Gub's LAS-1000 Excalibur​

What's new in 2.0​

• New default profile, tuned in playtesting:
  • Heavy-penetrating bolts: the LAS-17 Double-Edge Sickle max-heat round.
  • 400-shot heat sink.
  • Two-stage cooling: 20 shots a second up to 250, then 10 a second for the last 150 (about 27.5 s from empty to full). Let go early and you're back in the fight fast; topping it off takes patience.
  • 30-second overheat lockout. Run it to zero and you pay for it.
• New MODS settings: Slow cooling threshold (250; 0 = one rate, as before) and Slow cooling (10 a second). The lockout now goes up to 60 s.
• Your old settings are reset to the new profile for bolts, heat capacity, cooling and lockout. Change them back in MODS if you liked them better.
• The log now says which heat settings are in use when the mod loads (excalibur 2.0.0 loaded: ...).

Required mods​

• Bingus Shared Loader (v15 or newer)
• HD2Runtime (0.31.3 or newer; on 0.28.0 to 0.31.2 only the classic Excalibur works. On an older Runtime, the classic Excalibur works exactly as before and the log says the stratagem isn't available)
• 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​

• 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: 400 shots from full.
• Stop shooting and it cools back up after a 0.1 second pause: 20 shots per second up to 250, then 10 per second to full. Ammo is infinite as long as you manage the heat.
• Run it dry and it overheats: the gun locks for 30 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​

1. Install with Arsenal or HD2MM, along with the required mods.
2. Pick how you want to play (Escape > MODS > LAS-1000 Excalibur > Every Maxigun is an Excalibur):
   • Stratagem (Off): open the stratagem picker on your ship and choose LAS-1000 EXCALIBUR from the custom stratagem panel beside the native list. In the mission, call it with Down, Right, Up, Up, Left, Left. It drops in its own pod with its backpack. While it's picked, the plain M-1000 Maxigun is blocked for you (it carries the Excalibur).
   • Classic (On, the default): every M-1000 Maxigun you call in arrives as the Excalibur. Don't pick the stratagem in this mode: HD2Runtime refuses it at mission start.
3. Fire a short burst. The mod finds your backpack's counter within about a quarter of a second, and from then on the counter is your heat meter.
4. Manage the heat. Let go of the trigger and it cools at 20 shots a second up to 250, then 10 a second to the full 400. Run it to zero and the gun locks for 30 seconds.
5. Optional: tune everything in MODS (bolts, damage, fire rate, spread, heat, cooling and lockout) and press APPLY (Tab). Bolts and heat settings change the gun in your hands right away. Fire rate and spread apply to Maxiguns called in after the change, unless you turn on Instant rate/spread changes.

Settings​

Good to know about the two modes​

• In stratagem mode the Excalibur always fires LAS-58 Talon bolts with the Double-Edge Sickle sound, and everything goes back to vanilla when the mission ends. The Bolts setting is for classic mode.
• In classic mode the Bolts setting picks the laser; the default is the heavy-penetrating Double-Edge Sickle max-heat round.

Quirks​

• Stratagem mode rules (HD2Runtime's): while someone in the lobby brings a plain Maxigun, the Excalibur stratagem is unavailable, and picking it blocks the plain Maxigun. With teammates, everyone needs the same Runtime and this mod.
• In stratagem mode, a plain Maxigun still gets free movement, the wide spread and the heat-sink backpack. It fires its own bullets at its own rate. Turn those settings off if you want a fully vanilla Maxigun.
• Bolt damage is shared with each bolt's own laser (a Talon slider change affects the LAS-58 Talon too). The Double-Edge Sickle heat rounds keep their own damage.
• 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 the cooling ever stops anyway, put the Excalibur away for 20 seconds, take it back out and fire a short burst: the mod looks for the backpack again. Please send the log if that happens.
• 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​

Get-Content "$env:LOCALAPPDATA\CowboyBingus\Helldivers2\Logs\HD2Runtime.log" | Set-Clipboard

Previous updates​

What's new in 1.3​

• The LAS-1000 EXCALIBUR stratagem (needs HD2Runtime 0.31.3 or newer). The Excalibur now has its own stratagem: its own name, icon and code (Down, Right, Up, Up, Left, Left), picked from the custom stratagem panel like any other. It's called down in the Maxigun's own pod with its backpack, fires LAS-58 Talon laser bolts, and keeps the Excalibur's heat sink, free movement, spread and fire rate. To use it, turn off Every Maxigun is an Excalibur in MODS.
• Co-op heat fix, with thanks to alphaqwq. alphaqwq tracked down the bug where a teammate's overheat froze your gun (fixed in 1.2.9) and sent a patch. Its extra check is now in too: a backpack holding more than your heat capacity is never taken for yours.
• Choose the bolts' damage from the mod menu: turn on Custom bolt damage and set the Talon, Sickle or Sai bolt's damage. A bolt's damage belongs to its own laser, so it's shared: the LAS-58 Talon's own shots change with the Talon slider, and so on.

Fixed in 1.2.9​

• Co-op with two Maxiguns: a teammate's overheat no longer freezes your gun. The mod could mistake a teammate's backpack for yours if it drained while you weren't firing. When his gun overheated, yours stopped cooling for his whole lockout. Now a backpack only counts as yours while it drains as you fire. One that drains while you're not firing is let go, and your first burst takes the mod straight back to your own gun, even during a lockout. Thanks to the player who reported it with a detailed breakdown.

Fixed in 1.2.8​

• "It randomly stops recharging." The game keeps every backpack's ammo count in one shared list and shuffles that list when things come and go (a drone or supply pack destroyed, a teammate leaving). The Excalibur's count could move to a new place in the list while the mod kept cooling the old one, so the gun stopped cooling until you called in a new one. The mod now notices the move and follows the count. The log says excalibur heat deposit moved ... following it when it happens.

What's new in 1.2​

• 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. 1.2 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.

Credits​

• Gub: concept, design and testing.
• alphaqwq: the co-op heat bug report, its analysis and a patch (1.2.9 / 1.3.0). Thanks, buddy.
• Built with Claude Opus 5.5.
• HD2Runtime 0.31.3 by Skyeshade: the custom stratagem system, the weapon variants and the backpack-ammo research the heat system is based on. The LAS-1000 EXCALIBUR stratagem wouldn't exist without it.
• HD2R Editor 0.9.4 by Skyeshade, used to research the records this mod changes.
• 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.