Gunnery for dummies v1.3.2 Welcome again dear reader, thank you for visiting this page, you are doing your fellow crewmen and captain a great favor by putting some effort in actually learning the game, your presense here validates that and I'm glad to have you around.
This is the second time I write this guide on weaponry as the last one is out of date due to the latest update of Guns of Icarus Online, its purpose, same as before, is to teach the very basics of how to use your guns, ammo types and what the various symbols for damage types stand for, so let's begin with the damage types briefly.
Each gun has two types of damage, first is the direct damage the projectile/bullet itself deals, the secondary type is an Area of Effect explosion that all guns have, some have very wide radiuses, others have almost no explosion radius.
Symbol explanation:
: This symbolizes
Piercing damage, a damage type very effective against enemy ship armor. Armour is the repairable part of a ship's health, you need to take it down before attacking their 'real' health that can not be repaired. Guns with this kind of damage are very good at destroying armour.
:
Flechette is represented by this symbol, this damage type is extremely effective against enemy balloons, making short work of them. If you take out an a ship's balloon, it will start making a rapid descent towards the ground and of course, impacting the ground will cause the ship to take damage.
: This stands for
Explosive damage, which is very effective against the enemy ship's hull. The hull is ship's 'real' health as said before, if this goes down, the ship will explode in a majestic display of screws and scrap metal. Weapons with this kind of damage are very good finishers, but are usually not effective against enemy armour, so make sure you wait for the armour to go down before taking your shots, you will know the armour went down when you see a black cloud appear on the enemy ship and black metalic parts falling down.
:
Shatter damage is very effective against a ship's components, like their engines and guns, this damage type gets an 100% bonus against these components, making guns with that damage type very effective disablers. Aim for the guns and engines to cause some havoc!
: This should be pretty obvious, it symbolizes
Fire damage which is pretty effective against enemy balloons by itself, though the main use of guns with fire is to ignite the enemy ship's components, putting fire stacks on them that will cause extra damage over time, anything with fire stacks on it is cursed to go down unless extinguished. Guns will also be disabled if 8 or more stacks of fire are applied to them from flames. Use with caution.
! IMPORTANT ! Just a short note about something that many people seem to misunderstand, if you want to use a certain ammo type you need to EQUIP it first, that means you have to reload your gun with the appropriate ammo type you want, you can see the ammo types you are carrying at the bottom of your screen when you are manning a gun and you can switch to them by either pressing 1, 2, 3 or 4 on your keyboard or switching through them with the mouse wheel, the ammo you are loading will be highlighted.
You can switch ammo types during any time of a reload, only the ammo type you have selected when the reload ends will be loaded in, ALSO make sure you are ON the gun when the reload ends, else the gun will be reset to normal ammo.
! IMPORTANT ! Enter! Light weaponry. The guide will focus on the light guns of Guns of Icarus Online, I will be giving a brief explanation of how the gun handles and what ammo types to bring, as well as when is the appropriate time to use them.
The
Whirlwind, Light Gatling Gun.
Primary Damage:
Secondary Damage:
The Whirlwind is a high fire rate, low damage gun, mimicing the old school machine-gun weaponry from your standard FPS game, it fires a stream of bullets in a wide cone, don't be allianated by its low damage stats though, it is a beast and can keep the pressure on the enemy's armour like nothing else from closer ranges. It is also a very good component disabler, so if you need a gun or engine down, just aim for it.
Also as side note, cause I see people do it, don't burst fire the gatling gun, it will not improve your accuracy.
Preferred ammo as an Engineer:
Heavy clip is still the most preferred round for this gun when used from medium ranges as it completely nullifies its wide spread, all your bullets will be hitting dead on your crosshairs. Of course this comes at the price of a reduced magazine size, so making your shots count is important. Switch to normal rounds for when you are close to the enemy, your spread won't matter much there so you might as well make usage of a larger magazine.
