shieldburst

Reflex Array

What it is

A unique reactive artifact that turns incoming damage into a counter-volley. Whenever the ship is hit, the array fires a ring of piercing spark projectiles in every direction, knocks back nearby enemies, and grants a short max-speed buff so the ship can escape the threat that triggered it. The proc is gated by a short cooldown so chip damage cannot retrigger it every frame.

Identity

Field	Value
Display name	Reflex Array
Category	Unique
Icon	⚡
Primary color	44aaff
Secondary color	2266cc
Bright/highlight color	88ddff
Damage tag	None (type-agnostic)
Proc audio cue	Plays the artifact’s dedicated audio cue on every proc.

Per-tier values

Tiers are indexed by rarity. The four authored tiers cover uncommon through legendary; the runtime prepends a fifth “common” tier that reuses the uncommon row’s values and only adds a smaller flat passive bonus.

Rarity	Spark count	Spark damage	Knockback force	Speed boost (added to max speed)
Common	18	70	55	+25%
Uncommon	18	70	55	+25%
Rare	24	120	80	+35%
Epic	30	190	110	+50%
Legendary	40	280	150	+70%

Effect

Trigger: the player-damage signal (fires whenever the ship takes damage).

Cooldown between procs: 1.5 seconds.

When the cooldown is clear and the ship takes damage, the artifact runs the following actions in order:

Action	Effect
Spark volley	Spawns the tiered number of spark projectiles from the ship, spread evenly across a full 360° ring. Each spark deals the tiered damage, travels at speed 400, lives 0.8 s, and pierces up to 3 enemies.
Knockback	Pushes every enemy inside a 120-unit radius outward with the tiered knockback force.
Max-speed modifier	Adds the tiered speed boost to max speed as a percent modifier, lasting 2 seconds.
Primary VFX	Plays a dual-ring burst in the artifact’s bright and primary colors at scales 6.0 and 3.0.
Artifact flash	Flashes the artifact’s HUD icon to signal the proc.
Banner	Shows the artifact’s banner the first time it procs in a run.

The spark volley, knockback, and speed buff resolve on the same trigger, so each proc clears the ship’s immediate space, pushes the wave back, and lets the ship reposition out of the follow-up.

Stacking rules

Rule	Behavior
Max stacks	1
Stacking mode	Refresh — a fresh proc replaces the existing speed buff, resetting its remaining duration to the full 2 seconds.
Modifier source	The artifact tags its speed modifier with its own source key so subsequent procs find and refresh it rather than stacking a second copy.
Speed buff duration	Fixed at 2 seconds regardless of tier.
Cooldown gating	The 1.5 s cooldown is shorter than the 2 s speed-buff duration, so at maximum trigger rate the speed bonus is continuously refreshed and remains active end-to-end.
Spark/knockback stacking	Each proc spawns a fresh independent volley and a one-shot knockback; neither persists or stacks between procs.
Spark pierce limit	Each spark independently terminates after passing through 3 enemies; the pierce count does not stack across volleys.

---

Summary: Reflex Array is a unique damage-triggered artifact on a 1.5 s cooldown. Each proc fires a 360° ring of piercing spark projectiles, applies a one-shot knockback inside a fixed 120-unit radius, and grants a 2-second percent max-speed buff that refreshes on re-trigger. Spark count (18 → 40), spark damage (70 → 280), knockback force (55 → 150), and speed boost (+25% → +70%) all scale across tiers; spark speed, lifetime, pierce, spread, and the buff duration are constant. Because the cooldown is shorter than the buff window, the speed bonus is effectively continuous under sustained damage. Common reuses uncommon’s values per the shared-tier convention.

EXTRACT-CANDIDATE flags:

• The “5th common tier reuses uncommon values and differentiates via flat passive bonus” rule is shared across all artifacts and belongs on the artifacts roll-up page, not duplicated per entity.
• The FLAT_BONUS_PCT_BY_TIER table (10 → 50 across common → legendary) referenced in the shared types is engine-wide and should live on the artifacts overview / authoring guide.
• The stacking: 'refresh' / maxStacks / per-source modifier semantics are generic effect-engine concepts; canonical definition belongs on a combat or effect-engine page.
• The spawn_projectile, apply_knockback, modify_stat, vfx (dual_ring), flash_artifact action types are shared primitives across many artifacts — canonical reference belongs on the artifact authoring guide.
• The spark projectile archetype (speed/lifetime/pierce/spread semantics, originX: 'ship' ring spawn) is a shared primitive belonging on the projectile or combat reference.
• Color-palette schema (primary / secondary / bright) is shared across all artifacts and belongs on the roll-up, with per-entity pages only listing the values.
• The procAudioCue mechanism (audio cue keyed to the artifact’s flash action, routed through the spatial game bus with LPF + reverb) is an engine-wide convention and belongs on the artifact authoring guide.
• The showBanner: true first-proc banner behavior is shared across artifacts and belongs on the roll-up.