Phantasma, The new broken hybrid!

A quick building guide and first impressions about the recently released weaon, Phantasma.

About the weapon

The weapon was released around 2 days ago in the mask of revenant update. It's a sentient related beam shotgun that also has a secondary fire mode, Which is a launcher. Although it is a shotgun, The primary firing mode looks very similar to the firing model of Ignis series, With lower range and and less spread. The secondary fire mode on the other hand looks pretty similar to the Zarr's launcher mode. Phantasma is mainly a status weapon and has a base status chance of 37% which is the same on both firing mechanisms. It deals 50 points radiation and 25 points impact damage at base. The weapon is so cheap in terms of crafting components and doesn't take much farming in general.


Although it doesn't make sense to compare a beam shotgun to a flamethrower, We can do a small comparison between the two as they both have a similar feeling on the primary fire mode.

Compared to Ignis, Phantasma has a higher fire rate, Base damage, Status chance and a faster reload on it's primary fire mode, At the cost of some crit chance, Crit damage and magazine capacity loss compared to Ignis.
The secondary fire mode of Phantasma can be compared to the primary fire mode of Zarr. Stat-wise
Zarr's primary fire mode has a higher crit chance/ Crit damage, Higher base damage (Which is impact) and 0 charge time. On the other hand Phantama's secondary fire mode has a higher status chance, Slightly higher rate of fire and a much faster reloading time. The only special about Phantasma's secondary fire mode is that the explosion creats small bits of homing particles that chase the target and once they reach it, They do a quick burst of elemental damage to the target.
The delay before the particles actually chase the target is however noticable.

The weapon itself looks small at the first glance. Beside being a sentient weapon, Phantasma has an infeseted look on it and feels like a combination of a flat drakgoon and a headcrab! (Beneath the weapon) The weapon sounds like the badass weapons from the recent DOOM games, Which makes it satisfying to use, Specially the secondary fire mode.

Modding and the build

The weapon has a base status chance of 37%, Which means you can achieve a 100% status chance using 3 dual stat mods combined with "Hell's chamber" and "Vigilante arnaments". This way you can always apply elemental procs to the enemies, Which will literally melt down the enemies of any level depending on the elemental combo's you choose. The builds below require no forma. Tho you might consider forma'ing the Phantasma if you like it, I personally would wait for the future changes to the weapons stats. (Which wouldn't be surprising due to the power that this weapon provides!)





Since I usually use viral on all of my weapon setups, I did the same thing here. Tho you can replace the "Frigid blast" with a "Shell shock" to get a combination of corrosive + heat which works wonders against grineer/ Corrupted. You can notice that Phantasma can achieve a 100% status chance while having Viral/Corrosive, Radiation and heat damage types all at the same time. Tho the elental combos might be different depending on the users choice. Combine it with Phantasma's high fire rate and you can clear large groups of tough enemies in a few seconds.

I wasn't quite sure about the last slot and just put in a rank 2 "Seeking fury", Which isn't necessary for it's realod speed bonus, But the punch through can help clearing crowd faster. Still, You can replace it with another utility mod such as "Ammo conversion". Specially since the weapon is super ammo hungry and you often run out of ammo if you fire the weapon carelessly.

I also use a bit more unefficient build for the index runs. I usually bring a max range Nidus to my index runs and this build helps me to quickly melt through the enemy sheilds and health when I gather them at my larva.





This build has quite a few flaws, But it's still effective for a few quick index runs every now and then.

Final words

The new beam shotgun called "Phantasm" is absolutely worth getting and is fun to use. It does take a bit of getting used to, But overally it looks and sounds good while dealing "A lotta damage!". It's crafting cost is cheap and doesn't really need a forma or riven to shine, But it's a super ammo expensive weapon and might even make you consider using a carrier in case you didn't before.

At the end, Thanks for reading through. I wanted to share a few words about the weapon since most of the players still haven't got a chance to try it out. I hope the build was useful.

[Nebulon]

Use of Vicious Spread and Combustion Beam allow this weapon to achieve a crowd control similar to Ignis/Ignis Wraith. Also, Tainted Shell is incredibly useful for making the magazine last longer, with no adverse affects (unless modding with Vicious Spread)