Heavy weapons are power weapons that are, in all but one case, literally heavy. They require you to put away your other weapons, pick up a heavy chunk of metal, and then move slowly while you carry it. In exchange, they put massive firepower in your hands, and you can inflict serious damage to the enemy team if you use them well.
Mulcher
> A powerful chain gun, the Mulcher is a rapid-fire bullet hose.
Weapon Profile
The Mulcher is a high-powered, rapid-fire weapon that must be planted and spun up to fire. But once it begins to fire, it unleashes a deadly spray of bullets, quickly downing and killing any targets in its line of sight. The Mulcher causes instant death at close range. At longer distances, it downs first before killing. The Mulcher is the most restricted of the heavy weapons, as it requires a clear line of sight to deal damage.
Because it is heavy, this usually prevents you from moving it far from its starting position. What this means is that the Mulcher’s power is entirely map-dependent. If the Mulcher spawn is in a good location, or if you have a team that can support an average position, you can deal a lot of damage with it. On the other hand, the Mulcher can be a bit of a trap in some positions. It may be located in an exposed area, and anytime you use it you expose yourself to accurate long-range fire.
The Longshot, Torque Bow, Boltok, and Hammerburst can all cause you problems from long range, so be careful about sticking your head out for longer than necessary. You can fire the Mulcher from the hip effectively at short range. You don’t want to face multiple enemies spread around you in this way. But if you have a chokepoint covered, you can easily mow down anyone foolish enough to walk out into the open in front of you.
Mortar
> The Mortar is a high-powered launcher that creates a storm of explosives above your enemies.
Weapon Profile
The Mortar is a devastatingly powerful area-of-effect weapon. When you fire the Mortar, it launches a shell into the air, which then splits and falls to the ground, saturating an area with explosions.
The Mortar takes some practice to use. To fire it, you must set a distance by aiming it, which changes the shot’s angle. After you fire the first shot, the next shot keeps a yellow hash mark on the angle/range HUD indicator, so you can judge the distance if you need to move the next shot forward or back.
The Mortar explosions impact a large area, falling to the ground and moving forward in a roughly straight line, though there’s a large blast to the sides as well. Because the Mortar falls from above, it’s ideal for taking out targets in the open, even (and especially) behind cover. It’s not effective against targets with hard overhead cover.
You can occasionally score kills by blasting an entrance with the shells, as the explosion reaches inside slightly. But don’t waste shots if you know your enemies are staying back from the entrance. Be sure to prioritize the Mortar spawn on any level that has it…it’s a very dangerous tool in enemy hands.
Vulcan
> Unleash a bullet storm of fury with the ultra-heavy Vulcan cannon.
Weapon Profile
A stunningly powerful heavy weapon, the Vulcan is available in only one part of multiplayer: Horde mode, as a bonus weapon drop. The Vulcan is a cannon with an amazing rate of fire and lethal damage output. At medium range, this weapon is devastating against the Horde, where its unimpressive long-range accuracy is not a drawback. Thanks to your slowed movement speed, you don’t really want to use this weapon at shorter distance.
Because the Vulcan uses ammo at such a ferocious rate, it actually has an external ammo box. Unlike the Mulcher, which is self-contained, the Vulcan requires that you either fight near the ammo box or have a teammate carry the ammo for you. Tying down a teammate to carry the ammo box isn’t a great idea in Horde mode. So, try to get the Vulcan into a key position immediately after you pick it up, drop the ammo box, and set up camp while you wait for the Horde.
Treat the Vulcan as a bonus, super-powered ‘turret,’ as it has many of the same strengths and weaknesses as a fixed turret, but with considerably higher firepower!
OneShot
> The OneShot is a massive energy cannon with pinpoint accuracy and piercing firepower.
Weapon Profile
The OneShot is a Longshot on steroids. It’s a single-shot, instant-kill weapon. Hit any part of an exposed enemy, and they are vaporized. The OneShot is so powerful it can penetrate multiple enemies for a multi-kill. When it’s Perfect Reloaded, it can even penetrate the Boomshield!
The OneShot takes a moment to charge up when you aim it, and you cannot fire it without first aiming it. This weapon also has a higher zoom level than the Longshot, and this can make tracking a moving target difficult or impossible. It also means that you’re even more vulnerable when zoomed, as you have essentially no peripheral vision. So, wait for the right moment to mount and fire the OneShot.
