Fellow Rebels
This guide will be meant for mostly lower level players, those who have not used all the weapons or know how they work.
This guide will show you which weapons are the most useful, which ones are the guns that every high level player uses in their war fleets, which weapons you should avoid, general understanding of how the weapons work, as well as their pros and cons (not for every weapon though)

Finally, i'll be dividing the weapons within tiers, from the best and most difficult to obtain weapons, to the worst weapons available in whatever role they perform in


Weapons will also each get an Anti Squadron Rating. Showing their effectiveness against squadrons, since some weapons that are not good against ships can be surprisingly good vs squadrons.

Anti Squadron Rating :
Rating 1 - Very Poor
Takes multiple shots or a long time to kill 1 squadron, and can only hit 1 squadron at a time.
Probably the squadrons will manage to kill a ship before they get destroyed, even multiple ships armed with these weapons cant defend against squadrons

Rating 2 - Mediocre
Takes multiple shots to kill a squadron, but can hit multiple squadrons, or can severely damage 1 squadron quickly, but struggles vs 4 squadrons from a carrier. You will still take a lot of damage.
Some of them can also kill all squadrons or severely damage all squadrons, but fails to do so consistently. Multiple ships could defend somewhat reliably against squadrons with these weapons, but will probably take a bit of damage

Rating 3 - Good
Can kill or severely damage all 4 squadrons that are scrambled from a carrier in a reasonable amount of time and consistently. Your ships will however still take a bit of damage. Or they can kill all 4 squadrons very quickly before they cause any damage, but requires the squadrons to be approaching perpendicular to the ship in order to hit.
Multiple ships armed with these should be enough against most player squadrons, but will struggle vs those really strong PvE squadrons, or when facing ships and squadrons at the same time

Rating 4 - Excellent
Can kill or severely damage all 4 squadrons that are scrambled from a carrier quickly enough so that they won't cause any kind of damage or only cause very minuscule amounts of damage to the ship if you fire early enough and can do so in most circumstances.
More than enough for player squadrons, and nudges into decent territory vs PvE squadrons

Rating 5 - Point Defense
Reliably Instakills squadrons, and can hit multiple at once, even 1 ship with a weapon with rating 5 can defend against multiple squadrons, and are your best choice for tackling those overpowered VEGA and Alien PvE squadrons

And finally, this guide was brought to you by your local sector warlord.

Let's get started

Since some of you probably rarely ever met a carrier or encountered a fleet bay with squadrons (or just dont completely understand it) here are the basics to squadron mechanics and how they work :

• Squadrons deal damage over time (DoT)
  
• Their damage is proportional to their remaining health (so squadrons with 10% hp deal 10% DPS)
  
• The scramble range (the range that is shown when you mouse over a carrier) is the range of which the squadrons will take off from their parent ship to the target. But they can still persue the target if the target moves out of the scramble range.
  
• Squadrons will do damage to whatever ship or module they pass over to their intended target. (i.e they will shoot at whatever targets they can while they fly to their target - if you set any primary target)
  
• The Squadron has it's own hitbox (area you need to hit in order to damage it) when it is flying.
  
• Once a squadron reaches the target, it begins to 'swarm' it, at this stage, the squadron loses its original hitbox and instead uses the hitbox of whatever ship or module it is attacking. Even if the squadrons look like they are looping around, sometimes a bit far from their target, the hitbox is still their target
  (so instead of having to hit the individual squadrons, you just need to hit whatever the squadrons are attacking)
  
• If you do not set a primary target, each carrier squadron will each engage different ships. Always set a primary target and maximize squadron DPS.

some facts :

• a single ship cannot defend itself against squadrons, exception being if they mount certain weapons (SICO missiles, Creepers, Manifold, several others), but in order to defend itself, it must be attacking another target.
  
• If you leave scramble range while squadrons are still doing their startup animation, they will explode and are forced to rearm.

