Pulse Cannon

"The (Xeno) Pulse Cannon emits an impressive burst of Energy (Alien) damage, able to pierce through the first target it hits and fire again with only moderate recharge time."

Stats
Note: Xeno Pulse Cannon is not available to the Umbra nor Pharmakon.

General
The Pulse Cannon is a powerful Energy weapon that pierces its first target, hitting any enemies behind it. This weapon is limited to the Punisher or better cruisers.

It fires a burst of 5 yellow bolts in a small spread that travel very quickly towards the target.

The Xeno Pulse Cannon is an advanced version of the Pulse Cannon that has built-in range increase and deals Alien Damage, taking on a green coloration.

Advantages
Pulse Cannons have the best mass efficiency out of all A.X.I.S. Ship Weapons, enabling your Guardian Cruisers to achieve high firepower while also being able to equip lots of armor and shields.

Their piercing ability makes it infeasible for enemies to shield their damaged ships, allowing you to take out one ship at a time. It also potentially doubles the weapon's DPS by damaging two targets in a line.

Pulse Cannons have relatively long range when boosted by Beam Capacitors, making it more difficult for battleships to kite your cruisers.

The Xeno version eliminates the need to use Beam Capacitors for range extension, keeping a special slot open for other choices such as Xeno Armored Hold. Harmonic Beam Capacitors and/or its Xeno variant can still be used to boost the damage of your entire fleet.

Disadvantages
Pulse Cannons have poor accuracy despite their high speed, making them a bad choice against Alien Reapers and squadrons.

While the Xeno version does more damage, it is less mass efficient against enemies that are highly resistant to Alien Damage, including Xeno Division Hulls and A.X.I.S. Hulls.

Trivia

 * The Pulse Cannon is the first of the A.X.I.S. Ship Weapons.
 * It is also the first to have a special variant that branches off its levels, being the Xeno Pulse Cannon III.
 * The Xeno Pulse Cannon originally had the same range as the regular Pulse Cannon, but that has been increased to the present value as it didn't fit the norm of Xeno versions having built-in specials.
 * 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 Nova Cannon 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.