Mandiblaster attached to the helmet of a Striking Scorpion Aspect Warrior.
A Mandiblaster, also known as the Scorpion's Sting, is a close-range Craftworld Aeldari weapon attached to either side of an Asuryani Aspect Warrior's helmet.
Mandiblaster-equipped helmets are worn by all members of the Striking Scorpion Aspect Shrine, as well as some Autarchs, and its name comes from the fact that the weapon visually resembles the mandibles of an arachnid.
Activated by a psychic pick-up on the interior of the helmet, Mandiblasters fire a hail of micro-needles at an intended target. The needles themselves do not cause much damage on their own, but act as a short-range conductor for a highly charged laser beam.
The laser will instantly overheat and vaporise the needles where the resulting plasma produced by this vaporisation reaction will damage the target further, inflicting painful burns.
Mandiblasters can only be used at extremely short range and are by design conceived to disorient and incapacitate the target just before the Aeldari warrior engages in close quarters.
In itself, the Mandiblaster has virtually no killing power, but when used with the right timing, it will allow an Aeldari warrior to immediately follow up with a killing melee blow to finish off the foe.
Scorpion's Bite
The Striking Scorpion Phoenix Lord Karandras possesses a more archaic and powerful type of Mandiblaster known as the Scorpion's Bite on his helmet.
Unlike more mundane Mandiblasters, the Scorpion' Bite is a full-fledged laser weapon capable of striking down a foe before he has even reached combat.
Sources
- Codex: Eldar (6th Edition), pg. 66
- Codex: Eldar (4th Edition), pg. 33
- Codex: Eldar (3rd Edition), pg. 10
- Codex: Eldar (2nd edition) pp. 55, 84
- Warhammer 40,000: Wargear (2nd Edition), pg. 9
- Path of the Warrior (Novel) by Gav Thorpe
- Hammer of Daemons (Novel) by Ben Counter
