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Weapons and Progression

LordBlacksun edited this page Sep 9, 2026 · 1 revision

Weapons, Systems & Progression

Player and enemy weapon systems, defensive gear, ranks and medals. Part of the Game Reference; data from the Starlancer Wiki (CC BY-SA 3.0).

These are the in-game balance values. The engine-side Game Objects, Ships & Combat page documents the on-disk SHIP/GUN/MISSILESTATS.BIN records (352-byte stat blocks) that these correspond to, and slstats.py edits them.

Primary (gun) weapons

Mounted on fighters (see each loadout under Fighters). Sorted by shield damage.

Weapon Range Shield dmg Hull dmg Speed Rounds/s Power/shot Example users
Laser cannon 200 8 8 1600 5.5 2 Grendel, Wolverine / Haidar, Lagg
Pulse cannon 300 8 8 1400 8 3 Naginata, Phoenix / Saber, Saracen
Gatling lasers 140 8.5 6 1800 10 2 Crusader, Reaper / Basilisk, Kossac
Meson blaster 150 9 9 1300 8 2 Mirage IV / Saber, Salin, Azan
Gatling plasma cannon 200 10 7 1200 5 ballistic Grendel
Proton cannon 200 12 11 1500 6 3 Predator, Coyote, Shroud / Karak
Tachyon cannon 400 20 15 1400 5 5 Tempest, Patriot, Wolverine
Collapser guns 200 25 25 1400 6 ballistic Wolverine / Kossac
Vulcan battery 300 30 35 1700 2 ballistic Reaper
Neutron particle gun 200 35 30 1300 2 15 Mirage IV
Nova cannon 200 400 400 2000 special special Phoenix (experimental; dumps the whole energy reserve)

Capital-ship weapons: Flak gun (range 170, 15/10, 7 r/s) · Laser turret (400, 15/10, 7 r/s) · Main gun (2000, 1000/1000, 1 r/s — on all capital ships; an instant kill on projectile collision).

Missiles & secondary weapons

Missiles unlock in tiers: Bronze (start), Silver (Mission 12), Gold (Mission 17), Platinum (Mission 19).

Missile Per mount Range Shield / Hull Lock Notes Tier
Fuel Pod 1 +50 s afterburner Bronze
Bandit 1 60 220 / 200 5 s Strong early dogfight missile Bronze
Havoc 1 80 300 / — 3 s EMP — no damage; disables/spins fighters in range Bronze
Jackhammer 1 80 2500 / 2500 6 s Mini-torpedo; anti-capital/objective, not anti-fighter Bronze
Screamer pod of 20 60 80 / 80 unguided Dumb-fire rockets Bronze
Imp 1 60 240 / — 2 s Proximity; strips shields Silver
Raptor pod of 3 50 250 / 200 3 s Improved dogfight missile Silver
Vagabond 1 100 500 / 350 4 s Homes even on cloaked targets Silver
Hawk pod of 4 120 120 / 120 4 s Long range / fast lock Gold
Solomon pod of 4 60 200 / 100 fire-and-forget Locks nearest hostile; great torpedo defense Platinum

Game files also name six unused missiles with no stats: Stalker, Blazer, Iron Tooth, Death Claw, Brute, Hell Fire — candidates for an unused-content writeup.

Torpedoes — self-propelled anti-capital-ship weapons used by both sides (Alliance Galahad/Hades bombers; Coalition Scimitar/Kamov, the latter with active camouflage). The most powerful have a daranium tip. Thinly armored, but colliding with one is an instant kill. Hotkey T targets incoming torpedoes.

Ion cannons

The deadliest weapons in the game — they one-shot anything. Encountered three times:

  1. Fort Vanguard's (Mission 13) — a captured one; killable with a single Jackhammer.
  2. The Dark Reign (Mission 18) — afterburner out of its range / hug it to break line-of-sight.
  3. The CS Borodin cannon (Mission 24) — infinite range; survivable only by cloaking in the Shroud.

Defensive & special systems

ECM — active on all player Alliance fighters; prevents enemy lock-on. Toggles off automatically and does not affect missiles already in flight — use limited flares / decoys for those.

"Specials" — prototype/unique devices; availability varies by fighter (see Fighters):

Special Effect
Reverse Thrust Fly backwards; consumes afterburner fuel.
Spectral Shields Temporary invincibility against the most-used enemy energy type; drains fast.
Cloaking Near-invisible to sensors; brief, recharges; firing cancels it.
Blind Fire Auto-tracks the target in the HUD center (single weapon type; reduced fire rate).

Ranks

The player starts as a 2nd Lieutenant; promotion is purely by total kills (each destroyed ship = one kill). Each rank also unlocks a fighter (or a fighter unlocks at a set mission, whichever comes first — see Fighters):

Rank Kills Fighter unlocked
2nd Lieutenant 0 Crusader / Naginata / Grendel / Predator
1st Lieutenant 35 Coyote
Flight Lieutenant 72 Mirage IV
Captain 115 Tempest
Flight Captain 150 Patriot
Lieutenant Commander 200 Wolverine
Commander 255 Reaper
Flight Commander 275 Phoenix
Squadron Commander 300 Shroud

Medals

Two kinds — campaign medals (one per phase) and medals for valor (bonus-objective heroism).

Campaign medals: 1) Alliance Defense Mobilization Medal (Jun–Sep 2160, the retreat to Triton) · 2) Long-range Forces Commendation Medal (Oct 2160–Feb 2161) · 3) Special Operations Service Medal (Mar–Jul 2161, the Advanced Warp Gate) · 4) Joint Services Commendation Medal (Aug–Sep 2161, capturing Kulov + the ion cannon) · 5) Battle of Titan Campaign Medal (Oct–Dec 2161) · 6) Outer Sol Victory — the 6th ribbon, never seen in-game (the game doesn't save after the final mission).

Medals for valor:

Medal Mission For
The Silver Cluster 6 Saving the ANS Ulysses convoy.
The Black Eagle 11 Destroying the CS Czar in dock.
Medal of Valor 14 Destroying the warp gate + facility (killing CS Krasny via the gate).
Legion of Service 18 Destroying the Dark Reign ion cannon.
Navy Cross 19 Rescuing Klaus Steiner from the Saladin (killing Kariq Madiz).
Alliance Medal of Honor 23 Destroying the CS Pukov and the Black Guard.

The medal-case crash noted in the repo's modern-fixes.md relates to this medal-display screen.


Source: Starlancer Wiki (CC BY-SA 3.0).

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