Learn me about missiles

[H E X E N]

I've probably clocked 600+ hours into Terran Conflict, but have never really been into playing the missile game. Sure, I've fired the occasional sausage here or there, and I even boarded a Ray once with pods and flails, but I've always looked at it as such a pain in the butt. There's the knowledge base, the resupply, the tricks and everything else in between.

However, after reading Nuklear Slugs "The Art of Running Away", I'm more inclined to give missiles their fair shake. He treats them so nonchalantly... picked up a few here, a few there, and over time, he patiently builds his stickpile. I want a big stickpile too. Lots of sticks that make splode.

So I have a few missiles, and I gather that Tomahawks are used on capitals and Wasps on fighters (thanks Nuke), but there are just so many missiles!

I have access to both commonwealth and Terran ships, so let me know! What are your favorites? What are the basics? What missiles do what, and how do you use them? I want all your secret!

[ajax34i]

Old but probably still applicable missile guide on Roguey's website.

Dumbfire missiles are difficult to aim against anything but the slowest capital ships, so they are considered somewhat worthless (with the possible exception of the biggest ones, because they can be used against stations).

Of the guided missiles, the ones that aren't manufactured are relatively difficult to get in large enough quantities to be useful, so they don't see much use either.

Otherwise, you have to match explosive power with the speed of the target. A light missile may have the payload to take out an M4 (and not do much to an M3), but if it's so slow that it can only catch M3's, it's, again, worthless.

And, unfortunately, the missiles aren't quite balanced; what you're looking at is a somewhat randomized list (in terms of random speed + damage combinations).

So that leaves very few actual choices. Which is why the guide above is good; it has comments about why certain missiles are considered good or not.

Finally, you'll have to pay attention to what missiles each ship is compatible with. There are some rare exceptions where, for example, otherwise bland TS or TM transports can shoot some high damage heavies, or a certain Paranid M6 being compatible with high-damage Terran missiles.

[kgkosio]

Misquito - missile defense
Wasp - M5/M4 - if it isn't fast enough, it still keeps them busy
Thunderbolt - M3/slow M4 - 2 will take out most M3s if they do not have turrets.
Tempest - slow M3/M6 - best with large numbers of enemies
Tomahawk - Missile barrage X 2 will take out a Q OOS, X1 a P OOS
Flail - Send barrages towards any group of M3 or below, use for shield management when boarding.
Hammer - Capital/Station destruction, removal of shields for boarding
Reomote Guided Warhead/Beluga - 1 will take out a Khahk cluster
Wildfire - M4
Hornet - Break and asteroid in preperation for mining
Disruptor - Corporate missions, never use or sell
Dumbfire - Sell
Dragonfly - corporate missions


Poltergeist - M4 - it can keep a M3 busy
Spectre - slow M3/M6
Shadow - M6 and up, is overkill for M3

The rest I have not used or found enough to know how to use them

The Banshee says it is guided, but I have never had one hit anything other than a station

[Zaitsev]

Misquito - missile defense
Wasp - M5/M4 - if it isn't fast enough, it still keeps them busy
Thunderbolt - M3/slow M4 - 2 will take out most M3s if they do not have turrets.
Tempest - slow M3/M6 - best with large numbers of enemies
Tomahawk - Missile barrage X 2 will take out a Q OOS, X1 a P OOS
Flail - Send barrages towards any group of M3 or below, use for shield management when boarding.
Hammer - Capital/Station destruction, removal of shields for boarding
Reomote Guided Warhead/Beluga - 1 will take out a Khahk cluster
Wildfire - M4
Hornet - Break and asteroid in preperation for mining
Disruptor - Corporate missions, never use or sell
Dumbfire - Sell
Dragonfly - corporate missions


Poltergeist - M4 - it can keep a M3 busy
Spectre - slow M3/M6
Shadow - M6 and up, is overkill for M3

The rest I have not used or found enough to know how to use them

The Banshee says it is guided, but I have never had one hit anything other than a station

I'd like to add the Tornado and the Typhoon to the list.

Yes, the Tornado is a dumbfire missile, but I find it very useful when fighting M6s and M7s as they do a solid 400 MJ of damage combined and you're almost bound to get close enough to use them during a fight anyway. They do require a bit of aiming skill, but they pack a nice wallop and a well placed Tornado swarm has saved my bacon more than once.

The Typhoon becomes sort of a general purpose missile once you move up to an M6, as it packs enough punch to take care of every M3 except a fully shielded Falcon Sentinel (which I have never seen spawned during missions anyway), and 5 of them can kill any M6 out there. Heck, even a Q's in trouble if you carry enough of them, and since it's a swarm missile it's pretty good at confusing turrets too, making a hit more likely.

[H E X E N]

Thanks for the responses guys!

Everything in my game at the moment LOVES to drop Firelance missiles. That and Banshee are the most common drops out of any type of freight, bar none.

I only pick up the Banshees because they sell well in big quantities.

[RainerPrem]

Hi,

Thanks for the responses guys!

Everything in my game at the moment LOVES to drop Firelance missiles. That and Banshee are the most common drops out of any type of freight, bar none.

I only pick up the Banshees because they sell well in big quantities.

Note that you can manually sell any amount of missiles/lasers at equipment docks that DON'T sell them.

cu
Rainer

[ancienthighway]

The Banshee is actually a decent missile to keep around to use. 74k damage in a 10k radius, image recognition tracking.

[Honved]

My favorites are probably Wasps and Typhoons, both swarm type. Anything else I'll either sell or use if I manage to collect them for free, but won't buy except for very specific applications (such as Flails).

I use the Wasps to thin out M5 swarms before contact, and they can do at least modest shield damage to some M4s, or keep the turrets on larger fighters occupied instead of shooting at you. They tend to hit slower or larger targets too quickly to be of much use for distracting capital ships, and don't do enough damage to be worth using against anything bigger than an under-shielded M4 with the intention of actually hurting it.

Typhoons will massacre most slower M4s, and can destroy or seriously damage most M3s. They're also good for distracting turrets on capital ships, so they don't shoot at you or your boarding pods.

Note that a few of the multi-warhead DF missiles work like machineguns, with an extremely high damage per warhead. They're potentially good for pounding on large and slow capital ships while your weapons energy recharges, or against stations. Hitting anything faster takes skill and/or luck.