Deep Rock Galactic Wiki
Register
Advertisement

Icons Campaign Unlocked through an assignment
Requires Driller Level 15
Purchased for:
Credit 8200 Credits
Jadiz 70 Jadiz
Magnite 25 Magnite
Enor Pearl 110 Enor Pearl
Initial Stats
Damage 20
Charged Damage 60
Charged Area Damage 60
Charged Damage Radius 2
Max Battery 120
Rate of Fire
(per second)
8.0
Cooling Rate
(per second)
0.4
Charged Shot Ammo Use 8
Charge Speed 1.67s
Maximum heat 1
Bullets are so last year. Instead, why not incinerate your enemies from the inside out with a highly experimental anti-matter-powered gun firing supercharged plasma bolts? What's the worst that could happen? (If you find out, please report to R&D)
— Weapon description

The Experimental Plasma Charger (shortened to EPC) is an unlockable secondary weapon used by the Driller. It is a semi-automatic futuristic plasma pistol with two spinning gyros on the bottom. It feeds from a large battery contained inside the weapon with no obvious loading port. The weapon has several aesthetic qualities which indicate its highly experimental and potentially unsafe nature, such as the exposed wiring and electrical crackling heard when firing shots.

The EPC feeds from a single large ammo pool and has an overheating mechanic. It boasts two firing modes; Regular Shots by tapping the fire button and Charged Shots by holding the fire button down and releasing. Either firing mode will produce purple plasma blasts which are considered projectiles and must physically travel through the world before they hit a target. Both firing modes will produce heat, measured by a gauge on the weapon. If this gauge peaks the weapon will overheat and become inoperable for a short duration.

A charged shot can't deal weakpoint damage.


Modifications[]

Modifications[]

The new modifications tier lists: There are five tiers of modifications and each tier has two to three upgrades. Only one modification can be equipped per tier.

Experimental Plasma Charger Modifications
Mod Effect In Game Description Price
Tier 1 Icon Upgrade DamageGeneral
Increased Particle Density
+5 Damage "Improves the damage caused by the normal shots."
Credit 1000 Credits
Enor Pearl 20 Enor Pearl
Icon Upgrade Ammo
Larger Battery
+24 Battery Capacity "The good thing about clips, magazines, ammo drums, fuel tanks ...you can always get bigger variants."
Credit 1000 Credits
Bismor 20 Bismor
Icon Upgrade Area Damage
Higher Charged Plasma Energy
+15 Charged Damage

+15 Charged Area Damage

"More bang for the buck! Increases both the direct and area damage of the charged projectile!"
Credit 1000 Credits
Bismor 20 Bismor
Tier 2
Level6
Icon Upgrade TemperatureCoolDown
Heat Shield
x0.4 Heat Buildup When Charged "Reduces how fast the weapon overheats when holding a charged shot."
Credit 3800 Credits
Jadiz 25 Jadiz
Umanite 15 Umanite
Enor Pearl 36 Enor Pearl
Icon Upgrade ProjectileSpeed
Overcharged Plasma Accelerator
x1.25 Normal Projectile Velocity "You need to be a physicist to understand how it works but this little wonder increases the velocity of the EPC's normal projectile."
Credit 1800 Credits
Enor Pearl 12 Enor Pearl
Bismor 18 Bismor
Tier 3
Level10
Icon Upgrade Fuel
Improved Charge Efficiency
-2 Charged Shot Ammo Use "Each charged shot uses less energy."
Credit 2200 Credits
Magnite 30 Magnite
Enor Pearl 20 Enor Pearl
Icon Upgrade ChargeUp
Crystal Capacitors
x2.5 Charge Speed "Prepare a charged shot much faster."
Credit 2200 Credits
Croppa 30 Croppa
Jadiz 20 Jadiz
Icon Upgrade TemperatureCoolDown
Tweaked Radiator
+0.2 Cooling Rate "Increases the rate at which the weapon sheds heat, letting you shoot more rounds before overheating and also recovering faster from an overheat."
Credit 2200 Credits
Umanite 30 Umanite
Enor Pearl 20 Enor Pearl
Tier 4
Level14
Icon Upgrade Area
Expanded Plasma Splash
+1m Charged Effect Radius "Greater damage radius for the charged projectile explosion."
Credit 3800 Credits
Croppa 25 Croppa
Jadiz 15 Jadiz
Bismor 36 Bismor
Icon Upgrade Ammo
High Density Battery
+24 Battery Capacity "The good thing about clips, magazines, ammo drums, fuel tanks ...you can always get bigger variants."
Credit 3800 Credits
Bismor 15 Bismor
Icon Upgrade Area Damage
Reactive Shockwave
+15 Charged Damage

