level three weapons

[Betelgeuse]

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Name, Take down time
AK15 Partisan cannon, 1194.03
blinder cannon, 784.31
DK10 Arbalest cannon, 1250.00
dual recoilless cannon, 1250.00
laser cannon array, 1194.03
omnidirectional laser cannon, 4705.88
Rasiermesser SmartCannon, 1290.32
turbolaser cannon, 1538.46

This one is more interesting at first glace the blinder cannon is the best but you have to remember that the blinder cannon can't destroy any ships and it is not a wmd weapon so there are better weapons against stations.

The next group is AK15 Partisan cannon and laser cannon array. The AK15 Partisan cannon is single shot and the laser cannon array is a tri shot unfortunately the tri shot is at such a large angle you are not going to hit anything other than stations will all three shots at once, add on top of that it is short range it isn't that good a weapon.

The next group is DK10 Arbalest cannon, dual recoilless cannon. The arbalest is a triple repeating weapon and the dual recoilless is a dual weapon. Now this in an interesting choice. With the triple repeating its easier to concentrate the fire while with the dual recoilless is easier to spread (is automatic spread).

After that you get to Rasiermesser SmartCannon and turbolaser cannon. While the smartcannon does more damage and has tracking ammo it is an ammo weapon so you are losing money every time you shoot it and early game you need those credits. What really surprises me is how weak the turbo laser is I knew that the omnidirectional where weak but that the turbolaser was that weak without any real advantage over its competitors.

Now we get to the omnidirectional laser cannon it will take you 4 times longer to destroy anything with it and that isn't even counting rounding errors. If you want more forgiveness with aiming I would go for dual, alternating, or repeating weapons.

Here is my rankings

AK15 Partisan cannon, DK10 Arbalest cannon, dual recoilless cannon (its a tie )
turbolaser cannon
Rasiermesser SmartCannon
omnidirectional laser cannon
laser cannon array
blinder cannon

any comments or disagreements?

[F50]

In the late and mid game, I generally prefer more powerful forward-firing weapons. This is because most enemies in the mid and late game need some work to get rid of them and can be a threat to your survival if they survive long.

However, in the early game, nothing will survive long, and the ships are harder to hit. Anarchist battle pods, corsairs, vikings, outlaws, Himal. All easy to kill if you can consistently hit them. All usually more annoying than dangerous. You don't need to pack a huge punch, you just need to get rid of them sometime in the near future. Especially if you go the monopole shield route and are immune to zulus at which point an omni is much more convenient. The omni-laser also fires faster which is nice against corsairs and anarchists.

Furthermore, dodging is much easier against the early-game ships which have a generally low fire-rate or fire-adjust. You have prime opportunity to dodge with an omni.

Given a choice between all of these, I choose omni laser.

I prefer the single-shot to the dual shot for slow-firing weapons. The arbalest is slightly better for base-busting and its configuration isn't too inferior to the Partisan.

All that said, I usually don't get level III weapons. Level IV weapons are very useful though. PK25 (excellent gun), Omni turbo (great for arena except Tripoli), Dual Turbo (sucks) Particle beam weapon (fair), Slam cannon (sucks).

[omniaddict]

With the level three weapons comes the first omni weapon, the omni laser. Weak though it is, the omni ability is *so* useful. It does less damage per shot, bu every shot hits. No matter how you are dodging and weaving, no matter how the enemy is dodging and weaving, if you're within 60 light seconds of your enemy and your finger is on the space key, your enemy is being hit.

If your shield is sufficiently strong, you can use omni weapons to fight battles at autopilot speed. Say you've shot down all the ships around a base, and now you're pounding on the base. instead of targeting the base, just hover 30 or fewer LS near the base, hold the space key, then hit "a". Not only will you omni target and hit the base in auto speed, but when reinforcements arrive, the omni will target them until they blow up then return to the base - all in auto speed with no interaction from you!

[Betelgeuse]

you need that auto speed because battles take four times as long as they should all that time bringing in more things.

If you want a group of enemies dead kill them if they are in firing distance line your shot up and fire I will promise you you will have much less to worry about. (level three weapons are more than enough to get you to St. K. after that you want level 7 or 8 weapons)

[F50]

After the first three or four after St. K I want VI and VII. Before that I get some interim level V weapons, usually Shuriken, Shtorm Repeater, and Omni-particle.