As there doesn't seem to be a Chem Spray guide yet, I decided to throw together a few tips for you. Whether you're a cabin boy looking around after his first match or a battle-hardened veteran, I hope you'll find this useful. I don't consider myself an expert on the topic, so if you have something to add, feel free to pitch in.
The facts:
Extinguishing power: 3
Cooldown: 5s
Makes the targeted component immune to fire for 20s
1. Why to use it
Comparison with the Extinguisher
At first glance, this tool doesn't look very promising. The Fire Extinguisher can put out any fires, no matter how many stacks, and does it in almost half the time.
Oddly enough, Chem Spray is rubbish at putting out fires. However, if used correctly you should never have to use it to extinguish, because of the lasting effect it leaves.
Advantages when fighting flame throwers
With the strong presence of flamers, this tool is getting really important.
When faced with a constant fire barrage from that annoying Squid, the good old extinguisher quickly reaches its limits. You have to race from one burning component to the next to put out fires and as soon as the cooldown is up, it catches fire again.
Chem Spray shuts this down completely. Without the fire stacks, the damage done by flamers is negligible.
While you still have to race from one component to the next to keep that protective layer of (probably highly cancerous) chemicals on your components, between doing so there still remains time for repairs.
Advantages when fighting anything else
While shots from a Banshee and a Hades might be manageable with an Extinguisher, Spray has an upper hand here as well. In the end, they just have a longer range and don't apply as many fire stacks as quickly as a flamer. Same goes for Carronades, Gatlings and Hwachas with incendiary ammo
A banshee in the right hands can still apply a lot of stacks from a very long range. Even if when not able to immediately shut down a gun, the output of this weapon will still be severely decreased and the gun repairs can cost valuable time.
The Hades is really vicious because it does not just throw fire at you, it also melts your armor. If you have your components Chem Sprayed, you can concentrate on repairing your hull and don't have to worry as much about the rest of the ship.
Just remember: Any fire you prevent does not need to be extinguished and can't do any damage.
2. How to use it
I agree that this tool might seem intimidating at first, and it might seem to take a lot of work to make it useful, but it's actually not that bad. Let's take a look
It was made to prevent fires!
This might seem obvious. As already established, Chem Spray is terrible at removing fire stacks. So if you want to use it, don't wait until you are being shot at!
Your ship should be sprayed before you come into contact with the enemy.
As soon as there are more than 3 stacks of fire on a component, you are in trouble. It means that you will have to spend 10 seconds of valuable cooldown time just to put out the flames. That's the cooldown of one mallet hit. During this time, the component keeps taking damage and you can't do anything about it.
But remember: Even if you can't extinguish a fire, it doesn't hurt spray it. It will prevent your enemy from putting more stacks on the component.
Know the duration of the Spray.
Twenty seconds are not that much. Don't be like that buffing engineer who buffs the engines once at the very start of the match and then forgets that he brought a buff kit. Spray needs constant attention. Even more so if your enemy is running a very fire-heavy. Here are some tips on how to handle that:
Prioritise!
If you try to keep every component on the ship sprayed, you're gonna have a bad time. Concentrate on the important parts: Hull, Balloon (very important, as it is most susceptible to fire damage), main gun, main engine.
It also depends on the ship you're on. For example, you might leave out the main engine on a Goldfish. It's far away from the rest of the ship and running all the way back there can be a waste of time. Also, people shooting flame throwers tend to focus the centre of mass of a ship, and the tail of a Goldie usually has less contact with fire than the turning engines.
Divide the work between you and the second engineer. The Gungineer on a Pyramidion is responsible for the front guns and the balloon, the main engineer looks after the Rest of the ship.
Know your pattern.
This is also valid for the normal repair cycle. Don't just stand around and run to repair whatever gets hit, but create a repair route to follow. You should have a set order in which you check and repair/spray your components.
There already is a good guide on this topic :
https://gunsoficarus.com/community/forum/index.php/topic,437.0.htmlBy having a fixed route and order, you can always roughly know how long until the spray wears off.
Chem Spray lasts 20 seconds, that's roughly two malled cooldowns (9 seconds). It is a good idea to alternate repair cycles and spray cycles. You spray everything once, after that you whack everything with a hammer, and once you're done the chem spray should still be active if your route is not too long.
Pro tips:
Spray the most important components (hull, balloon) last. It gives you a bit of a buffer. Take the Pyramidion as an example: Spray the engines first and the hull last. If you're not sure how long the spray on the hull has left, you can quickly check whether the engines are still white. If yes, you still have some time and can use the time to repair something else, for example
If you want to take the buffer concept even further, you can leave a time gap between spraying the hull and the engines. If you leave a time gap of ten seconds, you know that you have time for just one mallet hit on the hull once you see the the spray on the engines wear off.
If you are gungineer, spray your gun first. That way you can see whether the buff is still active without having to leave the gun. Use reloads to refresh the spray.
- Preparation is key
Ideally, you should never see a component lose its protective layer of chemicals. If you're not sure whether the spray has enough time left to justify a mallet hit or not, just spray it. There is nothing as frustrating as hitting a component with a hammer just to see it see it lose its chem and catch fire a second later.
If every component is healthy and you don't have anything else to do: spray! When you get into a fight you want your Chem Spray to be as fresh as possible, you don't know how fierce the battle will get and every second that you don't have to worry about spraying components is a small victory.
Pro tip:
Before the battle starts, check the loadouts of the enemy ships! You should do this no matter what, even when you're not bringing chem spray. Take note of the incendiary weapons or ammo the enemy is bringing. If you're fighting a Goldfish with double flamer and a Manticore with incendiary ammo you'll have to be extra careful. With a Metamidion maybe not so much.
A note to pilots and gunners:
If you see a very fire-heavy ship approaching, give your engineers a heads up. That way they can prepare and refresh their spray. They'll thank you.
- When not to spray
This is at least as important to know as the rest. An unnecessary spray on a damaged hull can mean death in an intense fire fight.
Generally, repairing is more important than spraying.
If you're currently not being shot at by incendiary weapons but you are taking damage, repairing definitely is the priority.
The usual component priorities still apply. Hull > Balloon > Engines > Guns
(ask your captain if you're not sure what's important)
If your engines are burning and your hull is broken, you fix the hull.
However, if you are being roasted by two flame throwers, you definitely spray first. The consequences of not doing it would be too high.
Pro tip regarding broken armour
If you are under fire from an armour-piercing weapon and an incendiary weapon you can get into quite the dilemma. You keep rebuilding the armour, but always when you're done they immediately set it on fire, killing it again immediately.
When rebuilding it the next time, don't give it a mallet hit after finishing the rebuild but spray it instead. Chem spray lasts even after a component is destroyed. This means: When they destroy the armour now, you rebuild it and the chem spray will still be effective. That way you can now hit it with the mallet and it can't catch fire. If you rebuilt it fast enough, the mallet cooldown should be done before the Chem Spray wears off.
That's all I can come up right now. I'm sure there is still a lot to say This turned out way longer than expected. If you have anything to add, please do!
