X4: Foundations Ultimate Weapons Guide (2024)

Introduction

Hello and welcome to my humble little pile of data. Four years after the release of X4 i still see plenty of confusion about how weapons work in X4, which is no suprrise with how little information is given to the player to begin with. So little that it left me wondering just too many times and i started digging and testing. Then more digging and testing.

The result you see here, a detailed data sheet for all the weapons in the game and how exactly they work.

Enjoy!

The Encyclopedia (And its bugs)

The In-game Encyclopedia is the only place where you can see some informations about the weapons, ships etc. in X4. Sadly, it is severely lacking in the amount of info that is displayed, and the things that are displayed are written in a rather confusing manner.

So let’s get explaining.

Burst Damage Output = The raw damage per second of the weapon.

Sustained Damage Output = The damage per second with heat and cooldown calculated in.

Against Shielded Targets = The raw damage per second against a target with shields. Some weapons have shield penetrating damage or extra damage against shields.

Against Unshielded Targets = The raw damage per second against targets without shields. Some weapons deal more/less damage to hull than to shields.

Rate Of Fire = How often the weapon fires per second. Doesn’t count multiple projectiles.

Max Rate Of Heat Buildup = The heat generated per second.

Projectile Speed and Effective Range should need no further explanation.

BUGS! Those are the reasons why you will see different numbers here than in-game!

The encyclopedia appears to have a bug in it’s calculation for weapons with ammo clips, like the Pulse Lasers and Bolt Repeaters.

It seems to calculate one shot-interval too many, resulting in a lower rate of fire and dps displayed than the weapons actually have. It essentially fails to consider that the first shot in a magazine is fired instantly and has no delay.

For example, the TER Mk1 Pulse Laser is shown to have a rate of fire of 1.33 shots per second with 82 damage per second, while it actually has 2 shots per second and 124 dps.

This appears to apply to ALL weapons with burst magazines.

The heat build up is incorrect for the Shard Battery and Tau Accelerator. It only considers the heat generation of a single bullet while actually all bullets generate heat.

The numbers for the alpha strike weapons, Mass Driver, Boson Lance and Meson Stream, are completely wrong. Likely a result of how very different those weapons work and the formula can’t figure them out.

The L Pulse turrets and the Terran L Bolt turret also have incorrect numbers, They have values for burst clips, but they are never used since the reload time of the weapon is longer than the burst clip reload. The encyclopedia though still calculates the unused values into it’s damage formula.

The Terran L Bolt turret can use it’s burst clips though if you apply a reload-mod to it at the workbench. Once the reload time is lower than one second, the burst clip will become functional.

Additional Terms

There are many, many more statistics and values for weapons than what is listed in the Encyclopedia and I will slightly different terms, along many new ones to describe a weapons performance.

Statistics and terms you will see in this list are:

DamageDPS : Damage per second.

SDPS : Sustained Damage per second. Considers overheating.

Damage: The damage a single shot will deal.

ROF: Rate of fire. How many shots the weapon fires per second. Used for fast firing weapons like Bolt repeater

Reload: The time the weapon takes to reload a single shot. Used for slow firing weapons like Plasma

+Shield: A weapons bonus damage against Shields.

+Hull: A weapons bonus damage against Hull. Shield Ignoring.

+Blast: A weapons explosive blast damage, enabling it to damage objects in an area.

Blast Range: The range of the blast damage. Blast damage is reduced by distance from the impact.

Charge Time: Time until a weapon is fully charged and deals full damage. Otherwise it will result in reduced damage.

Sticky Ammo: The weapons ammo will stick to the targets hull and deal damage over time. For example, if a weapon has 25 damage and a stick time of 5 seconds, the target will take 5 damage per second.

Magazines/ClipsClip Size: How many shots the weapon can fire before it has to pause to reload.

Clip ROF. How many shots are fired per second by the weapon within a clip.

Clip Reload: The time it takes to reload the clip/magazine.

Range and AccuracySpeed: Projectile Speed. How quickly the bullet moves. Higher speeds allow the target less time to evade.

Range: How far the bullet flies until disappearing.

Dispersion: How accurate the weapon is. The larger the number, the bigger the bullet spread and less accurate the weapon is.. Anything below 0.30 is GOOD. Anything above 0.40 is BAD

HeatH-Shot: Heat per shot. The heat generated per bullet fired.

H-Second: Heat per second. The heat the weapon generates per second when continuously firing.

Initial Heat: Heat generated BEFORE the weapon is fired. If this causes overheat. No shot is fired.

Cooldown: The speed at which the weapon gets rid of heat.

CD-Delay: Cooldown Delay. Time added after overheating before the cooldown will begin.

Reactivate: The heat level at which the weapon is able to fire again after overheating.

Every weapon has a max heat of 10.000 so i won’t list it.

MissilesMissiles have their own list of specific values, like:

Salvo Size: How many missiles are released per launch

Max range: The maximum distance a missile will fly before self destructing. Can be influenced by ships speed.

AI Targeting Range: The range at which AI controlled ships and turrets will fire missiles.

Lock-on Range: The range at which guided missiles will start obtaining a target lock. Only applies to the player.

Mobility: The turn rate and strafing speed of the missile.

Flare Resistance: The chance of a missile to not be distracted by a flare. Keep in mind a single unit of flares launches multiple. Taken from the files. Extremely hard to test if accurate.

Heat and cooldown

The heat mechanic is simple enough, but still has some quirks.

There are three ways heat is generated.

1. Standard: After every bullet fired heat is applied.

2. Initial Heat : Heat is applied before the bullet is fired. If it overheats, no shot is fired.

3. Constant Heat: Applies to beam weapons only. Heat is applied per second rather than per shot.

All weapons have a maximum heat of 10000. Once a weapon reaches that number, the weapon overheats and cooldown will be stopped for a time. 1,13 seconds for most weapons. Only then it will start cooling down.

Weapons only start cooling down once they are ready to fire. A Plasma Cannon Mk1 for example will only start cooling down 4 seconds after its last shot.

Most weapons cool down at 2000 heat per second, needing 5 seconds + cooldown delay to return to zero heat.

For every weapon that has heat, the cooldown speed appears to get halved. So if two weapons have heat, the cooldown for both will lower to 1000 per second.

If three weapons have heat, it goes down to 500 per second.

And so on…

That means the more weapons you have, the more Burst DPS you will do, but your sustained DPS will get lower and lower.

I recommend to not use more than 4 guns on a ship, else your cooldown speed will hit extremely low levels.

Standard Weapons 1

Standard weapons are the most basic offensive equipment. They are straightforward, reliable and come without any special effects. They are available from all core factions.

Pulse Laser

Most basic weapon that is very reliable. It generates very little heat, has a fast projectile and is pretty cheap. Excellent in a dogfight but struggles a bit at range due to the dispersion.

Good vs: Fighters and lightly protected mediums.

Bad vs: Heavier mediums and anything bigger.

Bolt Repeater

Basic weapon with more damage than the Pulse Laser but slower projectile. Very high firing rate and high burst damage. Not so good in a dogfight, better in Boom and Zoom.

Good vs: Heavy fighters, Mediums.

Bad vs: Light fighters.

Standard Weapons 2

Beam Emitter

Beam Emitters provide pinpoint accuracy but very low damage output. Their tracking speed is also slow, making dogfighting difficult. Prefers to snipe at a distance. Medium Mk2 provides significant long range damage though.

Beams start reloading the moment they are fired.

Good vs: Light fighters, drones.

Bad vs: Heavy fighters and anything bigger.

Shard Battery

Your space shotgun. Bad at long range, devastating at close range. Massive damage output and heat generation. Excellent in a dogfight to quickly shred targets. It’s damage is similar to the Plasma Cannons but offers greater versatility against all targets at the cost of range.

Good vs: Everything.

Bad vs: Long range, extended engagements.

Plasma Cannon

The Plasma Cannon is the heavy hitter and the main anti-capital weapon for small and medium craft. It fire one big, high damage shot with stupid high heat generation. don’t expect to fire more than 2-3 shots before going red on heat. You might just as well ignore the DPS value and look just at the Sustained DPS. Skillful flying can allow to land devastating shots on fighters.

Good vs: Mediums and capital ships.

Bad vs: Fighters, Drones.

