Burst Ray

"The Burst Ray is optimized for close-range encounters. It fires a deadly burst of rays in a wide arc, earning it the nickname "Energy Shotgun"."

General
"Vaporise enemies at close range with the Burst Ray."

- Event Store

The Burst Ray is a unique Energy weapon that is powerful but only at point-blank range, most commonly used on cutters.

It fires 20 yellow energy pellets at its target in bursts, these pellets travel in a spread much like a shotgun.

Advantages
Burst Rays are extremely powerful and have excellent mass efficiency. Any ships equipped with this weapon are guaranteed to deal massive damage to enemies that get too close. Cutters can make the most use out of this weapon due to their speed, allowing them to face-hug enemies with little difficulty. Cruisers with Burst Rays are sometimes used to counter these cutters.

Burst Rays are also excellent at base rushing, particularly when equipped on battleships, which double their firepower against any modules they are sitting on.

Disadvantages
Due to their spread, Burst Rays only deal significant damage at close range, therefore using Focused Optics to extend their range is just a waste of mass.

Most ships equipped with this short-range weapon are easily kited and rarely get to fire at all.

Trivia

 * The Burst Ray's nickname is the "Energy Shotgun" because of its widely-spread shots and the insane damage they deal.
 * The Burst Ray is the first Energy weapon that can hit multiple enemies per shot.
 * The Burst Ray is also the first and only energy weapon to have a spread and fires multiple "pellets", and loses damage in relation to distance because of the spread as fewer "pellets" connect to the target.
 * At one point, the Burst Ray only fired 5 pellets, but that has been reverted to the original behaviour.
 * Although it is a VEGA ship weapon it appears in VEGA Security blueprints.