Weapons

See Also: Missiles

Weapons are primarily designed to inflict damage on other ships. They play an obvious role in altering one's combat strategies, as they largely determine your ship's strengths and weaknesses in combat.

They may however be used to break up space debris, intercept missiles, and repair ships (with repair lasers).

Some weapons are very energy efficient, usually a result of requiring ammunition.

Direct fire weapons like those listed below can be characterized as either a beam, area of effect, or a bolt.

Weapon Types

Bolt weapons

• Fire discrete projectiles which travel through space at the listed speed.
• May fire repeatedly at the specified rate of fire.
• Accuracy depends on the bullet speed, which ranges from slow capital ship cannons to Flak that exceeds the speed of beam weapons.
• Most weapons fit into this category.

Beam weapons

• Are virtually impossible to evade because all beam weapons have a very high propagation speed.
• Generate a beam until the trigger is released or energy is depleted.
• Few Beam Weapons commonly seen in-game: The Alpha, Beta and Gamma Kyon Emitters, the Pulsed Beam Emitter and the Ion Disruptor.

Shockwave weapons

• Are almost impossible to evade since some can cover an area that is over 1 km wide.
• Fire a cone of destruction hitting victims multiple times, inflicting a huge multiplier on large targets.
• Often a source of friendly fire.
• Few Shockwave weapons available: Only the Phased Shockwave Generator and the Plasma Burst Generator are available.

Flak weapons

• Are primarily designed as anti-fighter weapons.
• Create a large damage area capable of seriously damaging fighters.
• Very few Flak Weapons are available: The Fragmentation Bomb Launcher, Flak Artillery Array, Starburst Shockwave Cannon and Cluster Flak Array

Ammunition Based Weapons

• Far more energy efficient than their equivalents, they require constant supplies of ammunition to fire.
• Each ammunition crate holds 200 rounds of ammunition. This means certain weapons use ammunition faster than others.
• Storing and re-equipping becomes a matter of logistics. OOS combat uses ammunition very quickly.
• Few Ammunition Based Weapons Available: The Mass Driver, Energy Bolt Chaingun, Matter/Anti-Matter Launcher (and P-M/AML) and the Gauss Cannon are the only weapons requiring Ammunition.
• Available Ammunition Types: Mass Driver Ammunition, Energy Bolt Chaingun Ammunition, Gauss Cannon Ammunition and Matter/Anti-Matter Warheads

Damage

Damage is inflicted in two ways.

Hull

Hulls are the outer shells of ships, they usually protect the equipment that makes a ship a ship rather than a blasted out derelict. Damage to the hull directly damages the ship and its equipment.

Shield

Shields are a protective energy field which primarily keeps micrometeorites and other debris from harming the hull in the course of normal navigation. They also protect the hull from weapons fire. Typically the shields must first be overcome to damage a ship.

Weapons List

A graphical table can be found at public.tableausoftware.com/views/X3Weapons/X3WeaponReport

Name	Shield Damage(Per second)	Shield (per MJ)	Hull Damage(Per second)	Hull (per MJ)	Energy (MJ/s)	Range (Km)	Speed (m/s)	Required ammo	Cargo type	Cargo Space
Fusion Beam Cannon	9000	32	12800	46	278	6.63	2660	no	L	30
SPARE LASER 1	12000	182	1800	27	66	100	25000	no	L	33
SPARE LASER 2	2300	41	1100	20	56	1.79	5993	no	S	1
Matter/Anti-Matter Launcher	10000	10000	3700	3700	1	3.62	445	Matter/Anti-Matter Warhead	M	21
Electro-Magnetic Plasma Cannon	5200	64	2000	25	81	2.0	588	no	S	5
Prototype Starburst Shockwave Cannon	11700	17	1900	3	679	2.0	2000	no	XL	28
Point Singularity Projector **	25200	101	9500	38	250	6.42	321	no	XL	200
Starburst Shockwave Cannon	13100	17	2100	3	759	2.0	2000	no	L	28
Gamma Kyon Emitter	10700	15	6400	9	714	4.85	12143	no	XL	25
Beta Kyon Emitter	5000	17	3000	10	300	3.41	9765	no	M	5
Alpha Kyon Emitter	2300	41	1100	20	56	1.79	5993	no	S	1
Experimental Electro-Magnetic Plasma Cannon	4600	64	1800	25	72	2.0	588	no	S	5
Prototype Matter/Anti-Matter Launcher	8900	8900	3300	3300	1	3.62	445	Matter/Anti-Matter Warhead	M	21
Phased Array Laser Cannon	9400	34	7000	25	278	6.37	2561	no	L	32
Phased Shockwave Generator *	2500	4	134	0.2	569	1.44	254	no	L	28
Cluster Flak Array	12000	17	1800	3	692	1.98	2200	no	L	33
Repair Laser	0	0	100	1	100	2.2	4400	no	-	1
Incendiary Bomb Launcher ** / ***	46200	97	8100	17	478	5.14	312	no	XL	110
Phased Repeater Gun	7200	52	765	6	138	2.32	1560	no	S	4
High Energy Plasma Thrower	9400	50	1500	8	188	2.31	431	no	S	6
Tractor Beam	0	0	0	0	2000	2.0	4000	no	S	50
Particle Accelerator Cannon	6000	50	748	6	120	1.92	703	no	S	3
Mobile Drilling System	118	6	325	16	20	4.83	84	no	XL	100
Ion Pulse Generator	13000	27	544	1	475	3.88	347	no	M	28
Energy Bolt Chaingun	8900	1483	1400	233	6	2.81	604	Energy Bolt Chaingun Ammunition	S	1
Plasma Beam Cannon	11900	35	4500	13	336	5.85	10644	no	XL	120
Flak Artillery Array	12800	20	1900	3	629	2.11	7051	no	L	30
Fragmentation Bomb Launcher	8800	46	1400	7	192	1.97	359	no	S	5
Ion Shard Railgun	10200	21	3700	8	476	3.33	498	no	M	22
Pulsed Beam Emitter	18100	67	673	3	269	0.977	6980	no	M	8
Concussion Impulse Generator	9800	32	3200	10	307	3.46	420	no	M	25
Plasma Burst Generator *	427	9	109	2	50	0.787	375	no	S	7
Gauss Cannon	42200	42200	17900	17900	1	4.78	353	Gauss Cannon Ammunition	XL	55
Ion Cannon**	66100	131	3800	8	503	5.12	387	no	XL	150
Photon Pulse Cannon **	46500	111	8200	20	420	6.62	333	no	XL	100
Ion Disruptor	3300	20	10	0.1	164	0.938	2027	no	M	10
Mass Driver	0	0	185	15	12	0.997	739	Mass Driver Ammunition	S	1
Impulse Ray Emitter	1400	54	140	5	26	1.39	1162	no	S	1
Tri-Beam Cannon	11100	30	7800	21	374	6.19	5630	no	XL	135

* Actual damage much higher, an area of effect weapon. Will hit several/many targets and each many times. Very energy efficient.

** Capital weapon which can be charged up, using more energy but dealing more damage. For further details check out charging.

*** IBL "set the target on fire", adding burn damage. For 3 seconds, about 3000 damage per second are inflicted. This is not cumulative with multiple IBL hitting the target so it's barely noticable when firing 4-8 IBL simultaneously.

See Also

• Missiles
• Fleets
• Wings