Pathocyst

Infested

Weapons

Pathocyst

Statistics

Utility

Normal Attacks

17.0

15.0

21.0

29.0

Throw Attacks

35.0

29.0

37.0

184.0

Charged Throw Attacks

71.0

63.0

75.0

576.0

Other Attacks

Miscellaneous

Weapon Users

Zealoid Prelate

Introduced

Hotfix 25.7.7

CODEX

Each strike of this infested glaive infects its target with viral pathogens. Occasionally, it discharges the spores of rabid, enemy-seeking maggots, either in-flight or on contact with an enemy.

The Pathocyst is an Infested Glaive that is the signature weapon of the Zealoid Prelate, boasting innate Viral damage and high status chance, and releases Maggots when attacking enemies or when thrown. It was introduced in Hotfix 25.7.7.

Manufacturing Requirements
30,000	2	1	5	Time: 24 hrs
30,000	2	1	5	Rush: 25
Market Price: N/A			Blueprints Price:N/A

CharacteristicsEdit

This weapon deals primarily Viral damage.

Advantages

Highest base damage of all glaives.
- Innate Viral damage – effective against Flesh and Cloned Flesh.
- High damage – effective against health.
Good critical chance.
Above average critical multiplier.
Tied with Glaive Prime and Cerata for the highest status chance of all glaives.
- Can reach 100% status chance with Volcanic Edge, Vicious Frost, Voltaic Strike, and Virulent Scourge.
Possesses momentum during regular swings, which resists interruption such as stagger or knockdown.
Charge Attack throws the glaive, which can bounce up to three times or travels up to 30 meters before returning to the user, damaging anyone in its path.
- Primary and secondary weapons can be fired and reloaded can be used normally with a thrown glaive, and retrieving the glaive does not interrupt these actions.
- Thrown glaive is silent.
- Glaive can explode mid-flight by pressing the melee button which forces a return or after hitting an object or enemy on the last bounce with Power Throw equipped.
- During flight or when striking an enemy, the glaive drops Infested pods which quickly hatch into Maggots that lasts for 7 seconds and will fight alongside the player.
  - Maggots can latch onto enemies and stagger them.
  - Maggots may also appear on any normal attack done to enemies.
Can be wielded in-tandem with a single-handed secondary weapon.
Innate and polarities.

Disadvantages

Innate Viral damage – less effective against Infested and Infested Sinew.
Low Puncture damage – less effective against armor.
Slowest attack speed of all glaives.
Short melee range.
Cannot use melee attacks while the glaive is in mid-flight.
Only glaive with no innate Punch Through when thrown.
Exploding glaive inflicts self-damage.
Spawned maggots deal negligible damage.
Spawned maggots will alert enemies, despite the weapon being silent.
Spanwed maggots have a limited lifespan.

Weapon LoadoutsEdit

See Category:Pathocyst Build to see how players mod this weapon.
See Category:Pathocyst Guides for guides on how to use this weapon effectively.
For more general help with weapons, you may wish to browse Category:Weapon Guides.

Acquisition

Pathocyst's main blueprint and components can be obtained from defeating Zealoid Prelate on Emissary Derelict Assassination missions. All parts are tradeable between players.

Drop	Chance	Expected	Nearly Guaranteed
Main Blueprint	33.33%	7 – 8 kills	24 ± 6 kills
Subcortex	33.33%
Blade	33.33%

Expected refers to total number of kills a player can expect to receive at least one Main Blueprint and Subcortex, and at least two Blades.

Nearly Guaranteed refers to the total number of kills a player needs to obtain a 99%, 99.9%, and 99.99% probability to receive at least one Main Blueprint and Subcortex, and at least two Blades.

^{For more detailed definitions and information on how these number were obtained visit here.}

NotesEdit

Acquired blueprints can be sold for 2,500‍2,500 each while its components can be sold for 3,500‍3,500 each.
Maggots spawned by the Pathocyst do not interact with Nidus's abilities or the Strain Mod Set.
Spawned maggots do not benefit from additional damage from abilities, except Roar and Molecular Primed enemies. For whatever reason, being buffed with elemental boost augments such as Smite Infusion has no effect, regardless if it is casted before or after maggots are spawned.
Leveling the Pathocyst through stealth can be very challenging, due to maggots spawning sometimes through stealth finishers, and many more spawning through thrown attacks, which will alert enemies. Exploding maggots, while dealing low damage, may immediately thrust enemies out of a 'sleep state' (eg Sleep Arrow from Quiver or Rest & Rage) with no wakeup animation, who may then see dead bodies.
- It is important to mod the weapon with fire rate and finisher damage to ensure one shot kills on enemies, but also extra awareness of which enemies in range are asleep or out of visual range, and which are not. Maggots may also suddenly sprint very quickly, darting around a corner if they detect enemies and then getting shot at, alerting the area.

Properties of exploding Maggots:
- Explosions have 0% crit chance and status chance. (More testing required to find out damage type).
- Explosion damage can be increased through base damage modifiers (e.g. Pressure Point, Spoiled Strike).
- Maggot damage is not enhanced by combo multiplier, faction damage modifiers, elemental modifiers, or physical damage modifiers.
- Maggots spawn at the same level as the weapon's current rank. For Example, a rank 24 Pathocyst will spawn level 24 Maggots.
The Pathocyst is the only Glaive that simply gains bonus damage on charged thrown attacks. All other Glaive weapons also gain bonus Status and/or boosts to Crits.

TipsEdit

The main benefit of the spawned maggots is crowd control; Enemies will be briefly distracted by running maggots or stunned when they manage to latch onto them, but due to their limited life spawn they won't last long.
Modding the Pathocyst with high status chance and Cold damage will extend the duration of the stun when maggots latch, assuming the cold damage procs. This can slightly boost the effectiveness of latched maggots.