WARNING :
Under some circumstances, your squadrons can return to your carrier if it is persuing/ engaging a target that is out of scramble range, effectively wasting DPS, AVOID doing these at all costs:

• You target a ship that is out of range while your original target is also out of range
  if your squadrons is already engaging ship #1, but ship #1 moves out of range, then you right click ship #2 that is also out of range, the squadrons will return to your carrier, wasting DPS
  
• You deselect your target while it is out of range.
  If you have already set a ship as primary target, but it leaves scramble range, your squadrons are already on it, do not deselect it as target, or your squadrons will return and waste potential DPS

In case you don't want to read the entire thing


Ranger Swarm
All Infernal Weapons
Manifold Missiles

Aurora Ray
Nova Ray
Siege Driver
Striker Swarm
Bomber Squadron
Spectre Squadron
Vector Torpedo (with volatile fuel)
Storm Driver
Tempest Driver
NET Torpedo (with volatile fuel)

Reverb Ray
Impulse Beam
Burst Ray
SICO Missiles
Fissure Torpedo
Mercury Beam
Hydra Missile
ECHO Ray
Interceptor Squadron

Gladius, AP, Gemini, Wave Drivers
Polaron Ray
Creeper Torpedo
Thermal Beam
Bayonet Missile
Archer Beam
Arrestor Beam
Prefix Weapons
Gatling Ray

All Researchable Projectiles
All Researchable Explosives
Pulse and Distruptor Ray
Arc Missile
Brimstone Torpedo
Fighter and Raider Squadrons

These weapons are the best of the best at their role or in general. However, they might not determine the current meta of the game, as only very few of the most high level players might have some of their ships equipped with these, for many reasons, mainly cost, scarcity, and build times.
But, expect any new weapons that come out to be compared to these weapons

Most rebels can only dream of fully kitting out a fleet with these, those who do, rule the void with impunity

These things deal an absurd amount of damage (almost twice the spectre squadrons for the level 3 variant), for an insanely low weight/ dps ratio!
They also have longer range than the Bomber Squadrons, and deal projectile damage (few players equip projectile resistances/ shields)
They also share the pincer flight path of the Spectre Squadrons, making them ideal for killing destroyers without getting shot back, combine them with the straight movement pattern of the bombers to surround battleships and guarantee some damage taken

Unfortunately, the only opportunity to get these for now is from those near impossible Alien Harvesters...........................
Woe to anyone who faces a full fleet, supported by a Dominion Carrier filled with Rangers
Oh yeah, as an additional note, its very easy to identify a carrier loaded with Rangers, since they will float around the carrier itself when notengaging anything
Pros

• Very high damage, the best weight/dps ratio
  
• Longer range than bombers
  
• full 60s flight time, more with elite squadrons equipped
  
• Has the pincer flight path (splits to the left and right when going to the target)
  
• When they are destroyed, they vanish instead of having to return to the carrier, saving precious seconds and accelerating rearm time

Cons

• Subject to usual squadron weaknesses (exception of not needing to return when destroyed)
  
• Lower health than bombers
  
• Demon Corp and Iron Star Carriers only

(Vector, Wave, Gatling)
These weapons weigh significantly more, but in turn do a huge amount of damage compared to their regular counterparts. A single infernal weapon does the DPS of an entire ship of standard weapons, and a single ship of infernals matches the DPS of an entire fleet or a carrier

The Infernal Gatling pretty much replaces any other weapon on the Basilisk Cutters, allowing them to shred anything in seconds
Infernal Wave can replace Siege Drivers on the Damocles Destroyer, dealing significantly more damage, cutting the amount of time needed to bring down the bridge (it also has a faster rate of fire)
The Infernal Vector is definitely the worst out of the 3, dealing the least DPS and sacrificing the most range, but it still deals absurd guaranteed damage, especially when you have 7 of them on a Hellfire, so im still putting it here

However, they are only obtainable via the Alien Mobilization event, is Demon Corp exclusive (which is understandable, to leverage their weapon mass reduction)
and even more stupid is their refit time (about 3 days for EACH GUN IN A SHIP for the level 3 variants), limiting their use in general

