Calamity blade

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A calamity blade in the player's hands and as a pickup lying on the ground.

The calamity blade, or heatwave generator, is a flamethrower, which projects a spread of flying flames. It shares the player's stock of fuel with the incinerator as a source of ammo.

The calamity blade has a unique mechanic of having five charge levels, firing a varying number of projectiles in a spread depending on how long the player lets the weapon charge.

The calamity blade first appears in MAP06: The Coiled City of Legacy of Rust. When picked up, it contains the equivalent ammo of 2 cans (totalling 20 units of fuel, or 40 on the "I'm too young to die" and "Nightmare!" skill levels).

Combat characteristics[edit]

Each level consumes 10 fuel and takes 20 tics to charge. If the player releases the weapon trigger, does not have enough fuel for the next charge level, or reaches the maximum charge level, the weapon fires; otherwise it keeps charging. Each charge level fires three heatwave spawner projectiles in a spread five degree apart:

Charge level Time Rate of fire Ammo use Projectiles Spread sweep
1 20 tics 105 shots per minute 10 fuel 3 10° (-5° to +5°)
2 40 tics 52.5 shots per minute 20 fuel 6 25° (-12.5° to +12.5°)
3 60 tics 35 shots per minute 30 fuel 9 40° (-20° to +20°)
4 80 tics 26.25 shots per minute 40 fuel 12 55° (-27.5° to +27.5°)
5 100 tics 21 shots per minute 50 fuel 15 70° (-35° to +35°)

The heatwave spawner projectiles are immediately destroyed (they have a lifespan of 0 tics) and in turn spawn a heatwave ripper projectile. This indirect projectile spawning method ensures that the projectiles will have no vertical component to their velocity, and always travel perfectly horizontally. The heatwave ripper projectiles, as their name implies, rip through enemies and continue flying through them instead of impacting; only stopping once they collide with map geometry. This makes the weapon very effective for crowd control, at least when a large number of enemies are aligned on the same horizontal level.

Tactical analysis[edit]

The infinite piercing of the fire wave, and scalable width, make the calamity blade effective and often ammo efficient against crowds of enemies. It is common for it to kill dozens of enemies at once, and in fact there is an achievement (the appropriately named "Screen Wipe") for killing at least 50 monsters in one shot with the calamity blade. As the wave continues to strike victims as it passes through, larger enemies suffer the most damage. This is demonstrated effectively by the room it is first obtained in on the Coiled City, where one or two uses will generally suffice to clear the large room full of mindweavers and, depending on skill level, spider masterminds. However, it is totally ineffective against enemies on significantly higher or lower heights than the player, making it often useless against fliers. Be prepared to swap to a backup weapon to deal with pesky cacodemons.

Much like the BFG9000, damage can be maximized by fully charging the weapon and pressing its muzzle right up against the unlucky target.

Data[edit]

Appearance statistics[edit]

In Legacy of Rust the calamity blade is first encountered on these maps per skill level:

Legacy of Rust contains the following numbers of calamity blades per skill level:

Trivia[edit]

Rough example showing how the Machine Roargun toy was used as a basis for creating the calamity blade.
  • Apart from using fuel as ammunition rather than energy cells, the calamity blade is functionally analogous to the fully upgraded Destroyer Blade modification from Doom Eternal.
  • As with the BFG9000, the calamity blade is based on the "The Machine / Roargun" toygun.
  • Killing 50 enemies with a single shot of the calamity blade is required to complete the "Screen Wipe" achievement.
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