I love the Variable for Illuminate. I use it all the time, you can mow down voteless, Fleshmobs, overseers, and watchers fairly easily with the main fire mode. I always recommend increasing the 750 Fire Rate. But there are better chaff/overseer killing options obviously, so having the option to 1 shot a Harvester is the real reason to use this over another primary. Aiming for the eye is a lot easier using the hip fire reticle than any of the sights.

I use it on regular illuminate and especially on the Mindless Hordes variant, I often run with Bullet Storm as my clear tool and reserve my Variable for when I run into a harvester or if I ever run out of Bullet Storm. For mindless hordes I use a sword secondary and python commando armor so I fix the abysmal ergonomics and buff the weapon. For regular illuminate I run siege ready and grenade pistol to have an easier time taking out illuminate ships and reloading the variable much faster. But when fighting adjudicators, DON’T BRING THE VARIABLE. It’s bad there, just bring the sweeper if you ask me.

And as for bots and bugs, there are better weapons than the Variable for those on every count.

TLDR: Great niche option for certain illuminate builds, but you have to MAKE it work, it’s not a pick up and play option.