History of Timed Payload

Overview

Timed Payload is a Basic Trait. Projectiles attached to enemies explode after a short delay.

It rolls on seven weapons, including Judgment and Ten Paces. Its counterpart is Explosive Payload, which detonates on impact.

Mechanics

Compared with Explosive Payload, the explosion goes off about 0.16 seconds after impact rather than instantly. Both create a 3 meter blast with steep damage falloff, and neither explosion is affected by the range stat. A breakdown of the numbers finds that Timed Payload puts a larger share of its damage into the explosion, while Explosive Payload puts more into the impact. On critical hits the impact receives the crit multiplier, so the explosion-heavy split favors Explosive Payload slightly.

The same breakdown concludes that neither perk is clearly best in every mode, since each has trade-offs.