Pros

• They do a ton of damage, shredding anything in their path
  
• Shares the pros of each weapons
  
• They are reusable

Cons

• Demon Corps only
  
• They weigh a lot, Demon Corp ships can take it,you probably need to upgrade your fleet bay to 12 or 13
  
• They take forever to equip (3 days per gun)
  
• Hard to obtain
  
• Sacrifices a bit of range compared to their regular versions
  
• Shares the cons of each weapons

The Manifold missile weapon fires a volley of 2 missiles, which, after reaching somewhere around half of their max range, explodes with their listed AoE, dealing damage
then they spread into 2 different missiles travelling a bit further before exploding at a smaller AoE, dealing damage
After that, they each spread into 2 more missiles that has no AoE (you must score a direct hit), dealing even more damage

Players realize that the DPS stat of this weapon, is a lie, the missiles deal damage Every time they explode, resulting in their DPS multiplying tenfold (not really, the DPS becomes 4x the listed DPS if all missiles connect according to the wiki)
This is basically the equivalent of an explosive shotgun

Now, a weapon that deals a ton of damage alone isn't good at everything, and the manifold's short range and slow travel speed indicates so, this isn't an ideal weapon vs fast ships that can dodge fire or kite your ships.

However, vs base modules, Aliens, and some event fleets that rush you (or even players if they are stupid enough), this weapons deal an unparalleled amount of damage. Cementing its position as the best weapon for those Alien fleets, as they rip apart both the squadrons and the hives, as well as base rushing, evaporating even the most armored Bridge 7s in just a couple salvos

The splitting missiles DOES NOT benefit from explosive specials (they don't bonus speed or AoE from specials), only the main missile benefit from it

Pros

• Huge damage (the highest in game) vs stationary targets, big targets, or targets heading to you
  
• Best weapon in the game vs squadrons, a staple for tackling those aliens
  
• No minimal range, this pretty much already puts it better than SICO Missiles in terms of rushing performance

Cons

• Not good against fast targets due to slow projectile speed
  
• Short Range
  
• Splitting missiles do not benefit from specials
  
• Only obtainable (as of 18/12/2016) from 1 event

Anti Squadron Rating - 5
They instakill all of them (at least all of them in the AoE), Even Alien Squadrons or event squadrons get shredded, the splitting missiles creates an area denial effect, rendering the immedeate area clear of squadrons

These weapons are the weapons that determine the current meta of the game. They are some of the best at whatever role they perform in, and are the first thing high level players think of when trying to fit their ships. Expect to see a lot of these, especially on the higher level. Get them ASAP.

For those who don't know or don't pay attention, the aurora fires 6 shots that home into the target and does 25% extra damage to shields.
This weapon provide a higher damage but shorter range alternative to the ECHO Ray.
Compared to the ECHO the Aurora is even more versatile, but some players still use the ECHO for the range advantage.
Like the ECHO, the Aurora is quick to fire and easy to handle. It is one of the easiest weapons to focus fire with due to its firing cycle,the extra shield damage is a nice bonus.
The only downside compared to the ECHO is that it can be obstructed by ships if the primary target is hiding behind another.
This Weapon also pairs nicely with the extra shield damage of Ionized Optics, and if you have the extra mass capacity you can replace focused optics 5 with it. Although reduced armor damage can hurt due to the overall reliance of armor in the current meta.

This weapon can be considered to have no major downsides on its own. It performs well on all situations except base attacks due to its shorter range. And as you guessed you need focused optics or ionized optics to make this weapon work.
The Aurora is also one of the best weapons against squadrons, as each of the 6 shots fired will home in to different squadrons instead of hitting the same one. Ensuring each squadron recieves just enough damage to kill them.

Pros

• Good Range
  
• Solid damage on all ranges
  
• Excellent vs Squadrons
  
• Versatile and can be mounted with great effect on all ship types, easy to handle. Great at focus firing.

Cons

• Needs Focused/Ionized Optics
  
• Not enough range to be effective on base attacks
  
• Has some risk of overkilling low health targets.

