It seems like only yesterday that we were complaining about the lack of guns to counter automatons in "Hell Diver 2". That's because this morning's surprise update brought two new support weapons to Super Earth.

The Quasar Cannon makes an overwhelming impression. Its boxy, imposing body rests on its shoulders, similar to its distant cousin, the laser cannon. Unlike laser beam weapons, however, the quasar cannon charges a huge blast at once. In the middle of the charge, the cannon's reticle rotates and its internal mechanisms swell with anticipation. A ball of condensed energy gathers at the end of the cannon barrel and is released with a discreet zap, quickly followed by a low-pitched impact. It's a mean machine, but I'm glad to have it on my side.

The Quasar, unlocked at level 18 for 7,500 leks, does not require reloading but has a significant cooldown between shots. According to early tests, the power of a single Quasar shot is comparable to that of an anti-tank rocket, but it has some important advantages:

The Helldivers 2 community has welcomed the Quasar Cannon with open arms and clenched fists. Hulks, chargers, fabricators, and even automaton dropships point to its potential to finish them off with a single blow: a top voted post on the Helldivers subreddit by a user named The_Bored_Goat does not hold back the love for the Quasar :

"Best weapon in the game. It is an EAT with infinite ammo, is on par with EATs in terms of damage, has no reload animations, and has infinite range. It's a cryingly democratic weapon."

While superlative is premature, the Quasar Cannon falls nicely into the small club of weapons that can challenge Helldivers 2's strongest threats. Its raw damage and armor-piercing potential remind one of the pre-nerf railgun, which could penetrate the center of a Charger or Hulk in an instant. As user Carbo-Hydrates-0417 has demonstrated, the cannon can accurately snipe fabricators, bug holes, and other destructible structures from any distance.

However, the Quasar has its drawbacks. The recharge time is as long as 3-4 seconds, so you need to know in advance what you want to shoot. It is not "shoot and quit" like the Expendable Anti-Tank, so if you are used to blowing your head off seconds before the charger beats you down, the Quasar may disappoint you. Unlimited ammo is nice, but the cooldown to fire is the same or worse than reloading a recoilless rifle. You can also view the lack of a backpack on the quasar as a weakness - recoilless rifles and autocannon tag reloads can fire much faster than the quasar.

The quasar's blast also does less splash damage - despite sharing form factor with a rocket launcher, it is more accurate to think of this as a precision rifle.

To give you an idea of how the Quasar Cannon can help you achieve your goals beyond simply taking out the enemy, here is some useful Quasar Cannon test data collected by user Emptynesz: