Spectra

"While its intended design is for deep space construction, the concentrated laser beam of the Spectra is highly effective against organic and synthetic enemies."

- In-Game Description

The Spectra is a Corpus pistol unlockable through Energy Lab Research in the dojo. Released in Update 9, it appears to be a handheld cutting laser that (according to its description) is as effective at cutting flesh as it is at cutting metal. It is essentially a sidearm version of the Flux Rifle, with similar characteristics.

The Spectra's beam has a maximum length of 15 meters (compared to the Flux Rifle's 25 meters) and approximately five seconds of firing time before the cell runs dry.

Characteristics
Advantages:
 * Deals Serrated Blade damage, ignoring armor and dealing triple damage to light infested.
 * 100% accuracy (although the beam seems to 'wobble' for a bit to start off with, then settles down to perfect accuracy).
 * High chance to stagger enemies.
 * Decent critical chance and critical damage modifier.

Disadvantages:
 * No polarity slots.
 * Lower damage than the Flux Rifle (200 dmg/s vs 80 dmg/s).
 * Limited ammo capacity (cell runs dry in ~5 seconds).
 * Very short range.
 * Very ammo inefficient.
 * Only requires 26 seconds of firing (excluding reloads) before it runs out of ammo.
 * Requires Dojo Research labs to acquire, plus a Forma to build.
 * Can make enemies stagger away from crosshair.

Acquisition
Dera has to be researched before researching this weapon. Once researched, you can replicate the blueprint by 15,000.

Weapon Loadouts
See the user build section for builds using this weapon.

Tips

 * As with the Flux Rifle, multishot mods (in this case Barrel Diffusion) are essential to maximize output.
 * Using the Pistol Ammo Mutation mod can help regain lost ammo when needed.
 * Alternatively, bring along lots of Pistol Ammo Boxes.

Trivia

 * The Spectra is essentially a smaller Flux Rifle -- dealing as much damage as the Flux Rifle did on release, albeit with shorter range and reduced ammo capacity.
 * Spectra is the plural form of spectrum, which essentially means "range".
 * During the final phases of the Arid Fear event, the corpus scouts were equipped with Spectras, which they would use for short durations before attempting to run.

Conclave
At rank 30 without any mods, the Spectra uses 20 Conclave points.