Weapons (LWR)

For detailed charts, see Primary Weapons (LWR) and Secondary Weapons (LWR).

Long War Rebalance makes a number of changes to weapons from Long War, some concepts are still similar in LWR compared to Long War:

There are still five tiers of weapons: Conventional/Ballistic, Beam Laser, Gauss, Pulse Laser, Plasma.
Explosives still do not deal fixed damage, while their damage reduces the further a target is from the center of the blast, this penelty is not longer as harsh, with explosives dealing a minimum of 50% damage to targets at the edge of their explosive range, instead of 25%.

Some notable changes to weapons in Long War Rebalance, compared to Long War, are:

Most weapons can only be Steadied if there is an enemy within the line of sight of the unit attempting to steady their weapon.
Soldiers who end their turn with free action points remaining will gain +10 aim for their next turn.
Rookies cannot use pistols.
Weapons are more accurate at close range.
Overwatch fire occurs sequentially, akin to XCOM 2.
Arc Thrower is redesigned as an Stun Rifle, more effective in capturing but now counts as a primary weapon. (Enemies at 1-2hp are very likely to be stunned now)

Overall, there are a significant amount of minor and major changes to weapons and support items in Long War Rebalance.

Weapon Tiers

Conventional/Ballistic

These are the basic weapons you start with - they are relativity unchanged in Long War Rebalance. You will want to upgrade to superior guns in the long run. Ballistic weapons use the same models as EXALT ballistic weapons in vanilla.

nothing special

base 4 damage

Beam Lasers

Early beam lasers form the second tier of weapons, and all carry a small inherent accuracy bonus, which can make them good 'training' weapons for inexperienced troopers. Compared to Long War, Beam Lasers have been overall buffed, retaining increased accuracy but also increased crit chances, higher crit damage and a small boost to mobility. However, Beam Lasers no longer gain a damage boost over Ballistic weapons, and will deal the same average damage. Beam lasers use the same visuals as EXALT laser weapons in vanilla.

+5 aim
+10 crit
+25 crit damage
+0.6 mobility

base 4 damage

Gauss

Gauss weapons return to ballistic projectiles but elerium power sources make man-portable magnetic accelerators practical; combined with alloy-based projectiles, it's a recipe for pretty formidable personal weaponry.

Gauss weapons have lost their bonus ammo capacity and their ability to ignore enemy DR. Gauss weapons are essentially just a damage upgrade over Ballistic and Beam weapons, however the 'Quenchgun' foundry project will grant all Gauss weapons a +1 damage penetration bonus against all mechanical units, which helps make Gauss weapons more effective against mechanical leaders or bosses.

Furthermore, the Gauss Long Rifle and Alloy Strike Rifle have been renamed to the Anti-Materiel Long Rifle and Anti-Materiel Strike Rifle, and have reverted to function identically as normal snipers. Gauss weapons use the original XCOM ballistic weapon models.

nothing special initially
Quenchgun foundry upgrade grants +1 damage penetration against mechanical units.

base 6 damage

Pulse Lasers

Refining and enhancing laser technology allows for the development of pulse laser weaponry, another step up in terms of firepower. Pulse lasers are simply a refinement on Beam lasers, dealing more damage as a bonus. They use the same visuals as XCOM-built laser weaponry from vanilla.

+5 aim
+10 crit
+25 crit damage
+0.6 mobility

base 6 damage

Plasma

Plasma weapons remain the most powerful weapons avaliable to XCOM, and have had their unique bonuses increased. However, Plasma weapons now have a significant meld cost and require UFO power sources in their construction, they also take longer to research. However, you no longer need to capture Aliens and recover their weapons in order to manufacture Plasma weapons.

, but also expensive and hard to obtain; building them requires captured alien weapons as production components, which means you'll have to stun and capture aliens for every weapon you want to build. Plasma weapons have the same models as the weapons either used by the aliens or made by XCOM like the Sniper Rifle. Since b15e, plasma weapons (except pistols) also carry special effects, making them more unique than vanilla.

