Gub's LAS-1000 Excalibur
AI disclosure: built using Claude Opus 5.5.This mod is lightly tested. If you run into a bug, please report it in the comments along with your HD2Runtime log (see "Reporting bugs" below).
What's new in 1.1
- No more hitch when you pick up the gun. Older versions searched the game's memory every time you picked up or re-equipped the Maxigun. 1.1 never does that: picking it up costs nothing, the heat system reads nothing while you're not holding a Maxigun, and the mod no longer checks your weapon every frame.
- Double-Edge Sickle firing sound (Escape > MODS > Firing sound; Maxigun to keep the vanilla roar). Call in a fresh Maxigun to hear it.
- Every laser round in the game (except the Quasar) can now be fired from the Excalibur. Pick one under Bolts.
Required mods
- Bingus Shared Loader (v15 or newer)
- HD2Runtime (0.28.0 or newer)
- Optional: CowboyBingus' Mod Options Menu (needs Bingus Shared Loader v18+) to change the settings in game. Without it the defaults below are used.
What it does
Turns the M-1000 Maxigun into the LAS-1000 Excalibur, a laser minigun:- Free movement: walk, run and dive while firing. The Maxigun normally roots you in place.
- Fires lasers instead of bullets, at 2400 rpm in a wide laser spray (spread 200). Choose the laser under Bolts:
- LAS-17 Double-Edge Sickle max-heat round (default; its heavy-penetrating top shot)
- LAS-17 Double-Edge Sickle mid-heat and low-heat rounds
- LAS-12 Sai bolt
- LAS-16 Sickle bolt
- LAS-58 Talon bolt
- The backpack becomes a heat sink. The ammo counter is now the heat meter: 300 shots from full.
- Stop shooting and it cools back up at 25 shots per second after a 0.1 second pause, so ammo is infinite as long as you manage the heat.
- Run it dry and it overheats: the gun locks for 14 seconds, then comes back at full heat capacity. Set the lockout to 0 if you'd rather an empty Excalibur just cool back up normally.
How to use it
- Install with Arsenal and make sure the required mods are installed.
- Call in an M-1000 Maxigun as normal. It arrives as the Excalibur.
- Fire a short burst. The mod finds your backpack's counter within about a quarter of a second of firing, and from then on the counter cools whenever you let go of the trigger.
- Optional: Escape > MODS > LAS-1000 Excalibur to change the bolts, fire rate, spread, heat capacity, cooling speed, cooling delay and overheat lockout. Press APPLY (Tab). Bolts and the heat settings change the gun in your hands right away. Fire rate and spread apply to Maxiguns called in after the change; turn on Instant rate/spread changes if you want them to update the gun in your hands too.
| Setting | Default | Range |
|---|---|---|
| Excalibur conversion | On | Off = vanilla Maxigun |
| Bolts | DE Sickle max heat | DE Sickle max / mid / low heat, Sai, Sickle, Talon |
| Fire while moving | On | Off = rooted in place like vanilla |
| Fire rate | 2400 rpm | 600 - 3000 |
| Spread | 200 | 5 - 600 |
| Instant rate/spread changes | Off | On = a fire rate or spread change also updates the Maxigun in your hands (the mod searches memory for a few seconds after the change, a little each frame) |
| Heat / cooldown | On | Off = normal belt ammo |
| Heat capacity | 300 shots | 50 - 1000 |
| Cooling | 25 shots/s | 5 - 600 |
| Cooling delay | 0.1 s | 0 - 3 s |
| Overheat lockout | 14 s | 0 - 20 s (0 = none) |
Quirks
- Host only for the cooling: the cooling works on the host's game. Teammates may see a different counter, and as a client it may not cool at all.
- While the mod is on, every Maxigun in your game is an Excalibur.
- Fire while moving, fire rate and spread are set when the gun is called in: after changing them, call in a fresh Maxigun (or turn on Instant rate/spread changes for fire rate and spread).
- Only projectile lasers can be fired. The Scythe, Dagger, Trident, Laser Cannon, Laser Sentry, Guard Dog Rover and Orbital Laser are beams, which a Maxigun can't fire. The Quasar is left out on purpose.
- A laser's effects load the first time you pick it under Bolts. If you switch mid-mission, it can take a moment to start firing the new laser.
- You don't need a separate free-movement Maxigun mod. If you keep one installed anyway, HD2Runtime may log that the setting was already changed; that's harmless.
- Supply packs and ammo boxes refill the heat meter.
- Other mods that change the Maxigun's bullets or the rounds of the laser weapons above will conflict. The mod stops itself safely and says so in the log.
- If you hold a teammate's Maxigun the mod has to find that backpack's counter again (fire a short burst).
- When the Excalibur has been put away for 20 seconds and has fully cooled, the mod lets go of its backpack to save work. Fire a short burst when you take it back out and the cooling picks up again.
- Memory-only: turning the mod off or restarting the game gives you the vanilla Maxigun back. Your real laser weapons are unchanged.
- A game update can disable the cooling (the mod checks the game code first and falls back to normal belt ammo, saying so in the log).
Reporting bugs
Leave a comment describing what happened and paste your HD2Runtime log. To copy it, open PowerShell and run:
Code:
Get-Content "$env:LOCALAPPDATA\CowboyBingus\Helldivers2\Logs\HD2Runtime.log" | Set-ClipboardCredits
- Gub: concept, design and testing.
- Built with Claude Opus 5.5.
- HD2Runtime by Skyeshade, including the backpack-ammo research the heat system is based on.
- Free-movement edit (WeaponData +387) as used by the mobile Maxigun mods on AyakaMods.
- Projectile-record discovery adapted from HD2 Grenade Contact Detonation by etxp (MIT license).
- Bingus Shared Loader and Mod Options Menu by CowboyBingus.
