XEN Modification Guide - Synergies and Percentage values!

A detailed guide of actual XEN values shown in percentile, with other synergies and combos explained.
For everyone wondering what on earth "slightly increases damage" means, look no further.

WIP. I am still working my way to acquiring all XEN, feel free to let me know what XEN I have to look out for and I will add them to the list.

What does "moderately increases damage" even mean?

This guide is WIP, and based on thorough testing in the shooting range comparing single XEN at a time for concrete % values, and then testing some in combinations with others or multiples of the same copy for further details. I will test all values myself before adding to the guide but please let me know about any synergies you have found or other XEN I should look out for to add to the list. Dedicated to all those who have often wondered; "what the hell does slightly, significantly, or moderately even mean?".

...The short answer is, they mean nothing and there is little to no correlation between what the devs wrote in the English descriptions and what the modules truly do, so I decided it was worth finding out myself.

🔹Categories marked with a blue diamond are related to XEN Boosters (Insert buffs)
🔸Categories marked with an orange diamond are related to XEN Morphs. (Skill changes)

Enjoy!

Terminology Guide and Information

Base Damage Increase / Damage Boost:

These effects multiply off the base damage, additively.
Ex. 100 Damage with four Strong IV (+25% each) is 200 damage.

Damage Multiplier:

These effects multiply off each other generally, after the above increases, and after each other.
Ex. The above 200 damage with CQC I (+18% Mult) is 236 damage. A second CQC I becomes 278.48 (236*1.18).

Increased Firing Rate:

Decreased cooldown.
Multiple firing rate increases generally work the same as base damage increases (additive), and do not multiply off each other.
Ex. +10% Firing Rate turns 10 second cooldown to 9 seconds. Another lowers it to 8 seconds. Chain (-70%) with 3 Trigger Finger I (+10% each) applies -40% to the base cooldown. (1->1.4)

XEN Morph:

A weapon 'type' for the Core Gun such as Heavy, Light, Grenade.

XEN Booster:

Mods for Core Guns that change how a XEN Morph performs.

Booster Order:

Booster order does not matter. All XEN Boosters are calculated a predetermined way regardless of insertion order.
Damage Boosts: Strong, Condensed.
Damage Reductions: Purify.
Damage Multipliers: Multiply, CQC.

{Base Hit Damage + [(Base)*(Damage Boosts % A+B+C)] - [(Base)*(Damage Reductions % A+B+C)]} * (1+Damage Multiplier A) * (1+Damage Multiplier B) * (1+Damage Multiplier C) --

Barrels and Gear (Update: 4/16/2024)

Barrel / Gear	Actual Observed Effect	In-Game Description
Turbine Barrel	Turbine barrel gives +100% damage on the shot fired after a charge, taking about 5 seconds to power up. Regular shots have no bonus. No cost or fire rate changes. Inexplicably, this barrel gives about a 500% damage boost to the Chain morph. No longer gives 500% extra damage to Chain Morph, only 100%.	The barrel comes with a self-recharging turbine, which when charged boosts its damage.
Heavy Barrel	Heavy barrel gives ~50% damage increase, but 50% firing rate decrease (1.5x cd)	Increases firing interval and greatly increases the damage dealt.
Double Tap Barrel	Double tap causes you to do 2* ~60% damage shots. The second shot has a short delay after the first, affecting fire rate and doubling recoil. It also reduces the hits and duration of many non-bullet based morphs on top of the damage reduction, vastly hurting your damage potential.	Two bullets can be fired in quick succession but each bullet deals less damage.
Scatter Barrel	Scatter barrel causes you to do 3* ~40% damage shots simultaneously. The second and third bullets are offset in a cone from center aim. The spread is much tighter if you aim down sights. It also reduces the hits and duration of many non-bullet based morphs on top of the damage reduction, vastly hurting your damage potential.	Enables three-shot burst but each bullet deals less damage.
Regular Barrel		A mass-produced gun barrel that slightly increases your hip-fire accuracy.
Airborne Helmet	Bonus, the helm ticks the cooldown reduction repeatedly while remaining airborne, 1s removed from CDs every second in the air, effectively doubling cooldown rate. A great helm for skill cooldowns. Gives a stacking buff for being airborne to player's base attack value. (Downside, only gives up to 5 stacks of the buff, not 10.)	Speed up the cooldown recovery of all skills after staying airborne for 1 second. For every 1 seconds(Epic and below) / 0.5 seconds(Legendary) airborne thereafter, gain one stack of [Aerial Combat].
Support Core Gun	Slightly bugged, ALL Morphs show a reduced cooldown, but when actually used, only the ones over 8s are reduced. 1:Spray 2:Cooldown Field 3:Healing Range	A Core Gun fitted with a cooldown device that reduces the Firing Interval of all XENs with an interval of over 8s by 25%.
Rapid Core Gun	Every shot fired without reloading adds a stack of fire rate increase, up to 60 stacks. (Legendary) The fire rate increase is extremely powerful for Morphs like Inferno paired with Free Fire, since fire rate bonuses are additive, resulting in approaching 0 delay on refire. Shot multiplication with barrels multiplies the stacks gained per shot.	A Core Gun fitted with a XEN accelerator for increased rate of fire.
Command Core Gun	1:Spray 2:Focus 3:Load 4:Healing Range?	A Core Gun favored by Commanders. Press R while in Command Mode to toggle Infrared View.
Explosive Core Gun	1:? 2:Explosive Arrow? 3:Chain Reaction	A Core Gun fitted with an area booster chip that boosts the effective range of area-type XENs by 30%.
Drum Mag Core Gun	1:Inferno 2:Scatter Grenade	A Core Gun with a 120-round drum mag.
Marksman Core Gun	There is a hidden bonus of about 0.95% (slightly under 1%) dmg per 10m distance from target. The cap is 50% (reached from extreme height stacking with missile) Comes with Sniper-focused Morphs. 1:Heavy 2:Pinpoint Explosion	A heavy Sniper Core Gun favored by sharpshooters.
Cavalry Core Gun	Unfortunately, not only was there no noticable reload speed increase, but a recent patch allowed players to reload while sprinting regardless of this being the feature of this gun. Rather pointless now. Still comes with useful Morphs you can remove. 1:Scatter Shot 2:Elemental Ball 3:Adrenaline (Either)	A Core Gun fitted with a quick-load mag for fast reloads. Enables reloading while sprinting.
	Approx damage per Attack point (Firing Range)	0.2313624679