Anti Squadron Rating : 4
Mount on all ship classes, works well with all of them (on FvF)


This weapon is made for base hitting, and is ONLY made for base hitting. And its the best in business. With the longest range and second highest damage per shot of any weapon in the game, this weapon is a must for any destroyer fleet that is made for basing.
Although this weapon is usable without any specials, its recommended that you mount either iridium magnets 2-4 (depending on remaining ship mass) or phased magnets 1 to increase projectile speed, so you won't spend most of the precious 5 minutes time waiting for the projectiles to hit something and risk overkilling a turret because your ships fire more shots than needed when the projectiles are still flying.
Unfortunately, FvF performance is pretty much non existent, since the enemy would have entered the massive 4000 m blind spot after the first shot, that being said, if your enemy is stupid enough to not dodge the first shot, they will take serious damage.
The Projectiles fired by the Siege Driver has a tiny AoE radius, enough to hurt multiple squadrons and kill them outright (especially those from the fleet bay) but because this weapon has a very slow rate of fire (1 shot per ~8 seconds), the chances of the squadrons running into the projectiles are slim, not to mention you need fire at a perpendicular angle to the fleet bay in order for the squadrons to run over the projecile. So overall, performance vs squadrons is bad.

Pros

• Longest range minimizes risk of getting hit by turrets while base hitting.
  
• Second highest damage per shot in game
  
• When mounted on destroyers, they are the best weapons to hit bases in the game.

Cons

• Slow rate of fire
  
• Slow projectile speed, iridium or phased magnets recommended
  
• No use outside of base attacks.

Anti Squadron Rating : 2
Mount only on destroyers made for basehits.

The gold standard of squadrons. High health, high damage over time, good range and speed. They are the heaviest and increases ship XP by the most so not the best if you want to keep below level 39 (you might want interceptors for that), but its still possible using bomber 1s.
They also have the most mass out of all squadrons but who cares all carriers except the valhalla can mount 4x bombers 3 and still carry good shields and armor.
Since this is a squadron of course you cant hit other squadrons with it.
General squadron limitations apply, they can be shot down, the less HP they have, the less damage they deal, but once they attack (or 'swarm') a ship, the ship being attacked cant return fire to the squadron.
They deal explosive damage, this used to be a good bonus when everyone uses spectral 5 instead of meta 3 shields, but now it doesnt matter so much (at least on the high level).
Pros

• Good range, damage, speed, and health. All around good squadron

Cons

• Subject to usual squadron weaknesses.

This Demon Corps exclusive squadron offers some upgrades compared to the old reliable bombers, they deal more damage and have a shield bypass, and are both faster and lighter, but have a shorter flight time
What makes a bigger difference though, is their flight path
Instead of making a beeline to their target, they split to the left, and right, pincering the enemy and possibly avoiding hits, making it excellent vs cutters and destroyers
You can combine them with Bomber Squadrons to surround your enemies and guarantee some damage taken from your squadrons
Unfortunately, such power is confined to the Demon Corps Carrier
Pros

• Good range, damage, speed, and health. All around good squadron
  
• Has the pincer flight path
  
• faster than bombers
  
• has a shield bypass bonus

Cons

• Subject to usual squadron weaknesses.
  
• Shorter flight time than bombers
  
• Demon Corp only

This is a heavy, but powerful energy weapon that fires 2 shots, each homes in to a target and deals significant damage, before splitting into 4 additional shots after hitting the target, dealing more damage
The Nova Ray is pretty much a higher damage version of the aurora ray, the 2 weapon works nearly the same way, with the exception of the Nova Ray splitting upon hit while firing less, more but powerful shots, that split into more shots
The splitting shots deal decent damage, but their main purpose is to clear squadrons, as they will also still pass over them and deal damage at the same time
The Nova Ray however pays its higher damage with a heavier mass to compensate, so VEGA and Rebel ships might not be able to mount the highest level ones, but Demon Corp ships benefit the most from their weapon mass reduction

Pros

• Higher damage than Aurora Ray
  
• Splitting shots that destroys squadrons
  
• Solid damage on all ranges
  
• Excellent vs Squadrons
  
• Versatile and can be mounted with great effect on all ship types, easy to handle. Great at focus firing.

