Acquisition
The Phantasma's blueprint is available directly from the Market.
Stats
The Phantasma's Primary Fire is a beam attack with a range of 20 metres. This beam has innate infinite body Punch-Through, so can pass through any number of enemies within its range, but will not innately penetrate any other solid objects.
It has impressive Status capabilities, with a very high 22.2% Status Chance-per-beam and innate Multishot of 6, coupled with a very high Fire Rate of 12. This gives it among the highest average Status output of any weapon in the game. On the other hand, its Crit is utterly abysmal.
Base Radiation and Impact damage has its benefits. Radiation in particular has a strong multiplier against Alloy-armour, and does not combine with modded elements so offers unique, otherwise impossible combinations like Corrosive + Radiation. The Phantasma's Shotgun classification is unfortunate, as if it was a Rifle, its Impact damage could potentially make good use of Internal Bleeding.
A Mag Capacity of just 11 is quite low with such a high Fire Rate, but this is counterbalanced by its ultra-fast 0.5 second Reload Time. As a Beam weapon, the Phantasma also benefits from consuming ammo at only half its Fire Rate, giving a very respectable Reload Ratio of 3.67.
Alternate Fire is rather unusual, firing slow-moving explosive projectiles that also suffer from drop. Unlike ordinary explosive weapons however, it can be charged up, consuming more ammo at once to deal more damage in a single shot. This Charge Time is an unmoddable 1 second per 11 ammo. The Arsenal displayed Charge Time reflects the full magazine, and so changing Mag Capacity will affect the displayed Charge Time. Alt Fire will consume a minimum of 2 ammo per shot.
Each extra ammo consumed will add one shot-worth of base Damage. It retains the same great Status Chance/abysmal Crit as Primary Fire, as well as its base Impact and Radiation damage.
With the unusual charge mechanic, Alternate Fire does not fit a traditional Reload Ratio assessment.
The Phantasma's Alternate Fire has a respectable 4.8m explosive radius, with moderate 50% Damage Fall-Off. This explosion can of course inflict self-stagger/knockdown.
Upon detonation, Alt Fire releases five homing projectiles, which will each home in on nearby enemies and deal damage and explode with the same stats as the original shot, seemingly including charge bonus. The projectiles are fairly short lived however.
When wielded by Revenant, the Phantasma gains +4 Mag Capacity. This does not scale with mods.
Augments
None.
Builds
Basic 0-Forma:
One each of innate V and - polarities provides a solid starting point for a build. This example build sticks to mods that are relatively easy to acquire and max.
Primed Point Blank 0-Forma:
If you do have Primed Point Blank and more 60/60 elemental mods, those mods can all be switched in for an overall slight damage increase and a significant increase in Status Chance. However, these mods are largely more difficult to acquire, and Primed Point Blank is significantly more expensive to max out.
With the polarities available and lack of Crit, a three-element build is very effective. Viral + Heat is the best all-rounder, with reasonable multipliers and near-universal procs. Corrosive + Heat is slightly better at weakening enemy armour, especially Ferrite-armour, and is much better against specific Infested who are immune to Viral (primarily those on the Cambion Drift).
Against the Corpus, a Magnetic + Toxin setup is somewhat counter-intuitive, but offers reasonable coverage against all Health types. Toxin is highly effective against any unarmoured enemy, bypassing their Shields entirely and striking at their often-weaker Health. Magnetic rapidly depletes any Shields which are not easily bypassed. Innate Radiation is effective against most of the Corpus' armoured units, as well as their Robotics when unshielded. If Shields are not a concern however, the above Viral/Corrosive + Heat tends to be better.
If you have it, Blaze is a great early option in any build using Heat, providing significantly higher direct damage than alternative Heat mods.
Recommended Setups: Viral + Heat vs everything, Corrosive + Heat vs armour, Infested, Radiation + Toxin vs Corpus
1-Forma:
One added V polarity allows you to use all eight mod slots, depending on what elemental mods you have available. Outside of the base Damage/Multishot/Element mods, there are a number of other options to consider.
Vicious Spread and Vigilante Armaments are low-fuss, low-damage increase options. A (Primed) Cleanse mod is much stronger, but of course only against the correct Faction, and is quite expensive to max out. If going this route, the Grineer and by extension Corrupted are the main ones of value. A +Fire Rate mod like Shotgun Spazz is a very strong DPS increase, however this comes at the cost of significantly higher ammo consumption and worse Reload Ratio.
