Light Manipulation

This information is reliable as of patch 2.0.201.47.

Light Manipulation

	Mental
	4
	LightManipulation
	no

Light Manipulation

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You manipulate light to your advantage.

You produce ambient light within a radius of (level based)
You may focus the light into a laser beam (doing so reduces the radius of your ambient light by 1)
Laser damage increment: (level based)
Laser penetration bonus: (level based)
Ambient light radius increases by 1 every 15 rounds until it reaches its maximum value
(level based)% chance to reflect light-based damage

Light Manipulation is a mutation that allows its user to fire damaging pulses of light, and to generate ambient light around them while they have lase charges remaining.

A creature with this mutation can gain up to as many Lase charges as their maximum light radius, which increases by 1 every two levels.

One Lase charge is regenerated every 15 turns. This does not scale with level or willpower and it is not measured from the last turn that a charge was fired - the timer runs continuously every 15 turns regardless of when any charges were fired.

Formulas

The following formulas are used to determine damage, →PV, maximum charges/light radius and reflect chance based on mutation level.

	Formula	Applicable Levels
Damage	1d5+(Level - 6)	Level 10+
PV	4 + Floor((Level - 1) / 2)	All levels
Maximum Charges/Light Radius	4 + Floor(Level / 2)	All levels
Reflect Chance	(3 × Level + 10)%	All levels

Advancement Table

Mutation Level	Damage	PV	Max Charges/ Light Radius	Percent Chance to Reflect
1	1d31-3 (Avg: 2)	→4	4	13%
2	1d41-4 (Avg: 2.5)	→4	5	16%
3	1d51-5 (Avg: 3)	→5	5	19%
4	1d4+12-5 (Avg: 3.5)	→5	6	22%
5	1d5+12-6 (Avg: 4)	→6	6	25%
6	1d4+23-6 (Avg: 4.5)	→6	7	28%
7	1d5+23-7 (Avg: 5)	→7	7	31%
8	1d4+34-7 (Avg: 5.5)	→7	8	34%
9	1d5+34-8 (Avg: 6)	→8	8	37%
10	1d5+45-9 (Avg: 7)	→8	9	40%

Mutation Level	Damage	PV	Max Charges/ Light Radius	Percent Chance to Reflect
11	1d5+56-10 (Avg: 8)	→9	9	43%
12	1d5+67-11 (Avg: 9)	→9	10	46%
13	1d5+78-12 (Avg: 10)	→10	10	49%
14	1d5+89-13 (Avg: 11)	→10	11	52%
15	1d5+910-14 (Avg: 12)	→11	11	55%
16	1d5+1011-15 (Avg: 13)	→11	12	58%
17	1d5+1112-16 (Avg: 14)	→12	12	61%
18	1d5+1213-17 (Avg: 15)	→12	13	64%
19	1d5+1314-18 (Avg: 16)	→13	13	67%
20	1d5+1415-19 (Avg: 17)	→13	14	70%

Mutation Level	Damage	PV	Max Charges/ Light Radius	Percent Chance to Reflect
21	1d5+1516-20 (Avg: 18)	→14	14	73%
22	1d5+1617-21 (Avg: 19)	→14	15	76%
23	1d5+1718-22 (Avg: 20)	→15	15	79%
24	1d5+1819-23 (Avg: 21)	→15	16	82%
25	1d5+1920-24 (Avg: 22)	→16	16	85%
26	1d5+2021-25 (Avg: 23)	→16	17	88%
27	1d5+2122-26 (Avg: 24)	→17	17	91%
28	1d5+2223-27 (Avg: 25)	→17	18	94%
29	1d5+2324-28 (Avg: 26)	→18	18	97%
30	1d5+2425-29 (Avg: 27)	→18	19	100%

Tips

This section is opinion-based. Your mileage may vary.

Advantages

• Never misses and has infinite range.
• Provides light without taking up an equipment slot, as other Light Sources do.
• Decent early-game damage and PV which scales with level.

Disadvantages

• Light radius is small at low levels.
• It is difficult to use Light Manipulation as both a weapon and a light source at the same time.
• Use of Mass Mind is the only way to regenerate charges more quickly.
• Cannot fire through forcefields.
• PV and damage scale poorly in the late game unless the mutation is leveled to 20-25 through ego modifier.

References