- "This beam uses targeted but incredibly powerful energy projections to quickly break down hard surfaces and expose valuable deposits. The beam can be charged to target larger areas."
- —Dead Space (2023) description.[1]
- "A heavy-duty energy pulse device, the Contact Beam is used for commercial destruction where a powerful but focused explosive force is needed. The alt-fire delivers a ground clearing-blast around the user."
- —Dead Space 2 description.[2]
The C99 Supercollider Contact Beam, also referred to simply as the Contact Beam, is a heavy engineering tool designed to pound and soften hard, raw minerals into smaller pieces.
Precious ores and minerals are sometimes contained within large toughened rocks, which poses a problem to smaller mining equipment. This is where a C99 Supercollider Contact Beam comes in: it is designed specifically for splitting and obliterating tough materials and meteors, for easy extraction of the ore within.
The tool is immensely powerful and handy against tough enemies. However, the primary fire has to be charged for a short time until it can be fired.
Design Details[]
Contact Beam design drawings.
Like the Force Gun, the Contact Beam is an energy projector that utilizes kinetic energy. As its name suggests, it is a miniaturized particle accelerator intended for mining operations.
To operate to its actual purpose, the Contact Beam needs to be charged for a brief period. When fully charged and fired, the Contact Beam delivers a huge kinetic discharge that obliterates anything it comes into contact. As such, the weapon trades speed and precision for damage.
The kinetic discharge is very powerful to the point where most Necromorphs can be killed in one shot, even prior to upgrades. If not charged, the Contact Beam acts as a simple short-range weapon. The Contact Beam's secondary fire acts much like the Pulse Rifle's (in the original Dead Space) where it unleashes a small radial ground-based shock wave that knocks objects away from the wielder.
In the 2023 remake of Dead Space, the Contact Beam operates differently; the focused blast after a brief charging time is now relegated to the secondary fire, while the primary fire now projects a continuous beam of energy that consumes ammo over time. In addition to this, the charged shot now comes at the cost of 3 units of contact energy, though this is compensated by the fact that Contact Energy can be carried in much greater amounts per inventory slot.
Location[]
- The Contact Beam Schematic can be found in Chapter 4 of Dead Space, en route to the first junction box after enabling the Atrium elevators, in the middle of a short corridor near the elevator.
- In Dead Space 2, the Schematic for the Contact Beam is found in a locked room shortly after shutting down ANTI and right before the elevator leading up to the Solar Array. The room requires a Power Node to open.
- The location of the blueprint for it in Dead Space 3 is in Chapter 11 in the optional mission: Armory, towards munitions control.
- In Dead Space: Extraction the Contact Beam is unlocked in Chapter 9 towards the end of the game.
- In Dead Space (2023), the Contact Beam is found in the Bridge starting from Chapter 4: immediately after entering Mining Administration at the end of an exposed vacuum hallway, there is a Security Clearance Level 2 room to the right labeled "Records Office", the Contact Beam will be located inside by a bloody pool on the floor.
Variants[]
- Hacker Contact Beam (DS2, Conduit Room [primary fire charge reduced by 0.1 seconds, +5% secondary fire damage])
- Heavy-Duty Contact Beam (DS2, Supernova Pack [primary fire charge reduced by 0.1 seconds, +5% damage bonus])
- Military Contact Beam (DS1, Military Pack)
- Heavy Damage Contact Beam (DS1, Heavy Damage Pack)
- Pedestrian Contact Beam (DS1, Pedestrian Pack)
Combat Tips[]
General[]
- The Contact Beam is one of the most powerful and difficult weapons to wield; the charged shot takes one second (when not fully upgraded) to completely charge up while the fire button is held down. Once mastered, the Contact Beam can be deadly; however, its small magazine size and sparse ammunition drops make accuracy of paramount importance.
- The charged shot is powerful enough to kill nearly every creature regardless of where the shot hits, so simply focus on landing the shot.
- The Contact Beam is highly effective against Brutes, as a single shot behind the Brute is capable of slicing ay of their limbs off. If the player manages to fully upgrade their Contact Beam's damage, a single shot can even instantly kill a Brute on lower difficulties.
- The Contact Beam's primary fire does not travel through multiple enemies; this makes it a poor weapon for crowd control, so consider switching to a different weapon if you are being swarmed by a large number of enemies.
- Conversely, the Contact Beam's secondary fire is an excellent crowd control weapon, knocking down any enemy near you in any direction.
- If Isaac is hit when alt-firing, he will still take damage, but the firing animation is not disrupted unless the damage taken is enough to stagger, kill, or knock Isaac off his feet. Stalkers and Brutes are prime examples of this.
- The primary fire will briefly stun weaker Necromorphs if the beam travels close enough to them, even when it never hits them. However, this doesn't seem to deal damage.
