Blaster Launcher

Blaster Launcher

The man-portable total destruction device. Fires the football-shaped Blaster Bomb which can hover and route through up to nine programmable waypoints before detonating on impact with a small explosion. 'Small' being a relative term for battlefield nuclear weapons. A safety radius of 10-20 meters is a good guideline. Blaster Bombs are outside toys.

Stats

Blaster Launcher:

• Size: 3 high x 2 wide
• Weight: 16
• TUs: Aimed: 80% TUs, Accuracy 120%
• Manufacturing: $90,000 for parts, 1,200 Engineer Hours, 1 Alien Alloy
• Sell Price: $144,000

Blaster Bomb:

• Size: 2 high x 1 wide
• Weight: 3
• Strength: 200 High Explosive
• Manufacturing: $8,000 for parts, 220 Engineer Hours, 3 Elerium
• Sell Price: $17,028

Tips & Tricks

• Left-click to set waypoints. Set at least two and up to nine. To guarantee detonation, the last two waypoints should guide the bomb towards something solid such as a wall or floor.
• To unset waypoints, right-click anywhere on the map. Each right click will "undo" one waypoint, allowing you to set new ones.
• The Blaster Bomb will often veer slightly off course between waypoints. If it strikes an object (including a wall) before reaching its next waypoint, it will explode. It may even sometimes strike the floor. For this reason, exercise extreme caution when using Blaster Bombs indoors. Do not expect them to reliably thread through obstacles or skirt along a wall.
  • A bomb fired from within the Skyranger cannot be relied upon to cleanly exit the craft. Firing from the lip of the craft may be safe, especially if you angle your first waypoint away from the edge adjacent to the firer. Alternately, fire the bomb at an angle. So if you're on the left, lead your first waypoint to the right, and if you're on the right, do the opposite.
  • Even if it misses a waypoint, the bomb will restart its path from that waypoint once it passes it.
  • When firing a Blaster Bomb outdoors, send the bomb flying well above the soldiers and other obstacles on the ground to minimize the danger of this phenomenon.
  • Set waypoints close together to minimize the degree of drift between points -- particularly when trying to thread obstacles or right before the bomb nears the intended target.
  • Hovertank/Launchers' Fusion Balls exhibit the same "drift" phenomenon.
    • The Hovertank fusion ball is fired by the top-most section of the hovertank - or the upper left corner when viewed via the overhead map.
  • Firing Accuracy does not seem to affect whether a bomb will drift or not.
• BB's can break open a single section of UFO outer hulls (see Destroying Terrain). They will carry through with enough power to detonate the nav modules on the other side of the hull, if you hit north or west sides. See Explosions#When_Is_a_Wall_not_a_Wall.
• To go through a ceiling hole or up/down lift tubes, waypoints must be at a slight angle (eg. from square next to hole, to square under hole) rather than directly vertically. Pure vertical movement is buggy.
• The vertical movement bug causes the BB to fly off south instead of down. If it exits the map cleanly, but there are at least two more waypoints to go, it will reappear at the next waypoint and continue. EG inside the UFO. TODO: Insert diagram
• Aliens are not good at understanding the vertical-fire issue, and have been known to blow themselves up because of it.
• Soldier does not need to face target or waypoint when firing.
• BB explosions have an 11 tile radius. A soldier on the 11th tile can still be killed as BB's do average 90 points damage at the edge of the explosion.
• If the aliens have brought Blaster Launchers onto the battlefield, soldiers caught out in the open are wise to crouch. A BB shot directly at a soldier on a level course will simply fly harmlessly over their head (Needless to say, this tactic only works in wide open spaces; ducking down isn't going to save someone if it impacts on nearby terrain).
• If a BL is reaction-fired, or fired with only one waypoint set, an 'empty shell' is left inside the Launcher (a blaster bomb clip with no ammo). At the end of the skirmish, these empty clips will be returned to your stores as actual ammunition. This makes for a good method to save ammo, albeit an awkward one, since it restricts the setting of extra waypoints.

[ Unfortunately, that doesn't quite work. I just gave did a trial and the dud shells are discarded at the end of the battle. The empty shells follow the same rules as the rules used for partial clip recovery. I must make it a point to compare the CE and Dos versions. - NKF ]

• If an alien is carrying a blaster launcher, you can prevent it from shooting by having your soldiers move right up next to it. The AI is generally stupid, it does have some sense of self preservation, and will not fire a blaster launcher when you're standing right next to it. Just remember that units further away may still be fired on. This strategy only works on aliens with blasters and grenades. It's stating the obvious, but do not attempt to try this on an alien carrying a Heavy Plasma! (This strategy applies to UFO and TFTD but not Apocalypse. The aliens in X-Com Apoalypse are a tad psychotic when it comes to explosives.)

Avoid Blaster Launcher Reaction Fire

• In case it's not obvious, reaction-fired blasters are generally a bad thing. There is no chance to guide them, so they fly straight forward. Unless the target is far away and the shot is very accurate, you can expect several friendly casualties. Keep your blasters out of the line of sight of the enemy, and/or unloaded until needed.
• BB's can be reaction-fired, but then the empty casing "dud" must be unloaded before using again. Same problem if only one waypoint is used or if the bomb explodes before reaching its first waypoint. Known bug.
• The time to reaction-fire a blaster is significantly less than the time it takes to normally shoot one.
• One good trick to avoid accidentally using a blaster launcher during attacks of opportunity is to keep your blaster unloaded and only load it when you need to use it. You cannot fire an empty weapon. This works for Rocket Launchers and Small Launchers as well.

Blaster Launcher tactics: a brief guide.

Building: Nuke it.

Orchard: Nuke it.

UFO: Punch a hole in the bridge, then send in a second bomb to nuke it.

Underground bases: Nuke large rooms first. Exercise caution when firing indoors.

Base Defence: Use waypoints to hit the rear side of your entry lift. (This helps avoid destroying adjacent modules!) Send another through the resulting hole to nuke the lift contents. Now nuke the hangars. Keep in mind that the bomb may veer off course and explode prematurely. -- exercise caution when firing indoors.