Faction Weapons 1

Faction weapons are special weapons acquired only by their specific factions. They fill specific niches and often don’t work well as a main weapon and are better suited as a support weapon. Often they are hyper specialised for a specific task.

ARG Ion Blaster

A weapon specifc to the Argon Federation. It is a fully automatic weapon with increased shield damage, making it excellent at defeating capital ship shields and quickly removing the shields of medium ships. Small fighters will lose shields in just a few hits.

Good vs: Capital ship shields.

Bad vs: low-shield targets like fighters, wasting the weapons potential.

HOP Blast Mortar

The Blast Mortar is a weapon specific to the Holy Order Of The Pontifex. It is an extremely powerful explosive weapon that is only available on Small ships, but outperforms the Medium Plasma Cannon in every way. With its blast damage it can even hit multiple targets, like turret groups.

Good vs: Mediums, Capitals, Surface Elements.

Bad vs: Fighters, Drones

PAR Mass Driver

The Mass Driver is a Godrealm Of Paranid specific weapon and essentially a sniper rifle. High damage per shot, long range and a very fast projectile matched with no tracking and very high heat. Overall an overpriced weapon without many effective applications. AI Pilots are completely unable to hit a target with it.

The weapon is able to cool down while the shot is being held.

The weapon also has a zoom effect and a tiny charge time.

Reload is calculated as cooldown until next shot.

Good vs: Fighters

Bad vs: Everything else

Faction Weapons 2

PAR Burst Ray

The Burst Ray is the second special weapon of the Godrealm Of Paranid. It is a hyperspecialised anti-module weapon. It deals nearly no damage to ships or shields, but provides a massive damage increase against turrets, engines and shield generators.

Good vs: Turrets, Engines, Shield Generators.

Bad vs: Everything else.

TEL Muon Charger

The Muon Charger is the faction specific weapon of the Teladi Company. It is a weapon that has to be charged for a short while to maximise damage. The bullets will stick to the target and deal their damage over time. Because of the high chance of the bullets to bounce off of the target, the damage can vary wildly and is generally lower than what the statistics would suggest. On the plus side, the weapon basically never overheats.

Good vs: Mediums, Capitals.

Bad vs: Fighters.

Split Weapons 1

Split weapons are only available from the Split, with the Boson Lance being exclusively available from Zyarth. Split weapons offer higher rate of fire and damage than their commonwealth counterparts, but are only effective if you plant your barrel right into your targets face due to their hilariously large dispersion.

Thermal Disintegrator

The Split version of the Pulse Laser. It offers increased damage output and a shield penetrating ability at the cost of worse projectile speed and accuracy. It is extremely effective in Low Attention combat. This weapon uses sticky projectiles and deals damage over time.

Good vs: Mediums, Capitals.

Bad vs: Fighters

Neutron Gatling

The Split variant of the Bolt Repeater. It offers greater damage potential but is hilariously inaccurate and the effective dps will be significantly reduced if the target is more than 200m away from the barrel. Because of that dispersion and the damage increase being too small to compensate, the Neutron Gatling is a contender for the worst weapon in the game.

Good vs: The inside of a Barn.

Bad vs: Everything else.

Split Weapons 2

Tau Accelerator

The Split variant of the Shard Battery. It offers a faster rate of fire with slightly increased damage output at the cost of range, speed and heat efficiency. It is extra bursty and excellent for quickly destroying priority targets.

Good vs: Everything

Bad vs: Long range

Boson Lance

This is the Split variant of the PAR Mass Driver. It offers increased damage at the cost of range.

As with the Mass Driver, AI Pilots are completely unable to hit anything with them.

A dragon with six Boson Lances Mk2 can deal 28.800 damage, but will be cooling down for several minutes after each salvo.

The weapon is able to cool down while the shot is being held.

The weapon also has a tiny charge time.

Reload is calculated as a cooldown until the next shot.

Good vs: Fighters, Mediums

Bad Vs: Capitals

Terran Weapons 1

Terran weapons are straight up better than the commonwealth counterparts, but are limited to terran ships only. The TER Pulse Laser is the only terran weapon that can be installed on ships of any faction. (Aside from turrets of course.)

