 / R: 2.0 / N: Infinite | ||||||||
| Sound Effect | Charging
Firing Impact | ||||||||
| Obtaining (Blueprint) | |||||||||
| Farming Tier | VEGA Tier I | VEGA Tier II | VEGA Tier IV | ||||||
| Fragments | 4 | 5 | 6 | ||||||
| Requirements | Disruptor Ray III | Polaron Ray I | Polaron Ray III | ||||||
| Build | |||||||||
| Time | 7m | 33m | 3h 33m | ||||||
| Helium-3 | 70,034 | 649,404 | 4,157,648 | ||||||
| Antimatter | 3,686 | 72,156 | 1,385,883 | ||||||
General
The Thermal beam is a ship energy weapon. It is a VEGA Corporation blueprint weapon found in level tier 1, 2, and 4 VEGA Cargo fleets. It serves as the ship counterpart of the Tachyon Beam turret.
Thermal beam fires a golden beam at its target after charging up for several seconds. The charge up phase emits a loud power up noise much like other beam weapons. It cannot miss, the beam can be interrupted if the target escapes the weapon's range.
They are particularly popular mid level weapons, replacing Disruptor rays. Low level players can be seen having unlocked them early. It also is a very common item in the black market making it even easier to obtain.
Strategy and Setup
Advantages:
Thermal beams are a powerful short range weapon, the beam cannot be evaded but can be interrupted if the target leaves the weapon's range or firing arc.
Thermal beams have relatively low range, it can be increased with focused optics, so it can attack targets at medium range. Thermal beam rays, particularly the level III variant is powerful and inflicts a very high amount of damage in comparison with other ship weapons.
They're also good against bases, since they have high DPS and good range to stretch over Terminus mines that may be blocking the way to target the base's bridge. Eliminating the bridge is generally the only goal in the blitz form of base attacks.
Disadvantages:
Thermal beams were introduced roughly three years ago in VEGA Conflict. Thus, newer and better variants are in the game, one of which is the Impulse Beam which is superior to the Thermal Beam is almost every level except a slight range reduction. ECHO Rays also provide more range, which is better for kiting hulls.
Being a beam type weapon, Thermal beams are very poor for shooting down squadrons, they need to charge up before firing at a squadron, before charging up again. This provides squadrons lengthy amount of time to attack its target.
Since it has a charge up time is is terrible for kiting as you need to keep the enemy in range for roughly 4.5 seconds before turning back allowing your enemy to catch up or escape your firing arc. It also can over commit a charge into one hull aswell wasting tons of firepower.
Setup:
There are too many builds for the Thermal Beam to be listed as it is just so versatile in the early game of combat. Thus, the setup section will be more on a generalization than specific fittings.
Thermal Beam II and III are by far the most value you can get out of the Thermal Beam, II being to most. Try to always have atleast Focused Optics IV or V equipped and good armor and shielding with it.
Gallery
Trivia
- In spite of the projectile speed description, this weapon is actually a beam, and the damage is dealt immediately after a firing sequence has begun, instead of taking a second or so to reach the target.
- The Thermal beam stats originally displayed projectile speed as 299,792,458 m/s, which is the speed of light, because of the fact the Thermal Beam is a heated energy beam. It also appears to instantaneously reach its target because of this.
- Thermal Beams are not related to the Tachyon Beam Turret whatsoever.
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