The OneShot creates a red laser pointer at whatever you’re targeting. If you remain zoomed in while you sweep the pointer around, you can expect your enemies to stay behind hard cover. Furthermore, when a OneShot is aimed in your vicinity, you can hear a beeping sound as the weapon charges. This occurs only if the pointer aimed in your area is hostile…get out of there! You can use both of these points to scare enemies away from an area! Work with your teammates to spook targets into cover with the laser pointer, and then let your teammates flank the entrenched enemies.
Hammer of Dawn
> Harness the power of an orbiting cannon to incinerate your foes.
Weapon Profile
The Hammer of Dawn is a unique and powerful weapon. It allows you to control an orbiting satellite cannon to blast your enemies. When you aim it, the Hammer takes several seconds to lock on and acquire its target. Once it’s active, a lance of energy from the heavens blasts the battlefield. The Hammer impact causes a blast wave that’s instantly fatal to anyone standing near it. If you continue to hold the trigger, you can then aim the energy beam, dragging it across the battlefield and damaging any enemies near it.
While the Hammer is very powerful, it does have some weaknesses. Notably, you cannot call down a strike on a target without clear line of sight, both from you to the target and from the target to the sky…indoor enemies are safe from harm. On top of that, targeting and continuing to aim the Hammer is risky, as it takes time and is highly visible and noisy. You can expect to become target number one while you wield the Hammer!
Unlike other ‘Heavy’ weapons, the Hammer does not slow you down while you carry it. Instead, you’re forced to move slowly when you aim the Hammer, as it takes several seconds to activate. The Hammer can be hipfired, but it cannot be blind-fired.
You may want to use the Hammer purely for the initial ‘blast wave’ impact, rather than dragging the beam around. The initial blast can take out a group of enemies behind cover, but dragging the beam is very visible, and alert enemies can evade it fairly easily.
multi-turret
> The multi-Turret is a makeshift emplacement which can be equipped with Retro Lancers, boomshots, lancers, or hammerbursts.
Weapon Profile
You rarely encounter the Multi-Turret in normal multiplayer matches, but it’s a common sight in both Horde and Beast modes. The Multi-Turret is moderately useful in Versus multiplayer, a very powerful defensive emplacement in Horde mode, and a dangerous enemy in Beast mode.
When you use the Retro Lancer variant of this turret, you can tap your shots just like a regular Retro Lancer to increase your accuracy for targets at a distance. You can also spot targets while you fire. Be sure to do this in Horde mode to mark targets for your teammates.
On Overpass, be careful of the grate beneath the emplacement…enemies can fire up through it and hit you.
The Boomshield
> The Boomshield is a sturdy metal shield that can block almost all incoming frontal fire.
Weapon Profile
The Boomshield is the only purely defensive ‘weapon’ in the game. When you carry it, it forces you to use your sidearm, increasing the importance of picking up a Boltok or Gorgon. When you hold the Aim button, the Boomshield expands and you hold it out in front of you, creating a wall between you and incoming fire but slowing your movement speed.
You can use the Boomshield as a bullet magnet. Enemy players are often oddly fascinated by trying to take down a Boomshield user. You can use this to your advantage by making yourself an obvious target while your teammates go for a flank. The best place to put yourself while you use this shield is in a narrow chokepoint, where enemies can’t get at your flanks to fire at your undefended body. Note that the Boomshield is not perfect protection. Carefully aimed shots from the front can still hit you, and it can’t save you from most explosions…don’t get overconfident.
You can also plant the Boomshield in the ground as a piece of static cover. This isn’t a large wall, but it can give you a breather in an area that is otherwise devoid of cover. It also lets you use your primary weapons, which is important in a lot of situations. You can also try to plant the Boomshield to block off a narrow passageway temporarily, though you can’t completely stop enemies from getting through. The Boomshield can be helpful in Capture the Leader for creating extra cover for your Leader.
Cleaver
> The Cleaver is a rare bonus weapon found only in Horde mode.
Weapon Profile
The Cleaver is a special weapon that you can acquire only when you play Horde mode. Infrequently during a Horde match, a Theron or a Butcher wielding a Cleaver may attack you. Dispatch it, and you can then pick up the weapon.
While you carry a Cleaver, you can only perform a melee swing…you can’t use any of your other weapons. The Cleaver is damaging, but this sort of close-range combat is not the best idea for beating back the unrelenting Locust waves. Nevertheless, lopping off a few heads is good stress relief…