• "Approx damage per Attack point": versus static firing range enemies, a flat amount of damage was added per attack point, shown above. This will vary against enemies with different defenses, but was worth mentioning.
  
• In regards to the dmg-atk ratio, higher damage ratios were observed at higher total atk values, cause undetermined.

🔹Base Damage Increasing XEN (Update: 4/11/2024)

Rarity	XEN	Actual Observed Effect	In-Game Description
Common	Strong I	10% base damage increase. (Multiple strong mods only multiply off the base damage.)	Minimally increases damage.
Rare	Strong II	15% base damage increase.	Slightly increases damage.
Epic	Strong III	20% base damage increase.	Moderately increases damage.
Legendary	Strong IV	25% base damage increase. Fixed 4.10.2024	Increases damage.
Epic	Condensed I	30% base damage increase, 15% cost increase.	Increases damage and slightly increases cost.
Legendary	Condensed II	50% base damage increase, 30% cost increase.	Massively increases damage and moderately increases cost.
Rare	Pursuit I	50% damage additional hit at 100% increased firing cost. More mods increases hits and cost. Scales off damage of the base hit after multipliers. Chain Booster does not proc more hits.	Hitting an enemy's weakness triggers a [Blunt Strike]. - Grants an extra attack that deals 50% damage but won't crit.
Epic	Pursuit II	100% damage additional hit that also hits the weakpoint damage (identical to first hit) at 100% increased firing cost.	Hitting an enemy's weakness triggers a [Combo Strike]. - Grants an extra attack that deals 100% damage.

🔹Damage Multiplying XEN (Update: 4/16/2024)

Rarity	XEN	Actual Observed Effect	In-Game Description
Rare	CQC I	18% damage multiplier under ~5m. Bonus falls off to 0 at ~10m.	Bullet deals more damage the shorter it travels.
Epic	CQC II	Performs exactly the same as CQC I. (Likely Bugged.)	Bullet deals more damage the shorter it travels.
Rare	Multiplier I	Up to 18% damage multiplier to enemies over 40m away. Begins to increase damage around 10m. Max at 40m.	Bullet deals more damage the further it travels.
Epic	Multiplier II	Up to 25% damage multiplier to enemies over 40m away. Begins to increase damage around 10m. Max at 40m.	Bullet deals more damage and gains increased efficiency the further it travels.
Uncommon	Backstab I	13% damage multiplier for hitting from behind.	Increases the damage dealt to enemies from behind.
Epic	Backstab II	23% damage multiplier for hitting from behind. Unknown Crit Chance boost.	Increases the damage dealt to enemies from behind. Slightly boosts the Crit Chance.
Epic	Cascade I	13% damage multiplier.	Increases damage when having a single round cost of more than 120.
Legendary	Cascade II	18% damage multiplier.	Greatly increases damage when having a single round cost of more than 120.
Uncommon	Surprise I	18% damage multiplier to enemies above 90% HP.	Deals increased damage to enemies above 90% HP.
Epic	Surprise II	18% damage multiplier to enemies above 80% HP.	Deals increased damage to enemies above 80% HP.
Rare	Checkmate I	13% damage multiplier to enemies with less than about 25% HP.	Deals increased damage to enemies with low HP.
Legendary	Checkmate II	18% damage multiplier to enemies with less than about 25% HP.	Deals massively increased damage to enemies with low HP.

