Exotic Heavy Weapon: The Synergism It is a combination of a Void shotgun, Solar sniper, and Arc fusion rifle. STAY WITH ME HERE. This weapon is very unique and would work best as a hard mode raid boss reward, perhaps for the 4th expansion or beyond. To fire it, you hold to charge (like a fusion rifle), and when it shoots it releases 1) A shotgun blast similar to the damage and range of an Invisible Hand M7 (lowish damage and bad range) 2) 5 Fusion rifle bolts with excellent range falloffs, but a relatively wide spread and low damage 3) A red sniper round with a similar range and damage profile to the Praedyth's revenge (Acceptable range but low damage) It fires slightly faster than a stock Plan C, but is fully automatic with no delay between the shot and the beginning of the next shot's charging. The sniper round only does the above damage when ADS, when hip firing its damage is halved. The recoil is very significant. Each shot will make it kick like a shotgun, reducing but not eliminating its ranged intentions. It is best suited for close range, but you have to ADS for reliable mid range kills due to the half damage sniper round when hip firing. Keep in mind that although at melee distance this will do a lot of damage, you have to charge before each shot, making it fairly balanced for PvP. Also keep in mind that it is competing not with the likes of shotguns, fusion rifles, and snipers, but against LMGs and Rocket Launchers, and exotic ones at that. It may seem very powerful, but so is the Gjallarhorn. Aesthetics: Start off with an Invective-Esque design, with a purple glow. On top of that is a triangular barrel, with red-orange accents and a few technical-metallic attachments on it so it looks less barren. Below the shotgun, there's a fusion rifle thingy. I'm not good with words. The main chunk of a fusion rifle (not the stock or body, just the battery in the back and the firing chamber) is below the shotgun. As you may have guessed, this has some light blue accents. Try not to see it as three weapons awkwardly glued together, but one weapon that was built like this from the ground up. If you're imagining this in your head as a ridiculously tall weapon, I'm sorry, I'm not very good at describing it with words, and I'd be even worse at trying to draw it. In my head it looks awesome, but that probably doesn't mean much to you. Along each component is a thin transparent stripe that fills up with the corresponding color of the damage type while the shot charges. It has a mid zoom sight (1.5x). The sight is square in shape, with thin bezels (sides) and a circular reticle. This reticle is for the shotgun and fusion rifle, while a dot above the reticle is for the sniper portion. Inspection Page: Name: The Synergism Weapon Type: ??? Description: "Unifying multiple forces can produce dangerous results." Material details: this weapon requires different planet resources for each damage node, with the final node requiring all four. Above material details are three buttons to toggle which component you are inspecting. They have different stats, but the upgrades that change the stats change them equally. I'm not sure how comparisons would work, as you would be comparing Heavies to Special weapons in a sense. Also, the individual stats of each weapon are abysmal, it's them working together that make it a formidable weapon. Basically, no matter what route you went with the stats, they wouldn't accurately describe the weapon. However, the stats below may help convey how the weapon would feel. Charge Rate: 25, Slightly slower than stock Plan C. Fires about 1 shot each second, 60rpm. Impact: Each part has a low damage compared to legendaries of the same weapon type. Range: The shotgun has a low range (12), the fusion rifle has excellent range (85) but a 40% wider spread than average, and the sniper has an average range (48). Stability: Kicks like a mule, a good third more than an Ice Breaker. Reload: Reloads like a shotgun, one round going in every 0.7 seconds (21 frames). If the magazine is empty, getting the first round in will take 1.0 seconds. This means going from 0 to 5 takes 3.8 seconds, and 0 to 6 takes 4.5 seconds. Magazine Size: 5 An average heavy ammo pack will grant you 12 rounds, and you can hold a total of 36. Tier 0 Upgrades: Full Auto: This weapon can be fired in full auto mode. Void, Arc, Solar Damage: The separate components of this weapon each deal a different damage type. Zen Moment: Not traditionally a tier 0 upgrade, but it is a fitting upgrade that helps with balance between PvE and PvP (More of a PvE thing). Tier 1 Upgrades: Soft Ballistics: Less Recoil. Penalty to Impact. -5% damage, +10 stability. Aggressive Ballistics: More predictable recoil. Enhanced impact. Shorter range and more recoil. +10% damage, -5 range, -5 stability. Field Choke: More range and impact. Increased recoil. +5% damage, +12 range, -15 stability. Final Round Plus: Adds a round to the end of the magazine that does 50% (yes, 50%) more damage. This increases the clip size from five to six. The last round can only use this enhanced damage once very 5 seconds (this cool down can either occur behind the scenes or could be an aesthetic part of the weapon. There could be a bar that fills up below the sight for when not ADS, and a bar at the bottom of the sight when ADS that is small but visible. These lights wouldn't be activated until the upgrade is purchased.) This cool down prevents the effect from being exploited (by firing the last shot then reloading one shot), but it's fast enough that it shouldn't throw people off that are using the weapon normally. Upgrade Damage Tier 2 Upgrades Flared Magwell: Reduces reload speed per shot from 0.7 seconds (21 frames) to 0.5 seconds (15 frames). High Caliber Rounds: Oversize rounds built to stagger targets and leave them reeling. Their mass makes a weapon harder to handle. (This applies to all three weapon sections) Armor Piercing Rounds: These iridium-cor rounds overpenetrate targets. Their mass slows down weapon handling. (This applies to all three weapon sections). I think that these three upgrades are relatively balanced between each other, in that during different situations different upgrades could be optimal. None of them are the "Go-To" choice. Exotic Upgrade: Synergism: Killing an enemy that has been damaged by all three weapon components will cause a small explosion (slightly larger than Ice Breaker combustion size). The weapon doesn't heave to deal the final blow in order to do this. The explosion has a drawback, in that it can damage you and your teammates. If you're standing directly next to the explosion, it will bring you to half health. At warlock melee distance, it would damage about a fourth. The radius in which it hurts you is the same as the explosion radius, but the friendly fire damage falls off from the explosions center faster than the damage towards enemies does. Hope that makes sense.The weapon will emit a short, faint glow when the enemy explodes (it lasts about half a second). Each weapon component will glow the color of its elemental damage. Once again, keep in mind that this weapon is 1) a heavy weapon, competing with the power of LMGs and Rocket Launchers, and having limited ammo, 2) an exotic, trying to earn its spot as your sole equipped exotic weapon, and 3) a raid drop. Something this unique and complex surely wouldn't be easy to get. Definition of Synergy: "the interaction or cooperation of two or more organizations, substances, or other agents to produce a combined effect greater than the sum of their separate effects." That's the point of the exotic upgrade. Then, there's the four damage upgrades. If it was to be even more complex, there's a hypothetical upgrade that could occur in conjunction with the final damage node. Charged Union: picking up a special ammo pack will place an extra shot directly in the magazine. This only works if neither The Synergism's magazine nor your special weapons ammo capacity are full (you couldn't pick up the pack). TL;DR : An exotic heavy Shotgun/Sniper/Fusion Rifle that focuses on versatility and unique attributes. Precautions are set to keep it powerful yet balanced in both PvE and PvP. Not quite as devastating as other heavies but it offers valuable characteristics and overall more ammo. Any feedback on any aspects of the weapon would be greatly appreciated. PS: Already posted this in a similar build your own exotic forum post. If this is considered spam I'll take this one down.