| “ | The Breach Cutter releases directional blasts of sonically-charged plasma powerful enough to deal with most any alien in your path. Originally a mining tool, it's now been frequency-tuned to crack open flesh and bone rather than the sediment deposits it was designed for - often with quite spectacular results! |
About
The Breach Cutter is an unlockable secondary weapon used by the Engineer. Once used as a mining tool, it has since been converted into a weapon. Batteries are loaded into the top of the weapon which fire horizontally expanding plasma blades, focused by the barrel on the front of the weapon. The Breach Cutter is among the biggest weapons in the game in terms of size.
Learning how to effectively use the Breach Cutter takes some time due to the unique projectiles. When fired the plasma blade will expand and travel as a long purple line, then close up a second and a half later. The plasma blades deal damage for every tick they come into contact with an enemy. It may help to think of the plasma blades like as rockets fired from a bazooka, though instead of exploding they simply pass through enemies.
The plasma blades are infinitely piercing and can cleave through as many enemies as they like. They are best targeted against "lines" of enemies who are tightly packed together, getting the most out of the blades' two metre length. The weapon is also capable of dealing lots of damage to big targets such as Glyphid Praetorians when the beams are angled correctly – for optimal results, fire directly from the front or back of any big target. On top of that, plasma line passes through any terrain without damage losses, allowing the user to hit targets behind walls. This can most commonly be seen used for clearing out packs of enemies stacked behind unopened dirt walls and, in some scenarios, killing cave leeches from a safe place.
Asides from the tricky nature of the projectiles, the Breach Cutter itself has flaws. It can only hold four shots at once and only has twelve in reserve by default. While this is comparatively more ammo on average than the 40mm PGL, moderation must still be practiced while using this weapon without the proper Modifications or Weapon Overclocks to mitigate the low ammo problems. The weapon also suffers from a slow reload speed and a short delay before the plasma blade expands and starts dealing damage, making the weapon ineffective at close range (though these problems can also be remedied via mods).
 Unlocked through an assignment.
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Requires Engineer  15
Purchased for:
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Modifications
There are five tiers and each tier has two to three upgrades; only one upgrade can be equipped per tier.
| Mod | Effect | Description | Price | |||||||||
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| Tier 1 |  Prolonged Power Generation |
+1.5 Projectile Lifetime | The projectile is able to travel for a longer period of time before collapsing. |
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 High Capacity Magazine |
+2 Clip Size | The good thing about clips, magazines, ammo drums, fuel tanks ... you can always get bigger variants. |
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| Tier 2 6
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 Expanded Ammo Bags |
+8 Max Ammo | You had to give up some sandwich-storage, but your total ammo capacity is increased!Get a wider plasma line that can hit more targets at once. |
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 Condensed Plasma |
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The good folk in R&D have been busy. The overall damage of your weapon is increased. |
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 Loosened Node Cohesion |
+1 Plasma Beam Width | Get a significantly wider plasma line that can hit more targets at once. |
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| Tier 3 10
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Quick Deploy |
-0.2 Plasma Expansion Delay | The line projectile opens almost immediately and can hit multiple targets at very close range. |
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Loosened Node Cohesion |
+1 Plasma Beam Width | Get a significantly wider plasma line that can hit more targets at once. |
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| Tier 4 14
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 Armor Breaking |
+200% Armor Breaking | Increases armor breaking capabilities of the plasma line. |
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 Disruptive Frequency Tuning |
+100% Stun Chance
+3 Stun Duration |
The plasma beam will stun most of the denizens of Hoxxes on contact. |
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| Tier 5 18
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 Explosive Goodbye |
+Explosive Goodbye | The projectile explodes at the end of its lifecycle when the nodes collapse damaging anything unlucky enough to be near by and leaving a residual plasma field for a short time. You can also manually trigger the explosion by pulling the trigger a second time while the projectile is in flight. |
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 Plasma Trail |
+Plasma Trail | The beam leaves behind a residual trail of plasma that will continuously damage any enemy that gets too close. |
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Triple Split Line |
+Triple Split Line. | The plasma beam is split into 3 lines that cover a taller area making it possible to hit multiple targets at various heights. |
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Unique Modifications
Explosive Goodbye
Explosive Goodbye causes the Breach Cutter's shots to explode at the end of their life span, dealing 40 damage to the target. The explosion occurs once the beam has fully retracted into its epicenter or can be manually triggered by firing again, which will leave a plasma field that periodically damages any enemy that comes into contact.
Plasma Trail
Plasma Trail causes the Breach Cutter's shot to temporarily leave a trail of plasma as it travels along in any direction, which will periodically damage any enemy that comes into contact.
- Damage: 5
- Damage type: Electric
- Interval: 0.25 - 0.5 s
- Duration: 4 seconds default duration, with an additional +0.6 seconds added only one time if any enemies either enter or leave the field.
Triple Split Line
Triple Split Line causes two extra beams to appear in parallel with every shot. Triple Split Line itself will not cause more damage to be dealt, however will increase the surface area for contact of each shot. Increased surface area means each shot can potentially deal the maximum number of damage because of how long the beam stays in contact with each creature. Increased surface area also means more contact for the shot to destroy armor.
Overclocks
 Breach Cutter [Expand/Collapse]
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| Overclock | Effect | In Game Description | Price | ||||||||
Light-Weight Cases
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"Bring more ammo with you and slam those cases in faster!" |
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Roll Control
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"A few tweaks to the launcher cause it to add roll to the projectile after it is ejected thus covering a larger area as it travels. Holding down the trigger as the line leaves the gun activates a remote connection which on the release of the trigger cause the line to stop rolling letting you lock its orientation." |
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Stronger Plasma Current
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"By improving the node's efficiency you can up the raw damage without too much fuss and it lasts a bit longer too!" |
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Return to Sender
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"Holding down the trigger after the line leaves the gun activates a remote connection which on the release of the trigger causes the line to change direction and move back towards the gun." |
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High Voltage Crossover
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"By passing an electric current through the plasma, the beam electrocutes anything it touches but the bulky hardware limits magazine capacity." |
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Spinning Death
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"These modified plasma nodes convert most of the forward momentum into angular momentum stretching out the beam and continuously doing damage to the immediate area where it was launched. The nodes run for a longer duration but deal less damage every second. Due to the weight both magazine and total capacity is greatly reduced." |
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Inferno
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"Turn your Breach Cutter into a tool of burning death and destruction at the cost of ammo, and armor breaking. As a bonus the extreme internal heating keeps the targets burning for an extended period." |
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Skins
Full gallery of skins can be seen at Weapon Skins.
Gallery
Trivia
- According to the Breach Cutter's description, it was originally a mining tool used to clear sediment deposits before eventually being converted into a weapon. Mission Control remarks upon this when the weapon is unlocked, joking that Planet Hoxxes "sure does breed innovation".
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