Preferred ammo as a Gunner:
As a Gunner, you will need
Heavy clip for when you are closing distance,
Greased rounds will make your DPS sky-rocket when you are close as it increases your fire rate and magazine size at the cost of some range and damage, but only use it when very close otherwise the Whirlwind's wide spread will make you miss most of your shots.
The
Mercury Field Gun.
Primary Damage:
Secondary Damage:
The Mercury is a slow firing sniper cannon, its high damage makes it an ideal long range armour destroyer as well as a very good disabling weapon, as one shot from it will instantly destroy any single gun or engine. The gun fires a fast moving projectile that has a slight drop that you need to compesate for at longer ranges.
Preferred ammo as an Engineer:
If you know you will be firing only a Mercury as an engineer, it's always good to bring
Charged rounds for the added damage, the clip reduction on it will not take away from your magazine so you only have to worry about the slightly reduced firing rate.
Preferred ammo as a Gunner:
or
As a gunner, the Mercury will usually be a secondary weapon on most ships, so if you know you might need to fire one, bring
Charged rounds in your loadout as well as other rounds you will use for other guns. You might also consider
Lesmok rounds if you will be using the Mercury mainly for disabling enemy components as it makes the rounds fly faster and have reduced drop, making it easier to snipe enemy guns and engines (keep in mind you will only have one shot with Lesmok loaded though).
The
Echidna, Light Flak Cannon.
Primary Damage:
Secondary Damage:
The Echidna is an all explosive gun, fires highly explosive rounds in a small cone with a slight drop, pretty accurate at range, careful though cause it has an
arming time of 300 meters, meaning that it will not apply its secondary AoE damage if the enemy is any closer than that.
Being an explosive focused gun, this is a very good finisher, so save your shots for after the enemy's armour goes down, else you will end up just scratching them a bit.
Preferred ammo as an Engineer:
As an Engineer, you will want to get
Greased rounds for when the enemies get close as the reduction in projectile speed they provide actually lower your aming time, so you will be able to net full damage shots a bit closer than usual and it also grants you some extra shots, use normal ammo for longer ranges so the projectiles aren't as slow.
Preferred ammo as a Gunner:
As a Gunner, if you will be firing the Echidna, make sure you bring
Burst Rounds for medium range volleys as well as
Greased Rounds for the close range volleys, Burst will give you extra shots, enabling you to kill larger ships within one clip, Greased will help you when they get too close for the arming time by cutting it a bit shorter.
The
Scylla, Double-Barreled Mortar.
Secondary Damage:
The Scylla, just like the Echidna, is an all explosive weapon, it deals a bit less damage per round but has a much larger clip and no random spread, its projectiles have a massive downward arc though, restricting it to mostly close range engagements, but this weapon will drop any ship that gets hit by a whole clip directly to their naked hull. Due to its larger magazine size, it can start firing slightly before the armour goes down to assist in breaking it and then continue to destroy the hull.
Preferred ammo as an Engineer:
or
You should either bring
Greased rounds for the close range engagements or
Lesmok rounds if you want to be hitting targets that are further away and generaly be more accurate, beware of the smaller magazine though.
Preferred ammo as a Gunner:
As a Gunner you will want to bring both
Lesmok and
Greased so you can easily adjust your engagement range and DPS. Third ammo choice is up to debate with your captain.
The
Barking Dog, Light Carronade.
Primary Damage:
Secondary Damage:
The Barking Dog, is the light shotgun of this game, it deals a large ammount of both Flechette and Shatter damage, making it an effective balloon popper and component disabler, keep in mind that this gun has a very restricted range and gun arc, you should immidiently notice how this gun can't turn downwards much. Blast away at close range and pop those balloons!
Preferred ammo as an Engineer:
If you will be firing a Barking Dog as an engineer, it's usually being used as a secondary gun, so bringing
Heavy Clip to snipe an eneny's balloon and then get back to repairs is a very good choice. If the carronade on your ship is being used as an offensive weapon and as an engineer you are instructed to fire it bring Heavy Clip as well, it's the most effective by itself.
