Artillery turret

The Artillery turret is a long-range, ammunition-based defensive building that launches explosive shells to strike distant locations. It does not require electricity to operate and can be placed without special limits on location or number. Artillery turrets come in two firing modes: automatic mode, where turrets scan for and fire on enemy structures within a fixed radius, and manual mode, where the player uses an artillery targeting remote to designate precise impact points anywhere on the world or map. Artillery wagons function as mobile artillery pieces that share the same mechanics as stationary turrets when loaded and, for manual firing, must be stationary to count as available artillery.

Automatic mode only targets enemy structures (spawners and worm turrets); it cannot target mobile units (biters and spitters). Everything within the shell’s blast radius is damaged equally, so automatic firing can still harm nearby mobile enemies even though they are not directly targeted. Manual mode allows point-and-click strikes with a targeting remote; each click orders one shell to the chosen location so long as at least one operational artillery piece or wagon is in range. Manual strikes may be ordered on unexplored terrain; shells will reveal any chunks they travel across.

Default ranges differ by mode: automatic mode has a base range of 224 tiles (7 chunks) and manual mode has a base range of 560 tiles (17.5 chunks). Infinite research increases both ranges by +30% of base range per level. Artillery damage can be increased through infinite artillery damage research; at higher damage research levels most spawners and worms can be killed in a single shot (behemoth worms require sufficiently high damage research). Artillery also has infinite firing-speed research that increases rate of fire by +100% per level, affecting both turrets and wagons in all modes.

Several practical limitations affect deployment and use. Artillery has a minimum range of 32 tiles, preventing attacks on very close targets. Artillery fire provokes nearby mobile enemies: impacts will draw and accelerate attack waves toward the emplacement regardless of the enemies’ normal aggro ranges. Artillery turrets are relatively slow-firing unless upgraded with research, and ammunition logistics are a major consideration because artillery shells stack to 1 per slot. A single turret stores up to 15 shells; an artillery wagon holds 100, providing a large mobile buffer and making wagons useful as supply transports or forward magazines. Inserters move only one shell at a time, so on-site assembly or local stockpiles are common for permanent emplacements.

• Use automatic mode to suppress and destroy enemy structures at extreme distances without micromanagement; disable auto-targeting in the turret GUI when you want to preserve shells or avoid provoking local attacks.
• Use manual targeting remotes for precise strikes, scouting unexplored areas, and eliminating high-value targets. The targeting remote indicates how many loaded and ready artillery pieces or wagons are in range at the cursor position.
• Protect artillery positions with short-range defenses (walls, gun/laser/flamethrower turrets) and plan for large counterattacks; repeated shelling of dense nests produces large, concentrated waves directed at the artillery location at time of firing.
• Mitigate logistics by using artillery wagons to carry and deliver large shell loads, by constructing on-site assembling machines, and by maintaining buffers so that the single-stack nature of shells does not throttle firing when sustained bombardment is required.
• Combine range and damage research to ensure single-shot kills against spawners and behemoth worms as evolution increases; balance firing rate research to improve response without exhausting limited ammunition stocks.