Heavy Plasma (EU2012)

For the original UFO: Enemy Unknown (1994) version, see Heavy Plasma

Project Kingfisher Results

We've struggled to maintain a test environment that minimizes the safety risks involved in these experiments, but at the same time does not limit our...imagination, when it comes to new developments. With those logistical issues handled efficiently enough by the engineering team, we proceeded in our initial prototyping. Although we spent a great deal of time studying the alien's own heavy plasma rifle, there were still a number of questions surrounding its enhanced functionality. Maintaining an acceptable level of energy efficiency, while also increasing the weapon's output, was not an easy task. The primary constraint of increasing the output was the added weight involved by the inclusion of a larger power cell. While this issue may not have affected some of the brutish soldiers employed by the aliens, there are limits to what our soldiers can realistically carry. However, by redesigning the power management system to reduce waste energy generated during the firing process, we've managed to strike a balance between all of these concerns. I should mention however that heat buildup continues to be a concern, and our troops will have to be aware of this when firing the weapon in rapid succession. Having successfully test fired our prototype, as well as a modified version of the alien's own variant, we believe it should now be possible to both manufacture these weapons, and adapt any we manage to recover from the field.

Source: XCOM: Enemy Unknown (2012) Research Archives

Project Kingfisher Results (EW DLC)

We've struggled to maintain a test environment that minimizes the safety risks involved in these experiments, but at the same time does not limit our...imagination, when it comes to new developments. With those logistical issues handled efficiently enough by the engineering team, we proceeded in our initial prototyping. Although we spent a great deal of time studying the alien's own heavy plasma rifle, there were still a number of questions surrounding its enhanced functionality. Maintaining an acceptable level of energy efficiency, while also increasing the weapon's output, was not an easy task. The primary constraint of increasing the output was the added weight involved by the inclusion of a larger power cell. While this issue may not have affected some of the brutish soldiers employed by the aliens, there are limits to what our soldiers can realistically carry. However, by redesigning the power management system to reduce waste energy generated during the firing process, we've managed to strike a balance between all of these concerns. I should mention however that heat buildup continues to be a concern, and our troops will have to be aware of this when firing the weapon in rapid succession. Having successfully test fired our prototype, as well as a modified version of the alien's own variant, we believe it should now be possible to both manufacture these weapons, and adapt any we manage to recover from the field. The constraints that ordinary soldiers face are... reduced... when considering our MEC Troopers, for whom we can manufacture a full-sized particle beam weapon.

Source: XCOM: Enemy Within DLC

Description

The Heavy Plasma rifle uses an expanded power supply and cooling mechanism to allow for a much higher rate of fire than anything we've fielded previously. Capable of suppressing enemies, if the Heavy has appropriate training Like all LMG variants, expends ammo quickly

Source: XCOM: Enemy Unknown (2012)

Notes

Research Required	Heavy Plasma
Base Costs	§250 30 Alloys 30 Elerium 25 Engineers
Base Damage	8-10
Critical Damage	13 or 15
Critical Chance	0%
Range	Medium
Abilities	None

• Heavy Plasmas can only be used by Heavy soldiers.
• While the listed Critical Damage (on the EW DLC) is 14-16, the actual values are either 13 (33% of the shots) or 15 (66%) due to a bug.
• While their critical chance is limited when compared to Plasma Sniper Rifle or Alloy Cannon, the Heavy Plasma can be a very useful weapon in suppressing enemy targets, if the Heavy has appropriate training. The Heavy Plasma also doesn't suffer from the range restrictions of the mentioned weapons and can be used either on enclosed urban or open UFO maps.
• This weapon is also used by Muton Elites and it can be captured to offset its high building costs. However, the Muton Elites will typically only appear some months after you're able to research and build this weapon. Therefore, you may want to take priority in detecting and bringing down the Overseer UFO, and capturing one or two Heavy Plasmas from the Elites that always are on board.
• Council Requests for this weapon happen fairly regularly (once the research is completed, of course), and can easily match or exceed your monthly paycheck, so you may find it worthwhile to collect these as you go.
• There are two ways to unlock the research project for this weapon. The first one is by completing research of the Plasma Rifle, the alternative version is by capturing an intact Heavy Plasma through stunning an alien. The second way will consume the captured Heavy Plasma during its research though.
  • Research benefits from the following Research Credits: Plasma Weapons, Weapons Technology, All Technology.
  • Completing its research allows for the S.H.I.V. Plasma project at the Foundry.
  • On the Enemy Within DLC it also allows to build the Particle Cannon MEC Primary Weapon at Engineering.
• On the Enemy Within DLC, the building costs for each Heavy Plasma have been increased to §375, 60 Elerium, and 50 Alloys.
• Suppressing a target with this weapon will consume 2/3s of its ammo (or 1/3 after Ammo Conservation project is developed). It isn't possible to use suppression if the ammo is below this level.