🔹Elemental XEN (Added: 4/11/2024)

Rarity	XEN	Actual Observed Effect	In-Game Description
Ammo	Electro Ammo	20% damage multiplier. (Mult on top of base damage after boosts such as Strong, Condensed.)
Rare	Energy Affinity I	13% damage multiplier with Electro ammo. Multiple Affinities work.	Slightly increases the damage of Electro Element.
Epic	Energy Affinity II	18% damage multiplier with Electro ammo. Multiple Affinities work. (Damage increase together with Electro Ammo is 41.6%.)	Increases the damage of Electro Element.
Ammo	Cryo Ammo	No damage change. Hits build up freeze effect.
Uncommon	Cryo Affinity I	10.5% damage multiplier with Cryo ammo. Multiple Affinities work.	Minimally increases the damage of Cryo Element.
Rare	Cryo Affinity II	15.5% damage multiplier with Cryo ammo. Multiple Affinities work.	Modestly increases the damage of Cryo Element.
Ammo	Pyro Ammo	No damage change. Hits build up burning effect. Burns enemies for 1.86% ATK 11 times. Burn hits can crit.
Unobtained	Pyro Affinity I		Minimally increases the damage of Pyro Element.
Rare	Pyro Affinity II	21% damage multiplier with Pyro ammo. Multiple Affinities work. Does not increase burn damage.	Modestly increases the damage of Pyro Element.
Rare	Purify I	~9% estimated Build-up boost.* 5% base damage reduction applied AFTER damage increase, but BEFORE multipliers.	Slightly increases Elemental Build-up and slightly reduces damage.
Legendary	Elemental Hunter	Build-up test. ~50% estimated Build-up boost.*	Damaging enemies with more than 80% HP remaining additionally triggers Elemental Build-up.
Uncommon	Extract I	Build-up test. ~6% estimated Build-up boost.*	Slightly increases Elemental Build-up.
Rare	Extract II	Build-up test. ~12% estimated Build-up boost.*	Moderately increases Elemental Build-up.
Epic	Extract III	Build-up test. ~18% estimated Build-up boost.*	Increases Elemental Build-up.
Rare	Cryo	Converts current magazine to Cryo Element? Unsure of other effects. *Consumable	*Element XEN* Increases Cryo Elemental Level of the slot, or converts the slot to Cryo Element.
Rare	Pyro	Converts current magazine to Pyro Element? Unsure of other effects. *Consumable	*Element XEN* Increases Pyro Elemental Level of the slot, or converts the slot to Pyro Element.
Rare	Electro	Converts current magazine to Electro Element? Unsure of other effects. *Consumable	*Element XEN* Increases Electro Elemental Level of the slot, or converts the slot to Electro Element.

• Build-up testing was done with spray/light/focus. Values are very rough estimates based on different combinations of tests.
  
• "Cryo", "Pyro", and "Electro" previously observed to be consumables, unsure if any changes have been made.

🔹Other / Multi Focused XEN (Update: 4/11/2024)

Rarity	XEN	Actual Observed Effect	In-Game Description
Rare	Trigger Finger	10% firing rate increase.	Moderately reduces firing interval.
Epic	Thrifty	13% cost decrease.	Slightly reduces ammo cost.
Epic	Intensify I	15% cost increase. ? Radius.	Increases radius at the cost of increased cost.
Legendary	Intensify II	30% cost increase. ? Radius.	Greatly increases radius but slightly increases cost.
Epic	Elemental Rotor	10% firing rate increase. ? Elemental build-up.	Moderately reduces firing interval. Moderately increases Elemental Build-up.
Epic	Damage Rotor	10% base damage increase. 10% firing rate increase.	Moderately reduces firing interval. Moderately increases damage.
Rare	Critical Strike I	at 190 (numeric) crit chance, ~11% crit rate. With the mod, ~30% crit rate. Further testing needed.	Slightly increases Crit Chance when hitting an enemy weakness.
Epic	Critical Strike II		Increases Crit Chance when hitting an enemy weakness.
Rare	Mighty Swing I	Standard crit damage.	Hits against an enemy with full HP are guaranteed to crit.
Epic	Mighty Swing II	16% crit bonus increase? (tested at 84% crit bonus.)	Hits against an enemy with full HP are guaranteed to crit with slighty increased Crit Damage.

