Using a gun in Guns of Icarus Online is the easiest and also the hardest thing to do. It’s easy to get on a gun and start shooting. However, it can be hard to lead projectiles and bullets correctly. It may be even harder to choose the right gun for the job at hand. A Gunner needs to become familiar with all the facets of the art of blowing things up. That starts with getting on a gun.
Remember that guns have their own unique characteristics besides damage type and ammo counts. Each gun also has its own yaw and pitch angles and speeds (larger guns like the Flak Cannon move slowly and with a limited turning range, while something like the Gatling Gun moves quite freely), rates of fire, reload times, recoil, and firing mechanics. The more you familiarize yourself with a gun’s unique traits, the better equipped you’ll be to take down enemies!
Basics
The Repair UI will appear when you're close enough to engage a gun.
Engaging a Gun
Like engaging other interactable components on the ship, walk up to a gun and press the E key. Your view will switch into gun mode. You will have a aiming reticule specific to that gun type and also an ammo counter on the bottom right of the screen.
Aiming and Firing
Aim simply by moving the mouse around while you’re engaged with a gun. Use the reticule to aim and lead your shots. Some guns will have very tight yaw and pitch angles so be aware of where your reticule is. Also, every gun has a particular yaw and pitch turn speeds. Don’t try to aim too quickly and fire otherwise you’ll shoot before the guns finishes turning to where you’re aiming! Some guns allow you to zoom by pressing Right click. Finally, Left Click fires the weapon—note that some guns allow you to press and hold, others require single clicks.
Gun and reticule in their neutral position to ensure precise aiming.
Gun rotation speed is different for each gun. Make sure the gun returns to a neutral state before firing.
Targeting
Contrary to popular belief, good Gunners don’t just shoot at anything that moves; the best of them choose their targets very carefully and make their shots count.
Remember that damage types are effective against particular kinds of components, and by targeting the right components you’ll maximize your firepower. You can selectively take out an enemy’s weapons, disable their engines, or even collapse their balloon and send them sinking in a column of smoke. Or focus your shots directly at their hull to finish them off—as any Engineer will tell you, it’s no good trying to rebuild a destroyed hull in mid-flight, so any hull section you manage to take out will remain a smoking wreck for the rest of the battle.
Reloading and Ammo Skills
Press R to reload. Keep an eye out for your ammo count in the bottom-right corner of the screen. Some guns, like the powerful Flak Cannon, have very little ammo and a long reload time. Don’t wait around for a gun to reload, try to start the reload process and jump on another gun to stay on the offensive.
When you press the Numerical keys to switch your ammo skills, it will force a reload (you have to reload the gun to use new ammo! While your gun is reloading though, you can decide up to the last second and choose a different ammo to put in the gun. So be sure not to switch ammo all of the time. The most effective way is to exhaust a clip and let the gun reload automatically, during this time you can put something more special into the gun.
