Dying Star

"The appearance of highly mobile and mutable Flood Pure Forms quickly led to Promethean countermeasures. Advanced LightRifle that fires adhesive pulsewave explosives; as few as three nearby explosions will prove fatal to even a shielded Spartan."

- In-game description

The Dying Star is a special variant of the Z-250 Directed Energy Engagement Weapon featured in Halo 5: Guardians as a Legendary REQ variant of the LightRifle. Its appearance is identical to that of a normal LightRifle, although the main body is now colored dark gray, broken up by orange and turquoise stripes flowing throughout the weapon.

Background
The Dying Star is a named variant of the Z-250 DEEW, modified to fire adhesive pulsewave explosives. Its first use was in the Forerunner-Flood war, where the appearance of highly mobile and mutable Flood pure forms quickly led to Promethean countermeasures. Another named Z-250 variant is the Barbed Lance, also used during the Forerunner-Flood war.

In late 2558, Spartan-IVs trained with the weapon in War Games simulations aboard the.

Halo 5: Guardians
The Dying Star is a Legendary Level 5 Power Weapon REQ that grants 200 REQ Points when sold. While functioning the same as a normal LightRifle, it fires adhesive pulsewave explosive rounds that can adhere to both infantry and vehicles and explode after 0.9 seconds. As few as three explosions deal enough splash damage to kill a full shield, full health Spartan. Unlike the other LightRifles, the Dying Star has the same rate of fire, whether hipfired or zoomed in. Although it has the smallest magazine size of the LightRifles (8 rounds), it makes up for this with its ability to deal major damage to infantry and vehicles due to its explosive rounds; it kills a Spartan in 3 rounds, whether hipfired, zoomed in, or with indirect splash damage. The Dying Star is most effective when used as a support or defensive weapon; other weapons like Barbed Lance, The Answer, and Blood of Suban are substitutes for offensive roles, as the player using the Dying Star may die before the final explosion needed to finish off an enemy goes off. Also, the Dying Star is plagued with increased vertical recoil and a lack of ammo, as it does not appear frequently in matchmade games.

In Warzone, Legendary Promethean Soldier bosses may drop the Dying Star upon death; however, this particular Dying Star is glitched, as the game simply calls it a LightRifle and it has no portrait when the player accesses a REQ terminal.

Changes from the Z-250 Directed Energy Engagement Weapon

 * Fires adhesive pulsewave explosives that stick to enemies and explode after 0.9 seconds.
 * Firing rate reduced to 110 RPM for both hipfire and zoomed-in modes.
 * Magazine size reduced to 8.
 * Maximum ammo capacity raised to 56 (8 active + 48 reserve).
 * Increased vertical recoil.

List of appearances

 * Halo 5: Guardians