Preferred ammo as a Gunner:
As a Gunner, bring
Heavy clip for the longer distance shots, it will completely nullify the Barking Dog's wide cone and focus all your pellets into a ray of destruction, use it for pin point accurate shots, very efficient at taking out enemy engines and guns, when you get close in, switch to
Greased rounds for maximun DPS.
The
Banshee, Light Rocket Carousel.
Primary Damage:
Secondary Damage:
Don't be fooled by the low explosive damage stats on this gun, the Banshee is feared for its high ignition chances per shot. Yes, every rocket from this gun has a very high change of putting fire stacks on enemy ship components, they also have a very wide explosion radius, so every round will probably be hitting more than one components, spreading fires from range! The will rockets fly in a small cone with a slight drop, it doesn't have much random spread but is still not that accurate.
Now with the 1.3.2 update, the explosive damage of this gun is actually something to worry about as it can chip away at the enemy's hull very efficiently, alas, not as effectively as a Mortar or a Flak.
Preferred ammo as an Engineer:
The rockets are relatively fast, so using this over any range is fine, usually you will be firing it from mid to close range, so you shouldn't have problems with landing strikes, using
Greased rounds will increase your magazine size and fire rate, helping you to rapidly spread fires across the enemy ship.
Preferred ammo as a Gunner:
This gun is mostly used as a secondary, so bringing specific ammo just for that as a Gunner shouldn't be a thing, but if you absolutely need to fire it, just bring
Greased rounds as well. If your captain has a certain strategy in his head, you should be asking him about what ammo types he wants you to bring.
The
Artemis, Light Rocket Launcher.
Primary Damage:
Secondary Damage:
The Artemis is a long range rocket launcher, its primary use is disabling enemy ship components because of its wide explosion radius of shatter damage and helping with the final killing blow on the enemy ship with its exlosive damage. The rockets don't have any spread and have a slight drop you want to account for. Make sure you aim for enemy ship components with this one as much as you can.
Preferred ammo as an Engineer:
or
You want to either bring
Lesmok rounds for the faster projectile and accuracy, or
Burst rounds if you are looking to disable mulitple components, although, the wider explosion radius and extra shot Burst rounds provide is usually more beneficial than using Lesmok, seeing as how that will actually reduce your magazine size by 1, the wider explosion also means you don't need to be as accurate as you still have chances of the exlosion actually damaging the nearby component, BUT Lesmok will make this gun much longer ranged, enabling you to land shots that you wouldn't be able to land with Burst.
Preferred ammo as a Gunner:
or
Same reasons as above. This is mostly a secondary weapon as well, if you realy need to shoot it, just bring either
Burst or
Lesmok.
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Heavy clip is what you will want on this gun most of the time, it makes its cone of fire very tight and effectively increases its DPS over range.
Greased rounds will make this into a close range DPS machine, even greater than it already is, only use it if you are a gunner though and can afford to bring a second ammo type and only when you are close to the enemy ship.
Charged rounds will add to this monster's burst damage by a lot, so use that most of the time, don't worry, the decreased clip size downside won't affect its magazine.
Lesmok rounds will give your projectile more speed and lift, so you have to compensate for less at range, take this if you don't feel confident with your aiming.
Burst rounds are very good if you want to spread some of this gun's damage around the ship as they make its explosions bigger, at the cost of a slightly lower firing rate. Only take this as a secondary type of ammo as a gunner.
Incendiary rounds will add to your ignition chances, enabling you to put multiple stacks of fire on a single component much faster, make sure you compensate for the reduced projectiles speed though and they will also reduce from you magazine's total ammo.
Heatsink clip will give you one more flare in your magazine while decreasing the projectile's speed by a bit. Only bring this specifically for the flare gun if you know you won't be firing anything else, so mostly just use normal ammo.