WEAPON All About Ammo

This guide will talk about equipping ammo for your build!

  1. Excalibaard

    Excalibaard 101 010 Staff Member

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    Excalibaard submitted a new resource:

    All About Ammo - This guide will talk about equipping ammo for your build!

    Read more about this resource...
     
  2. Shock

    Shock Patron of the Underdog Staff Member

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    One small change I would make is that you seem to imply ammo always explodes when hit or losing the location and I don't think that's true.
     
  3. Excalibaard

    Excalibaard 101 010 Staff Member

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    It has component health like anything else, but if you lose a component with ammo stored, I'm pretty certain it always explodes 100%. I have clarified this section and added Dagonus' concerns about shots/ton.
     
    Last edited: Mar 23, 2018
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  4. CarloArmato

    CarloArmato Professional Potato Carrier

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    Nice guide.

    I don't think so: I'm pretty sure ammo doesn't explode when you lose a component because otherwise you would always suffer internal damage to the next adjacent inner component, which from my experience it has never been the case. Also, when hit and destroyed by a critical hit, the ammo has a "low" chance to explode (around 15-30%). so you must be really unlucky to get an ammo explosion. Fun fact: ammo can explode due to fall damage on "open legs" (I've spectated it on a Marauder 3R with LBX ammo on it's legs).

    I think you should also point out that ammo explosion is NOT instantaneous: once you get a successful crit, it will take a couple of seconds before the ammo actually explodes and you will be able to see sparks spill out from the open critted component. I'll link proof if I find a clip or if needed.


    CASE does not prevent ammo from exploding, but it does prevent the damage to spread to other components (like inner side torso / CT). This makes the CASE useless on IS mechs fitting an XL engine: despite containing the explosion in the side torso, if it will be destroyed, you will die anyway.

    About ammo skills, with the only exception of AC20 / LBX20 and Heavy Gauss (+1 ammo per node per ton), each ammo node provide a +10% bonus to the total ammo count per ton, for a total of +20% with 2 nodes. Which means: 5 tons of SRM ammo (500 rounds) will be worth 500*1.2=600 rounds (6 tons of ammo).
    I honestly don't know how ammo nodes works with NARC. I've never bothered using it since a long time.

    Clan ammo count and IS UAC ammo will have the same number of "alfa strikes" and total damage as the IS non-ultra counter part.
    E.G.: 1 ton of IS AC20 has 7 rounds, while cUAC20 has 28 rounds: 28/7 = 4 rounds per burst and they both deal 7*20=140 damage per ton. With ammo skill, instead of 9 rounds the clan UAC20 will have 28 + (4*2) = 36 rounds per ton

    You also wrote the recommended ammo count on a per weapon basis, but in the end it follows a general rule of thumb (and I follow it too):
    • Fit enough ammo for 20-25+ alfa strikes on low RoF weapons (AC20 / Gauss) or 30-40+ alfa strike on mid-high RoF weapons
    • In case of high RoF weapons (or when you expect to either miss shots or you are not able to focus properly any component) fit +1 or +2 ton of ammo
    • Fit enough ammo to deal at least 500+ damage (bare minimum, preferably 600+) on hybrid builds (more than 1 type of weapon system, like ACs + lasers, e.g. WHM-6R 2xUAC10 + 4xML)
    • If you only have ammo-based weapons, fit at least 800+ damage worth of ammo for lights (bare minimum), 1000+ damage for anything bigger (1200 damage has been proven to be my personal sweet spot: enough ammo to achieve that beast score or to miss those opportunity without running out of ammo prematurely).
    • The only exception to this rule are Machine Guns: every machinegun fires 10 shots in 1 second. You should fit at least 1 minute worth of continous MGs barrage. My personal sweetspot is 1:20 - 1:30 minutes worth of firing on fast lights.
     
  5. Excalibaard

    Excalibaard 101 010 Staff Member

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    I avoided too many calculations on ammo equipment rules beyond the cooldown reduction. I think it's important that people know how to decide whether to run more or less ammo, based on their performance in the game (we're not all T1), but not for everyone to be math wizards. I do share these general rules, but I've simplified it to a starting point of tons per weapon as that is much easier to read for the relatively new player that is the target of this guide.

    I know that the damage per ton is the same for both AC20 and UAC20, that's what I wrote in the guide as well.

    I'll do my best to keep it comprehensive but add the additional information about ammo explosions and CASE.
     
  6. skribs

    skribs Min-Max Maniac

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    One thing I find is that it also depends on the other weapons I have. For example, if I'm in a YLW I need a lot more AC20 ammo than if I'm in a CTF-1X, because the YLW is using the AC20 as its primary weapon, and the CTF has a bigger alpha from lasers than it does the AC20.

    The more energy weapons I have, the less dependent I am on ammo.
     
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  7. Jugger Grimrod

    Jugger Grimrod New Member

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    Mentioning how exploding ammo transfers damage between components would also help - i.e. ammo in the RL that cooks off transfers damage up to the RT, which could chain react with ammo in the RT or an XL Engine and kill a mech outright, or continue the chain to the CT and score a crit on the Engine... all from a leg shot! Sometimes, taking out that leg full of ammo is the quickest way to drop a missile boat. "Padding" slots with other equipment can lessen the chance an ammo slot hit, but not prevent them. Knowing where the meta-builds store their ammo is helpful in taking them down, too.
     
    Last edited: Sep 25, 2021
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  8. Excalibaard

    Excalibaard 101 010 Staff Member

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    Thanks for the tip, I added it to the guide!!
     
  9. Jugger Grimrod

    Jugger Grimrod New Member

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    Update to the Ammo Consumption by Location: Here is the current order...

    Ammo Consumption Priority: Center Torso -> Right Torso -> Left Torso -> Right Arm -> Left Arm-> Left Leg -> Right Leg -> Head

    In other words... your Head ammo is used last, which means that an Overheat increases the likelihood of ammo in the Head cooking off, since it is used LAST... by any single or multiple of a SINGLE ammo-based weapon system (ie. all SRMs, LRMs, LB2Xs, UAC/20s...). So, if you're going to carry ammo in the Head, make sure it's used FAST by a SINGLE ammo-based weapon system... [HINT] like an AMS and/or LMG/MGs.
     
    Last edited: Sep 25, 2021
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  10. CarloArmato

    CarloArmato Professional Potato Carrier

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    I have to rectify about ammo on a destroyed component: it can explode.

    I had a solaris match against an UAC10 uziel. I've popped the arm that had ammo and UAC10, even after the arm was gone, he died by ammo explosion.
     
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