Gunnery for Dummies v1.3.5

[Wundsalz]

I just realized that the last gunnery guide in this section is rather outdated. Hence I'd like to pick up Echoez work here and extend it a bit. The gunnery basics will be elaborated here as well as viable ammunition picks for specific weapons.

Glossary:
arming time: Some weapons, like the Lumberjack or Hades do not deal their secondary damage if their projectile doesn't travel for a certain arming time. The secondary damage is applied to a weapon specific area of effect and is the major damage fraction of any weapon with arming time. Pilots using weapons with arming time should try to keep a sufficient distance to allow their weapons projectile to travel at least for the length of their arming time. The ammunition can alter the arming distance. Lochnagar reduces the arming distance directly by reducing the arming time. Other ammunition types like greased, heatsink and incendiary rounds reduce it indirectly by decreasing the projectile speed which causes the weapons projectiles to travel longer for the same distance. Lesmok rounds increase the arming distance by increasing the projectiles velocity.

arming distance: the distance projectiles need to travel to reach their arming time.

field of operation: the area in which the weapon can be used.

DPS: damage per second

hull strip: breaking an enemies armor, making the ship vulnerable for permanent damage.

raspberry: breaking an enemies armor, making the ship vulnerable for permanent damage.


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." - Echoez

Here's a table summarizing and quantifying the statements about damage types made above:

Damage modifier table. Source: GoI homepage, weapon section

General notes:

"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." - Echoez

A major aspect of gunnery is the choice of the ammunition. Some ammunition types are chosen to make it easier, or even possible to hit with. E.g. a couple of weapons spread a lot making precise hits impossible unless heavy clips are used. Other weapons projectiles decay quite early, making long range hits impossible. In these cases lesmok rounds can be used to extend the field of operation of the weapon. Other weapons, like the Lumberjack or Hades suffer from arming time. Which can be addressed by ammunition like incendiary rounds of lochnagar shots to increase the weapons efficient field of operation. Last but not least ammunition can be chosen for the purpose of maximizing the damage output of a weapon. Here's a chart illustrating how every ammunition type affects the damage output relative to normal ammunition in %:

DPS alterations by ammunition including reload times. The table is based on a damage table created by the ducks (v.0.1.3 for GoI patch 1.3.5)

Whoever focuses on gunning on a ship should try to maximize his damage output. Often that can be accomplished by playing as an engineer with a buff kit, rather than as a gunner. Weapon buffs increase the damage output by 20% without any negative side effects. This bonus often outperforms the advantage three different ammo types provide. The most common gunineer loadouts are: wrench, buff, chemspray/extinguisher or mallet, spanner and a buff hammer.

Viable gun specific ammunition choices will be discussed in the following posts.

[Wundsalz]

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." - Echoez

Play style:

the main purpose of the gatling gun is to break the enemies hull armor. It's often a good idea to reload the gatling gun once the hit markers turn red - even if the clip isn't empty yet to ensure a fresh clip is ready when the enemy has rebuild their hull. This does not apply to squids (and also isn't always a good idea when fighting goldfishes) as their hull is very weak and can be broken again with the same clip. When fighting squids, hold your fire for roughly 2-4 seconds once the hull breaks (that's roughly the time the enemy team needs to rebuild it when camping it) and start shooting again just before they finish the rebuild so you can take it out again instantly afterwards.
Piercing hulls put aside, the gatling gun is also a decent disabler. Occasionally it is a good idea to take out components (e.g. weapons or engines) rather than going straight for a hull strip.

Viable ammo types:

greased rounds
greased rounds provide the highest dps of all ammo types on the cost of a reduced range. They are currently the most common pick for gatling guns.

charged rounds
while charged rounds provide slightly less dps than greased rounds, they deal the highest damage per clip and do not suffer from a reduced fireing distance. Charged rounds are a viable pick if ships with close range weapons (e.g. carronade, mine launcher or flame throwers) are fought and your captains wants to stay out of your enemies range.

heavy clips
heavy clips are a viable pick against Junkers if you plan to keep barely in gatling range for whatever reason. The spread reduction allows to take out their slim hulls precisely even at the maximum gat-range. Heavy clips are also usefull to take out critical components (e.g. front weapons of the goldfish) quicker and more reliable.

lesmok rounds
Lesmok rounds allow you to shoot enemies which are out of range for any other ammunition. However the massive spread of the gatling guns limits the usefulness of this ammunition type significantly. Usually the damage inflicted by a single gatling gun in lesmok range can be outrepaired by an engineer whacking the hull with a spanner. The one exception is the Galleon with its barn-gate-size hull.


Incendiary rounds are a utility ammunition choice for the gatling gun. While severely reducing the DPS they provide a chance to ignite components. They also grant the gatling gun the ability to burn down the enemies balloon if it isn't maintained properly.

