Talk:Blaster Launcher

Reaction Fire Stats?

Does anyone know the firing stats for the reaction-fired blaster? How much time it takes, and how accurate the shot is? --Papa Legba 10:42, 10 December 2005 (PST)

Quotes for posterity

Warning Label

Warning messages on a blaster launcher: "Warning, not responsible for loss of limbs, life, or familiy members through use of this device. Not to be taken orally. Some assembly required. Elerium not included. Do not operate without parental supervision. Do not use as a hairdryer. Not to be used as a toothpick. Blaster bombs sold seperately. Do not use while under the influence of alchohol or other drugs. Do not launch without setting waypoints. Not to be used as a flotation device. Do not dismantle Blaster Bombs. Hazard can be resulted from inproper use. Warning: Do not drop Blaster Bombs. Spontaneous detonation of Blaster Bombs can occur as a result of, but not limited to, the following: Impact, dissasembly, random bad luck, radiation, plasma fire, laser fire, and improper use or misuse. Blaster Bombs not to be used as a football. Not to be used on random animals including, but not limited to, gophers, pigeons, hippopotami, stray dogs or cats, cockroaches, forum posters, forum admins, or lone unarmed sectoid soldiers."

This has been Alitorious's sig for some time on StrategyCore. I thought it deserved to be saved. - JFG

Oops

anyone ever had a blaster bomb accident? well i was using my avenger as a command post thinking well blaster bombs never miss their mark. firing them from the back of the ship(inside). everything was going smooth, had good equipment lots of high ranks with high psi ability until a damn blaster bomb clipped the doorway and killed all but one inside, including my commander who had been through 143 missions with roughly 100 kills. she was the shit as far as elite troops go. well yea.......blaster bombs are OUTSIDE toys now.

-- Munkeylord on StrategyCore - pasted by JellyfishGreen 07:25, 19 May 2006 (PDT)

Graphic

This is a little too fast of an animation to be visually pleasing. Anyone want to edit this to insert more frame delay?

- JFG

---

This is about as slow as I can get it before the image becomes too jerky.

- Bomb Bloke

For best results...

Do not take this medication on an empty stomach, may impair your ability to drive a car or operate machinery... and...

ALWAYS Have your soldier/hovertank(less important) facing EXACTLY at the first waypoint. The bombs seem to begin moving toward the first waypoint BEFORE they leave the launcher, so if you are facing backwards, the bomb will go backwards in the launcher and bust you in the grill, sending your nads sailing thru your nearby squad members and into neighboring counties. If you are not quite lined up, the offset seems to promote drifting. I find that the BB usually flies flawlessly when the soldier is exactly facing the 1st waypoint. I add an "aligner" waypoint first if I don't have enough TUs to pivot the soldier. I also add this first "aligner" point if I want the bomb to go up or down from my position (buy not straight up or down), as this also helps prevent drifting. Bottom line, the first waypoint should line up exactly with your launcher. Do it for your nads and grill, and the safety of the rest your squad (from your flying nads and grill). Some versions of Xcom may vary, I have CE. - Fubar

You can fire the first waypoint out your back... oddly enough, and that doesn't affect the blaster bomb's flight path any - assuming you didn't try to fire it vertically up (or down) from your position (while playing the CE version). But I suppose it does give the BB a good start, so can't hurt.

Alteranately: One suggestion of mine would be to zig-zag the waypoints wildly so that the bomb flies away from any possibly offending walls. For example, if you're firing a BB out of the Skyranger from the equipment pile, don't fire it in a straight line. Angle off towards the other wall. But don't set the waypoint at the tip - set the waypoint way out in the field. This zigs it away from the left wall and makes it fly towards but does not quite hit the right wall.

The key here is: Plot waypoints far and wide. Don't try to do too many fancy sharp turns when and where possible. Sharp turns are possible, but use them sparingly. - NKF 01:40, 26 October 2007 (PDT)

Does the Blaster Bomb give experience and accuracy training, or not? I seem to remember reading conflicting advice on this. Jasonred 01:46, 8 March 2009 (CST)

The Blaster Launcher gives experience training towards both Firing Accuracy and all Secondary stats, one point of experience towards accuracy for each unit hit with the explosion that would qualify for giving experience(briefly, anything that's awake that's not currently under X-COM control). However, from what I understand, the TFTD equivalent, the Disrupter Pulse Torpedo Launcher, does not give any experience. Arrow Quivershaft 01:51, 8 March 2009 (CST)