A fourth elemental mod is also worth consideration. Though there are no new elemental combos of note, it can offer a decent amount of extra direct damage, as well as shift elemental biases to maximise specific procs. In particular, biasing towards Heat in a Viral/Corrosive + Heat build is ideal as Viral/Corrosive max at 10 stacks, while Heat stacks infinitely.
+Mag Capacity/Reload Speed can offer nice quality-of-life, especially if increasing Fire Rate. The former is the better of the two, partly due to (Primed) Ammo Stock's higher value compared to (Primed) Tactical Pump, partly due to the existence of Primary Merciless, and also because Alternate Fire can drain the extra Mag Capacity for an even stronger shot (albeit with even longer charge time).
Adding Punch-Through allows the Phantasma to shoot through some solid objects, but is not as impactful as it is on other weapons. Primary Fire already has innate body Punch-Through so will pass through enemies without issue, while Alternate Fire does not like Punch-Through as it can prevent shots from detonating correctly.
For the Exilus slot, there are two main options. An Ammo Mutation mod mitigates any potential ammo economy issues, which can be problematic otherwise as the Phantasma uses Shotgun ammo. If ammo is not a concern, Sinister Reach or Fatal Acceleration are solid options depending which firing mode you prefer. Primary Fire benefits from Sinister Reach, while Alternate Fire likes Fatal Acceleration.
Recommended Setups: see above.
Galvanised Build and Arcane
Galvanised Hell, duh.
Galvanised Savvy is naturally a great option. Innate Impact and Radiation allows the Phantasma to inflict up to 4 different Status types with mods, more than enough to far exceed Primed Point Blank. It can also effortlessly stack all of them on its victims with such high Fire Rate and Status Chance. It is worth noting that while the +Damage bonus works correctly on Primary Fire, it does not work well on Alternate Fire currently.
Galvanised Acceleration is a solid Exilus option if ammo concerns are already addressed. It greatly increases Primary Fire's range (up to +18m compared to Sinister Reach's +12m), as well as making Alternate Fire easier to use beyond close range. Notably, it also benefits both firing modes where the ordinary mods (Sinister Reach and Fatal Acceleration) only benefit one and not the other.
Between Merciless and Deadhead, I'd favour Merciless. The Phantasma eats through groups very easily, which stacks and maintains Merciless very well. +Reload Speed and +Ammo Max are both nice bonuses to have. Deadhead of course has the higher peak damage with its increased headshot multiplier, but I've personally found the Phantasma somewhat inconsistent at actually landing headshots. Its recoil reduction is also useless.
My Builds
Viral + Heat build, I've tinkered with this one quite a bit. As I've mentioned previously, I'm not a fan of Faction Damage mods so I've instead gone for the more general (but overall weaker) Primed Point Blank. It helps to kickstart kills early, and does not increase ammo consumption like Shotgun Spazz. Primed Ammo Stock is mainly for convenience, it is not a very impactful mod unless running +Fire Rate. In the content I typically play, even this "sub-optimal" build easily kills almost everything.
Combat Use and Summary
Primary Fire's beam attack is very effective against groups of enemies. Its innate body Punch-Through allows it to sweep through clumps of enemies effortlessly, and it deals more than enough damage to kill off weaker enemies. A very good Reload Ratio ensures minimum reloading downtime.
Heavily armoured enemies are also great targets for Primary Fire. It can effortlessly max out Viral/Corrosive procs on them, while also stacking huge Heat procs. Innate Radiation also offers a strong multiplier against Alloy-armoured enemies. The Phantasma's Primary Fire is somewhat lacking in direct damage in comparison to most of its Shotgun brethren, so can take a little longer to kill weakened enemies. Of particular note is its inability to reliably inflict Slash procs, which scales more effectively at (very) high levels.
Naturally with such a heavy Status-focus, Primary Fire is significantly less effective against any Status-resistant/immune enemies. The aforementioned lack of direct damage leaves it behind a lot of other Shotguns and other Primaries when it comes to killing such singular enemies.
Alternate Fire's explosive attacks are most effective against groups of enemies, naturally. They deal usable damage even with minimal charge, enough to kill off weaker enemies quickly. Shots with greater charge can naturally put significant dents in heavier enemies, though Primary Fire is better in that role as it can stack procs much faster.
Alternate Fire's additional projectiles give it hypothetically much higher damage, though these extra projectiles are not fast, not is there any real control over their targeting. As such, it is difficult to focus Alternate Fire's maximum damage potential into a single target, and it tends to end up rather spread out.
With its base Impact damage, Primary Fire also has a niche use in opening up specific heavy enemies up for Parazon finishers. Impact procs increase the minimum threshold at which appropriate enemies can be instantly killed with a Parazon finisher, and the Phantasma effortlessly maxes out Impact proc stacks. This can be a neat way of quickly killing a priority target at very, very high levels.
