Tools of the Trade : Comprehensive Weapon Guide
Steam version : http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=707400933
Your Ships are nothing without weapons. This guide will show you which weapons are the best ones you can acquire in the void, which ones you should avoid, as well as a quick breakdown of each weapon you may find in the void.
ECHO Ray
ith focused optics 5, this weapon can achieve 4750m range. To add to that it has the ability to chain bounce between targets, potentially almost doubling its total damage if it manages to bounce between 4 targets. The distance the rays bounce over are massive, and most players just don't choose to seperate their ships to stop the chaining effect and risk getting too split out.
Couple that with its general easiness to handle, and you got a versatile weapon to boot. The ECHO Ray also cannot be blocked by ships, setting a primary target to a ship that is blocked by another ship infront of it will result in the ray hitting the ship set as primary target.
The weakness of this weapon however is that its not great at close range againts some other weapons, while it doesn't have a minimal range, close combat should generally be avoided against more powerful weapons.
Like most energy weapons you also HAVE to mount Focused Optics 5 or Ionized Optics 3 special equipment to even use the weapon at all.
Againts squadrons, this weapon lacks damage, it can wound all 4 squadrons at once due to its chain effect, but in order to shoot down squadrons you need multiple shots. Not the best. Especially in lower level fleets, like level 34, where you dont have as much firepower with your ships as in high level pvp.
Also it has a module damage penalty, so do not use this in base attacks.
Pros
Cons
Mount on Battleships, Destroyers (for attacking other ships), Frigates. Not the best on cruisers, and do not mount on cutters.
Aurora Ray
For those who don't know or don't pay attention, the aurora fires 6 shots that home into the target and does 25% extra damage to shields.
This weapon provide a higher damage but shorter range alternative to the ECHO Ray.
Compared to the ECHO the Aurora is even more versatile, but some players still use the ECHO for the range advantage.
Like the ECHO, the Aurora is quick to fire and easy to handle. It is one of the easiest weapons to focus fire with due to its firing cycle,the extra shield damage is a nice bonus.
The only downside compared to the ECHO is that it can be obstructed by ships if the primary target is hiding behind another.
This Weapon also pairs nicely with the extra shield damage of Ionized Optics, and if you have the extra mass capacity you can replace focused optics 5 with it. Although reduced armor damage can hurt due to the overall reliance of armor in the current meta.
This weapon can be considered to have no major downsides on its own. It performs well on all situations except base attacks due to its shorter range. And as you guessed you need focused optics or ionized optics to make this weapon work.
The Aurora is also one of the best weapons against squadrons, as each of the 6 shots fired will home in to different squadrons instead of hitting the same one. Ensuring each squadron recieves just enough damage to kill them.
Pros
Mount on all ship classes, works well with all of them (on FvF)
SICO Missiles
The SICO fires 4 shots in rapid succession before taking a very short reload.
They have good enough range for an explosive weapon, and deals very high damage.
But what makes this weapon truly powerful is the AoE damage. The main playstyle of using the SICO Missile is to target the middle of the most clustered enemy to deal massive bonus AoE damage to surrounding ships.
The weaknesses, due to the rapid fire nature of the SICO Missiles, they deal somewhat poor damage per shot, relying instead on damage over time. Their spread and travel time makes also makes them poor against single targets since most of the missiles will miss, especially ones that are moving in a perpendicular angle to the ship firing SICOs. Counter this by moving closer to the enemy, or just by ignoring the ship that is alone and focus on the most clustered enemy.
When Rushing, the SICO Missiles can become somewhat awkward to handle, as they have a minimal range. So you need to make sure everyone of your ships have at least a target outside minimal range to shoot at or you waste an entire ship's worth of firepower.
Missles can also be blocked, but considering the massive AoE damage, your opponent might be better not blocking the missiles and simply taking the damage to 1 ship instead of 3 ships.
Against squadrons, they perform excellently, as they will fire more than enough missiles at approaching squadrons to kill and the AoE make sure all 4 squadrons get hit.