🔹Complex XEN and Synergies (Update: 4/11/2024)

Rarity	XEN	Actual Observed Effect	In-Game Description
Epic	Chain	70% cost increase. 70% firing rate decrease. +1 Hits with all the effects of the first hit. Only a pure DPS increase of 17.6%. Hits the same spot, so both will hit weakpoints, but they have independent crit chance. Added hits trigger the same hp threshold for Mighty Strike, as ex.	Trigger an extra Morph XEN when hit.
Epic	Advanced	A XEN with different effects for different Morphs. Generally increases duration based Morphs by 20%, stacking. Hits +1: Pinpoint Strike, Scatter Grenade. Hits/Dur +20%: Gravity. Chain (Morph) hits increased by 8(1), 17(2) 23(3). No change for 4 or more on Chain. Increases ammo loaded by Load Morph.	Increases XEN efficiency.
Uncommon	Light Strike	Adds a 21% damage extra hit. Damage is based off the initial hit damage, after XEN boosts and multipliers. Can't deal weakpoint damage or crit.	Deals additional low-strength damage.
Synergy	2*Light Strike	Adds another hit, all strikes +15% damage (flat increase). ~24.2% added by each mod.	Deals additional low-strength damage.
Synergy	3*Light Strike	Adds a third hit, all strikes +30% damage (flat increase). ~27.4% added by each mod.	Deals additional low-strength damage.
Synergy	4*Light Strike	Adds a fourth hit, all strikes +45% damage (flat increase). ~30.5% added by each mod.	Deals additional low-strength damage.
Synergy	5*Light Strike *Hyp	Adds a fifth hit, all strikes +60% damage (flat increase). ~33.6% added by each mod.	Deals additional low-strength damage.
Synergy	6*Light Strike *Hyp	Adds a sixth hit, all strikes +75% damage (flat increase). ~36.8% added by each mod.	Deals additional low-strength damage.
Synergy	7*Light Strike *Hyp	Adds a seventh hit, all strikes +90% damage (flat increase). ~39.9% added by each mod.	Deals additional low-strength damage.
Uncommon	Entangled State	Self explanatory but has interesting synergy with additional light strikes. Each light strike added will hit the initial target plus the additional two targets (2+1 hits added per light strike) and the standard damage increase for multiple light strikes applies to them as well. (+15% Multiplicative damage to all Light Strikes). Additionally, 50% increased firing cost.	Hitting an enemy applies [Light Strike] to 2 other nearby enemies.
Epic	Elemental Entangle	Same as with Entangled State, but doesn't increase the cost as well as adding elemental build-up, making this a very strong ability.	Hitting an enemy applies [Light Strike] and [Elemental Build-up] to 2 other nearby enemies.
Synergy	ES/EE + 1*LS	Adding 1 Light strike adds ~53.43% more dmg. (total ~117.93% over base)
Synergy	ES/EE + 2*LS	Adding 2 Light strikes adds ~120.4% more dmg. (total ~213.06% over base)
Synergy	ES/EE + 3*LS	Adding 3 Light strikes adds ~200.25% more dmg. (total ~326.48% over base)
Synergy	ES/EE + 4*LS	Adding 4 Light strikes adds ~271.24% more dmg. (total ~427.32% over base)
Epic	2*Elemental Entangle	The two other targets both take two light strikes. With each light strike, two hits will be added to the additional two targets. (4+1 hits added per light strike)	Hitting an enemy applies [Light Strike] and [Elemental Build-up] to 2 other nearby enemies.
Synergy	2*ES/EE + 1*LS	Adding 1 Light strike adds ~71.03% more dmg. (total ~214.85% over base)
Synergy	2*ES/EE + 2*LS	Adding 1 Light strike adds ~159.48% more dmg. (total ~377.67% over base)
Synergy	2*ES/EE + 3*LS	Adding 1 Light strike adds ~264.32% more dmg. (total ~570.67% over base)
Uncommon	Torment I	Piercing damage is 1% of the enemy's *remaining* HP, making it weaker as you weaken the enemy.	Hitting an enemy's weakness triggers 2 [Piercing]. - Deals damage equal to 1% of the enemy's Max HP.
Epic	Torment II	Functions as stated.	Hitting an enemy's weakness triggers 4 [Piercing]. - Deals damage equal to 1% of the enemy's Max HP.
Rare	Apex Predator I	Functions as stated.	Damaging enemies with more than 80% HP remaining applies [Piercing] 4 times.
Epic	Apex Predator II	Functions as stated.	Damaging enemies with more than 80% HP remaining applies [Piercing] 6 times.
Synergy	Piercing Synergy	Piercing effects trigger off every hit bullet, so it is very easy to maximize these for example with the scatter morph and scatter barrel, quickly reducing any enemy to very low HP. Can be great to chunk high health enemies down, but won't be very effective after the first hit if using apex predator, but with torment is very powerful, provided the enemy has a weakness easy to hit. (Or at all, like beacons.)
Uncommon	Pinprick	15% dmg increase to Light Strikes. No noticable effect when used with torment. You get the same dmg increase from multiple Light Strike XEN, but no increased amount of hits, making this worthless unless you lack Light Strikes early on.	Increases the damage of [Light Strike] and [Piercing].
Uncommon	Unstable I	Variance in damage appears to be from -15% to +30-35%, with something like 10% chance of dealing exactly double damage (separate from a crit). Needs testing if it is a damage increase or multiplier.	Damage and efficiency fluctuate randomly and slightly.

Light Strike 5-7 "*Hyp" for Hypothetical, using already determined math.

