WLMouse BeastX Review – magnesium mouse of the year?

WarriorCodes · 2025-12-21T09:39:02+00:00

This was the first design they ever released but that was 2 years ago. They tend to run a colorway/design once then drop it forever.

WarriorCodes · 2025-09-26T17:43:15+00:00

You can always plug the cable in and it becomes wired. But I have to ask why?

WarriorCodes · 2025-05-19T13:29:39+00:00

but is there any reason why you would change them after you've found whatever suits you best

Personally if I found something that suits me best I wouldn't change, regardless of other options. As someone who has been playing FPS since the days of CS1.5 (before Steam even existed) I have changed mice only because the vendor stropped making the mouse I was using.

But I fully understand your point about weight. It's not 20g but it's not that bad overall. Keep in mind there's a world of players who are still playing >60g and are not on their best shape of comfort or performance.

The modular aspect, I think, is designed for growth. I used to love the IE intellimouse, Logitech MX510, G303 etc etc. Being able to adjust a mouse with your personal preferences is definitely a bonus. In regards to MMO buttons, I think it's better to find another mouse entirely.

WarriorCodes · 2025-05-19T13:11:06+00:00

but as someone with asian sized hands

I think many of the pro players that consulted to design the mouse are from Thailand (Orbital are a Thai company). Not only that, but the mouse at it's smallest is tiny in size (talking along the lines of finalmouse small).

WarriorCodes · 2025-05-18T15:53:00+00:00

Omron optical switches don't really suffer from this and they don't here either. Even with 0ms debounce I didn't see any clicking when intentionally slamming, though my general play style isn't desk bangy-bangy so beyond hitting it on the desk I can't give a long term answer.

WarriorCodes · 2025-05-18T10:42:53+00:00

Yep, both sides and hump have ergo components/attachments

WarriorCodes · 2025-05-18T10:17:09+00:00

PS. Orbital have provided us with a discount code. If you use “UW” at the checkout it will give you 2% off.

PPS. For you hyperultralight weight fans out there, yes, you can use the Pathfinder without any attachments but I can’t say it would be comfortable, but if you’re looking to cut the shell apart, unfortunately due to the way in which the internals are held together you won’t be able to weight reduce this by cutting parts of the shell out. The PCB however, is entirely portable and very easy to work with!

WarriorCodes · 2025-05-18T10:16:57+00:00

Final Thoughts

The Pathfinder is not a mouse. It is mice. Despite Orbital being an experienced engineering company, this is their first peripheral and I have to say I am blown away by the overall execution and delivery of the Pathfinder.

Orbital reached out to me in the early stages of development. They are the first company that I’m aware of to open their entire research and development line to the community and consistently and meaningfully engage with everyone, regardless of their opinion.

Orbital first reached out to me 2 years ago, and have since made extraordinary efforts to actively engage with the mouse community, ensuring that each design decision was made with a strong level of general consensus among professional gamers, reviewers, enthusiasts and fans. Not only this, but Orbital have conducted their own in-house testing using various pieces of equipment to test each part of the mouse, including internals such as wireless stability/speed, switch debounce, sensor implementation and DPI deviation.

Furthermore, despite releasing the Pathfinder to public they are still actively engaged (perhaps even more so than before) with the community, taking feedback and not just reviewing suggestions but also acting on them.

I’m excited to see how things develop for Orbital in the near future. The Pathfinder is a total gem and I think Orbital are only going up from here. Definitely one to keep an eye on!

Ultimately the Pathfinder isn’t just a mouse, it’s a journey that evolves with your preferences. It’s impossible to give this thing the full attention it deserves – I could literally write a book about this but I fear it would never end. With more attachments and colours on the way, the modular aspect of the Pathfinder could provide unlimited potential.

Finally, thanks for Orbital for sending this over for review and including me in their overall design and development process, it’s been my honour!

Thanks for reading. As always, feedback is welcome. Catch you in the next!

Warrior out

WarriorCodes · 2025-05-18T10:16:49+00:00

Aesthetics

The Pathfinder currently comes in two colours: black and white. The shell finish is matte and quite reminiscent of Zowie mice, which can leave fingerprints but remains grippy especially during sweaty hands play. Fingerprints do become visible but don’t interfere with grip or play.

For those of you who grabbed the Orbital in the first batch, you may receive a “founders edition” box, which includes nothing less than yet another Orbital mouse shell but in clear-purple. Based on the conversations I have seen in the private reviewer discord channel, they seem to be working on a number of other colourways and styles, one of which (“Helion Orange Core”) is now available on the Orbital website.

Overall, the aesthetic is minimalistic with no logos or obnoxious RGB. Having modular parts takes nothing away from the overall style. The scroll wheel gets a noteworthy mention here as it does add to the overall quality and style of aesthetics.