TER Pulse Laser

The terran variant of the Pulse Laser is just a straight upgrade over the standard Pulse Laser. Increased damage output and projectile velocity at the cost of minor increase in heat generation and reduction in range.

Note:The S mk1 and M mk1 have an identical or slower rate of fire than the clip reload, essentially removing the clip. The clip only comes into play if you apply a mod at the workbench and increase the firing rate.

This confuses the encyclopedia, causing wrong numbers to be displayed.

Good vs: Fighters

Bad vs: Capitals

Proton Barrage

The terran variant of the Bolt Repeater. It is better in every single way and a contender for one of the best weapons in the game. Sadly it is only able to be fitted to terran made ships and really expensive.

Good vs: Fighters, Mediums, lightly shielded capitals.

Bad vs: Bank accounts.

Terran Weapons 2

Meson Stream

This is the terran variant of the Mass Driver and Boson Lance. Instead of a projectile it fires a beam, removing the need to lead the target. It also sports an even further increase in damage. A Katana or Falx with a full load can do up to 49.000 damage in a single salvo!

Like the Proton Barrage, it can only be fitted to terran ships.

And as usual, the AI is basically incapable of using this weapon properly.

Reload is calculated via a full cooldown.

Good vs: Everything

Bad vs: Bank accounts

Xenon, Khaak, and other weapons

Weapons used by the Xenon and Khaak and those which don’t quite fit into the other categories.

XEN Impulse Projector

The only weapon used by Xenon fighters. It is a rapid fire, low to medium damage weapon.

KHK Kyon Emitter

The only weapon used by the Khaak. Once upon a time this weapon was extremely deadly, but today it barely is able to harm mediums.

Astrid Cannon

The Astrid’s main cannons are essentially rapid fire versions of the Mk1 Pulse Laser. As such, it is not very powerful.

It has a very oddly set up clip.

Capital Weapons

Those are the main guns of destroyers and battleships. They all feature massive damage output and the longest firing range, enabling them to siege down stations.

Destroyer Main Guns

Behemothmain battery is reliable, accurate and with good damage. It is overall a good gun with no distinct strengths or weaknesses.

Phoenixmain battery is easily the worst of all destroyers, providing the lowest damage output. Only saving graze is that it keeps the 10km range.

Odysseusmain battery is very accurate, fast and hits hard. Though the heat generation lowers damage in extended engagements.

Rattlesnakemain battery comes with four guns, enabling a massive damage output at the cost of cooldown speed ( 4 guns cool slower than 2 ) and greatly reduced range.

Terranmain battery is easily the best with the highest damage output which compensates for the lack of plasma turrets in the terran arsenal. It is the only main battery used on multiple ships.

Battleship Main Guns

Massive weapons installed on the biggest ships in the game. They deal very heavy damage at maximum range.

Asgard Beam reload is calculated as a full cooldown.

Medium Turrets 1

Medium turrets are supporting weapons available on pretty much all medium ships and larger. They have very large firing arcs which is usually only blocked by the ship and generate no heat, enabling them to keep up a constant barrage.

That however comes at the cost of severely reduced damage output and projectile speed.

Only Large and Xtra Large ships are capable of mounting missile turrets.

Medium turrets CAN NOT defend a ship from fighter attacks. Just ten Xenon M are already enough to overwhelm most ships medium turret batteries. Other factions with heavier weapons and missiles will neutralize turrets even faster.

Differences between factions are minimal and with the rotation speed of all turrets being so extremely high, and all having absolutely flimsy health, you can pick pretty much any look you want. Combat performances are identical between them.

Pulse Turret

Basic turret for fighters defence. This is the most reliable anti-fighter turret outside of the ARG Flak. Fires a near constant stream of reasonably accurate bullets.

Good vs: Light Fighters

Bad vs: Everything else.

Bolt Turret

The Bolt Turret is much worse at fighter defence due to an extremely slow projectile and horrible accuracy, but provides higher damage output to medium targets. This turret also performs the best in the anti-missile role because of its large volume of fire.

Good vs: Missiles

Bad vs: Everything else.

Medium Turrets 2

Plasma Turret

The Plasma Turret is designed to help take on capital ships with its relatively high damage output. It also is able to sometimes hit mediums for a good chunk of damage. It won’t even attempt to shoot at fighters.