The page says something about anti-psionic tactic to send the psi-weak soldier up a 2 story building and shoot out the stairs... but... why would shooting out the stairs stop him? Won't the aliens just make him jump down? Jasonred

Not as far as I've ever seen. The aliens seem to treat all nonstair areas as being surrounded by impenetrable railings; I know on more than one occassion in Farm terrain, I've used explosives to destroy the stairs from the ground level to the upper level of a building(and often the entire lower level as well) and the alien would remain trapped on the upper floor. Arrow Quivershaft 23:09, 15 March 2009 (EDT)

Technically not true. Most stairs have routes which allow the aliens to make their way to different areas of the building. Both of the bigger buildings on the farm landscape have these routes, so given enough time, privacy, and morale most aliens should eventually exit. It shouldn't really matter if the stairs actually exist anymore as the aliens are oblivious to objects, so they should just carry on as if they are there. Haven't tested this extensively though. --Zombie 23:53, 15 March 2009 (EDT)

Edit: I just checked and my fully armed Sectoid friend was able to find his way down from the 2nd floor of the farmhouse safely. So having stairs is meaningless, as long as there is a route for the alien to follow. ;) --Zombie 00:06, 16 March 2009 (EDT)

With the Terror Ship large terror unit bays. I seem to recall having large terror units just drop down from there in front of my troops as I get them to creep into the ship. Then again this was with cyberdiscs, who have vertical freedom of motion. -NKF 00:55, 16 March 2009 (EDT)

Yes... shooting out stairs seems to be useless in terms of preventing ambushes... a sectoid just did a commando strike on my trooper who shot out the farmhouse stairs, sectoid jumped down from 2nd story, spun around, and filled him full of plasma, John Woo style. ... while cool, it ended with a dead agent.

Seriously, you should have seen it. Sectoid John Woo was so cool I considered sparing his life... but I couldn't leave such a valuable asset in the hands of the aliens...

The only time I found stairs to temporarily confound me was during a base defence. The stairs inside X-com modules can go to "damaged" status. When a soldier in a flying suit is on the 2nd floor, these damaged stairs will prevent him from descending. The only way to get him down is to shoot them again until the stairs are destroyed. Jasonred 01:42, 16 March 2009 (EDT)

Two Handed Penalty?

Is there an accuracy penalty if the other hand carries something? From my experience, I suspect the answer is no, but I could be wrong... Cesium 05:00, 7 January 2010 (EST)

The accuracy of the baster launcher is hardcoded (55% IIRC). There is no penalty for handing 2 items, nor kneeling provides any help. Seb76 15:36, 8 January 2010 (EST)

Remove this ugly weapon!

This weapon's good, but it ruin the tactic aspect of the game. I wish I could reduced its damage to 10, made it become a perfectly smoke laucher ^^ Anyone know how to do that, please show me. And sorry about my English, it's crappy :( Enemy known

Don't use it on missions then. Hobbes 11:03, 13 October 2012 (EDT)

The other option is to get an editor with a weapon editor (I think Hatfarm's or Jenny's have this option). Use that to change the damage type to stun or maybe incendiary. You'll likely have to remove the waypoint mode as well for that to work. -NKF 02:11, 14 October 2012 (EDT)

*puffff* 'Hey. Where did all this smoke come from?' Hobbes 03:49, 14 October 2012 (EDT)

Yes, this is (apart from some actual, Exploits) the second most unbalancing aspect of the game. With XCOM offensive Psionics / MC being the most unbalancing aspect. It's a shame that more drawbacks or limitations were not placed on this weapon. Making the ammunition hugely more expensive to manufacture, for example. Or impossible to manufacture. Or making it impossible for XCOM to replicate the weapon and very difficult for XCOM to control it accurately. But, as suggested above, the best thing to do for a challenging game is just to not use it: leave the Blaster Launcher / DPL (and Psi / MC) to the aliens, who need all the help they can get.

By the way, does anyone know yet if EU 2012 has a Blaster Launcher equivalent? I sort of hope not, unless Firaxis have added some limitations for XCOM use. Spike 08:23, 14 October 2012 (EDT)

It's mentioned inside the game files but so far no one has confirmed seeing it. From the data it should be a 1 use weapon and the power the same as that of a rocket launcher. Hobbes 08:32, 14 October 2012 (EDT)