- It is the most valuable ammo to sell, at 1000 Credits each. If you have the space, it can be useful to keep in inventory.
- On harder difficulties, it is vital to remember that releasing the aim button (LT or L1 on consoles) will cancel any pointless or accidental charges; since Contact ammo is scarce even on easy difficulties, any waste can severely hinder progress or even survival.
Dead Space[]
- Ammunition comes very sparsely across the game, where a single pack of Contact Energy only has enough charge to power one shot. Packs can only hold 4 rounds per inventory slot, meaning missed shots hurt especially bad with the Contact Beam.
- The Contact Beam is highly effective against the Leviathan's tentacles - a well-placed shot can sever a tentacle in a single blow, especially with a damage upgrade.
- The secondary fire is best used when the player is surrounded or cornered by Necromorphs, as it can knock them back and buy time for an escape.
- It should be noted that this should only be used primarily as a means of creating breathing room between you and your enemies; it should not be employed at a means of damaging enemies, as damage from the blast is negligible.
- A notable exception to this is Swarmers, which will always be killed by the blast. It will even kill them if they have already grabbed on to you, making this a great emergency tool if you're ambushed by a large group of them. However, it is important to fire off the shot before any latch onto Isaac as the damage he takes may stagger him out of the firing animation.
- It should be noted that this should only be used primarily as a means of creating breathing room between you and your enemies; it should not be employed at a means of damaging enemies, as damage from the blast is negligible.
- The Contact beam can kill Pregnants without releasing its swarm, no matter where you hit, especially when upgraded, and even on harder difficulties.
Dead Space 2[]
- When fully upgraded, it takes just 0.4 seconds to charge up, which means it can fire almost three shots per second. It is actually faster than some of the other heavy tools such as the Line Gun or Javelin Gun.
- The Alt-Fire is far more powerful than in the original Dead Space, with the potential to one-shot any existing common Necromorphs, including Enhanced Slashers if they're close enough to Isaac.
- Furthermore, with the special upgrade, it will stasis all enemies caught in its blast radius.
- Overall, the value of Contact Energy in Dead Space 2 is greatly increased; ammo stack size has been increased to 6 per equipment slot, and it drops much more frequently than in the original Dead Space. Combined with its high sell price, it can be useful to keep around a Contact Beam just to sell the excess ammunition.
- Unlike in Dead Space, The Contact Beam's node tree lacks damage nodes, so you do not have to worry about boosting the tool's damage output (which is higher than it was in DS1, giving that it can now kill even Enhanced Necromorphs instantly on any difficulty) when you buy it from the Store.
- However, there are more reloading nodes present, as the un-upgraded reloading sequence is much longer than it was in DS1. Since the long reload time can give enemies an opportunity to strike, it is vital that you upgrade the reloading speed.
- The Contact Beam is the most effective weapon for the final battle in Dead Space 2. On Normal difficulty, a single shot can expose the final boss' weak point, and a second shot can destroy it, ending the fight before you are overwhelmed by the unending onslaught of other adversaries. Even on higher difficulties, it will only take around 2-3 barrages like this to destroy the boss, but every time it is rendered vulnerable the Pack disappears, thus making this a relatively safe and easy battle.
- Even on Zealot difficulty, a fully upgraded (primary firing) Contact Beam can end the fight in under 8 seconds, before any of the Pack can reach you. It's important to have plenty of reload upgrades for this (preferably maxed) as the magazine capacity means at least one reload will be required.
Dead Space 3[]
- Like the Force Gun, a recreation of the Alt-Fire (Ground Diffractor) seems to have had its damage nerfed significantly regardless of its visible stats, completely unable to one-shot a common Slasher on Casual, though the base firing speed/animation seems have been increased. Thus, it is best used on fast but weak enemies such as the Feeder.
Dead Space (2023)[]
- The Contact Beam is without a doubt the most devastating weapon in the game due to its primary fire now being fully automatic, shredding Necromorphs in mere seconds and its secondary fire deals massive damage or outright killing standard enemies in a single shot, especially when the secondary fire is upgraded.
- That being said with its extreme power, the secondary fire can also damage Isaac if he is too close to the projectile's blast radius. Therefore, it is not recommended to use in close quarters.
- In general, the Contact Beam one of the most valuable weapons in the game, as it has a starting magazine size of 12 (can be upgraded to a max clip size of 25). Ammo drops can be fairly common too, on top of the fact that ammo drops in quantities of 5 units of contact energy and can carry up to 15 units per inventory stack.
- The Contact Beam is an excellent choice for dealing with Brutes as 2 well placed shots from the secondary fire or a few short bursts aimed at the back will decimate in mere seconds, even when unupgraded.
- The Contact Beam is highly effective against the Leviathan boss as even a short burst from the primary fire destroy its tentacles and 6 well-placed shots in total from the secondary fire can officially kill the Leviathan via its mouth weak point, especially with one or two secondary fire damage upgrades.