Terrans do not have Plasma Turrets.

Good vs: Mediums, Capitals.

Bad vs: Everything else.

Beam Turret

The Beam Turret is easily the worst turret in the game, being essentially completely useless. While it’s instant and reliable damage application might appear useful at first, the damage output is actually so low, it struggles to damage even the most lightly protected fighter. The beam is also unable to hit missiles for some reason.

Good vs: Nothing

Bad vs: Literally everything

Shard Turret

The turret version of the Shard Battery sadly doesn’t inherit the power of the gun mounted version and performs significantly worse. On a capital ship it manages to perform even worse than the Beam turret. They perform somewhat better on Gunships and Frigates as they are able to stay closer to the target and can actually provide some meaningful damage, especially against other medium targets.

Terrans do not have Shard turrets.

Good vs: Mediums

Bad vs: Everything else

Medium Turrets 3

Flak Turret

There are two Flak turrets available, one is provided by the Argon Federation, the other is provided by the Free Families.

The Argon Flak is by far the best gun-based turret in the game. It shreds fighters, chews through mediums pretty quickly and even provides okay damage against capitals if one should get close.

It even comes with blast damage and a good radius.

The Split Flak though performs a lot worse despite the increased damage output. The dispersion is so bad, most shots miss even stationary fighters. but it performs better against mediums and capitals.

While the Split Flak also has blast damage, it misses the explosion effect and therefore doesn’t have a damage radius.

Good vs: Fighters (ARG Only), Mediums.

Bad vs: Capitals

Erlking and Astrid turret

The Erlking Medium Turret is a super ugpraded version of the Bolt Turret, providing significantly increased performance. It has a unique mechanic where the damage is reduced by range.

The Astrid Turret is a super upgraded version of the Beam Turret, providing significantly increased performance. It actually is a reasonably powerful weapon.

Good vs: Fighters. Mediums.

Bad vs: Capitals

Missile Turrets

The missile turrets can only be mounted on L and XL ships and can provide a massive increase in firepower at the cost of a limited ammo supply. They have some more hull than other medium turrets, but otherwise all the statistics are carried by the missiles, not the turret itself.

Medium Turrets 4

XEN and KHK turrets

The few turrets used by the Xenon and Khaak.

The Xenon Impulse turret is a upgraded version of the Pulse turret, doing respectable damage with good reliability.

The Positron turret in turn is easily the worst weapon in the entire game, doing even less damage than the Beam turrets of the fleshlings. It is usually only found on Xenon Stations.

The Khaak Kyon Turret is a straight up copy of the ship mounted version.

Good vs: Fighters.

Bad vs: Anything Else

Large Turrets 1

Large turrets are exclusive to Large and Xtra Large ships. They provide increased firepower and range over medium turrets but come only in limited numbers.

Pulse Turret

The large Pulse Turret is an all-purpose turret able to effectively engage small and medium targets and still put a bit of hurt against capitals.

Note:As mentioned at the start of the guide, the large Pulse Turrets have values for ammo clips which go completely unused, but still mess up the encyclopedia’s calculations.

Good vs: Fighters, Mediums.

Bad vs: Swarms

Bolt Turret

The large Bolt Turret is exclusive to the Terran arsenal and is essentially a slower, but harder hitting variant of the Pulse Turret, providing more damage against capitals. It has a surprisingly large hitbox which still enables it to be somewhat effective against fighters.

Note:As mentioned at the start of the guide, this turret has values for ammo clips, which go unused until you modify the weapon at a workbench to reduce the reload time to below 1 second.

Good vs: Most things.

Bad vs: Swarms

Beam Turret

The large Beam Turret is a pure anti-fighter weapon, providing about the same damage as a Small Mk2 Beam Emitter, but is more reliable since it’s a turret. It works well enough in that role but is pretty much useless against anything larger.

Good vs: Fighters

Bad vs: Everything else

Large Turrets 2

Plasma Turret

The Plasma Turret is the primary anti-capital and anti-station turret and the only one that provides more damage than any other weapon, except than destroyer and battleship main guns.

The Terrans do not have Plasma Turrets and to compensate their main batteries are a lot more powerful.

PAR Plasma is the best one, providing second highest damage, highest range and a much faster projectile.