+15 Charged Area Damage

"More bang for the buck! Increases the damage done within the Area of Effect!"
Credit 3800 Credits
Jadiz 25 Jadiz
Umanite 15 Umanite
Enor Pearl 36 Enor Pearl
Tier 5
Level18
Icon Upgrade Heat
Burning Nightmare
+Burning Nightmare
x0.3 Effect Radius
"A modified containment field causes regular and charged shots to heat up the target proportionally to the amount of damage dealt. The modification also makes the charged projectile pass through all enemies dealing damage while it flies but it no longer explodes on impact."
Credit 4400 Credits
Croppa 40 Croppa
Jadiz 110 Jadiz
Magnite 60 Magnite
Icon Upgrade Special
Thin Containment Field
+Thin Containment Field
x0.8 Shot Heat Generation
"A weaker containment field produces less heat for both charged and normal shots. Be aware that any high-energy impact will destabilize the charged projectile, causing a large area implosion."
Credit 4400 Credits
Croppa 40 Croppa
Jadiz 110 Jadiz
Magnite 60 Magnite
Icon Upgrade Explosion
Plasma Splash
- 10 damage
+10 area damage
"A simple modification to the containment field causes it to rupture outward on impact damaging all things in a small radius even through heavy armor."
Credit 5600 Credits
Jadiz 70 Jadiz
Magnite 64 Magnite
Enor Pearl 140 Enor Pearl

Overclocks[]

Overclock calculations happen after modifiers.

Plasma charger Experimental Plasma Charger [Expand/Collapse]
Overclock Effect In Game Description Price
Energy Rerouting
Frame Overclock Clean
Icon Upgrade ChargeUp

Pos +16 Battery Capacity
Pos x1.5 Charge Speed

"A masterwork of engineering that improves charge speed and energy efficiency without affecting overall performance!"
Credit 7300 Credits
Jadiz 100 Jadiz
Umanite 65 Umanite
Bismor 130 Bismor
Magnetic Cooling Unit
Frame Overclock Clean
Icon Upgrade TemperatureCoolDown

Pos +0.1 Cooling Rate
Pos x0.7 Heat Buildup When Charged

"A high-tech solution to cleanly improve the cooling rate. The result is an increased number of shots that can be fired before overheating, a faster recovery from an overheat and an extended duration that a full charge can be maintained."
Credit 8900 Credits
Croppa 95 Croppa
Jadiz 80 Jadiz
Umanite 125 Umanite
Heat Pipe
Frame Overclock Balanced
Icon Upgrade Fuel

Pos -2 Charged Shot Ammo Use
Pos x1.3 Charge Speed
Neg x2 Charged Shot Heat Generation
   x2 Heat Buildup When Charged

"By channeling exhaust heat back into the charge chamber a shot can be charged faster while using less energy. Unfortunately this process generates a lot more heat."
Credit 7450 Credits
Jadiz 95 Jadiz
Umanite 125 Umanite
Bismor 60 Bismor
Heavy Hitter
Frame Overclock Balanced
Icon Upgrade DamageGeneral

Pos x1.6 Damage
Neg -32 Battery Capacity
Neg x1.5 Normal Shot Heat Generation

"Some extensive tweaking to how the shots are prepared can increase the pure damage of the weapon but at the cost of more heat per shot and a reduced battery size."
Credit 8100 Credits
Magnite 60 Magnite
Umanite 105 Umanite
Bismor 140 Bismor
Overcharger
Frame Overclock Unstable
Icon Upgrade DamageGeneral

Pos x1.5 Charged Damage
Pos x1.5 Charged Area Damage
Pos x1.2 Charged Effect Radius
Neg +2 Charged Shot Ammo Use
Neg -0.1 Cooling Rate

"Pushing the EPC to the limit will give you a significant increase in charge shot damage and a boost in the size of the explosion but at the cost of thermal efficiency and energy consumption."
Credit 7050 Credits
Croppa 95 Croppa
Enor Pearl 60 Enor Pearl
Bismor 120 Bismor
Persistent Plasma
Frame Overclock Unstable
Icon Upgrade Duration V2

Pos +Persistent Plasma
Neg -15 Charged Damage
Neg -15 Area Damage

"By changing how the plasma is layered within the charged projectile a slow and persistent discharge can be achieved upon impact. However this does reduce the instant damage done."
Credit 8150 Credits
Croppa 75 Croppa
Jadiz 130 Jadiz
Magnite 95 Magnite


Stats Breakdown[]

Understanding the weapon[]

  • Battery Capacity is the weapon's ammo capacity. By default a Regular Shot uses 1 ammo while a Charged Shot uses 8 ammo.
  • Maximum Heat is how much you can fire your weapon before it overheats. By default Charged Shots produce 0.4 heat, Normal Shots produce 0.13 heat. The maximum heat value is 1 which cannot be changed.
  • Cooling Rate is how fast your weapon cools down the accumulated heat (be it overheated or not). The base value is 0.4 heat per second so you’ll recover from overheating (1 heat) in 1 / 0.4 = 2.5 seconds
  • Charge Speed is how long in seconds it takes you to prepare a Charged Shot. No heat is generated while charging, only while holding the Charged Shot.
  • Heat Buildup When Charged is how fast heat is generated when holding a fully-prepared Charged Shot. The base value is 2, which means that if you hold a charged projectile starting from 0 heat you will overheat after 0.5 seconds.