[Wundsalz]

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."  - Echoez

Play Style:
Mortars are usually used in combination with a hull stripper, most commonly a gatling gun. As a mortar gunner your job is to kill the enemy once the enemies hull has been broken (red hitmarkers). In the commonly used gatling/mortar arrangement you can also help your gatling gunner to break the hull. For most ships hold your fire and let the gatling gunner do his job until you can see smoke particles beeing emitted from the hull. E.g. when you're fighting a pyramideon and you've got a decent gatling gunner with a clear line of fire that should happen briefly before the gatling runs out of ammo. That's your sign to open fire with the mortar. Ideally you'll help to break the hull with your first shots and kill right right away without granting your enemy time to rebuild the armor.
Currently there's a clear favorite loadout for players dedicated to a mortar. It's the same as for the gatling gunner: greased rounds and buff equipment. With that setup you should load greased rounds, prefbuff your gun, wait for the enemies hull to emit particles, give your mortar the final buff hammer whack and open fire. If executed properly this pattern grants you an almost guaranteed kill on enemies with a low permanent hull, like Junkers, Pyramideons and spires.

Viable Ammo Types
greased rounds
by far the most commonly used ammo type for the mortar. It reduces the maximum range of the weapon and maximizes weapons dps without reload times taken into consideration - and that's what should count, as any ship, including the galleon, can be destroyed with a single mortar volley.
lesmok rounds
lesmok rounds are an uncommon ammo choice for the mortar. It's useful as it allows the mortar to shoot further away which makes it an viable option to be combined with mid-range weapons like the hades. Also the increased projectile velocity allow an easier lead of your shots which might come in handy when fighting fast moving targets or if you need to compensate for your own ships movement - e.g. swaying on a junker
burst rounds
While burst rounds significantly reduce the dps, the damage per clip is increased which allows you to support your gatling gun with breaking the hull earlier. If you use burst rounds, try to aim for the enemies guns. damaging the enemies guns and hence reducing their dps can grant you the upper hand in an outgunning situation.

[Mod Josie]

This thread is genius - I hope as many people see it as possible. Breaks it down but with just enough detail. I hope you find the time to do this for all the weapons

[Wundsalz]

I plan to add weapons here until the entire GoI-Arsenal is covered. Also feel free to discuss aspects of the guide if something needs clarification or debate certain ammo choices for weapons here.

[Wundsalz]

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!"  - Echoez

Play style
A carronade shot consists of 16 projectiles with a spread angle of 5 degrees which is the largest spread of all weapons. Carronades are powerful ballon popers, decent disablers and can help out with striping hulls by dealing roughly 45% of a gatlings dps to the armor.
Due to the projectile spread the gun is inefficient at longer distances unless heavy clips are used.
Carronades are often used on very agile ships like the squid. This makes communication with your pilot very essential if you want to take out components with heavy clips, as a sudden sway can easily ruin your shot. Announce that you want to take out specific components just before you're read to fire. This way your captain can try to avoid sudden steering for the brief moment you need to aim and shoot.
In my opinion the heavy carronade is best played as a gunineer with buff kit and heavy clips, as buffed normal rounds outperform the dps bonus of ammunition choices like charged rounds. With this loadout heavy clips can be used for long range shots and to take out specific components. Once you're really close to an enemy and you're sure that all projectiles of the carronade hit anyway, you can switch to normal rounds to maximize the damage output. Keep in mind though, that heavy clips deal more dps than normal clips if more than a single one of those 16 projectiles/shot misses the target!

heavy clips
Heavy clips bundle all 16 projectiles of the carronade into a single point, making the weapon pin-point accurate. Not only does this allow the weapon to be used efficiently at longer distances, but it also unfolds the true disable power of this weapon. While heavy clips reduce the dps, they allow to target specific components rather than spreading the projectiles over the enemy ship. To be more specific a carronade loaded with heavy clips can:
1-shot light weapons,
1-shot light engines when buffed (unbuffed they deal 288/300 damage to engines which might still be sufficient to take them down if the enemy pilot used steering tools recently)
2-shot heavy weapons
2-shot heavy engines
and they can take down an enemy balloon with an entire clip if the weapon is buffed and the balloon isn't maintained while the clip is shot. Unbuffed the carronade deals roughly 80% damage to the balloon with heavy clips.

incendiary rounds
Incendiary rounds can be used to start fires on the enemies ship. Due to the large ammount of projectiles, each shot will add slightly more than 3 fire charges/shot on average. fires on hull and ballon while receiving damage the normal way at the same time make engineers sweat - especially if they've just rebuild the component.

greased rounds
greased rounds maximizes the dps of the carronade if reload times are not taken into consideration (+27%).

charged rounds
charged rounds maximize the dps of the carronade with reload times taken into consideration.

[macmacnick]

Greased Is also useful for the carronade in certain situations.

