Quanta

The Quanta is a Corpus mining laser cutter used by Corpus Quanta Rangers and is the basis of the Mutalist Quanta, Paracyst, and the Quanta Vandal though the weapons share little in common other than basic appearances and similarly functioning secondary fires. It features high damage per second with perfect accuracy, and a secondary fire mode (default ) which launches explosive energy cubes that detonate on contact with enemies, weapons fire, or after a short period of time, dealing AoE damage.

Characteristics
This weapon deals damage.

Advantages
 * Excellent ammo efficiency on normal firing mode.
 * Good chance to proc per second.
 * Specializes in damage, making it effective against Robotic and Machinery-enemies. Electricity is a versatile damage type, combining for,  and , each effective against an enemy faction.
 * Secondary fire lobs a small damage cube that explodes after a period of time or when hitting an enemy, with a high chance to proc.
 * Attacking the cube before it hits an enemy will prematurely detonate the cube, dealing twice as much damage.
 * Amount of cubes is limited only by ammunition.
 * Cubes can land reliable headshots by detonating them above targets.
 * Unlike most explosive weapons, Quanta does not damage the player.
 * Has a polarity.
 * Longest reach of all range-limited weapons, 50m.

Disadvantages
 * While Quanta has much longer range (50 meters) than most other continuous beam weapons, it still limits your ability to damage enemies beyond the maximum range.
 * Cubes consume 10 rounds each and will not function with less than 10 rounds.
 * Cubes have slow travel time and will come to a complete stop roughly 15 meters from the firing position.
 * Frequently using the secondary fire will drain ammo quickly.

Comparisons

Tips

 * The Quanta's cubes will detonate if exposed to weapons fire, including explosions from other nearby cubes. This can be used to create a chain detonation by launching multiple cubes within explosion range of each other, then shooting one of them to detonate all the cubes.
 * The innate polarity matches.

Trivia

 * Unlike the Mutalist Quanta, the weapon's arms do not rotate when firing, and instead both ends are used to emit two laser beams that meet together at the reticle.
 * As it was originally intended as a mining tool, it is likely that the laser emitters would not have aimed at the same point, but instead cut around a location, with the arms rotating to cut out mineral hotspots in the shape of a cone. As a weapon, however, there would be little use for this level of articulation. Aiming the lasers at a single point alone would be enough for a weapon. As such, the rotation would not be needed.
 * The Quanta appears to fire two beams at once. If a Riven Mod with more that -50% multishot is installed, the bottom beam stops firing.
 * It was previously believed that both lasers emitted are cosmetic, and the true laser that actually strikes the enemy is invisible and projects from the center of the gun, as when punch through is added, only the lower laser appears to collide with anything.
 * This is the only weapon that can benefit from both and.
 * Despite the Quanta being the original Corpus version of the weapon, it was introduced into the game after the Mutalist Quanta.
 * Its default colors are the same as the Mutalist version, although only the Primary, Secondary and Energy affect its colors.
 * The Quanta is used by Quanta Rangers in Corpus Archwing missions.