SICO Missiles can also kill squadrons that are already attacking a ship if the ship is equipped with SICO Missiles and fires it, some of the missiles will hit the squadrons on top of the ship instead of going to the target.
Pros
Mount on Cruisers only. Frigates need more burst damage, Battleships and destroyers suffer due to spread. And cutters cant reverse in close quarters combat quickly enough to not have the enemy inside minimal range.
Your Ships are nothing without weapons. This guide will show you which weapons are the best ones you can acquire in the void, which ones you should avoid, as well as a quick breakdown of each weapon you may find in the void.
Introduction
Fellow Rebels
This guide will be meant for mostly lower level players, those who have not used all the weapons or know how they work. This guide will include squadrons.
All Weapons will also each get an Anti Squadron Rating. Showing their effectiveness against squadrons.
Each weapon will also get a recommendation on what ship they should be and should not be mounted on, as well as general pros and cons.
Anti Squadron Rating :
Rating 1 - Very Poor
Takes multiple shots or a long time to kill 1 squadron, and can only hit 1 squadron at a time.
Probably the squadrons will manage to kill a ship before they get destroyed.
Rating 2 - Mediocre
Takes multiple shots to kill a squadron, but can hit multiple squadrons, or can severely damage 1 squadron quickly, but struggles vs 4 squadrons from a carrier. You will still take a lot of damage.
Some of them can also kill all squadrons or severely damage all squadrons, but fails to do so consistently.
Rating 3 - Good
Can kill or severely damage all 4 squadrons that are scrambled from a carrier in a reasonable amount of time and consistently. Your ships will however still take a bit of damage. Or they can kill all 4 squadrons very quickly before they cause any damage, but requires the squadrons to be approaching perpendicular to the ship in order to hit.
Rating 4 - Excellent
Can kill or severely damage all 4 squadrons that are scrambled from a carrier quickly enough so that they won't cause any kind of damage or only cause very minuscule amounts of damage to the ship if you fire early enough and can do so in most circumstances.
And finally, this guide was brought to you by your local planet warlord.
This guide will be meant for mostly lower level players, those who have not used all the weapons or know how they work. This guide will include squadrons.
All Weapons will also each get an Anti Squadron Rating. Showing their effectiveness against squadrons.
Each weapon will also get a recommendation on what ship they should be and should not be mounted on, as well as general pros and cons.
Anti Squadron Rating :
Rating 1 - Very Poor
Takes multiple shots or a long time to kill 1 squadron, and can only hit 1 squadron at a time.
Probably the squadrons will manage to kill a ship before they get destroyed.
Rating 2 - Mediocre
Takes multiple shots to kill a squadron, but can hit multiple squadrons, or can severely damage 1 squadron quickly, but struggles vs 4 squadrons from a carrier. You will still take a lot of damage.
Some of them can also kill all squadrons or severely damage all squadrons, but fails to do so consistently.
Rating 3 - Good
Can kill or severely damage all 4 squadrons that are scrambled from a carrier in a reasonable amount of time and consistently. Your ships will however still take a bit of damage. Or they can kill all 4 squadrons very quickly before they cause any damage, but requires the squadrons to be approaching perpendicular to the ship in order to hit.
Rating 4 - Excellent
Can kill or severely damage all 4 squadrons that are scrambled from a carrier quickly enough so that they won't cause any kind of damage or only cause very minuscule amounts of damage to the ship if you fire early enough and can do so in most circumstances.
And finally, this guide was brought to you by your local planet warlord.
Meta Weapons - Part 1
These weapons are the weapons that determine the current meta of the game. They are the best at whatever role they perform in, and are the first thing high level players think of when trying to fit their ships. Expect to see a lot of these, especially on the higher level. Get them ASAP.ECHO Ray
ith focused optics 5, this weapon can achieve 4750m range. To add to that it has the ability to chain bounce between targets, potentially almost doubling its total damage if it manages to bounce between 4 targets. The distance the rays bounce over are massive, and most players just don't choose to seperate their ships to stop the chaining effect and risk getting too split out.
Couple that with its general easiness to handle, and you got a versatile weapon to boot. The ECHO Ray also cannot be blocked by ships, setting a primary target to a ship that is blocked by another ship infront of it will result in the ray hitting the ship set as primary target.
