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Splatter enemies with a short-range stream of corrosive bile and then toss the ammo bladder as a grenade when reloading. The emptier the pistol's ammo bladder, the more potent its damage. A fully empty bladder packs the biggest punch.

Catabolyst is an Infestation w Infested sidearm that fires a short-ranged beam of DmgCorrosiveSmall64 Corrosive bile. When reloading, the Catabolyst's clip is thrown like a grenade, with greatly increased potency if reloading from an empty clip.

Characteristics[]

  • This weapon primarily deals DmgCorrosiveSmall64 Corrosive damage.
  • Primary beam:
    • Has linear damage falloff from 100% to 80% from 9m to 19m target distance. Distance is affected by Projectile Speed but do not increase the maximum range of the beam.
    • Damage ramps up from ?% to 100% over 0.6 seconds when firing. After firing stops for 0.8 seconds, the damage decays back to ?% over 2 seconds.
    • The zone of impact or maximum beam range has a spherical blast radius of 1 meter, allowing it to hit multiple enemies at once.
  • Reload throws a grenade at the reticle that explodes in 5 - 7 meter radius on impact with a surface or enemy.
    • Damage, critical chance, status chance, and explosion range increase when reloading with no ammo in the magazine.
    • Initial hit and explosion apply status separately.
    • Explosion does not need direct line of sight to deal damage and will penetrate walls.
    • Has travel time.
    • Weapon must be completely emptied from a full magazine in order maximize the use of the grenade.
    • Radius is not affected by Mod TT 20px Fulmination (Mod TT 20px Primed).
  • Can equip the Catabolyst-exclusive Mod TT 20px Critical Mutation mod.
  • Innate Madurai Pol polarity.
Advantages
Disadvantages
  • Will never reload on its own, must be reloaded manually.
  • Primary beam:
  • Reload grenade:
    • Low base critical chance.
    • Explosion inflicts self-stagger.
    • Explosion has a headshot multiplier of 1x and cannot trigger headshot conditions.
    • Explosion has linear Damage Falloff from 100% to 50% from central impact.

Acquisition[]

The Catabolyst's blueprint can be researched from the Bio Lab in the dojo.


Manufacturing Requirements
📝 Edit blueprint requirements
Credits
30,000
Scintillant
5
OcularStem-Root
4
MutagenMass
7
StellatedNecrathene
10
Time: 1 Day(s)
Rush: PlatinumLarge 35
MarketIcon Market Price: PlatinumLarge 190 Blueprint2 Blueprints Price:Credits50,000
Bio Lab ResearchClanAffinity643,000
Credits
5,000
MutagenSample
40
Plastids
650
Salvage
3,750
NanoSpores
4,250
Time: 3 Day(s)
Prereq: Embolist
Ghost Clan x1   Shadow Clan x3   Storm Clan x10   Mountain Clan x30   Moon Clan x100

Notes[]

  • Will not reload automatically on an empty magazine, preserving the grenade. The player must manually reload the weapon to toss it out and refill the magazine.
    • Cannot throw the grenade if reserve ammo is completely depleted.
  • If reload is interrupted after throwing an empty clip, reloading again will throw a weaker grenade. This includes if the player is knocked back from a full magazine explosion.
  • The grenade throwing animation speed is affected by reload speed.
  • Mod TT 20px Synth Charge increases the grenade damage.
  • Increasing magazine capacity has no effect on grenade damage.
  • Punch Through does not affect the beam or grenade.

Bugs[]

  • Multishot does not affect the reload grenade.
  • Mod TT 20px Galvanized Shot is multiplicative to base damage sources on direct hits from thrown grenade in both empty and partially empty states.

Tips[]

  • As this weapon has innate DmgCorrosiveSmall64 Corrosive damage, very high status chance, and the primary fire uses very powerful beam Multishot mechanics, it is able to very effectively build into DmgCorrosiveSmall64 Corrosive, DmgViralSmall64 Viral, and either DmgElectricitySmall64 Electricity or DmgFireSmall64 Heat damage all at the same time. The first two procs tend to cap and provide their maximum bonuses almost instantly, while the single element Damage over Time effects will stack up dozens of procs. This makes the weapon extremely powerful against individual enemies.

Trivia[]

  • Its name is based on catabolysis, a biological process in which the body breaks down fat and muscle tissue for survival, which only occurs during extreme cases of malnutrition.
  • When tossing the empty magazine, the player appears shocked that a new one has grown in its place, even going so far as to act like they are going to replace it themselves only to realize it's full again.
    • The player will also grab a fully empty magazine and look at it before throwing, where partial reloaded magazines will simply be tossed quickly.

Media[]

See Also[]

  • Sporothrix Sporothrix, a sniper rifle that shares the same visual theme.
  • Pulmonars Pulmonars, a melee weapon that shares the same visual theme.

Patch History[]

Update 35.0 (2023-12-13)

  • Fixed the Catabolyst sometimes skipping its reload animation which was preventing players from using its grenade throw attack.
    • This also fixes being unable to benefit from its Critical Mutation Augment Mod, which applied buffs to its grenade.

Update 32.0 (2022-09-07)

Ammo Changes

We understand the power fantasy of these weapons is very popular for some, so our first approach was to keep them powerful, but limit how often they can be used by making changes to ammo pick-up.

Ammo Pickup Overrides
The following weapons now have ammo pickup overrides, meaning they gain less from picking up ammo. This mostly applies to AoE weapons, in hopes that players will become more deliberate with their aim to make the most of their Ammo pools. The following lists the specific ammo pick up overrides per weapon category.

Secondary Weapon Ammo Pick Up Overrides

20 Ammo per Pick Up:

  • Catabolyst
Headshot Damage Changes

During playtesting, the ammo changes alone weren’t enough to significantly change things for AoE weapons. So instead of tightening these values to be overly restrictive, we chose to address other factors that make these weapons so strong, such as headshot damage.

Our approach here is two-fold, to reduce the impact of headshots for AOE weapons, but to also make precision headshots pack a larger punch overall.

  • Radial damage no longer gains extra headshot damage or triggers headshot conditions.
    • This is primarily targeted at the Ignis Wraith - as a “flamethrower” weapon, it’s hard to imagine a blanket of elements being precise enough to target weak points specifically. Explosive projectiles themselves can still land headshots, so there is still a reason to aim with most weapons for maximum damage.

Hotfix 29.5.7 (2020-12-10)

  • Fixed Catabolyst not showing a TRIGGER TYPE in Arsenal stats.

Hotfix 29.5.1 (2020-11-19)

  • Removed Catabolyst from Conclave.

Update 29.5 (2020-11-19)

  • Introduced.
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