- Keep in mind that if Isaac gets damaged while charging up the Contact Beam, enemy attacks can interrupt the Alt fire mode's charge up, completely cancelling the animation.
- The fully upgraded Contact Beam does wonders against the final boss as even a short burst from the primary fire will destroy any of the Hive Mind's weak points, both in the first and second phases.
Trivia[]
- In Dead Space: Catalyst, an engineer uses a Contact Beam to dig slowly through rock, complaining because that tool is used to clear piles of rubble, not solid rock. The Contact Beam manages to turn several feet of rock to rubble before burning out.
- There are contradictions to the weight of the Contact Beam. Isaac was seen leaning when handling it, indicating it is heavy. However, Nathan McNeill was able to use it with one hand after his other had been severed indicating it is lightweight, or that he is stronger than Isaac. (Or he just simply had no choice.)
- Additionally, In Dead Space 2, the weapon seemed to be much lighter than that of Dead Space, as Isaac is able to hold it normally and can even lift it up to his face during the reload animation.
- A Contact Beam was probably the suicide weapon referenced in an audio log found on the Mining Deck. The miner who recorded the log used the tool to first blow off his legs, then somehow dismembering his entire upper torso with the second blast.
- The Contact Beam's signature charging-up sound is heard moments before each shot, further cementing this theory.
- The Contact Beam is the first weapon in the series to be identifiable by its firing sound. Gabe Weller recognized the sound of the tool firing shortly before Nathan McNeill arrived, having just fired the weapon seconds prior.
- The Contact Beam can be fully recreated in Dead Space 3 by placing a Precision-tipped Plasma Core as the Upper Tool on a Heavy Frame, and a Diffraction Torus-tipped Plasma Core (resulting in the Ground Diffractor) as the lower tool.
- If one chooses, a Stasis Coating attachment can also be added to imitate the Dead Space 2 special upgrade, though it's not 100% accurate as the Primary fire will also stasis enemies.
- Alternatively, it can quickly be crafted once its blueprint has been found in Chapter 11, although one will still have to manually add a Stasis Coating attachment.
- If one chooses, a Stasis Coating attachment can also be added to imitate the Dead Space 2 special upgrade, though it's not 100% accurate as the Primary fire will also stasis enemies.
- In Dead Space, when the damage is fully upgraded, charging the weapon will not produce a bright flash of yellow-white light. Instead, when charged, a small greenish-yellow flame will continually flicker at the end of the barrel of the weapon.
- Occasionally in Dead Space 2, when Isaac touches a Necromorph corpse killed by stasis-upgraded alt-fire blast, sometimes the corpse will 'hit' him.
- To use the crowd control variant of the secondary fire, Isaac shoots the ground using the primary fire.
- The Contact Beam utilizes three blue laser reticules as its firing indicator in Dead Space, similar to that of the Plasma Cutter, albeit slightly narrower and in a vertical line. In Dead Space 2, the crosshair is changed to a single dot - the aiming laser does become the three-dot crosshair again if the aiming mode is set to "classic", however.
- The Hacker Contact Beam has 'DMG 78' print, but its real damage is 100 (unupgraded).
- Supercolliders work by accelerating a particle or group of particles to relativistic speeds; abbreviated "C". When the particle beam strikes a target, it produces several atoms of antimatter, which immediately annihilate with the normal matter of the target. The designation "C99" could mean that the Contact Beam accelrates a relatively high-mass particle to 99% the speed of light. Damage upgrades may add more particles to the beam.
Gallery[]
Render of the Contact Beam in Dead Space (2023).
Another render of the Contact Beam in Dead Space (2023).
The Contact Beam as seen in Dead Space (2023).
The Contact Beam in action in the remake.
The Contact Beam as seen in Dead Space (2008).
The Contact Beam in action in the original game.
The Contact Beam as seen in Dead Space 2.
Artwork of the Hacker Contact Beam.
Hacker Contact Beam with a matching Hacker RIG.
Heavy-Duty Contact Beam with a matching Heavy-Duty Vintage RIG.
The Contact Beam in action in DS2.
The Contact Beam as seen in Dead Space: Extraction.
Nathan McNeill wielding a Contact Beam.
The "Full Contact" achievement/trophy from the original game.
The "C-Section" achievement/trophy from Dead Space 2.
The "Full Contact" achievement/trophy from the remake.
Appearances[]
- Dead Space: Extraction
- Dead Space: Downfall (possibly the weapon a miner used to kill two men)
- Dead Space: Catalyst
- Dead Space (2008)
- Dead Space 2
- Dead Space 2: Severed
- Dead Space 3
- Dead Space 3: Awakened
- Dead Space (2023)
Sources[]
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