Hardlight Saber

The Hardlight Saber is a powerful end-game two-handed melee weapon with a unique energy-based damage profile. Despite being neither true Sharp nor true Plasma in the usual sense, it is treated as both Plasma and Laser for damage calculations, and it grants experience for the Sharp Melee skill when used.

In combat, the Hardlight Saber can deflect incoming projectiles, completely negating their damage and sometimes sending them back toward the attacker. This deflection is a passive effect that occurs when the saber is not actively attacking and the player is facing the source of the projectile, with a short cooldown of about 2.5 seconds between deflections. It can fully nullify sustained fire from stationary machinegun emplacements as long as it is held in hand, the wielder is not currently attacking, and they are facing the emplacement. Blocking these shots still drains stamina, but running out of stamina does not prevent the saber from continuing to negate the incoming fire. The deflection behavior is not limited to bullets; it also works against attacks such as the psychic beam used by Exor Monks and the quill attacks used by Exors and Armored Exors.

Because its damage type counts as both Plasma and Laser, the Hardlight Saber interacts with resistances differently from ordinary Plasma weapons. It does not receive the 2.5x damage multiplier that true Plasma gets against body shields; instead, it uses the Laser multiplier of 0.65x. It also cannot ignite targets. Although it does not deal Sharp damage and therefore cannot inflict Bleeding, it still awards Sharp Melee experience. As a result, it does not benefit from effects that require Bleeding, such as Slice n' Dice, and Eviscerator also does not apply to it, since the weapon is not subject to Sharp resistance in the first place. Its damage likewise does not gain a boost from that skill, presumably because of its non-physical nature.

• Best used as a high-tier melee weapon that can also provide strong active defense against ranged threats.
• To deflect projectiles reliably, keep the saber out, stop attacking, and face the incoming source.
• The stamina cost of blocking still matters, so prolonged defensive use can drain endurance even though the weapon continues to negate shots.
• Its damage profile makes it unusual among melee weapons, so it does not behave like a normal Sharp weapon in every system that checks damage type or bleed effects.