Cons

• 50m shorter range than Aurora
  
• Needs focused optics
  
• Heavier mass than Aurora Rays

Fires 2 torpedoes with a short delay in between, before taking a long reload.
A solid weapon for long range burst damage, this weapon will track the target for 5 seconds Regardless of Hull Type, This means cruisers can reliably hit targets, battleships might miss targets on the fringes of the weapon ranges but still fairly reliable, and destroyers can't hit targets effectively.
The thing that makes this weapons such a powerhouse, is the advent of the Volatile fuel special, increasing its AoE to absurd levels, and its speed to undodgeable levels when mounted on battleships with said special

Its minimal range and slow rate of fire makes it poor against higher damage dealing weapons. And its slow projectile speed means it can be avoided at longer ranges simply by moving directly away from the torpedo.

Against squadrons the missiles will loop around because they are slower than the squadrons, but they will loop back around when the squadrons reach their targets and insta kill them. Because of this the squadrons may do some damage. However, with Volatile fuel, they will simply insta kill them before they deal damage
But the main downside of this is that it may leave the ship taking down squadrons with Vectors vulnerable to attacks from other weapons because of the long reload.

Pros

• Great performance boost from Volatile fuel
  
• Long Range
  
• Good burst damage (despite the sub par DPS stat)
  
• Low XP requirement
  
• Surprisingly powerful when massed, and combined with Spectral Warheads, and also most people does not equip explosive resistors.
  
• Can hit multiple targets
  
• Combos well with NET Torpedoes

Cons

• Can be avoided at long range by moving away (without volatile fuel)
  
• Slow reload
  
• Poor DPS vs other energy or explosive weapons, forcing you to rely on the burst damage to lend you the advantage.

Anti Squadron Rating : 3 (without volatile fuel), 4 (with volatile fuel)
without volatile fuel, the missiles will loop around because they are slower than squadrons, allowing squadrons to deal a bit of damage, with volatile fuel, that doesn't happen

A medium-short range projectile weapon, with great damage potential, combined with its firing cycle makes it pretty much a projectile version of the Aurora Ray, although with shorter range because it can't be extended. When combined with Reinforced rails, you can shred low armor opponents through their shields. however, such a versatile weapon comes at a price, its Demon Corp only.
Because its projectile damage based, you will ignore resistance tech used by players, since currently, nobody uses projectile resistors, except on FvB fleets. Reinforced rails will boost its already admirable performance, but this weapon is a rare sight to behold, as it is Demon Corp only. Its short range prevents it being used effectively on Battleships, so its almost relegated to Cutter and Cruiser use.

Pros

• High sustained DPS
  
• Good vs squadrons
  
• Solid damage at all ranges

Cons

• Has a small (although negligible) minimal range
  
• has a small unlisted spread, will miss some shots at max range
  
• Sub par range

Anti Squadron Rating : 4
They actually have a small area splash damage, at least when facing squadrons, and can fire off 2 salvos before they get close enough to strike, more often than not resulting in squadron kills.

A Short range projectile weapon, firing a spread of 5 projectiles, rounds are highly effective against anything it impacts, and passes through an enemy ship to obliterate anything foolish enough to take cover behind it.
and since it is a projectile, few mount any kind of resistances. You can even boost its shield piercing with phased projectiles.
Its really only usable on the Basilisk cutter, but its so devastating against other cutter fleets, its only counter is really unstable reactor phytons, an even then the phytons do need to die first.
For all intents and purposes, its simply a better burst ray, its spread is easier to control, its a projectile so very few put resistors, its has a longer range, and the minimal range arc is negligible considering that most high tier ships have a hitbox of more than 1000m.
Otherwise, treat it like a burst ray, make sure all 5 shots hit the same target to inflict max damage, in addition, try to line up a second target to inflict mass damage, since there is no damage penalty from pierce. Although the single target damage alone is already devastating.

