While those engineers think they know how to fire the weapons on an airship, they just don’t have the tools or dedication to be as effective as the gunner. Let the captains do the piloting thing and encourage the engineers to fix the captain’s mistakes – your main task is to blow everything NOT wearing your colors out of the sky in Guns of Icarus Online. Sure, the others may be able to keep your ship afloat, but what's the point if you're not hitting your foes where it hurts?
You need to have the right ammo, for the right gun, at the right time. Only the gunner can carry more than one ammo type, making it the most diverse class when it comes to, well, gunning. Depending on your ship and gun layout, and whether you have another gunner, you may have to hybridize yourself as a backup engineer from time to time. An example: On a Pyramidion, the main engineer doesn’t always take care of the balloon since it is upstairs; that could potentially be all you, cupcake.
If you run out of ammo, switch weapon types, or force a reload, your current gun will be useless until the reloading process is finished. For this reason, if there is a nearby gun you can unload the clip on, you should switch guns. Once the reload process begins, it will continue whether you are there or not. For most effective gunning, occupy as many guns as you can while the others reload.
Since each gun fires differently and excels against certain target types, it’s good to load up several practice modes to see the ammo capacity, bullet arches, and range of the medium and heavy guns. The option is to simply “do it live” and jump into a quick match as a gunner and allow the learning process to be natural. When not playing with friends, captains will sometimes tell their gunners what they want them to carry for their specific ship loadout.
Straight from the Guns of Icarus Online website, here is a list of wha the different weapon types do. Study this, practice this, and blast your foes from the skies – stick to your guns.
- Lochanagar Shot: An extremely deadly and experimental round of ammunition. A single powerful shot loaded with everything and anything that goes boom. Due to the nature of the clip and ammunition, it drastically reduces gun mobility.
- Heavy Clip: The added weight of this special ammo clip helps to reduce recoil of any gun. The downside is that since these bullets are heavier, they don’t travel as quickly as their normal counterparts.
- Lesmok Rounds: Special ammunition that is packed with unique Lesmok gunpowder that packs an extra punch making your shots travel much faster. Great for weapons that tend to have a significant amount of bullet drop or if you need an extra boost to accuracy.
- Greased Rounds: These rounds and clip mechanism have been specially treated so that they exit the gun at a much higher rate than normal. If you need to unleash a barrage of bullets into your enemy before they squeak passed, this is your answer.
- Heat Sink Clip: The worst thing that can happen is if your gun catches on fire, rendering your weapon unusable. Don’t worry, load in this special clip and your gun will be able to dissipate heat and protect itself from catching fire.
- Incendiary Rounds: Want your bullets to pack an extra spicy kick? Well, don’t hesitate to load these bad boys in your gun and set all the things on fire.
- Burst Rounds: pack a less powerful punch as direct damage, but spread destruction over a wider area with an explosive charge.
- Charged Rounds: For those with a steady hand, why not use special rounds that deal extra damage? You’ll get fewer bullets and you won’t be able to shoot as fast but these babies sure do the trick if your aim is true.
