Best & Worst Weapons

[catfighter]

What are the best and worst weapons in the game? I think the Iocrym have some of the most powerful stuff, but I'm not entirely sure.

(I didn't really want to go digging through the code to find them, and I'm sure someone else already knows anyway.)

[Atarlost]

The centauri recoilless is the worst. Only the Kytryn Launcher can compete on the grounds that you can never get ammo for it.

For best it really depends on what you value.

[PM]

Only the Kytryn Launcher can compete on the grounds that you can never get ammo for it.

Only for some games. Then again, even if you get ammo, its DPS is still worse than the best nukes in the game against anything other than Phobos or Iocrym.

Gaian demolition cannon is also very bad. Only eight non-rechargeable shots, and terrible DPS for its level.
Weapons above level 10 and from the ICS are also useless because no one can install them.

[Atarlost]

Only the Kytryn Launcher can compete on the grounds that you can never get ammo for it.

Only for some games. Then again, even if you get ammo, its DPS is still worse than the best nukes in the game against anything other than Phobos or Iocrym.

Gaian demolition cannon is also very bad. Only eight non-rechargeable shots, and terrible DPS for its level.
Weapons above level 10 and from the ICS are also useless because no one can install them.

Shush. I had successfully repressed my memories of the abomination against utility that is the GDC and you had to ruin it.

Anyhow, my preference for best is any level apprporiate howitzer. They take more enhancement than most things, they break up stations, they kill mooks in one hit, and they outrange most enemies and are outranged by almost nothing. The Xenophobe lancer isn't bad as a pseudo-howitzer either. Best endgame howitzer is a toss up between the Fusionfire and the Ares Plasma Archcannon. The APA does more DPS and has even more range than the other howitzers, but it uses two slots and fires very slowly. If the two slots are a deal breaker the FFH is still very good.

For skirmishing I'm partial to the Morningstar, Moskva 33, and Ion Flame Cannon. All do good medium short range damage and at least adequate medium range damage against large targets. The morningstar and IFC are good at shooting down hostile projectiles. The Morningstar, Moskva, and IFC cover up some of the inaccuracy inherent in only having 40 facings, the IFC better than the others. For best endgame skirmish weapon I suggest the IFC. Nothing beats an IFC for shooting down missiles except possibly the other IFC and the Iocrym Fracture Cannon has terrible range that makes it not much good as a weapon. I considered the Ion Flame Cannon the superior IFC even when the Iocrym Fracture Cannon could be enhanced to +150% with longzhus

For short range DPS there's not much in vanilla. Just the Advanced Tritium Cannon really. Enhanced to 110% or higher it can kill a lobster in one heat cycle. Or at least it could last I tried and neither appears to have changed since. Vanilla has no other non-turret counter limited weapons so all you can do to get spike damage is get a good launcher and hold down shift and space. The Makayev Launcher puts out the best damage, but the NAMI launcher has the best ammo availability. The ATC is obviously the endgame choice in this role. Nothing beats it for peak damage and it uses enhancers that are available in threes from trading posts. Enhance it enough and its less than stellar average DPS doesn't much matter.

I prefer the PK-15, omni x-ray, Ares Lightning Turret, or omni thermo cannon for turrets. Omni X-ray is probably the best low level omni, but it's new and hard to get and the PK-15 is head and shoulders above all the other low to mid level omnis, not facing any real competition until the omni tev-9. At the same time it draws little enough power to start using quite early. Best endgame omni in a vacuum is probably the omni thermo. It uses ammo, but it has the range to snipe Ares turrets. Either will make short work of gunships.

[catfighter]

Ares weapons do seem to be the best. If you installed an APA on a freighter you wouldn't have any other slots open, so would it still be a good idea?

Btw On a separate topic, do you have to go to a black market station to get a smuggler's hold installed?

[Song]

The APA does work on a freighter, but you need to have a drive upgrade to really use it....a Titan at minimum. Not sure if it still works, but you used to be able to slap an optimiser ROM on it, then install a high-speed howitzer loader....and the effects would stack to give a seriously insane weapon.

[NMS]

The regular Plasma Cannon was buffed recently and now has basically the same DPS as the APA, but with a much faster rate of fire. Although it doesn't work with the howitzer loader, it's a strong contender for best endgame weapon (and leaves a slot free even on the freighter).

[Atarlost]

The APA does work on a freighter, but you need to have a drive upgrade to really use it....a Titan at minimum. Not sure if it still works, but you used to be able to slap an optimiser ROM on it, then install a high-speed howitzer loader....and the effects would stack to give a seriously insane weapon.

You can make it work, but it's not good. The firerate is still low, unlike the other howitzers which get closer to medium when optimized and given a speedloader, and it uses all of your weapon slots. Using all your slots means it needs to be able to fill all your needs and it's just not very good at swatting gunships.

[Lightvader]

The APA does work on a freighter, but you need to have a drive upgrade to really use it....a Titan at minimum. Not sure if it still works, but you used to be able to slap an optimiser ROM on it, then install a high-speed howitzer loader....and the effects would stack to give a seriously insane weapon.

You can make it work, but it's not good. The firerate is still low, unlike the other howitzers which get closer to medium when optimized and given a speedloader, and it uses all of your weapon slots. Using all your slots means it needs to be able to fill all your needs and it's just not very good at swatting gunships.

what is a speedloader(i think i have a pretty good idea) and where can i find it?

[Ultimate Chicken]

"Speedloader" is probably the High Speed Howitzer Loader. I'd say it has a pretty good chance of randomly generating in stores by St Kat's.

And frankly, all your thrust problems can be solved with an Inertialess Drive. :3

[Lightvader]

Thanks. I thought it was an enhancer.

And to contribute to the thread

i will swear by the ares plasma archcannon.
Since i found one everything got a ton easier. I even killed the final boss with ease.
At [email protected]/sec this is a station killer.(even the csc Antartica's are easy)
hint:the antares phobo dreadnought has them. This should give you an idea.

I flew back to the first system,just to destroy all corporate stations to spawn cruisers for fun.

[catfighter]

It is pretty fun blowing up the corporate cruisers, even if they can't do any serious damage to me. If you get the iocrym shields (580 HP, regenerates 7 HP per second) or something of about that strength, nothing can touch you.

I have learned to be really careful with the more powerful weapons (Ares especially) because if they aren't omnidirectional, I miss and accidentally one-shot my friends. The Hecates cannon is also a pretty good weapon, though not quite as powerful as the APA.

[sun1404]

Frankly, I accidentally shot my wingmen most often with omnidirectional weapons. Because you never know where it will fire at a given time, especially in skirmishes. Many times I use high damage omni weapons (IM90 for example.) and one-shot my friends because the enemy I targeted happened to be behind them when the gun fired. Almost never shot a friend with normal weapons, except stations faraway with howitzers. Those things really have too much range.

[Lightvader]

Where can i find the ix90? Also,i always let my wingmen wait when i do misions,otherise i return with no wingmen. Let stations (and ocationally corporate cruisers) take care of ships and holowizer/apa+hazno blaster for enemy stations

[Deltax]

Moskva 11 light turret and advanced urak mass driver, definitely the worst early game weapons IMO, the centauri recoilless at least has some decent range to it, whereas with these you practically have to ram the enemy ship to attack it.