Pros

• Insane burst damage if all pellets hit
  
• Can pierce
  
• Doesn't need specials (although phased projectiles is a nice boost)

Cons

• All pellets must hit to do max damage
  
• Short range

Anti Squadron Rating : 2
Same a burst ray, only the splash effect is replaced with pierce.

The NET Torpedo fires a single shot that travels relatively slowly, that will explode with a huge AoE, dealing minor damage and more importantly, slowing any target that is inside said AoE
With the addition of the Volatile Fuel special, this weapon gained a second wind, before, it already goes hand in hand with the Vector Torpedo (both of them benefiting from the same specials), but with Volatile fuel, the NET becomes nearly undodgeable, and have an even bigger AoE allowing you to literally slow entire fleets

The only level of NET worth using is level 3, even on the lower levels, because the NET has very low XP increase on ships (possibly due to it's lack of damage)
70% Stasis means your target is nearly stationary, and by the time the Stasis ends, another NET will be flying to the target while the target is still recovering (accelerating from stasis), meaning that it's nearly impossible to recover from a NET torpedo hit.

The NET is a defensive weapon due to it's slow projectile, so don't plan on mounting it on aggresive hulls like frigates and cutters, however, hitting enemies running away with Volatile fuel boosted NETs is very easy with battleships (assuming you can catch up to them),

Even without volatile fuel, the weapon still poses a threat, enemies will have to turn and avoid the torpedo, so it will still mess them up (slightly) but with volatile fuel, it pretty much becomes a guaranteed 70% slow on a group of ships, the only thing that screws this weapon up, is its wide spread, which can sometimes bite you back if you are unlucky with it

Anti Squadron Rating : 2 , due to lack of damage

A powerful explosive damage squadron, the Striker deals insane damage, but is slightly less efficient compared to the Ranger Swarm in most regards, preventing it from achieving Tier S status
They are somewhat slow, 1500m/s, the same as bombers, but has an 80s flight time, meaning it will doom lone ships, but the Ranger's 60s is already more than enough, so this is pointless

Pros

• High damage, range, and health, overall good squadron
  
• has the most Squadron HP in the game (800), but this is rather negligible in actual use
  
• Has the longest flight time in the game (80s), but again, this is rarely the case as they will get shot down and has to rearm
  
• When destroyed, they dissapear instead of having to return to their carrier, accelerating rearm times

Cons

• Only obtainable from alien harvesters
  
• Worse than Rangers in all regards
  
• Their flight pattern is rather weird, and they tend to spin around in places or sit at a very slow speed inside an enemy weapon range

These Weapons can be used as alternatives to the meta weapons. You won't find them as common as the meta weapons, but they are still excellent weapons in their own right, and you can still surprise and beat people using more mainstream tactics with these. But, they usually are plagued with 1-2 weaknesses that prevent them from being as effective as meta weapons.

Impulse Beam
The Impulse beam trades versatility and ease of use for sheer burst damage potential. No other weapon can deal as much focus fire damge from range as the Impulse.
The DPS Stat might seem just slightly more than your average energy weapon, but once it fires you know it is something else entirely.
It takes 4 seconds to charge the weapon, during which a small yellow glow can be seen on the ship that is using this weapon. But it deals massive damage in a very short period of time. This immense damage is both a blessing and a curse as there is a great risk of overkilling a target and wasting potential damage, as well as forcing you to go through the charging cycle again.
This is the most difficult part about using this weapon, keeping your enemy inside firing range until the weapon finishes delivering damage.
That being said, this weapon is only made for dealing immense damage to a single target from range, nothing more, and its arguably the best in business.
This weapon is also capable hitting targets that are hiding behind other ships, by setting them as primary target. Making this a good weapon to take down key targets.
Against squadrons beam weapons perform poorly, as they can only target 1 squadron at a time, and needs to recharge before hitting a second one.