🔹TBD XEN Effects (Update: 4/11/2024)

Rarity	XEN	Values to Test	In-Game Description
Uncommon	Mend I	Healing value, synergies.	Hitting a friendly building moderately heals it.
Rare	Mend II	Healing value, synergies.	Hitting a friendly building heals it.
Common	Release I	Radius.	Slightly increases radius.
Rare	Release II	Radius.	Moderately increases radius.
Legendary	Release III	Radius.	Moderately increases radius.
Epic	Recovery I	Recovery chance and amounts.	Hitting a mechanical enemy grants a chance of recovering the bullet.
Legendary	Recovery II	Recovery chance and amounts.	Hitting a mechanical enemy grants an even higher chance of recovering the bullet.
Rare	March On I	Speed test.	Slightly increases the bullet's initial travel speed.
Epic	March On II	Speed test.	Increases the bullet's initial travel speed.
Epic	Detonate I	Radius. 10% firing rate decrease.	Increases radius but slightly increases firing interval.
Epic	Detonate II	Radius. 20% firing rate decrease.	Greatly increases radius but moderately increases firing interval.
Rare	Pull	Test combinations, functions like gravity morph.	Hitting a traget pulls enemies in a small radius toward the center.

• XEN Listed here that I have obtained, but not tested or filtered into other categories yet.
  
• Any Booster XEN that have not been listed thus far I have not yet obtained.

🔸XEN Morphs - Details & DMG Comparison (Update: 4/11/2024)

C: Common, U:Uncommon, R:Rare, E:Epic, L:Legendary, H:Heroic
A: Ability type, B: Bullet type, E: Effect type
DMG*: Damage gain per single usage versus "Regular" XEN Morph, used as baseline.

Rarity	XEN	In-Game Description	Cost	CD	DMG*
C-B	Regular	Fires military-issue XEN rounds.	15	0.49	0.00%
R-A	Pinpoint Explosion	Hitting a target will call in artillery strikes that buffet the area.	30	10	388.02%
E-A	Warp	Hitting a target teleports all items and caught within the area in front of the player.	15	10	tbd (0?)
R-E	Suppression Field	Hitting a target will continuously slow enemies within the area.	75	10	-100.00%
H-E	Radiance	Lights up the area and marks and reduces the armor of enemies within it when hit.	60	15	-100.00%
U-B	Spray	Fires high-speed XEN rounds.	10	0.2	-46.06%
E-A	Splitter	A XEN that allows one bullet to split into five homing bullets.	20	12	600.00%
R-A	Scatter Grenade	Hitting a target spawns several landmines that detonate after a short delay.	25	16	2826.31%
H-A	Gravity	Creates a black hole when hit, which pulls enemies in and deals damage to them over a period of time.	50	60	-14.64%
E-B	Inferno	High damage, with a gradually increasing rate of fire.	10	0.6	-9.72%
R-B	Light	Fires XEN rounds at extreme speeds at a fraction of the power.	6	0.12	-61.92%
R-A	Slingshot	Creates a jump pad when hit. Enemies who step on it will be ejected into the air and have 2 stacks of [Vulnerability] until they land on the ground. - Reduces damage and resistance by 10%.	10	10	-100.00%
L-B	Scatter Shot	Shoots 8 bullets in random directions, whose damage decays as they travel.	30	1.2	292.22%
L-A	Missile	Launches a missile.	100	25	875.44%
L-A	Energy Arc	Shoot an arc that pierces enemies. [Pure]: Does not deal weakness damage.	25	2	192.63%
L-B	Slasher Round	Deal 3 damages 3s after a hit.	50	18	534.29%
U-A	Divine Might	Hitting a target deals an extra random valued damage. [Elemental Reaction]: Morph XEN has different effects when coupled with different Element XEN.	30	5	145.24%
U-E	Mark	Hitting an enemy target will mark the target and lower its Defense.	75	10	10.03%
H-A	Chain	Hitting a target will continuously cause a random enemy in the vicinity to take high damage.	75	20	3848.21%
R-B	Heavy	Fires a large calber marksman XEN round.	20	1	97.54%
L-B	Spray Cannon	Fires light missiles at a rather high firing rate.	25	1.25	191.91%
R-A	Grenade	Launches a grenade that explodes on contact.	20	2	68.88%
E-A	Focus	Continuously fire a beam that slowly increases in power. [Corporeal]: XEN effects are not affected by certain barrel effects. [Pure]: Does not deal weakness damage.	5	0.125	-17.09%
U-A	Explosive Arrow	Launches an explosive projectile with a delayed fuse.	30	15	387.82%
H-A	Elemental Scatter Shot	Deal damage in a frontal fan. [Corporeal]: XEN effects are not affected by certain barrel effects. [Pure]: Does not deal weakness damage.	15	0.5	tbd
E-A	Elemental Ball	Unleashes a forward-rolling elemental ball with speed that scales with your own movement speed.	25	6.5	22.01%
E-E	Cooldown Field	Hitting a target creates a field that reduces the firing interval of allied units within the area	30	15	tbd (0?)
H-A	Cluster Missile	Splits into 7 missiles at a distance of 5 meters away from the target.	80	30	tbd
U-E	Harden	Hitting a target increases the Defense of the Outpost Components within range.	75	10	-100.00%
R-A	Beam	Launches a piercing laser that applies Booster XEN effect to the first target hit. [Pure]: Does not deal weakness damage.	25	15	387.72%
R-E	Barrier	Hitting a target generates a shield.	25	6.5	-100.00%
R-E	Load	Hitting a turret restores ammunition for it.	100	6.5	-100.00%
E-E	Healing Range	Hitting a target heals all allies within range and grants 5 stacks of corresponding elemental resistance.	100	20	-100.00%
R-E	Adrenaline - Mobility	Hitting a target restores Stamina to friendly targets and greatly boosts their movement speed.	40	10	-100.00%
R-E	Adrenaline - Melee	Hitting a target restores Stamina to friendly targets and greatly boosts their melee damage.	40	10	29.98%
H-A	Chain Reaction	Deals damage in a large area when hitting an enemy. Damage scales up the more enemies are hit.	150	60	tbd