[Wundsalz]

Greased Is also useful for the carronade in certain situations.

added. They actually might be a better choice compared to charged rounds as they allow a brief dps boosts which might come in handy once in a while.

[Alistair MacBain]

Burst rounds in a mortar arent really useful if you dont have the mortar paired with a carronade.
The gat strips armor way to fast to make it useful. It may is a option for gunners but never for engineers.
With a carronade you can unload one or two clips before the armor is down to kill or damage some components. A gat strips the armor to fast to make burst useful. The reduced rate of fire narrows the timing to much.

[Coldcurse]

Also the mortar is good against balloons.

[Wundsalz]

Also the mortar is good against balloons.

Not at all. You'd need 5 greased clips to take it down... while no one bothers about balloon repairs on the enemies ship.

[Coldcurse]

Also the mortar is good against balloons.

Not at all. You'd need 5 greased clips to take it down... while no one bothers about balloon repairs on the enemies ship.

sorry that I said "good", I ment decent compared to other guns.

[Wundsalz]

The Artemis, Light Rocket Launcher



Primary Damage:

Secondary Damage:

 
Play Style

The Artemis combines a wide field of operation (wide horizontal arcs, a wide arc downard, long max range, no arming time) with a good disabling power and decent explosive damage. Furthermore if they are grouped up, e.g. in a junker trifecta, they are also capeable of breaking hulls. 3 artes deal roughly as much damage to the hull armor as a heavy carronade (or half a gatling gun). It's an all-rounder weapon which does a lot of jobs decently.
When shooting the Artemis you've got two jobs:
1. take out critical components of your enemy. That's mostly all guns pointing at you or an ally and the engines to immobilize them.
2. kill enemies once their hull is down.
Usually the Artemis can be fired permanently to accomplish these tasks, but sometimes it's a good idea to delay shots a little bit. For example if you expect a heavy gun, which points at you or your ally, to be rebuild with in the next couple of seconds, it is often a good idea to hold your fire for a brief moment to take it out again right away. Also Artemises are frequently the only source for explosive damage in sniper matches. Hence it sometimes makes sense to delay your shots a bit if another weapon, like a mercury or hades, is about to take out the enemies hull.
Unbuffed and with loaded with normal/burst rounds the artemis can:
1-shot light weapons
2-shot light engines (1 shot with charged rounds or buffed normal rounds)
2-shot heavy weapons
3-shot heavy engines (2 shot with charged rounds or buffed normal rounds)

Viable Ammo Types

burst rounds
Burst rounds increase the AoE of your shots, which allows you to take out components with less precise hits or multiple components with the same hit if they're nearby.
lesmok rounds
Lesmok rounds increase the velocity of the rockets and hence the maximum range. It's a good choice for ultra-long-range sniper builds like merc+arte mobulas.
greased rounds
greased rounds maximize the dps without reload times. Using greased rounds makes sense if your enemy is rather close and you want to kill it with the Artemis rather than keeping it disabled. Note that greased rounds decrease the projectile velocity quite a bit. Hence you need to adjust your lead in order to still hit your target.
charged rounds
charged rounds increase the dps significantly and can be used if you want to finish off enemies with the Artemis rather than disabling them.

[Wundsalz]

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." - Echoez

Play Style
point and shoot at the enemies armor and components.
Currently a buff engineer with charged rounds is probably the best load-out choice if you want to focus on shooting the mercury.
Mercuries can 1-shot all guns and engines.

Viable Ammo Types
charged rounds
Charged rounds maximize the damage output of the mercury.
heatsink ammunition
Heatsink increases the number of bullets for the merc from 2 to 3. Even with the reduced damage the mercury deals enough damage to snipe out all guns and light engines witha  single shot, which makes heatsink useful for disabling. However the reduced projectile velocity alters the trajectory of the shots.
lesmok rounds
I mention Lesmok rounds here because I occasionally see people picking it to shoot the mercury. Lesmok rounds increase the projectile velocity, allowing easier hits in the distance. However due to reduced clip size from 2 rounds to 1 round the dps drops to less than 50% of the dps with charged rounds. Frankly I recommend not to use it. With some practice even slim junker hull can be hit reliably at a distance of 2000m with charged rounds and fights beyond that mark are pointless anyway.

[Erheller]

Burst might be more useful on the carronade than I previously thought. While most ammo types on the carronade can one-clip a balloon, burst rounds can deal 1555 damage in one clip, which is enough to destroy the balloon even if an engineer whacks it with a mallet (Balloons have 1200 hp, a mallet repairs 250. 1550 total.). So if you can land every single pellet, you have a guaranteed one-clip regardless of pesky engies repairing the balloon.

That being said, you have to land every shot. In practice, it's probably better to take greased and kill the balloon before the engineer has a chance to whack it. Also, burst loses its utility if the balloon is already damaged because then the other ammos can one-clip it.

Just me looking at numbers, haven't tried it out yet. Any thoughts on this?