Is whaling viable?

[Dr Brobotnik]

Harpoon-oriented combat - is it actually viable compared to everything else? I was on a 5-poon junker in the desert, and we only died once - and when we learned to syncronize our harpoons, we did get a small killstreak before our team died too many times.

Oh, and, whaling for Galleons is just priceless ^^ Especially when you manage to penetrate the hwachas.

[DJ Logicalia]

5 poon junkers, no. You'll annoy your enemy for a minute before they rip you apart because you can't fight back. If you want a harpoon in a hot gun slot, the top left slot on a galleon is a place where you might be able to get away with it. It pairs ok with a pair of hwachas.

Thing about harpoons is, though, it's not about if they can work somewhere, it's about if they are better than any other gun in that position.  Sadly, the answer is no. If you're bringing a harpoon, you're bringing it just to have a harpoon, not to have a viable weapon in that position.

[Hoja Lateralus]

Harpoon is useless

This post should've been in Q&A section

[BlackenedPies]

I've been killed by a harpoon once: hydro up with pyra out of galleon arcs and got pulled down into double hwatcha. Otherwise it's just an annoyance. If it acted like a close range minotaur that gives you 5 seconds of disruption at the cost of high risk, then it might be useful as a defensive weapon. It had virtually no use before the bug and currently has none.

Double harpoon - mine mobula with chute vent was entertaining at least. Or hydro drogue and prebuild balloon until the last possible moment to slam them into the ground.

[Daft Loon]

I sent in a suggestion about the harpoon the other day and got the reply that it was one of the things they are looking at. So we may be in for another round of trying to make it work soon.

I've tried front harpoon on a close range junker from time to time to try stop people from backing away sniping me but other approaches are probably better at that.

I ran a harpoon-mine mobula the other day that was fun and marginally successful - bottom deck mines, harpoon above pilot slot fired by pilot, gunner on middle deck with option of Artemis or a 3rd mine. With the recent harpoon changes there's less risk of being pulled into your own mines. The pilot uses the jump trick to fire the harpoon when the opponent is close enough to a mine field and if it hits uses stamina and kerosene backwards to drag them into the mines. For a bonus harpoon the side of their ship so they are turned that way and cannot resist the pull.

[Ashunera]

Harpoon is largely useless, but I played a bit ago, my spire had a hwacha and 3 harpoons. Just for fun. Had some cakes, was a 3 on 3, we got 2 harpoon kills and a few hwacha kills. Granted the other team was underdog by a mile but still, was one of the most entertaining matches I've done

Doesn't hold a candle to the other night when I had sleep delerium (playing for 6 hours, twas 2AM) and had two crew members who were... quite drunk. The only coherent crew member decided it would be entertaining to have us on a 4 gunner, 5 flare gun mobula. THAT was entertaining.

But yeah, Harpoon == terrible but when you manage to use it effectively, it is quite funny.

[Daft Loon]

There is also the fun of landing a harpoon on the rear engine of a goldfish. "Nope no arcs for you"

[Kamoba]

Harpooning can be effective, but you must have good coordination between the harpoon gunner and pilot, the gunner also needs to understand the enemy ships center of gravity and where to target to make the harpoon most effective.

Providing a similar niche as minotaur but at close range.

[Elazul]

Harpoon is demonstrably the worst weapon in the game and you handicap yourself by taking it. The one upside is if you do win with harpoon you know you significantly outplayed your opponents.

[Kamoba]

The harpoon is not the worst weapon in the game...
Loch loaded Gat has that title. At least loch harpoon is slightly effective.

[Elazul]

Loch gatling is a specific weapon ammo combination though. Overall, a gatling is more useful than a harpoon.

[MagKel]

We got kills on a double poon mobul,a now that the reeling mechanic changed drastically its effect. It is mad stressful for pilots tho.

Poons on main deck where the arty are placed in more serious builds, gat on top and banshees down. Engis can expend a greased banshee between poon reloads.

latching at the enemy at least with one and, without reeling, pinning them downward is fun. just hit the hull for rope deployment and leave it there or lightly reel once they use claw.

[Dr Brobotnik]

We got kills on a double poon mobul,a now that the reeling mechanic changed drastically its effect. It is mad stressful for pilots tho.

Poons on main deck where the arty are placed in more serious builds, gat on top and banshees down. Engis can expend a greased banshee between poon reloads.

latching at the enemy at least with one and, without reeling, pinning them downward is fun. just hit the hull for rope deployment and leave it there or lightly reel once they use claw.

Can I add you in the game? You seem so smart!

[Dr Brobotnik]

Well, we had a junker with an harpoon in front and a double side of gat-mort. Caught us some fat spires =) So fun to see them tumble around and crumble.