Exclusive: The weapons of Firefall's Elemental Destruction

In the wake of Firefall's announcement of its September 16th Elemental Destruction launch date, Red 5's RudiKazootie returns with another dev diary about the update, this one focusing on the new elemental weapons, new weapon modifiers, and new primary archetype weapons arriving next week. Enjoy!

Firefall Dev Blog: Announcing 'Elemental Destruction' (Part 2)

Hello Firefall Pilots! RudiKazootie here again. As I announced in this blog a couple days ago, Elemental Destruction (Version 1.1 of Firefall) is scheduled for release this coming Tuesday, September 16th, and with it brings additional dynamic encounters, the hardcore version of our Kanaloa Titan Battle, an array of new weapons and modifiers, new abilities, numerous quality of life updates, and much more. Today, I'd like to tell you about the sweet, sweet new weapons being introduced next Tuesday in the update.

Elemental Weaponry

We are excited to introduce six new weapon modifiers for primary and secondary weapons that are elemental in nature and provide entirely new effects – each can be found via loot drops as well as crafting, and change the way in which the weapon that contains the elemental modifier deals damage. These modifiers include: Thermal, Flaming Thermal, Bioactive, Virulent Bioactive, Electrical, and Charged Electrical.

Each of the elemental types has an important impact on core combat. How each behaves on hitting targets can change up the flow and conditions of combat, getting more variety and possibilities into play.

This pass on the elemental system is only the beginning. We'll be expanding this system sometime in the future (see, I totally didn't say "soon™"), so that elemental types will have more of an impact in different combat situations and against different enemies. Experienced players will have an advantage in certain circumstances if they "gear up" before going into a combat situation.
Most importantly, weapons affected by the elemental system look badass.
Let's explore each of them in more detail below.

Thermal Weapons

Thermal modified weapons are available for primary and secondary weapons, and burns targets for additional damage with the chance to ignite targets for even more damage. Flaming Thermal modified weapons have a much higher chance to ignite enemies while also providing the same fire damage as the base modifications.

Bioactive Weapons

Bioactive modified weapons are available for primary and secondary weapons, and poisons targets for additional damage with the chance to infect targets for even more damage. Virulent Bioactive modified weapons also poison their targets while having a higher chance to infect enemies.

Electrical Weapons

Electrical modified weapons are also available for primary and secondary weapons, and shock targets for additional damage with the chance to spread electrical damage to enemies near the target. Charged Electrical modified weapons also shock their targets while having a higher chance to electrically damage nearby enemies.

Advanced Secondary Weapons

In addition to our brand-new elemental weapons, we're adding in four new weapon modifiers for Shotguns, Assault Rifles, Burst Rifles and Sub-Machine Guns. These new weapons also drop as loot and are craftable, and the way that they deal damage is altered by their modifiers. These modifiers include: Beam, Laser Beam, Microplasma, and Emissive Microplasma. Furthermore, we're adding three new modifiers that alter looted and crafted Grenade Launcher secondary weapons: Tri-Scatter, Quad-Scatter, and Cluster.

Like the elemental system, the advanced secondary weapons put more combat specialization in the hands of the player. Modifying core functionality on these weapons (things like accuracy, rate of fire, and damage in addition to real changes in behaviors) has a big effect on how these weapons are used in combat and how they fit in with your playstyle.

The intent is to hone in and support your individual play styles and let you further specialize in what you're good at (or at least have fun with) as a Firefall player.

Let's talk about what each of them does below.

Beams

Beam modified weapons are available for the aforementioned four secondary weapons, and alter the weapon to fire energy pulses that deal energy damage. They also have increased accuracy, damage, and range as a trade-off for a decreased rate of fire. Laser Beam modified weapons are also altered to deal energy damage with increased accuracy, damage, and range with the sacrifice of a lessened rate of fire, but the pulses of energy that are fired pierce through the first enemy it hits, allowing a single projectile to hit multiple targets if aimed well.

Microplasma

Microplasma modified weapons are also available for the same four secondary weapons, and alter the weapon to fire microplasma pellets, which deal plasma damage. They also deal more damage than the standard versions of the weapons as a trade-off for their decreased accuracy. Emissive Microplasma modified weapons are also altered to fire microplasma pellets with increased damage, while sacrificing some accuracy, but the microplasma projectiles can ricochet off hard surfaces up to two times.

Advanced Grenade Launchers

Grenade Launchers that are altered by the Tri-Scatter modifier are altered to fire a spread of three smaller grenades, while the Quad-Scatter modifier fires a larger spread with four smaller grenades and Cluster modified launchers fire a timed grenade that bursts into many smaller grenades. These modifiers lower the damage to a single target, but allow for much more damage to be inflected to a group of enemies as a trade-off.

New Primary Archetype Weapons

While it may feel like an Oprah show with everyone getting all these brand-new weapons, the fun doesn't stop there; we're taking new weapons a step further with the introduction of two new primary weapons, one for the Assault archetype and one for the Biotech archetype. These are only the first two archetypes that new primary weapons have been developed for and we are working on more primaries for the other three.

New primary weapons give us a huge boost in the amount of gear available to players. New weapons add a breath of fresh air to our core combat and get players re-invested in an active search for the new gear. These new weapons will have an impact on multiple combat scenarios (especially in Broken Peninsula, our Open World PvP zone), so I encourage you to master them – or at least have a plan of action when you encounter them in the hands of another player ready to melt your face in PvP.
As a shooter player, I always enjoy exploring new weapons so see what I can do with them in various combat situations, and I think many of you feel the same way.

More information about each weapon can be found below.

Plasma Flak Cannon (Assault Archetype)

The Plasma Flak Cannon is for Assault archetypes only and fires a plasma blast that will explode upon impact or after a set amount of time, dealing damage in an area. The projectile can also explode in close proximity of enemies, offering great potential for destroying targets that are difficult to hit. The alternate fire consumes ammo to give the battleframe energy recharge as well as propel it in the direction aimed – this is a unique alternate fire ability when compared to any other weapon out there as there is nothing like it.

Bio Injector (Biotech Archetype)

The Bio Injector is for Biotech archetypes only and fires needles that deal poison damage to enemies upon impact, as well as applying poison damage over time. The alternate fire of this weapon fires needles that apply a heal over time to allies.

We hope you are as excited as we are about this brand-new assortment of incredible weapons that will become available in v1.1. We look forward to seeing you all looting, crafting and using them next Tuesday.

Until then, have a great weekend and we'll see you in-game!

Scott "RudiKazootie" Rudi
Design Director of Firefall
Firefall.com