Ammo economy is a significant concern. Even with the benefit of being a beam weapon, the Phantasma eats through ammo very quickly for a Shotgun. As Shotgun ammo is uncommon, it can be quickly rendered impotent with unhelpful ammo drops. One of Ammo Case/Mutation/etc can solve this issue quite easily.
Naturally, the Phantasma is not much good beyond close range. Primary Fire has a limited range of 20m, while Alternate Fire launches very slow-traveling projectiles with drop.
Overall, the Phantasma is a strong close-range weapon. It fares quite well against dense groups of enemies with both firing modes, dealing solid AoE damage. Immense Status capabilities also make it quite effective against Status-vulnerable enemies, being able to inflict a plethora of strong Status procs effortlessly. It naturally struggles most when against Status-resistant/immune targets, though there are not many such enemies currently in the game.
Scores
Vs Variants
None.
Competitors
The Phantasma's closest Primary Fire competitor is the also MR9 Ignis Wraith. Both are continuous beam weapons with innate body Punch-Through.
Though the two have several similarities in firing style, there are still a few notable differences. The Phantasma has a range of 20 metres, while the IgnisW has a range of 27 metres with beam thickness and additional AoE at the end of the beam. On top of this is of course the significant stat difference. The Phantasma has higher Fire Rate and base Damage, as well as innate Multishot for much higher overall Status output and direct damage output. On the other hand, the IgnisW has much stronger Crit and higher Status Chance-per-tick, as well as far superior Reload Ratio and overall ammo efficiency as it uses Rifle ammo. The two base Damages also have different advantages. The Phantasma's Impact + Radiation is strong for Galvanised Savvy, providing two easy extra damage bonuses, while the IgnisW's Heat is much more useful as a proc type.
Especially taking into account Galvanised mods, the Phantasma ends up a fair bit stronger in direct damage. However, it has much more serious ammo issues and slightly worse AoE than the IgnisW.
Alternate Fire's explosive attack has far too many competitors to speak of, Kuva Bramma, Kuva Zarr, etc. All of the best explosive weapons are far superior to the Phantasma's Alt Fire, even when fully charged.
The Phantasma is the only weapon that combines these two decent firing modes in this way. The Basmu also has explosive and beam firing modes but it is a very different style of weapon.
Rivens
The Phantasma currently has a slight-above-average 3/5 (1.05) Riven Disposition. This seems to be a reasonable spot for it, as it is reasonably but not overwhelmingly powerful, and is not overly popular.
+Damage/Multishot are the standard good stats, though their impact has been diminished by Galvanised mods and weapon Arcanes. +Elemental Damage is always nice for extra damage, damage type bias shifting, or even saving a mod slot. +Status Chance can be nice but seems a tad unnecessary on top of what other mods are usually installed. +Faction Damage is a strong multiplier against the correct faction, but of course of no use against other enemies. +Fire Rate is a nice DPS and Status increase against all enemies, but comes at the cost of increased ammo consumption as well.
+Mag Capacity/Reload Speed can be nice QoL, with the former also increasing Alternate Fire's maximum damage potential, at the cost of longer Charge Time and higher ammo consumption. +Ammo Max isn't worthless as the Phantasma can consume a lot of ammo, but there are better stats to have. +Projectile Speed is nice for Alternate Fire, but does not affect Primary Fire. +Punch-Through allows Primary Fire to penetrate normal objects as well as enemy bodies, but interferes with Alternate Fire.
-Puncture/Slash are both ideal as the Phantasma does not deal either damage. -Impact is not as good as it usually is for most weapons. Though it is not a very good damage or proc, it still provides an extra multiplier for Galvanised Savvy which is a significant overall damage boost. Thus, removing it entirely could be considered detrimental, though simply reducing it is largely a non-issue.
-Crit Chance/Damage are both great as the Phantasma has barely any of either, the former being preferable of the two. -Faction Damage to a weaker faction you're not concerned about (e.g. Infested) can be manageable, and of course does nothing against other enemies. -Fire Rate can be balanced out by another +Fire Rate mod, but regardless represents a significant DPS loss. -Mag Capacity/Reload Speed can be manageable, and can also be compensated with another mod, but is not ideal. -Ammo Max is a minor issue with one of Ammo Case/Mutation/etc, but could be inconvenient if too high a value. -Projectile Speed has no effect on Primary Fire, but makes Alternate Fire more inconvenient. +Recoil has essentially no effect.
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