Normal and Charged Shot Breakdown[]

Normal Shots

  • Damage type: 50% Kinetic / 50% Electric
  • Friendly Fire Modifier: x0.1
  • Material Flags: Armor, Weakpoint, Frozen

Charged Shot

  • Single target:
    • Damage type: 65% Electric / 25% Fire / 10% Disintegrate
    • Friendly Fire Modifier: x0.2
    • Weakpoint Damage x0
    • Material Flags: Armor, Weakpoint, Frozen
  • AOE:
    • Damage type: 65% Explosive / 25% Fire / 10% Disintegrate
    • Maximum Damage Radius: 1.25 m
    • Radius: 2 m
    • Minimum Area Damage: 33%
    • Material Flags: none

Heat Buildup When Charged and interactions with TCF[]

  • Holding down the charge will generate 2 heat per second, that means you have 0.5 second to aim before you reach max charge and can shoot the Charged Projectile. With Heat Shield that time can be increased to 1.25 seconds.
  • Since TCF reduced the cost of a Charge Shot to 0.25 heat, it means you have 0.75 / 2 = 0.375 seconds to shoot the Charged Shot before the weapon overheat. If that time seems too low, you can consider using a mod or overclock to increase it.
  • Using the T2 mod Heat Shield, you will have almost a second to react. (0.75 / (2 x 0.4) = 0.9375 seconds)

Unique Modifications[]

Unique Modifications
Icon Upgrade Area
Flying Nightmare
Flying Nightmare (FN) causes Charged Shots to pass through all targets, dealing maximum direct damage when they are touched by it and piercing straight through them. The downside is a reduction to charge speed and a reduced area-of-effect on the Charged Shot. FN Charged Shots with the Flying Nightmare mod will never detonate - they pass cleanly through enemies and dissipate with no explosion upon contact with the world.
  • Damage: Converted from the Charged Shot direct damage, affected by mods and overclocks.
  • Damage type: 65% Electric / 25% Fire / 10% Disintegrate (inherit single target charged shot damage type)
  • Material Flags: Frozen
Icon Upgrade Special
Thin Containment Field
Thin Containment Field (TCF) allows Charged Shot projectiles to be shot in flight by any team member, creating a significantly more powerful explosion. It deals 240 Fire damage with a set 3m damage radius, coupled with a rippling effect across the player's screen when viewed directly. Manually detonated TCF Charged Shots can also destroy terrain and can be used to break minerals off of walls. TCF Charged Shots which collide with the world or an enemy will detonate normally.
  • Damage: 240 Fire
  • Full damage radius: 3m
  • Damage radius: 3m
  • Friendly Fire Modifier: x0.5
  • Material Flags: none
Icon Upgrade Heat
Plasma Burn
Plasma Burn will cause every normal shot from the Experimental Plasma Charger to apply Heat to an enemy based on the amount of damage dealt to it. Mods which increase the damage dealt by the EPC will henceforth increase the amount of Heat. Enemies with full Heat meters will be afflicted with the On Fire status. the amount of Heat is 5 + ( damage x 0.25)

Unique Overclocks[]

Unique Overclocks
Frame Overclock Unstable
Icon Upgrade Duration V2

Persistent Plasma

Persistent Plasma is an Unstable Overclock which causes plasma particles to linger in the spot where the Charged Shot projectile was detonated. It is similar to the Plasma Trail modification for the Breach Cutter. The downside is a penalty to direct damage caused by the projectile.

  • Damage: 8
  • Damage type: Fire
  • Interval: 0.2 - 0.25 s
  • Movement Speed: x0.8
  • Full damage radius: 3 m
  • Damage radius: 3 m
  • Duration: 7 seconds
    • Additional +0.6 seconds added only one time if any enemies either enter or leave the field.

Mastery[]

Each modification that is purchased advances a mastery bar by one unit.

Mastery unlocks:

  • Three modifications – First Stripe Weapon Paintjob Icon Skin First Stripe
  • Seven modifications – Deepcore Weapon Paintjob Icon Skin Deepcore
  • All (14) modifications – The Company Special Weapon Paintjob Icon Skin The Company Special

Skins[]

Full gallery of skins can be seen at Weapon Skins.

Gallery[]

Trivia[]

  • As the name implies, the Experimental Plasma Charger is essentially a prototype weapon which has not been fully tested. Unlike most weapons which Deep Rock Galactic purchases from suppliers, the EPC is a product of their own Research and Development division.
    • Upon completing the assignment required to unlock the EPC, Mission Control will tell the player that R&D are "very excited" with the weapon, and he advises caution as a result.




This page is possibly not up to date.
This page is possibly not up to date. It was last updated for Update 34: Modest Expectations
Advertisement