Plasma weapons have a significant meld cost and take longer to research but their unique bonuses have been increased in effectiveness (see in-game) and primary weapons require UFO power sources to produce

INFO BELOW NEEDS UPDATE, CURRENTLY TAKEN FROM BASE LONG WAR

Plasma Stormgun (SMG): +4 mobility, compared to usual +3 for SMGs
Plasma Carbine (Carbine): +6 defense
Plasma Rifle (Assault Rifle): +1.5 crit damage on biological units
Heavy Plasma Rifle (Battle Rifle): +1 damage when steadied
Reflex Cannon (Shotgun): +1.5 crit damage against units within 4 tiles
Reflex Rifle (Marksman Rifle): +1.5 crit damage against flanked/exposed units
Plasma Sniper Rifle (Sniper Rifle): +1.5 crit damage against units 35+ tiles away
Plasma Novagun (SAW): can be steadied
Plasma Dragon (LMG): +1 damage against airborne units
Particle Cannon (MEC): +1 damage to robotic units
Superheavy Plasma (SHIV): +8 Aim, +4% crit chance

base +8 damage

Weapon types

Long War Rebalance adds several new types of primary and secondary weapons, while retaining and reworking the remainder. Most of these weapon types have a corresponding weapon at each technology level. The primary weapon types are, in descending order of average damage: SHIV/MEC Primary Weapons > Light Machine Guns and Shotguns > Heavy Rifles, Marksman/Sniper rifles and Squad Automatic Weapons > Assault Rifles > Carbines and Submachine Guns > Machine Pistols > Pistols. In general, the more powerful a weapon is the more unwieldy it is as well, and that will reflect in aim and mobility penalties/bonuses. The MEC version of heavy machine guns have a unusually large deviation of +/-4. And finally Shotguns' damage is severely impeded by damage reduction.

Steadying

Steady weapon remains as a standard action, which will end the turn when used. The action now grants +50 aim and +50 crit aim for the next shot, up from just +20 aim. However a soldier can only steady aim if they can see a enemy unit at the end of their turn, this bonus will be lost if the unit does not have sight on any enemy unit at the start of their turn.

Explosives

In Long War Rebalance explosives continue to no longer do fixed damage to all targets in their radius. The further a target is from the center of the blast, the less damage it will take. This also applies to cover and cover in general is a little tougher than in vanilla.

This behavior can be 'reverted' to the original mechanics by taking the Tandem Warheads perk, which causes the perk holder's explosives do to full damage across their entire blast radius. The perk is normally available to Engineers, Rocketeers, and Archer MECs; it can sometimes be obtained on other classes via the Training Roulette Second Wave option.

Rockets

Long War uses a revamped system for rocket accuracy. Aim is used when firing rockets to determine the chance of them landing on target, rather than the fixed 90% chance in vanilla. Rather than the vanilla behavior of a missed rocket veering wildly off course, Long War rockets never "miss" but will veer off course a random amount based on the soldier's aim, with higher aim giving less scatter. Lower range means less scatter, and the soldier achieving 120 aim yields no scatter at any range. Rockets can also be fired after moving, but with increased scatter and reduced range. Rockets cannot change height through scatter.

The hit chance shown while aiming is not a literal % hit chance, nor is it the maximum scatter distance. "Scatter" instead indicates the standard deviation on the X and Y axis. You can expect 68% of your rockets to hit within the standard deviation, 95% to hit within 2 times the standard deviation, and 99.7% to hit within 3 times the standard deviation. Rockets can exceed even this degree of deviation, but the chance is negligible.

Unblocked (no "Shot is Blocked" warning) rockets that veer off course will travel through most destructible terrain to their destination, destroying it in the process. If they encounter an allied or enemy pawn, they will detonate immediately.

Arc Thrower/Stun Rifle

The Arc Thrower has been renamed as the Stun Rifle, which is now a primary weapon. In Long War Rebalance, the chance to stun non-robotic aliens successfully has been increased significantly from the base Long War, so long as a hostile has 1-2 health (or 1-5 health with the Improved Arc Thrower foundry project). See the following table for details. (TABLE TO BE UPDATED)

Stun Chance
Type / Alien HP	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8+
Arc Thrower	XX%	XX%	XX%	XX%	low	low	low	low
Improved Arc Thrower	XX%	XX%	XX%	XX%	XX%	XX%	XX%	low

Also, the Stun Rifle has two charges by default.Packmaster no longer increases the amount of charges the Stun Rifle has, however the Improved Arc Thrower foundry project will increase the amount of charges by +1.