Ordered by in-game sorting for simplicity. Chain Reaction currently appears to be unremovable from explosive guns, even after the update allowing removal of all Morphs.

🔸XEN Morphs - Observed Effects A (Update: 4/6/2024)

C: Common, U:Uncommon, R:Rare, E:Epic, L:Legendary, H:Heroic
A: Ability type, B: Bullet type, E: Effect type

Rarity	XEN	Observed Effects and Synergies
C-B	Regular	Standard bullet. Reduced to 80% dmg over ~35m. Further to 55% over ~60m. This is what I used for baseline dmg comparisons to all other Morph XEN.
R-A	Pinpoint Explosion	Fires a pinpoint accurate marker that causes four strikes to the initial location from above every 1.5s. Number of strikes is lowered by scatter barrel to two. Advanced XEN increases number of strikes by 1 and duration by 1.5s each.
R-E	Suppression Field	Slows enemies in an area for roughly ten seconds. No damage. Ticks 13 times for bonus hits (Light Strike). No visual duration increase, Advanced XEN may work the same here as healing range. (+20% duration each but no visual change)
H-E	Radiance	25% increased damage to affected targets. Either it isn't really reducing armor or the way armor is calculated is simply the opposite of damage calcs. Advanced XEN increases duration by 20% each.
U-B	Spray	Fast firing bullets. -46% dmg. More bullet drop than regular, curves around 40m. Three damage ranges. Damage falloff: 35m:80%, 50m:55%.
E-A	Splitter	Fires an orb that travels 5m, then bursts into a semicircle fan of five bullets that home in on enemies. The orb stops on contact with an enemy and still bursts. The orb deals no damage. The five bullets deal 35-45% randomly increased damage. No damage falloff and seeks targets at long range.
R-A	Scatter Grenade	Scatters six landmines from point of contact that last roughly 26 seconds. They only detonate on enemy contact. 1 more mine released per Advanced XEN. With scatter barrel, 3 Adv: +3 Mines, 5 Adv: +6 Mines.
H-A	Gravity	Creates a gravity well at location that hits (pulls) twelve times for 6 seconds, then explodes. No damage on the pull hits unless you use Light Strike or other hit adding XEN. Initial bullet fired is pinpoint accurate. Advanced XEN add duration and pulls.
E-B	Inferno	The rate of fire decrease seems to be flat, if you slow down your ROF the top speed will not be good, but if you increase it, the benefits are extreme (approaching 0 firing rate). Pairs greatly with Free Fire and Rapid Core Guns. Additionally, no bullet drop or damage falloff, comparable to heavy rounds.
R-B	Light	Performs as an SMG. -62% dmg. Slightly worse bullet drop to spray, significant damage falloff (three ranges). Damage falloff: 20m:85%, 30m:55%.
R-A	Slingshot	Deploys a single-use launch pad at location. Last about 12.5 seconds. If hitting an enemy immediately applies the jump effect to the enemy. Supposedly applies two stacks of [Vulnerability] (-10% damage resistance) to enemies until they land. Has no effect on damage, unknown if the ability functions or if firing range enemies have 0 resistance. Initial bullet fired is pinpoint accurate. Advanced XEN increases duration by 20% each.
L-B	Scatter Shot	Essentially a shotgun, firing 8 rounds for -51% dmg each. Damage drops over 10m distance down to 33% before bullets disappear around ~20m. Damage falloff: 10m:80%, 15m:45%, 20m:33%.
L-A	Missile	Fires a missile with some curve starting around 40m. AOE of about 6m. 875% damage boost on direct hits down to ~387% at the edge of the AOE. Strongly pushes the player back, with a scatter barrel can launch yourself extremely high into the air. Light Strikes only apply to direct hits.
L-A	Energy Arc	Shoots two floating tethered orbs with energy arcing between them, hits everything it passes through for the same damage. Speed and range is based on speed player is moving when fired. Reaches 10m when not moving. Reached up to 65m with sprint+crouch @520 movespeed (+120 boots). [Pure] says it does not deal weakness damage. This seems to also cause crit bonus to become 0 (but shows crits).
L-B	Slasher Round	Fires a round similar to heavy with -36% power that triggers three additional damage procs shortly after with 90% increased power each. All four hits proc light strikes at scaled dmg. No falloff.

