Review: Atomos (U24.1.5)

The Atomos is an MR5 beam secondary available directly from the Market. It has a mostly-unique chaining mechanic, whereby the primary beam will chain to enemies nearby the primary target, dealing partial damage. This is shared with the primary rifle Amprex. Having received a massive buff during the Beam Weapon Balance Pass in U22.13-14, the Atomos is a powerful and highly versatile weapon.

Acquisition

The Atomos blueprint can be acquired directly from the Market.

Stats

First off, the Atomos has a decent Crit Chance, but a frustratingly low Crit Damage. It has a fairly good Status Chance, especially considering its pure elemental Heat base Damage. As a beam weapon, a RoF of 8 only consumes 4 ammo per second. This gives it an exceptional Reload Ratio of 8.75.

The Atomos has a limited range of 15 metres, while its chain beams have a limited range of 7 metres. The chain beam range cannot be increased. Upon striking an enemy with the primary beam, the beam will chain to another enemy within 7 metres, dealing half damage. This chains to 3 or 4 secondary targets, each with progressively reduced damage.

As beam weapons do not gain multiple beams from Multishot, it does not increase the number of chain beams. However, installing Punch Through and striking multiple enemies with the main beam will cause each of those targets to produce a chain beam.

Augments

None.

Builds

0-Forma:

A native D polarity is quite annoying, fitting only the 90% Cold mod and the worthless +15% Status Chance mod. With low base Crit Damage, in my opinion a crit build is only worth it once you have access to the Primed crit mods. These above builds are simple 0-Forma setups that will still have a reasonable amount of power. Hornet Strike + Barrel Diffusion offer standard damage boosts. Ruinous Extension increases the Atomos' range by just over 50%, and is a low-capacity mod. Elemental mods have been added for Corrosive, though the combo is of course dependent on enemy and personal preference.

The choice of Lethal Torrent vs 90% Elemental is mainly dependent on what mods you have available, and what you want from the weapon. Lethal Torrent offers much higher raw DPS, while the 90% elemental offers more elemental bias and better ammo efficiency.

As a pure elemental weapon with decent Status Chance, Corrosive is perfect against armour, especially as Heat is effective against most de-armoured enemy health. Gas is extremely powerful against Corpus.

Recommended Setups: Corrosive vs Grineer, Corrupted, Infested, armoured Corpus, Gas vs unarmoured Corpus

Crit 3-Forma:

Three added V polarities, one of them replacing the D polarity, allows you to fill out all of the mod slots, adding in the two standard crit mods. As I mentioned previously, I don't think a crit build with just the basic crit mods is all that effective, especially as the Crit Damage with regular Target Cracker is still quite unimpressive. Nonetheless, the extra polarities let you fit in more mods to try out. More elementals, particularly 90%s offer a lot more raw damage, while Augur Pact is a low capacity mod that adds a little extra damage.

If you completely forgo the eighth mod and shift around the polarities, you can fit both Primed crit mods in comfortably.

Recommended Setups: see above.

Crit + Punch Through 4-Forma:

An added - polarity lets you fit in Seeker alongside the basic crit mods, which has a powerful interaction with the chaining mechanic. Every enemy hit by the primary beam will emit chain beams, and Punch Through allows you to hit multiple enemies with the primary beam, thus potentially producing many more chain beams. This drastically increases the Atomos' total damage output, not just against large groups, but even with a few tightly packed enemies.

Range + Punch Through 4-Forma:

This alternate build again has more range and elemental damage in lieu of the crit mods.

Recommended Setups: see above.

Complete Primed Crit 5-Forma:

One more V polarity and you can fit both Primed crit mods alongside Seeker.

Recommended Setups: see above.

My Builds:

I don't enjoy the Atomos enough to bother Forma-ing it more than I have here. This build is a standard Corrosive status build, excelling at stripping armour. Seeker provides invaluable Punch Through, while Ruinous Extension drastically improves the Atomos' mediocre range.I elected not to go for a crit build as I like the Punch Through and extra range more.

This is a pure Gas build, exceptional against the Corpus.

Combat Use and Summary

The Atomos is beam weapon that excels at destroying groups of enemies. With a powerful chaining mechanic, it can deal significant damage to a tightly packed group of enemies. This can be even further exacerbated with Punch Through, as it allows you to hit more enemies with the main beam, thus producing more chain beams. With a decent Status Chance and pure elemental damage, the Atomos also excels at rapidly proccing elements on a whole group of enemies. This makes it quite effective against armoured enemies with a Corrosive build, especially in groups.

Where the Atomos falls behind is in raw DPS. Compared to many other secondaries, it does not deal a lot of damage, with barely usable crit. As such, it is not especially effective against unarmoured high health enemies.

Overall, the Atomos is a great anti-crowd and decent anti-armour weapon. It is exceptionally powerful given its low MR lock at just MR 5, and is fairly easy to mod to be reasonably effective. If you're looking for a good lower MR secondary, or an easy anti-crowd weapon, the Atomos is a pretty good choice. I don't like it personally, but I have no qualms recommending it.

Scores

Vs Trash Mobs: 5/5 - Its beam chaining mechanic, especially combined with Punch Through, allows the Atomos to tear through an entire group of enemies with ease.
Vs Unarmoured Heavies: 1/5 - Low Burst DPS compared to many other secondaries leaves the Atomos quite far behind for killing unarmoured heavy enemies.
Vs Armoured Heavies: 4/5 - Good Status Chance with decent RoF and pure elemental base Damage allows the Atomos to proc Corrosive quite frequently, even without the benefit from Multishot. Notably, the chain beams also proc status, allowing it to deal with a group of armoured enemies surprisingly efficiently.

Vs Variants 

None.

Competitors

For single-target killing, the Atomos is not very notable, and lags behind several other beam secondaries, notably the Synoid Gammacor and just about any Gaze Kitgun. However, when it comes to group killing, the only remotely comparable beam secondary is the Ocucor, which relies on acquiring kills to be an effective group killer, and is limited to 4 extra beams. The Atomos is much more reliable and effective against groups, and is among the best group killing secondaries.

Rivens

The Atomos has a low 2/5 (0.8) Riven Disposition. This is odd considering its very low MR lock, but seems much more appropriate considering its actual performance and popularity.

As always, Damage/Multishot are the best stats to have. Crit Chance/Damage are both decent as well, but less effective due to the Atomos' mediocre crit. Punch Through is fantastic on the Atomos due to its chaining mechanic An appropriate element can also help to save mod slots and increase damage.

-Max Ammo can be tolerable, especially with Ammo Case/Mutation/etc. -Zoom is also perfect, as the Atomos is only usable at close range. -Faction Damage on a faction you care less about (e.g. Infested) can be reasonable. -Status Duration is alright if you care only about the duration independent procs (e.g. Corrosive, Blast). -Mag Capacity/Reload Speed can be pretty tolerable in small amounts due to the Atomos' great Reload Ratio. -Impact/Puncture/Slash if they are possible rolls are perfect negatives. +Recoil has no effect.