Antimatter Drop

	2 50	Antimatter Drop Launches a contained particle of antimatter that will detonate upon collision. Introduced in Update 9.0 (2013-07-13)	Strength:100 / 125 / 150 / 200 (base damage) 10 (contact damage)
			Duration:N/A
			Range:N/A
			Misc: 2x / 4x / 6x / 8x (absorb multiplier) 5 / 8 / 10 / 15 m (explosion range)

• Info
• Augment
• Tips & Tricks
• Maximization
• Bugs

Info

• 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 damage with an explosion radius of 5 / 8 / 10 / 15 meters. When the particle comes into contact with an enemy, 10 damage is inflicted prior to detonation.
  • Base damage and contact damage are affected by Ability Strength while Absorb multiplier is not.
  • Contact damage and resulting explosion are affected by body-part multipliers.
  • The explosion bypasses obstacles in the environment, and its damage does not decrease with distance.
  • Extra damage from critical multipliers and status effects are not absorbed by the particle.
  • The particle does not absorb damage from other Antimatter Drop explosions.
  • damage is effective against Alloy Armor, Robotic, and Infested Sinew, but less effective against Shielded, Infested, and Fossilized.
  • 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.

Augment

Main article: Antimatter Absorb

Antimatter Absorb is a Warframe Augment Mod for  Nova's  Antimatter Drop that allows it to absorb incoming enemy gunfire, adding to its total damage potential.

Antimatter Absorb

Tips & Tricks

• 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. A 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 or weapons with a high rate of fire such as the  Flux Rifle or  Supra/ Supra Vandal is recommended to provide a continuous flow of damage to the drop.
  • The  Opticor is an example of one weapon that can provide a large amount of damage to the drop.
  • It is preferable to use weapons that have zero or little recoil, as recoil moves the weapon 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 make it take time to re-steer it to where you wish it 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

This calculator feature is sunsetted on the wiki. It may not see further updates, but will be present on articles for the time being since some people still find use for them. See User blog:Cephalon Scientia/Sunsetting of Maximization Calculators for more details.

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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 energy. To get the chance of an unbugged use, you will need to wait until your current bugged drop explodes somewhere.
• Another 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 can happen with nearly every cast in a mission.

See Also

•  Nova