The Thunderbolt mod gives arrows from the Paris or Dread a 7.5% chance per rank (for a maximum of 30% at rank 3) of exploding on impact, dealing 250 base damage to the target as well as to nearby enemies within 10 meters of the blast . Commonly obtained as a bonus mod for Platinum packs, but also dropped on Infested defense maps, as a wave reward or from mobs.
Stats
| Rank | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chance | 7.5% | 15% | 22.5% | 30% |
| Cost | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 |
Tips
- Pair with a high-rank Multishot mod for maximum effect.
- With a maxed Split Chamber mod (multishot), you'll have a 48.9% chance of having at least 1 explosion (with a 8.1% chance of having two), and thus a 51.1% chance of no explosion at all.
- When facing groups of enemies at medium to long range, maximize splash damage by aiming for a nearby wall or floor surface rather than directly at an enemy.
- Since explosive damage is unaffected by the amount of time you've charged the shot, rapid snap shots can be very effective at quickly taking out large groups of enemies.
- Rapid snap shots at close range can also be very effective at quickly killing yourself. Be careful!
- Trinity's Link ability is a great tool with Thunderbolt for damaging large, single enemies. Apply Link to a tough enemy and shoot at close range, Link doubles the damage dealt from explosion.
- Currently, the mod has no effect on bows' stealth properties, killing an unaware enemy with an explosive arrow will not trigger an alarm. However, missing a shot will still be noticed by enemies, be it explosive or not.
Notes
- You can hurt yourself (or even kill yourself) if you stay in the blast radius. This also does not apply to other allies caught in the blast radius.
- If the explosion triggered when the arrow hit an ally, the player will not receive damage.
- Blast radius is exactly 10 meters.
- Possible bug: If an enemy is hit with an exploding arrow directly, the blast does not seem to affect other nearby enemies (though it will still affect you).
- Like Fire and Electrical Damage mods, Thunderbolt greatly hinders your ability to proc the bolt "pinning" effect, which is what causes potential column-based AOE (caused by the flying corpses, not the arrows) with the bows.
- Since patch 7.11.0, the explosive damage is not affected by base and any elemental damage mods. It will only change its elemental affinity, and thus affecting the damage dealt by each enemies' vulnerabilities. With multiple elemental mods installed, the elemental affinity will be randomized instead of stacked.
- As of Update 8, the mod was changed from being exclusive to the Paris. It now works on all bows (with the only other bow at the moment being the Dread).