Eclipse Driver

"Unlike previous Driver weapons, the (Heavy/Xeno) Eclipse Driver fires a stream of individual particles at a rapid pace, increasing a hull's ability to retarget as necessary."

Stats
Note: Xeno Eclipse Driver is only available to Xeno Division, A.X.I.S. and Altairian ships.

General
The Eclipse Driver is a powerful long-range Kinetic weapon that has a high rate of fire, exclusive to Xeno Division Hulls or better.

It fires a slight spread of four rapid projectiles one by one, with a brief reload in between.

The Heavy Eclipse Driver is a powerful version of the Eclipse Driver, with improved damage and mass efficiency.

The Xeno Eclipse Driver is an advanced version of the Eclipse Driver that has accelerated projectiles and deals Alien Damage, taking on a green coloration.

Advantages
Eclipse Drivers have extremely long range similar to the Shatter Driver; destroyers equipped with this weapon can snipe many Combat Modules from afar without fear of return fire, while battleships can make use of this weapon to kite lesser-ranged ships.

Eclipse Drivers have very high projectile speed and a decent spread that allows them to hit even fast-moving targets with the help of its Predictive Aim ability, especially when boosted by Iridium Magnets. Their high rate of fire defends against squadrons effectively.

They have an extremely small minimum range and thus can fight back against rush fleets.

Eclipse Drivers are unlikely to waste much firepower as their high fire rate enables your ships to swiftly target the next enemy after destroying the previous one.

The Xeno version has increased projectile speed by default, freeing up a special slot. Some people use Harmonic Xeno Siege Casings to demolish bases faster, or Harmonic Xeno Beam Capacitors to increase the fleet's damage against enemy ships and squadrons.

Disadvantages
Eclipse Drivers have relatively poor mass efficiency: while they have a lot of DPS, they also take up a lot of mass, severely limiting what else you could put on your ships.

Eclipse Drivers are less effective against clusters of modules compared to the Shatter Driver; however, they are better against a single target because the shatter only does two-thirds of its DPS with the primary projectile.

The Xeno Eclipse Driver is not as effective against Xeno Division Hulls and A.X.I.S. Hulls due to their innate damage resistance.

Trivia

 * The Eclipse Driver is the first weapon to have a maximum range of 5,250 m, just exceeding the ranges of Precise Gauss Driver and Shatter Driver by 50 m.
 * The Xeno variant of this weapon is no longer available to Umbra hulls after the late April 2019 update to facilitate the rock-paper-scissors system between T7 factions. Existing items will be replaced by Blight Atomic Driver in the May 2019 update.
 * Along with other T6.5 equipment, this item's build time was significantly reduced during the late April 2019 update as summarized here.