• Statements prefaced with an asterisk * reference information from others on discord.

🔸XEN Morphs - Observed Effects B (Update: 4/11/2024)

C: Common, U:Uncommon, R:Rare, E:Epic, L:Legendary, H:Heroic
A: Ability type, B: Bullet type, E: Effect type

Rarity	XEN	Observed Effects and Synergies
U-A	Divine Might	Fires an extreme velocity round that deals random "additional" damage for one total hit. Can crit on top of dealt dmg. The Light Strike dmg is always the same so the base dmg appears to be -37%. The bonus damage appears to be from ~2% to ~96% of your attack power (record dmg in 123 attempts), with an average power increase of 145% over Regular shot.
U-E	Mark	Marks an enemy for ~5 seconds, the marked enemy will take 10% increased damage. Advanced XEN increases duration by 20% each.
H-A	Chain	Fires a near instantaneous velocity round that deploys a tesla spike at location. Deals random high damage to a random nearby enemy 18 times over 10 seconds. Damage calc works similar to Divine Might. A base hit with -43% power and a bonus from ~1% to ~84% of your attack power (record dmg in 72 attempts), with an average power increase of 3848% over Regular shot. No elemental build-up. Radius does not affect range. Very powerful with Advanced XEN (See Advanced Entry) as well as Turbine Barrel.
R-B	Heavy	Performs as a sniper. ~97.5% damage boost. Generally no bullet drop or damage falloff, tested at extreme ranges.
L-B	Spray Cannon	Fires near instantaneous velocity missiles without damage falloff from range with AOE of about 2m. Can't hit weakspots or crit. Around 180% damage boost on direct hits down to 46% at the edge of the AOE. Arguably a straight upgrade to 'Heavy' vs groups of enemies. Light Strikes only apply to direct hits.
R-A	Grenade	Fires a grenade that bounces and detonates on enemy contact or after 3.5s with an AOE of about 3m. Around 65% damage boost on direct hits down to -31% at the edge of the AOE.
E-A	Focus	Fires a beam up to 20m. Cannot crit or deal weakpoint damage. As long as the attack is held, gains ~7.44% power (based on initial hit at -90% power) each shot until 100 stacks. Caps at 744% bonus to initial damage, which is still 17.09% lower than standard shot of 'Regular' XEN Morph. Light Strike follows a lower curve, with 69% of the initial hit, but only increasing at a rate of ~2.38% power, reaching 238% bonus to the initial Light Strike damage.
U-A	Explosive Arrow	Fires an explosive projectile that pierces the target for 143% bonus damage on direct hit, exploding after 3 seconds for the same amount. The explosion has a radius of about 3m, comparable to the grenade. Slight curve at range, deals exact damage regardless of range or AOE position.
E-A	Elemental Ball	Fires an energy ball that lands on the ground then travels forward based on current player movement speed. Pushes away and hits everything it touches, can rarely hit the same enemy multiple times if it stays in the path after knockback. Reaches hardly 1m when fired without moving. With movespeed of 520 it reached; Walking:10m, Running: 30m, Running Slide: +70m. The distance is heavily affected by flat terrain, the ball falling off edges, and ends immediately if hitting a wall.
E-E	Cooldown Field	Creates an AOE at target for 10 seconds that increases firing rate (cooldown of Morphs, not skills) by 20% for anyone inside. Buff does not persist outside the AOE. Does not apply to the shot itself even if you are in range, only subsequent shots. The increased firing rate persists for anything fired until the next cooldown, so can be used to offset a lot of long cooldown Morphs. Advanced XEN increases duration by 20% each, despite the visual effect disappearing.
U-E	Harden	No way to test in firing range.
R-A	Beam	Fires a single beam that pierces everything up to 20m. Cannot crit or deal weakpoint damage. Claims booster XEN are applied only to the first target hit, but things that affect the damage or apply Light Strikes all seem to affect every target normally. The beam tends to fire at a higher trajectory than player is aiming when fired close range at a target.
R-E	Barrier	Little to test in firing range. Advanced XEN decrease the duration by about 20% each. (Bug?) *Supposedly damage increases will increase barrier duration.
R-E	Load	No way to test in firing range. *Loads 200 ammo per shot. *Scatter barrel triples the ammo loaded to 600.
E-E	Healing Range	No way to test in firing range. Advanced XEN increases duration by 20% each.
R-E	Adrenaline - Mobility	120 movement speed increase to targets within less than 1m of hit for 5 seconds. Restores about 40 stamina on hit. Advanced XEN increases duration by 20% each.
R-E	Adrenaline - Melee	30% increased melee damage buff to targets within less than 1m of hit for 10 seconds. Restores about 80 stamina on hit. Advanced XEN increases duration by 20% each.