ARG would be a close second with the only major downside being the slower projectile.

TEL still has the range, but looses out on damage dealt.

SPL would be the worst Plasma turret as it doesn’t provide a significant enough damage increase to compensate for the loss of 2km of range.

Good vs: Capitals, Stations.

Bad vs: Anything that moves.

Erlking Pulse Turret

The Erlking’s Large Turret is a super upgraded version of the Pulse Turret. It is pretty much equal to the XEN Graviton turret, except it has twice the range. It is extremely powerful against all targets.

Slap the Slasher modification on it for a truly insane damage output.

Note:The Erlking L Turret also suffers from unused ammo clip values, confusing the encyclopedia.

Good vs: Everything

Bad vs: Swarms

XEN Graviton Turret

The Xenon’s Graviton Turret is an extremely deadly weapon, combining a fast reload, with a highly damaging projectile and high velocity. It’s only downside is the lack of range, enabling enemies to kite the Xenon capital ships. But once they get into range, these weapons chew through enemy capital ships within a minute. Mediums get blasted in just a few volleys.

Good vs: Mediums, Capitals

Bad vs: Fighters, Long range.

Missile Turrets

The only advantage that Large missile turrets have over Mediums is that they provide 10x the capacity bonus and have more hull.

Dumbfire Missiles

Dumbfire missiles are simple, rocket propelled projectiles with an explosive warhead. They have no tracking and fly in a straight line similar to how a gun works. They offer increased damage output and range at the cost of having a limited ammo supply. They also generate no heat, making them excellent secondary weapons.

Light Dumbfirescan provide a fighter with a big extra punch against medium targets while also enabling them to snipe turrets off capital ships from a save distance.

Heavy Dumbfiresprovide much increased damage against capital ships and have the longest range of all weapons that can be mounted on turrets. They can provide firepower that rivals a Large Plasma turret on a Medium Turret slot.

Cluster missilesare for dropping big damage spikes on capital ships, especially XL targets are easy to hit. The missile carries over the speed from the launching ship, so a fast fighter is recommended. The light variant is kind of the worst missile in the game with pitiful damage, slow speed and long reload.

Scatter missilesare only available from the Split. It’s essentially a missile based shotgun. Extremely inaccurate with a high damage potential.

Terrans can not produce this missile.

Tracking Missiles

As the name suggests, those missiles can track and home in on their target, giving them much greater chances to hit moving targets. However, most of them can be distracted by Flares.

Standard Missiles

Heatseeker missilesare simple fire-and-forget weapons. You pick a target, launch and hope for the best. They have the best flight performance and damage, but the least Flare resistance.

Guided missilesuse a proper guidance system to track their target and require a target lock. They are harder to distract with Flares but lose overall flight performance compared to the Heatseeker. They are the cheapest tracking missile available.

Smart missilesare the most advanced using an intelligent targeting AI. They are completely immune to flares and automatically acquire a new target if the current one should be destroyed. They are the best weapon in the game to defend your destroyers from fighters.

Swarm missilesfire a group of eight missiles per launch. Each individual missile only deals little damage. Though the combined damage gives the Swarm the largest punch of the standard missiles. They are generaly more effective against at least medium sized targets, as their flight pattern prevents them from reliably hitting fighters. They are somewhat vulnerable to Flares, but also acquire a new target like the Smart missile.

Torpedosare some of the most expensive weapons in the game but they provide a massive damage potential for even the smallest of craft. Use fast ships to give them an extra speed boost.

Special Missiles

These missiles fill a very specific role or come with a special ability, making them not too useful in normal combat situations.

Interceptor missilesare designed to pull targets out of travel drive.

Disruptor missilesreduce the top speed of the target

EMPmissiles also reduce the top speed of the hit target but it is stupidly fast, making it extremely difficult to hit anything smaller than a destroyer.

Starburstmissiles provide an extra large blast radius, or so it appears. Otherwise it is very similar to the Heavy Guided missile.

All the missiles are only available from the Split and are not possible to be produced by Terrans.

Only the EMP Missile is available everywhere.

That's everything we are sharing today for this X4: Foundations guide. This guide was originally created and written by Kajar. In case we fail to update this guide, you can find the latest update by following this link.

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