Charged Blaster Cannon

Any ordinary enemy in Martian Madness can drop this, which makes it a different farming problem from the event's other prizes. You are not hunting the saucer, you are killing everything the event throws at you for as long as it runs, and hoping. Since the event needs Golem down first, this is a late pickup and it plays like one.

Tapping the button gives you a feeble little orb that dies on whatever it touches. That is the worst thing this weapon does and it is what most people see first. Keep holding and it climbs. A fast burst of those small orbs comes first, then heavy orbs that pierce everything in their path and blow up against walls, then a solid beam that reaches most of the way across the screen and grinds anything standing in it. Each rung takes a second and a half or so of unbroken holding, and letting go for an instant drops you all the way back to the bottom.

The small orb stage and the large orb stage each charge you once, when the stage begins, no matter how many shots come out of it. The beam is the opposite and drains continuously the entire time it is out. That inverts the usual advice about magic weapons: sitting on the trigger through the orb stages is nearly free, while the beam is what actually empties you. The attack cuts out the moment mana runs dry, and the beam also stops itself after a few seconds even with plenty left, so either way you are restarting the climb.

Anywhere enemies have to come to you along a line. The late tier of the Old One's Army is the standout, since the ground waves march straight into the beam and the heavy orbs detonate into whatever is packed behind the front rank. Long dungeon corridors and event streets work the same way. You can steer the beam while it is firing, so a slow moving crowd does not force you to drop the charge and start over.

Anything fast and erratic. A boss circling an arena keeps forcing you to reposition, and every dodge that makes you release the button costs the whole climb back up to the beam. In those fights a weapon that does its damage immediately will out damage this comfortably with none of the fuss. Reforge to Mythical and treat it as the thing you swap to when a fight has a shape, not as your everyday gun.

The whole weapon is a nod to Mega Man, down to the way it sits on your arm rather than in your hand. It also has the smallest sprite of any weapon in the game, which you will notice the first time you drop one and lose it.