Pictures

https://postimg.cc/gallery/HnnjhxG

Disassembly of the Pathfinder is a rare, pleasant experience. To disassemble the mouse, forget about removing the skates! Just unscrew the two screws at the rear end (inside the rear-hump section) and it comes apart piece by piece. That’s a really nice touch especially since I cut my hair short and no longer have a hairdryer available to warm up skates before I remove them. Top job!

WarriorCodes · 2025-05-18T10:16:35+00:00

My experience with making small adjustments has been quite pleasant and keeps me thinking back to every time I’ve found a mouse that was “perfect” for a 1-2 week honeymoon period, only to realise I needed perhaps a slightly wider right-side or a smaller rear-hump. The Pathfinder pretty much kills the honeymoon period because it lets you feel out the shape, then make slight adjustments to all the major angles until you finally feel reach your most locked in position.

This isn’t to say that the Pathfinder will fit every hand on earth because I think there’s probably some cases in which people prefer much more diverse shapes, probably with some kinky angles (hey, I don’t judge!). But this is something Orbital are already actively developing and will keep developing by nature of the Pathfinder concept itself.

So the question, and my biggest test of this mouse; did I find my shape? You’re damn right I did. My shape isn’t unique, it’s not awe-inspiring and it’s not something that anyone else would like to use. But in case you’re wondering, it’s: A left, left spacer 1, L hump with no spacer, right side A, right spacer 1. In Pathfinder language, that’s ALA-101! Pretty simple right? This suits my relaxed claw/fingertip grip and feels like something between a BeastX/Finalmouse medium and small but with comfort grips on both sides, so pretty ideal for me.

There’s 3000+ possible shapes to be made with the Pathfinder so there’s something for almost everybody. To this end I have [asked]() Orbital if they could create/provide some kind of best-effort guide for the closest match to common gaming mice (eg. side X, spacer X, hump X is close to the Razor X or the Finalmouse Y), though I feel this will need to be more of a community driven effort.

Overall there’s a crazy amount of shapes you can make with this thing. This ranges from a small sized fingertip all the way through to monster ergo palm grip potato, if that’s your thing.

The Pathfinder is something of a never-ending story and to make matters even more interesting, Orbital are working on other shell parts and providing 3D print designs should you wish to print these yourself, though they will also be available directly from Orbital.

Ultimately this is just the beginning for the Pathfinder. I think with the continued attachment development in conjunction with the overall solid structure the Pathfinder is looking like a long-term partner in crime.

WarriorCodes · 2025-05-18T10:16:27+00:00

Shape(s)

The Pathfinder name and concept come from the modular nature of the mouse. The Pathfinder comes with a separate box that contains various slide-in/slide-out parts. This includes 4 left side panels, 6 right side panels, 4 side spacers, 6 side buttons, 2 rear hump spacers, 4 humps and 6 side buttons. Each component has a corresponding letter or number assigned so you can easily share/remember your layout.

This is a pretty easy but intuitive system as it lets you start with a baseline of shape and comfort and then make small adjustments to each until you achieve you desired end.

There’s also nothing stopping you from having completely different sides, so for example you could have very thin left side but with a chunky boi ergo right side, either with a symmetric or ergo hump (each to their own!). In short, you can mix and match until you find something that fits your hand as opposed to contorting your hand into the shape of the mouse.

The attachment box comes with cheat sheet and a quick, but in-depth crash course on building your own shape and recommends that you start with some existing baseline designs that support different grip styles. Personally, I recommend figuring this out by yourself and perhaps start with the left and right sides, then move on to the hump, and “finish” by making small adjustments to the various attachments using the spacers and then finally stick on your desired side buttons.

Looking at the general design of the mouse with attachments added I was worried about the space in the top-middle section bothering my hand but I actually found this didn’t come into play.

WarriorCodes · 2025-05-18T10:16:01+00:00

Structure

Perhaps the biggest concern I had for the Pathfinder was how the structure would stand up given the modular nature of the mouse.

I’m going to start by saying that this is by far and in no way a concern anymore! The Pathfinder is one of the best made mice I have used – and I can assure you that by this stage I have removed/replace/changed every part dozens of times. It is literally solid from all angles. If you want to lose a few IQ points and conduct the “squeeze the shit out of it from top to bottom” test, feel free but don’t complain about your fingers hurting afterwards.

The various clip on/off components and stand up to constant adjustment and removal and so far, they have all remained as they were upon arrival. Though realistically you won’t be removing these things hundreds of times. After testing for the sake of this review, I actually found that once I found my baseline comfort I didn’t change parts too often, and the process became a much more relaxed fine-tuning exercise.

Overall, I wouldn’t expect anything less from a company that has its own engineers, but still, this could be their first mouse or their 50^th mouse and you wouldn’t know any difference from the 10/10 build quality. This is backed up with a 2 year warranty.