The weakness of this weapon however is that its not great at close range againts some other weapons, while it doesn't have a minimal range, close combat should generally be avoided against more powerful weapons.
Like most energy weapons you also HAVE to mount Focused Optics 5 or Ionized Optics 3 special equipment to even use the weapon at all.
Againts squadrons, this weapon lacks damage, it can wound all 4 squadrons at once due to its chain effect, but in order to shoot down squadrons you need multiple shots. Not the best. Especially in lower level fleets, like level 34, where you dont have as much firepower with your ships as in high level pvp.
Also it has a module damage penalty, so do not use this in base attacks.
Pros
- Long range
- No minimal range
- Good damage, esp when chain effect triggers
- Versatile to mount on most ships
- Easy to handle, no charge up time, instantly fires on target. This facilitates focus fire on targets.
Cons
- Mediocre damage against lone targets, base modules, or close range.
- Not the best against squadrons (but not bad either, if massed)
- Needs focused optics 5 or Ionized optics 3
Mount on Battleships, Destroyers (for attacking other ships), Frigates. Not the best on cruisers, and do not mount on cutters.
Aurora Ray
For those who don't know or don't pay attention, the aurora fires 6 shots that home into the target and does 25% extra damage to shields.
This weapon provide a higher damage but shorter range alternative to the ECHO Ray.
Compared to the ECHO the Aurora is even more versatile, but some players still use the ECHO for the range advantage.
Like the ECHO, the Aurora is quick to fire and easy to handle. It is one of the easiest weapons to focus fire with due to its firing cycle,the extra shield damage is a nice bonus.
The only downside compared to the ECHO is that it can be obstructed by ships if the primary target is hiding behind another.
This Weapon also pairs nicely with the extra shield damage of Ionized Optics, and if you have the extra mass capacity you can replace focused optics 5 with it. Although reduced armor damage can hurt due to the overall reliance of armor in the current meta.
This weapon can be considered to have no major downsides on its own. It performs well on all situations except base attacks due to its shorter range. And as you guessed you need focused optics or ionized optics to make this weapon work.
The Aurora is also one of the best weapons against squadrons, as each of the 6 shots fired will home in to different squadrons instead of hitting the same one. Ensuring each squadron recieves just enough damage to kill them.
Pros
- Good Range
- Solid damage on all ranges
- Excellent vs Squadrons
- Versatile and can be mounted with great effect on all ship types, easy to handle. Great at focus firing.
- Needs Focused/Ionized Optics
- Not enough range to be effective on base attacks
- Has some risk of overkilling low health targets.
Mount on all ship classes, works well with all of them (on FvF)
SICO Missiles
The SICO fires 4 shots in rapid succession before taking a very short reload.
They have good enough range for an explosive weapon, and deals very high damage.
But what makes this weapon truly powerful is the AoE damage. The main playstyle of using the SICO Missile is to target the middle of the most clustered enemy to deal massive bonus AoE damage to surrounding ships.
The weaknesses, due to the rapid fire nature of the SICO Missiles, they deal somewhat poor damage per shot, relying instead on damage over time. Their spread and travel time makes also makes them poor against single targets since most of the missiles will miss, especially ones that are moving in a perpendicular angle to the ship firing SICOs. Counter this by moving closer to the enemy, or just by ignoring the ship that is alone and focus on the most clustered enemy.
When Rushing, the SICO Missiles can become somewhat awkward to handle, as they have a minimal range. So you need to make sure everyone of your ships have at least a target outside minimal range to shoot at or you waste an entire ship's worth of firepower.
Missles can also be blocked, but considering the massive AoE damage, your opponent might be better not blocking the missiles and simply taking the damage to 1 ship instead of 3 ships.
Against squadrons, they perform excellently, as they will fire more than enough missiles at approaching squadrons to kill and the AoE make sure all 4 squadrons get hit.
SICO Missiles can also kill squadrons that are already attacking a ship if the ship is equipped with SICO Missiles and fires it, some of the missiles will hit the squadrons on top of the ship instead of going to the target.