TBD: Warp, Elemental Scatter Shot, Cluster Missile, Chain Reaction.

• Statements prefaced with an asterisk * reference information from others on discord.

Barrel Interactions with Morph XEN (WIP)

Barrel + Morph XEN	Effect
Scatter Barrel + Pinpoint Strike	Scatter barrel lowers to x3*3, after reduced dmg is weaker. It is lowered further to x3*2 at close range. (Bug?)
Scatter Barrel + Gravity	Five hits (Pulls)(x3), then explosion.

More TBD.

• Essentially seems that scatter barrel decreases the duration of duration based morph on top of decreasing the damage, which can really hurt the effectiveness of some morph by doubling drawbacks.
  
• Need to test if similar is the case with Double Tap barrels.

Updates:

Update (4/16/2024)
Checked reported changes to Chain Morph. No longer gives inexplicably high crit multipliers, now it matches your crit bonus correctly. Also only gains 100% damage from Turbine Barrel charge instead of ~500%. Advanced and Multiplier efficiency bonus now gives flat hit increases, from 18 to 26, to 35, to 41 with three. Four or more does not increase hits from 41. Corrected buff values of airborne helm, it does actually give correct boost to attack (not damage) but still only stacks to 5, not 10. As previously stated. Multiplier max boost range is 40m, not 35m. Support Core Gun has been fixed.

Update (4/11/2024)
Many XEN retested, Booster categories reorganized and missing details added. Boosters that give additive vs multiplicative boosts distinguished. Tested the 'Advanced' XEN with every morph to discover some interesting effects. Turbine barrel added to guide and tested with some morphs (It is extremely powerful with Chain). Strong IV now correctly gives 25% damage boost. Terminology section added. Determined the likely damage calculation formula, unable to determine exact damage gained per attack point, as higher attack values result in a higher damage ratios.

Update (4/6/2024)
I have tested in great detail every Morph XEN I currently have access to, with damage comparisons against "Regular", and their costs and cooldowns referenced. As well as in depth breakdowns of the effects, ranges, radii, and synergies in detail. Categories marked 🔸

If you feel like buying me a coffee you can do so here:
https://www.buymeacoffee.com/valkerion

[The_Penance]

I would love someoen to test on Gale which is not listed here. It is extremely unpredictable and I wish i could get it to work better. Can't really do that unfortunately.

[Stolen Kektus]

I'm volunteering to help collect data for Mend and Mend II, with their corresponding synergies and all. If that is alright with you, then I'll be happy to provide you with my research notes.

[Weathnarh]

For the "Load" shot. it doesn't reload 200 ammo but twice the cost of the shot.

So if you put an upgrade so the shot cost 200 ammo to fire, it'll reload 400 ammo on the turret (1200 ammo with scatter barrel).

On the other hand. if you put upgrade that reduce the ammo cost. it'll reload less ammo on the turret.

[superpimous]

Hi @Valkerion. Thank you for all this work, very inspiring! Could you give me the 4 Xen combos you would personally use?

[Valkerion™]

@The Vandalorian - Well you got me very curious lol. I can't see any typo in my math that would have got me 292.88, so I am not sure how that happened.
All other data I entered into spreadsheet with calcs but that section I just typed up as an example straight into steam, so I have no idea. Closest I could get was 292.404 which didn't explain the value I entered either.

[Racket & Clang]

I think you have a small typo in the beginning. 200 * 1.18 * 1.18 is ~278 not ~292
Great Guide, thank you for your work!

[Vigilante]

ty

[Valkerion™]

@Vigilante - Yes, damage boosts apply to the base damage. if you used 4 strong IV, you would double your damage. (1.0 -> 1.25 -> 1.5 -> 1.75 -> 2.0)
Multipliers multiply one at a time to the total damage, so four Multiplier II would result in (1.0 -> 1.25 -> 1.56 -> 1.93 -> 2.44)

[Vigilante]

its an assumption but... if i put in strong 4 twice does it stack?

[Valkerion™]

@Nyamses - I previously stated they reduce hits and durations but I suppose some aoe as well, it's kind of a blanket reduction in "efficiency" but it performs different for every morph. After discovering how much better turbine is for using chain I didn't test further the specific interactions scatter and double tap have with all morphs.

They need to remove the efficiency reductions for most morphs imo, as it is already reducing the damage to 3*40% and then for example, pinpoint drops from 4 hits to 2 on top of the dmg reduction, so you deal -40% dmg instead of +20% by using the scatter barrel.

We have more discussion on the XEN in the discord thread, I suppose I may as well link back to it here.