Hellcat rifle

== Acquisition ==
== Summary ==
 
The hellcat rifle contains an integrated mini-burner which gives the user the ability to fire two gouts of flame at will before requiring a reload. Besides the addition of the burner, it otherwise acts like a traditional ranged weapon in every other respect.
The burner fires in a 9 range cone, thin close to the pawn and expanding to three tiles wide at a range of 7 to 9 tiles when fired in a cardinal direction.
Two gouts can be fired before the unit must be reloaded with bioferrite per charge. The reloading process takes . The pawn will never automatically use the unit - instead it must be manually activated by the player by use of the "Hellcat burner" gizmo, similar to using Utility items. It is unclear if this restriction also applies to NPCs. This gizmo will only appear when the pawn is drafted.
Damage from the burner does not scale with quality, dealing roughly 12 damage on a direct hit, and slightly less if the target is out of the center of the cone. Fire resistance, such as that from phoenix armor, can dramatically reduce or eliminate damage from the burner.
Wearing a shield belt does not prevent the user from firing the burner, but does prevent the user from firing the rifle itself.
Pyromaniac pawns receive a buff while equipped with a Hellcat rifle, a further mood buff will not be granted for using the weapons Hellcat burner ability. Note that they must be equipped, not merely carried.
== Analysis ==
The hellcat rifle functions quite similarly to its nearest cousin, the assault rifle, albeit with a slightly shorter max range (27 vs 30.9), less bullet damage (10 vs. 11), a longer firing cycle, and the addition of the burner. The statistical difference result in an approximate drop in compared to an assault rifle of the same quality. Because of the source of this change, this relationship is consistent across all ranges and shooter skills, but can be affected, but not negated or inverted, by Aiming time and Ranged cooldown multiplier effects.
The burner has a range of 9 tiles, firing in a narrow cone one tile wide out to six tiles, then three tiles wide for the remaining 3 tiles, for a total of roughly 15 tiles of burning. Targets hit are likely to catch fire, giving the weapon considerable utility against melee pawns who will promptly panic. Bioferrite is required for reloading the weapon's burner, which means that the hellcat rifle is strictly inferior to the assault rifle if you do not have a replenishable stockpile.
When compared to the incinerator, the other weapon from the same research, the hellcat's burner charge has a shorter range (9 vs 11 tiles,) smaller cone (3 tiles wide vs 5 tiles at max range,) deals less direct damage (12 vs 16,) and has an extra charge (2 vs 1.) The two weapons function significantly differently outside their burner charges, with the Hellcat being an assault rifle and the Incinerator being a lobbed AoE fire explosion. Unlike the incinerator, which can both fire its main weapon and its burner from within a shield belt, the hellcat rifle cannot fire bullets from within the shield, leaving you with little more than an inelegant club when the burner charges run out.
== Version history ==
* Anomaly DLC Release - Added.
Category:Equipment Category:Weapons Category:Industrial Weapons
Category:Ranged Weapons Category:Burst Weapons Category:Rifles