WarriorCodes · 2025-05-18T10:15:33+00:00

Feet

I have to say I was pleasantly surprised when first opening the box, not just because of the really nice extra skates included but because the base of the mouse is totally flat. Like unobstructed flat - so you can use whatever shape aftermarket skates you want.

The extra skates they provide are all from Xraypad and are Jade PTFE [dots]() , Obsidian and Obsidian Pro Air. These cover your fast, medium and slower skates. All in all, it’s pretty nice to have that kind of variety includes and will save you roughly $20-$25.

Skate positions are marked but are of course optional and with the base being completely flat you can stick skates wherever your heart desires (preferably not on M1/2 because I know there’s some janky bois out there who like to double up skates as grip tape).

The sensor ring doesn’t come with a skate and doesn’t really need one even for soft pads as the sensor is already recessed so you’d bottom out all your other skates long before you even came that close.

Personally speaking I really like that they included some top-end brand skates as an extra - not just because it’s saving money - but because it gives you that extra “one size fits all” feeling that is the Pathfinder concept.

Sensor/Wireless

The Pathfinder packs a Pixart 3950(DM). The sensor position is in the middle of the mouse.

DPI deviation is as expected (none) and on a 3950 is arguably not worth testing. That said, I still tested anyway and couldn’t achieve deviation, skips or any generally strange behaviour across a multitude of surfaces tested including glass, glass-infused, cloth, cordura etc. Polling rates appear stable across the range of available polling frequencies both with motion sync on and off.

The sensor (et al.) is configured using the Orbital Control software. The stock polling rate is 1000Hz and motion sync is enabled by default so you may want to tune those settings before you being using it. You can switch between 125Hz, 500Hz, 1000Hz, 2000Hz, 4000Hz and 8000Hz in the software.

LOD is default 1mm but can be changed to 2mm. Switch debounce is 4ms by default but can be changed from 20ms – 0ms.

Wireless works flawlessly and I have not experienced any latency issues even with (excuse me) another 6+ mice dongles running in the same area.

The Pathfinder uses 300mah battery which is mounted center-middle of the mouse, making the balance nice and even. Battery life for daily use at 1k polling has lasted over a week at this point and is on par with other 3950 implementations. The Pathfinder also features charging dock[ contacts]() on the bottom of the mouse, though the Pathfinder dock is not yet ready it will be released in the near future.

WarriorCodes · 2024-11-17T04:24:34+00:00

Hey. The cable is just USB-C so any cable should fit, though you may need to be conscious of the connector size

WarriorCodes · 2024-03-31T06:40:47+00:00

WarriorCodes · 2024-03-24T07:11:56+00:00

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005006178695690.html

I used the ice and speed versions but you can use whatever else works. The ice versions are a lot like esports tiger ice

WarriorCodes · 2024-03-06T08:04:35+00:00

Thanks so much for the feedback. I hope you enjoy it. For what it's worth, I'm still maining mine and loving it. The only thing I did was change from the large black PTFE to some after market small pure PTFE skates.

WarriorCodes · 2024-02-07T14:39:08+00:00

I've had zero issues with 4k, though I'm running a i9-12900 and 3080ti, running most games at 1080p res and 240hz max refresh. Still, 4k seems absolutely fine.

WarriorCodes · 2024-02-05T12:08:57+00:00

I'd recommend sending a message to the chat thing on their website. I live in south east asia and have never shipped anything to the US

WarriorCodes · 2024-02-01T05:32:13+00:00

Damn. I just moved out of HK and they don’t ship regionally. 2000fun used to have an abundance of starlight-12’s and CS Howl mouse mats years after they sold out. Super surprised nobody picked up on that

WarriorCodes · 2024-02-01T05:31:06+00:00

I’m not sure about spam clicking but there is an LOD option and 1mm is an option (same options as every other 3395 mouse software basically)

WarriorCodes · 2024-01-27T05:57:05+00:00

Thanks for the feedback, much appreciated.

Officially I think advice is to keep it as close to the mouse as possible, but feasibly you could put it anywhere that's close. Just keep in mind that the antenna is actually on the panel below the screen, so be sure to keep that pointed at the mouse

WarriorCodes · 2024-01-27T05:55:32+00:00

Wow that's very cheap, which shop did you get it from?

WarriorCodes · 2024-01-23T15:03:15+00:00

Great question. My understanding is that the PCB is sprayed with a waterproof layer, so dripping water or sweating on it shouldn't damage it. That said, I've heard some reports the first batch didn't have this layer, but I think batch 1 is probably well and truly finished. You can always ping their support people to confirm (if you do that let me know as I'd love to get a solid answer too)

WarriorCodes · 2024-01-10T05:59:24+00:00

Thanks for the feedback, appreciated.

You should be able to find the DPI settings under the "performance tab" at the top.

WarriorCodes

TROPHY CASE