Mass Driver(weapon)

Unlock

Mass Drivers are unlocked by the technology of the same name, Mass Drivers.

Use Notes

These medium sized weapons use a longer and wider barrel than Gauss Cannons to propel a larger ferrous projectile significantly farther. This weapon is a worthwhile addition to early fleets, contributing siginificant damage and kinetic displacement. This can be emphasized with weight of fire using a cruiser sized Strafe Command Section. However, they face stiff competition amoung damage dealing weapons in the medium mount, becoming obsolete by the time Fusion Cannons hit the battlefield.

Upgrades

Mass Drivers recieve a 20% rate of fire increase from VRF Technology, 50% more mass and 50% more damage from Neutronium Rounds, and the 20% velocity and 10% damage increase from Accelerator Amplification.

Counters

Mass Drivers will ricochet off of ships with one of the four armors, but ricochets will still impart kinetic force. All Mass Driver damage will be completely negated by Grav Shields, and Shield Projectors. Deflectors give a 50% deflection armor in front of the ship, which will cause Mass Driver rounds to bounce off in 50% of angles.

Statistics

Construction

cost	Mount Size	HP bonus(per bank)
550	Medium	60

Planetary Bombardment

Base	Population Damage		Infrastructure Damage		Terraforming Damage	Range
	80,000	16,000/sec	0.05	0.01/sec	0	1,200
With VRF		20,000/sec		0.0125/sec

Ship to Ship

Base	Range Band	Range	Inaccuracy	Damage	Refire	DPS	Ricochet Resistance
	Point Blank	280	4 degrees	170	5	34	-100%
	Effective	475	5 degrees
	Maximum	780	6 degrees
With All Upgrades				287.6	4	68.9

Armor Interactions

Armor Type	Armor Ricochet Chance	Mass Driver Ricochet Resistance	% of striking angles which can do damage
Unarmored	+0%	-100%	100
Polysilicate Alloys	+80%		20
Magnoceramic Lattices	+110%		0
Quark Resonators	+130%		0
Adamantite Alloys	+150%		0

If you're looking at this chart and the one for Gauss Cannons and wondering how ballistic weapons are viable, keep a few things in mind.

1. The first couple of fights may not have armor researched for either fleet.
2. Look into Armor Piercing Rounds.
3. Remember that Hivers, the race with the best chance of any to unlock armor, is still looking at unfavorable dice to get very high in the armor tree. The Hiver will have a 99% chance of unlocking access to Polysilicate Alloys, 91.68% chance of unlocking access to Magnoceramic Lattices, 64.176% chance of unlocking access to Quark Resonators, and 32.008% chance of unlocking access to Adamantite Alloys. Everyone else has much worse odds.
4. Ballistic weapons don't need to do damage in order to be viable, they're not particularly good at it compared to other weapons anyways. What ballistic weapons do is give access to acceptable damage early, and give access to kinetic displacement and utilities later on.