Phage

The Phage is an Infested shotgun that fires seven beams in a wide spread. Aiming (default ) focuses these beams together, allowing the Phage to perform well against groups or individual targets as needed.

Characteristics
This weapon deals damage.

Advantages:
 * Innate damage – effective against Flesh and Cloned Flesh.
 * Its Status Effect will reduce an enemy's maximum health by 50% for 6 seconds.
 * Extremely ammo efficient.
 * Decent status chance.
 * Decent reload speed.
 * Multiple fire modes, adjustable by Aiming.
 * Innate Punch Through of approximately 0.5 meters.
 * Has a polarity.

Disadvantages:
 * deals reduced damage against Machinery and Infested.
 * Wide initial spread.
 * Focus time cannot be modified by any means.
 * Loses focus if firing is interrupted or released.
 * Limited range of 25 meters.

Tips

 * The beams' focus can be paused at intermediate stages by releasing aim. This can be used to dispatch different groupings of enemies more efficiently.
 * Due to its spread being controllable and damage being continuous, this weapon is quite effective at destroying Sabotage reactor cores.
 * Using Seeking Force or Seeking Fury will allow the beams to go through more objects.
 * It is possible to get 3 different elemental combinations on the same build - any two elements plus the base damage.
 * Sinister Reach can be equipped on the Phage, increasing its range from 25m to 37m (i.e., 1.48x), making it capable of hitting enemies at a much longer range.
 * Firing the Phage through Volt's Electric Shield will greatly increase the range of its beams, though not infinitely. Additionally, the beams will still need to be focused normally.

Trivia

 * Phage is the Greek word for "devour". The Phage itself may derive its name from Bacteriophages (viruses that consume bacteria) or Macrophages (cells that consume bacteria and cellular debris).
 * The Phage is the first shotgun to have a continuous-firing feature, as well as the first (and only) Infested shotgun.
 * It was also the second purely elemental shotgun, preceded by the Detron.
 * The oval bulb near the trigger beats like a heart, which suggests that this weapon is in fact a living organism.

Bugs

 * Like with all continuous weapons, you can be cloaked by a Shade or the Huras Kubrow as you are firing the weapon, and the cloak will not disengage unless you move out of range of enemies or stop firing the weapon and fire it again, granting high DPS against enemies with little retaliation.

Media
Phage