To put it simply, its a very niche weapon, it's only good at focusing and kiling 1 target, no more, no less.
Pros

• Immense burst damage
  
• Long Range
  
• Can hit ships that are hiding

Cons

• Long Charge up time
  
• Risk of overkilling
  
• Poor vs Squadrons
  
• Needs focused optics or ionized optics

Anti Squadron Rating : 1
Due to its nature of long range precise damage, its best on destroyers to nuke priority targets

Burst Ray
This weapon is basically the short range equivalent of the Impulse, its purpose is the same, to deal massive burst damage.
The main difficulty of the Burst ray is making all of those little pellets hit the target, manage to do that, and you will be rewarded with massive damage. If you fail, you have to go through a lenghty reload.
If you are facing a flagship, all of the pellets will hit regardless of how far you are because of the size of the target. Any other ship and you pretty much have to be literally at point blank range (i.e your ship sticking into the enemy ship) in order to do so reliably.
As an upside, you don't need any equipment to run this weapon, in fact, you shouldn't mount any equipment at all, as focused optics will increase the pellet spread, and ion will reduce hull damage. You can instead focus on mounting bigger burst rays.
Against Squadrons, this weapon can kill all 4 squadrons from a carrier, but not consistently, mainly due to the slow fire rate and the pellet spread. same rules apply as for hitting ships.
Pros

• Massive damage if all pellets hit
  
• Can hit multiple targets (albeit reducing the damage each one recieves)
  
• Does not need equipments
  
• If you overkill a target, the projectiles will continue moving instead of stopping where the previous target was, potentially hitting more targets behind it.

Cons

• Short Range
  
• You need to hit the target with all pellets to do max damage

Anti Squadron Rating : 2
Mount on cutters, they really are the only ships that can use this weapon effectively.


SICO Missiles
The SICO fires 4 shots in rapid succession before taking a very short reload.
They have good enough range for an explosive weapon, and deals very high damage.
But what makes this weapon truly powerful is the AoE damage. The main playstyle of using the SICO Missile is to target the middle of the most clustered enemy to deal massive bonus AoE damage to surrounding ships.
The weaknesses, due to the rapid fire nature of the SICO Missiles, they deal somewhat poor damage per shot, relying instead on damage over time. Their spread and travel time makes also makes them poor against single targets since most of the missiles will miss, especially ones that are moving in a perpendicular angle to the ship firing SICOs. Counter this by moving closer to the enemy, or just by ignoring the ship that is alone and focus on the most clustered enemy.
When Rushing, the SICO Missiles can become somewhat awkward to handle, as they have a minimal range. So you need to make sure everyone of your ships have at least a target outside minimal range to shoot at or you waste an entire ship's worth of firepower.
Missles can also be blocked, but considering the massive AoE damage, your opponent might be better not blocking the missiles and simply taking the damage to 1 ship instead of 3 ships.
Against squadrons, they perform excellently, as they will fire more than enough missiles at approaching squadrons to kill and the AoE make sure all 4 squadrons get hit.
SICO Missiles can also kill squadrons that are already attacking a ship if the ship is equipped with SICO

Pros

• Massive AoE damage
  
• Excellent vs squadrons
  
• Decent enough range to kite shorter range energy weapons
  
• Does not need any equipment to be effective

Cons

• Massive spread
  
• Difficult to handle during rushes
  
• Low damage per shot, Relies on AoE and damage over time to be effective
  
• Difficult to mount on any ship type other than cruisers

Anti Squadron Rating : 4
Mount on Cruisers only. Frigates need more burst damage, Battleships and destroyers suffer due to spread. And cutters cant reverse in close quarters combat quickly enough to not have the enemy inside minimal range.

Fissure Torpedo
These dumb fire torpedoes deal great burst damage, but then they release piercing cluster charges at a 75 degree angle to the left and the right, to 'distrupt enemy formations'
Problem is, the cluster charges dont deal enough damage, and its pretty much only usable against battleship formation.
They are a decent weapon for frigates, but the Aurora Ray in my opinion can do a better job

Anti Squadron Rating : 3
Due to AoE, but has a slow-ish Rate of fire.Missiles and fires it, some of the missiles will hit the squadrons on top of the ship instead of going to the target.