Pros
- Massive AoE damage
- Excellent vs squadrons
- Decent enough range to kite shorter range energy weapons
- Does not need any equipment to be effective
- Massive spread
- Difficult to handle during rushes
- Low damage per shot, Relies on AoE and damage over time to be effective
- Difficult to mount on any ship type other than cruisers
Mount on Cruisers only. Frigates need more burst damage, Battleships and destroyers suffer due to spread. And cutters cant reverse in close quarters combat quickly enough to not have the enemy inside minimal range.
Aliens are a plague, and we are the cure
1
Meta Weapons - Part 2
This weapon is made for base hitting, and is ONLY made for base hitting. And its the best in business. With the longest range and second highest damage per shot of any weapon in the game, this weapon is a must for any destroyer fleet that is made for basing.
Although this weapon is usable without any specials, its recommended that you mount either iridium magnets 2-4 (depending on remaining ship mass) or phased magnets 1 to increase projectile speed, so you won't spend most of the precious 5 minutes time waiting for the projectiles to hit something and risk overkilling a turret because your ships fire more shots than needed when the projectiles are still flying.
Unfortunately, FvF performance is pretty much non existent, since the enemy would have entered the massive 4000 m blind spot after the first shot, that being said, if your enemy is stupid enough to not dodge the first shot, they will take serious damage.
The Projectiles fired by the Siege Driver has a tiny AoE radius, enough to hurt multiple squadrons and kill them outright (especially those from the fleet bay) but because this weapon has a very slow rate of fire (1 shot per ~8 seconds), the chances of the squadrons running into the projectiles are slim, not to mention you need fire at a perpendicular angle to the fleet bay in order for the squadrons to run over the projecile. So overall, performance vs squadrons is bad.
Pros
- Longest range minimizes risk of getting hit by turrets while base hitting.
- Second highest damage per shot in game
- When mounted on destroyers, they are the best weapons to hit bases in the game.
Cons- Slow rate of fire
- Slow projectile speed, iridium or phased magnets recommended
- No use outside of base attacks.
Anti Squadron Rating : 2Mount only on destroyers made for basehits.
Bomber Squadron
The gold standard of squadrons. High health, high damage over time, good range and speed. They are the heaviest and increases ship XP by the most so not the best if you want to keep below level 34 (you might want interceptors for that), but its still possible using bomber 1s.
They also have the most mass out of all squadrons but who cares all carriers except the valhalla can mount 4x bombers 3 and still carry good shields and armor.
Since this is a squadron of course you cant hit other squadrons with it.
General squadron limitations apply, they can be shot down, the less HP they have, the less damage they deal, but once they attack (or 'swarm') a ship, the ship being attacked cant return fire to the squadron.
They deal explosive damage, this used to be a good bonus when everyone uses spectral 5 instead of meta 3 shields, but now it doesnt matter so much (at least on the high level).
Pros
- Good range, damage, speed, and health. Best squadron available
ConsAlternative Weapons - Part 1
These Weapons can be used as alternatives to the meta weapons. You won't find them as common as the meta weapons, but they are still excellent weapons in their own right, and you can still surprise and beat people using more mainstream tactics with these. But, they usually are plagued with 1-2 weaknesses that prevent them from being meta weapons.Impulse Beam
The Impulse beam trades versatility and ease of use for sheer burst damage potential.
The DPS Stat might seem just slightly more than your average energy weapon, but once it fires you know it is something else entirely.
It takes 4 seconds to charge the weapon, during which a small yellow glow can be seen on the ship that is using this weapon. But it deals massive damage in a very short period of time. This immense damage is both a blessing and a curse as there is a great risk of overkilling a target and wasting potential damage, as well as forcing you to go through the charging cycle again.
This is the most difficult part about using this weapon, keeping your enemy inside firing range until the weapon finishes delivering damage.
That being said, this weapon is only made for dealing immense damage to a single target, nothing more, and its arguably the best in business.
This weapon is also capable hitting targets that are hiding behind other ships, by setting them as primary target. Making this a good weapon to take down key targets.
Against squadrons beam weapons perform poorly, as they can only target 1 squadron at a time, and needs to recharge before hitting a second one.
Pros
- Immense burst damage
- Long Range
- Can hit ships that are hiding
Cons- Long Charge up time
- Risk of overkilling
- Poor vs Squadrons
- Needs focused optics or ionized optics
Anti Squadron Rating : 1Mount on anything, as long as you know how to use it, that is keeping the enemy inside weapon range until the weapon finishes its firing cycle.
Burst Ray
This weapon is basically the short range equivalent of the Impulse, its purpose is the same, to deal massive burst damage.
The main difficulty of the Burst ray is making all of those little pellets hit the target, manage to do that, and you will be rewarded with massive damage. If you fail, you have to go through a lenghty reload.
If you are facing a flagship, all of the pellets will hit regardless of how far you are because of the size of the target. Any other ship and you pretty much have to be literally at point blank range (i.e your ship sticking into the enemy ship) in order to do so reliably.
As an upside, you don't need any equipment to run this weapon, in fact, you shouldn't mount any equipment at all, as focused optics will increase the pellet spread, and ion will reduce hull damage. You can instead focus on mounting bigger burst rays.
Against Squadrons, this weapon can kill all 4 squadrons from a carrier, but not consistently, mainly due to the slow fire rate and the pellet spread. same rules apply as for hitting ships.
Pros
- Highest damage per shot in game providing all pellets hit, can kill most shields in 1-2 hits, and hull not long after that.
- Can hit multiple targets (albeit reducing the damage each one recieves)
- Does not need equipments
-
If you overkill a target, the projectiles will continue moving instead
of stopping where the previous target was, potentially hitting more
targets behind it.
Cons- Short Range
- You need to hit the target with all pellets to do max damage
Anti Squadron Rating : 2Mount on cutters, they really are the only ships that can use this weapon effectively.
Alternative Weapons - Part 2
Fires 2 torpedoes with a short delay in between, before taking a long reload.
A solid weapon for long range burst damage, this weapon will track the target for 5 seconds Regardless of Hull Type, This means cruisers can reliably hit targets, battleships might miss targets on the fringes of the weapon ranges but still fairly reliable, and destroyers can't hit targets effectively.
The main bonus of this weapon is that you don't need equipments to run them effectively, however if you can take the spectral warheads equipment, this weapon can deal significantly more damage, especially on ships that can bypass shields such as battleships.
Its minimal range and slow rate of fire makes it poor against higher damage dealing weapons. And its slow projectile speed means it can be avoided at longer ranges simply by moving directly away from the torpedo.
Against squadrons the missiles will loop around because they are slower than the squadrons, but they will loop back around when the squadrons reach their targets and insta kill them. Because of this the squadrons may do some damage. But the main downside of this is that it may leave the ship taking down squadrons with Vectors vulnerable to attacks from other weapons because of the long reload.
Pros
- Long Range
- Good burst damage (despite the sub par DPS stat)
-
Low XP requirement can make for some fun low level builds. (although
current below level 34 meta is either insta broadswords or 1 carrier +
escorts)
- Surprisingly powerful when massed, and combined
with Spectral Warheads, and also most people does not equip explosive
resistors.
- Can hit multiple targets
ConsHydra Missile
This Hydra fires missiles that aggressively track their targets, while splitting into 2 additional dumb fire warheads that deal bonus damage.
This is a somewhat underrated weapon on high level play, mainly due to its below average range and lower AoE damage compared to SICOs. But in reality this is still a devastating weapon, if you manage to focus fire targets they will go down relatively quickly, just not as quickly as SICO Missiles.
Unlike the SICO Missles, it doesn't suffer from spread, single targets are just as easy to hit as bunched up targets. The AoE Splash radius without specials is a bit underwhelming, but the weapon it self is still usable without specials. But Spectral Warheads is highly recommended to increase damage and AoE.
Like the SICOs, it has a minimal range (although slightly smaller), making it difficult to handle at point blank range because you have to make sure at least 1 target is in firing range for all 6 of your ships in combat.
Vs Squadrons, the weapon behaves like the Vectors, the missiles reach the targets and loop around (at least for bombers) because the missiles are slower compared to the squadron. But because of the increased speed compared to vectors, the bombers usually only get to do very minuscule damage before getting instakilled. And a faster rate of fire means that squadrons usually just get shredded while facing this weapons, while not leaving the ship vulnerable to other targets.
Pros
- Doesn't miss, Consistent damage
- Splitting warheads deal bonus damage
- Higher damage per shot compared to SICOs
- Arguably best weapon vs Squadrons
- Easy to obtain (from VEGA Blueprints) for such an efficient weapon
Cons- Lower AoE and overall damage potential compared to SICOs
- Below Average Range
- Hydra 3 has an innefficient DPS to weight ratio, so its rarely mounted unless on ships that have enough spare mass.
Anti Squadron Rating : 4Interceptor Squadron
Higher range, but damage is laughable, and the squadrons are very slow, as well as having less hp compared to bombers. They can be used as a 'scout' squadron to trick enemy ships into firing high damage shots and make room for the bombers behind it, or more commonly, to entirely replace bombers in fleets level 34 and below. They are still better than fighters (due to fighters having low range), but are nowhere near bomber in terms of power.
Pros
- Longest range
- Launches first before the bombers (due to range), so they can possibly take high damage shots and make room for the bombers.
ConsOutdated Weapons
These Weapons used to be good, some of them even used to be meta weapons, but got outclassed when more advanced weapons step in. They can still to a degree compete with Meta weapons and Alternative weapons, but unless your opponent is bad, don't expect much out of them. Unless you already have the weapons earlier on this guide, you might want to skip them in favor of a better weapon / special / base weapon during an event.Also, we are going to keep it shorter after this, the descriptions are not going to be as long. And im not going to give a pros and cons because you shouldn't use these if possible. The pros and cons is pretty much just to compare weapons of a similar power, these weapons are just weaker than the meta and alternative weapons.
The Projectile Quadtruplets
The Weapons that fall under this category are the Gladius Driver, AP Driver, Wave Driver, and Gemini Driver.
To put it simply, these weapons are hopelessly outclassed in terms of damage and accuracy (chance to miss) compared to current energy weapons and even the Vector.
The main downsides of the projectile weapons are that they are slow firing, deal less overall damage, isn't likely to hit multiple targets, and can miss. You also pretty much need Iridium Magnets or Phased Magnets, and even then you are not guaranteed to hit.
Plus, phase damage these days are not very useful due to the overall reliance on armor on the current meta.
The Gladius is somewhat arguable to put into this, as it is more accurate and deal more damage than the rest, but ultimately it still doesn't compare to the ECHO or Aurora in terms of damage.
The AP fires faster and can penetrate, but loses damage per shot, and no one is stupid enough to line their ships up It also misses a lot more. You faced a deadlier version on Vsec Zeal Battleships on riots, and you can pretty easily beat them, so you can beat the weaker, player controlled versions.
The Wave used to be a fun weapon for dealing damage directly to armor and killing weakly armored fleets, and to a degree that could also be correct to this day, but it misses too often and its performance vs squadrons is horrible. You also need to pretty much either decide on
equipping phased magnets for a subpar phased effect, equip magnets for a marginally greater chance to hit, or equip both phased projectiles and iridium magnets and have no thruster equipment.
The Gemini also can be a fun weapon on some cruiser and cutter builds using phased projectiles and sometimes iridium magnets, but main problem here is the short range (same as hydra) and it can still often miss even at that short range. I still don't see the point of using this over SICOs or Hydras, other than dealing direct armor damage with phased projectiles.
Anti Squadron Rating : AP and Gladius : 3 (they have splash radius and enoguh damage to kill)
Wave and Gemini : 1 ( no splash, needs to shoot down one by one.)
Polaron Ray
Has decent damage and can achieve the same range as ECHO, but overall its just a weaker version of it. But you can use it on lower level ships.
Anti Squadron Rating : 2 ( no splash damage)
Creeper Torpedo
Putting this weapon here is somewhat debatable, some players still like using them to rush bases and especially as weapons for decoy tanks. But for the former, i think the impulse just flat out replaced the Creeper on that role (unless one goes for mass collateral damage, but that doesn't work every time. ).
For decoy tanks, the main reason the Creepers are used is that they can be used without any specials (to make room for armored hold 3) to shield the destroyers from squadrons and help destroy miners on the outer edges of the base. But that is a very niche role and i can't warrant putting it any higher.
Anti Squadron Rating : 3 (can instakill squadrons, but you need to get lucky with the spread, or already have a lot of creepers laid down, so kinda unreliable)
Thermal Beam
Effectively an underpowered but slightly faster Impulse that can't pierce. less risk of overkill, and the damage is good, you can kill people with this, but its just not comparable to the impulse.
Anti Squadron Rating : 1 (reason : same as impulse)
Useless Weapons
Every Researchable Projectile Weapons
They miss 99% of the time, and even if they hit they deal next to no damage. Nope
Anti Squadron Rating : 1
Every Researchable Explosive Weapons
These are your first steps to getting the Hydra missile early on into the game, but once you get it, refit every single one of your ships with it and never look back.
Reason : they miss, and doesn't have the volume of fire like the SICO to justify the loss of accuracy.
they are pretty good vs squadrons however, due to quick fire rate and area damage.
Anti Squadron Rating : 3
Pulse Ray
Nuff said
higher level pulse rays does have a surprisingly good damage per shot, but its only comparison is pretty much the distruptor ray.
Anti Squadron Rating : 1
Distruptor Ray
Effectively a very underpowered burst ray. Get the thermal beam, its way better.
and considering the burst ray is in the riot rotation, this thing will get obselete very quick once you get it.
Anti Squadron Rating : 1
Arc Missile
These things just do not deal enough damage to justify their spread pattern (which makes them miss) and their slow rate of fire. The shield piercing? look at the projectile quadtuplets.
Some people use Arc Lances to hit bases, but still they deal next to no damage vs turrets. and have less range. The main reason people use this for basing is that they can hit a lot of base buildings, but you just don't deal enough damage to the turrets............its only really good against clustered bases, and even then its only moderately effective.
Anti Squadron Rating : 2 (depends on where the missiles are when the squadrons arrive.)
Gatling Ray
The Gatling Ray is a powerful weapon in its own right, the ability to hit 2 enemies lining up certaintly has its uses, but the main reason the Gatling is useless, is that it just doesn't compare to all other top tier energy weapons.
Main Reason is that it has poor damage per shot, probably the worst damage per shot out of all weapons. The pierce ability is mostly a gimmick, as you need to have your ship, the target, and a third ship in a perfect straight line. That rarely happens, and it needs to happen for an extended period of time, because of the lack of burst damage.
To add to that, this weapon can miss......because it doesn't home into targets like ECHO or Aurora, further reducing potential damage. And it also is pretty heavy to mount, as kixeye intended it to deal 2x damage with the pierce ability.
It also has a delay when switching targets, don't know why that's there, since the weapon is already weak anyway. I guess kixeye just doesn't want the entire screen to be filled with lasers all the time.
Not much else to say, the weapon just is too weak on a per shot basis, despite what the DPS Stat says.
Contrary to popular believe, you can only hit 1 squadron at a time with this weapon, because it doesn't have AoE. But you can hit 1 Squadron on 2 ships provided that the rounds pierce the first ship with squadrons and hit the second one.
Anti Squadron Rating : 2
Figher Squadron and Raider Squadron
Not. Enough. Range.
Low health is pretty much insult to injury.
Epilogue
That's done, now go to the void and start blasting.Thank you for your time reading, hope you appreciate it. Consider sharing this to fellow rebels.
See you in the Void.
*Thumbs Up*!
I was going to make a shorter video about weapon priorities in relation to defence vs squadrons. I might link it to my post here, later.
Squadron Mechanics
(so instead of having to hit the individual squadrons, you just need to hit whatever the squadrons are attacking)
some facts :
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=707400933
Also be sure to read the steam version because its easier to update