Beams

## Overview

Beams are among the most dangerous attacks in the game. The fact that they pierce any shield and travel instantly makes them a force to be reckoned with. They are rare as well, and mostly only appear in boss fights. Consequently, this page will have some major gameplay spoilers. Specifically, any boss fight with a beam attack.

## Variations

### Beam Snipe

A single, quickly dissipating beam pulse is fired directly at the player from long range. The sniper heli is the only regular enemy which can use this (in fact any) beam attack. This makes it more dangerous than the railgun variant, but the attack is still easy to evade with practice due to its long charge up and obvious tell. The Space Tether and the Final Boss also have a similar, more aggressive version of the attack, but both will only use it if the player tries to get too far away from the boss.

### Beam Swipe

An easily avoided attack in which beams are fired near the player position, then swipe towards it. The attack is most noticeably used by the Hybrid Corvettes. The Floatoid Cealaformer also has a variant of the attack where the beams are fired in a fixed direction, but the whole ship moves towards the player to swipe over them.

### Beam Wall

A stationary beam which is used to restrict player movement. Two bosses use this attack. The Space Tether uses it vertically, to prevent players from getting into melee range. The Final Boss uses it horizontally to restrict player movement and make it difficult to evade its turret barrages.

### Beam Scissor

Two beams sweep toward the player, closing in on them like a pair of scissors. Used by the Final Boss and the Space Tether.

### Beam Spin

Two beams spin in circles with increasing speed and counter directional. Used by the Final Boss.

### Beam Trident

One beam flanked by two smaller ones are fired at the player position. The outer beams then close in on the center. The whole attack will track the player only slowly, but the enemy using it will turn much faster once the player jumps out of the trident away to the sides.

## Strategy

The best strategy against most beam attacks is to just learn to dodge them. Obviously that isn't helpful, but here are some tips.

* The Jet Black Mirror Paint passive will allow you to basically ignore a beam attack once per wave per stack.
* Paying attention for beams during the second zone is key if you want to ace the zone. It's easy to miss the charge up of a beam sniper while focusing on an objective.
* An EMP or stun effect might delay the next beam attack.
* The Hyperspace Gravitas passive makes dodging much easier, moving quickly in any direction as often as you can jump gives you a lot of freedom of movement. This is especially true against the final boss.
* Furi Dash and Rip Jump provide a similar benefit, however the movement they provide is much more restrictive.
* Learning the timing of beam attacks means you can just jump through them like any other attack. However, this won't be 100% reliable when dealing with beam spins because it can spin faster than your jump cooldown.
* Having a low jump cooldown or a long jump time makes dodging far easier.
* The closer you are to the source of the beam, the easier it will be dodge. Moving through the enemy as they attack will make it hard for them to hit you. If you jump through the enemy, their turret will need to turn all the way around to face you again.
* The final boss' EMP attacks are often timed to fire just before or during its beam attacks. Getting hit by one of these EMP shots will make dodging the next beam incredibly difficult if not impossible, because they interdict you. The space tether is similar, but not so brutal with its timing.

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