Mercury Beam
Only equippable on the Dominion Carrier, this weapon deals considerable damage at a longer range compared to other energy weapons, however, you have to sacrifice the option of the significantly more damaging and distracting squadrons on offer to use this weapon, add to that, you are going to need to mark your Dominion up to mark 4 in order to be able to use this weapon properly with focused optics in addition to thrusters (preferably armored thrusters)
On the upside, unlike squadrons, it can't be shot down, and with focused optics, you have longer range than any cruisers or cutters (not battleships or destroyers though), so it can deal some considerable guaranteed damage
Mechanically, it works identically to an archer beam, in terms of it's beam duration and charge time
Anti Squadron Rating : 1
All beam weapons suffer from this

Hydra Missile
This Hydra fires missiles that aggressively track their targets, while splitting into 2 additional dumb fire warheads that deal bonus damage.
This is a somewhat underrated weapon on high level play, mainly due to its below average range and lower AoE damage compared to SICOs. But in reality this is still a devastating weapon, if you manage to focus fire targets they will go down relatively quickly, just not as quickly as SICO Missiles.
Unlike the SICO Missles, it doesn't suffer from spread, single targets are just as easy to hit as bunched up targets. The AoE Splash radius without specials is a bit underwhelming, but the weapon it self is still usable without specials. But Spectral Warheads is highly recommended to increase damage and AoE.
Like the SICOs, it has a minimal range (although slightly smaller), making it difficult to handle at point blank range because you have to make sure at least 1 target is in firing range for all 6 of your ships in combat.
Vs Squadrons, the weapon behaves like the Vectors, the missiles reach the targets and loop around (at least for bombers) because the missiles are slower compared to the squadron. But because of the increased speed compared to vectors, the bombers usually only get to do very minuscule damage before getting instakilled. And a faster rate of fire means that squadrons usually just get shredded while facing this weapons, while not leaving the ship vulnerable to other targets.
Pros

• Doesn't miss, Consistent damage
  
• Splitting warheads deal bonus damage
  
• Higher damage per shot compared to SICOs
  
• great vs squadrons
  
• Easy to obtain (from VEGA Blueprints) for such an efficient weapon

Cons

• Lower AoE and overall damage potential compared to SICOs
  
• Below Average Range
  
• Hydra 3 has an innefficient DPS to weight ratio, so its rarely mounted unless on ships that have enough spare mass.

Anti Squadron Rating : 4

ECHO Ray
ith focused optics 5, this weapon can achieve 4750m range. To add to that it has the ability to chain bounce between targets, potentially almost doubling its total damage if it manages to bounce between 4 targets. The distance the rays bounce over are massive, and most players just don't choose to seperate their ships to stop the chaining effect and risk getting too split out.
Couple that with its general easiness to handle, and you got a versatile weapon to boot. The ECHO Ray also cannot be blocked by ships, setting a primary target to a ship that is blocked by another ship infront of it will result in the ray hitting the ship set as primary target.

The weakness of this weapon however is that its not great at close range againts some other weapons, while it doesn't have a minimal range, close combat should generally be avoided against more powerful weapons.
Like most energy weapons you also HAVE to mount Focused Optics 5 or Ionized Optics 3 special equipment to even use the weapon at all.
Againts squadrons, this weapon lacks damage, it can wound all 4 squadrons at once due to its chain effect, but in order to shoot down squadrons you need multiple shots. Not the best. Especially in lower level fleets, like level 39, where you dont have as much firepower with your ships as in high level pvp.
Also it has a module damage penalty, so do not use this in base attacks.

Pros

• Long range
  
• No minimal range
  
• Good damage, esp when chain effect triggers
  
• Versatile to mount on most ships
  
• Easy to handle, no charge up time, instantly fires on target. This facilitates focus fire on targets.

Cons

• Mediocre damage against lone targets, base modules, or close range.
  
• Not the best against squadrons (but not bad either)
  
• Needs focused optics 5 or Ionized optics 3
  
• Low damage becomes problematic in the current heavy armor meta

Anti Squadron Rating : 2
Mount on Battleships, