Nova creates a volatile orb of antimatter which is steered with the aiming reticle. This particle absorbs all damage (friendly and hostile) when shot at, and once the particle makes contact with a solid object it will detonate and inflict 100 / 125 / 150 / 200 base damage +100% / 300% / 500% / 700% of all absorbed damage as Radiation damage with an explosion radius of 5 / 8 / 10 / 15 meters. When the particle comes into contact with an enemy, 10Radiation damage is inflicted prior to detonation.
Base damage and contact damage are affected by Ability Strength while Absorb multiplier is not.
The explosion radius is not affected by Ability Range.
The particle is guided via the HUD's targeting reticle, steering itself towards any object the reticle is placed on including environmental obstacles and enemies.
Looking directly at the particle will slow it down significantly.
Multiple particles can be active simultaneously.
The particle seems to have unlimited duration until it comes into contact with a solid object. However, multiple instances of particles at the same time will cause randomly timed explosions until there is only one left.
One particle can store up to 25,000 absorbed damage.
After absorbing the maximum amount of damage the particle will speed up rather significantly.
The coloring of the particle changes towards the caster's energy color as it absorbs damage.
Antimatter Drop's visuals will appear gold when cast by Nova Prime.
This ability is a one-handed action; as such, it will not interrupt full actions such as reloading, charging, or shooting.
Antimatter Absorb is a Warframe Augment Mod for Nova's Antimatter Drop that gives it an Absorb field to absorb incoming enemy gunfire, adding to its total damage potential.
Ability Strength has nearly no effect on a charged Antimatter Drop's damage output, so don't hesitate to use it even when running a low strength speed Nova build.
It is wise to have a full magazine before releasing an Antimatter Drop. Upon using the ability, continue firing at it nonstop. A high powered weapon can easily cause Antimatter Drop to deal well over 20,000 damage. Using Weapons modified for high object damage is best as this ability cannot absorb critical hits.
A quick and reliable way to utilize the Antimatter Drop's damage potential is to aim it at the floor and blast it with a shotgun point blank as soon as it's launched, resulting in a radial explosion around the player. Well-modded Sancti Tigris or Tigris Prime are capable of fully charging the Drop with a single duplex shot, while Arca Plasmor's wide effective area makes it easy to hit the Drop without taking time to aim.
Antimatter Drop moves towards a point at which the player is placing their reticle, whether aiming or not. Keep this in mind to control it. If you aren't absolutely sure that enemy fire will kill you it may be wiser to persevere through the hail of bullets and continue guiding the Drop until it detonates as prematurely running for cover may cause a loaded drop to float back to you and waste your invested ammo.
Undoubtedly if done correctly, this is the most effective ability that can be used against powerful bosses that retain a single stage of health, as a well-charged drop can deal damages up to more than 100,000 Radiation damage on a single explosion.
Using accurate weapons such as the Flux Rifle is recommended to provide continuous flow of damage to the drop.
The Opticor is one of such weapons, and would result in 4400 damage dealt by Antimatter Drop from a single shot, unmodified, and with a max charge shot.
Use weapons that have zero or little recoil. Recoil moves the weapon upward and this will move the reticle as well, which in turn will steer the orb away from the centerline (when it flies away from you) and will be very hard to hit.
Critical damage does not amplify the Drop further, as Critical hits do not affect objects.
Most likely due to the behavior of abilities with Cataclysm, it is ill-advised to use Antimatter Drop inside of said ability. The orb will always count as "outside of the rift plane" and therefore you will be unable to hit it unless you leave the Cataclysm.
Using the augment, you can create a moving shield that charges itself.
Being squad host will remove the burden on experiencing input lag when using this ability. When playing as a client the position needs to be sent to the host & back to you.
Maximization
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Bugs
If Nova is killed while the Orb is still active, the Orb is re-assigned as a neutral entity, capable of damaging all factions. This allows the Orb to kill allies and the Nova who initially casts this ability.
A bug that often occurs is the antimatter drop latching onto the Warframe on cast. This somehow is partly visual. The aura from the augment will still be visible but won't shield you from enemy fire. That is most likely because the fired Antimatter Drops is flying normally but invisible, still following the players reticle. Unfortunately it seems to be impossible to hit the invisible orb nor does the augment function on it, making it a highly wasted use of the ability. Additionally, while one bugged orb is attached to your Warframe, another use of the ability will make a new orb circling around your Warframe and therefore wasting another 50 Energy on cast. To get the chance of an unbugged use you need to wait until your before bugged drop explodes somewhere.
A new bug makes the orb disappear after it traveled a few meters. It still follows the aiming reticle and will explode upon contact with a surface or enemy but it can't be hit by weapons anymore to further amplify it's damage. This sometimes appears to happens with nearly every cast in a mission.
Edit
Opticor works great for it.
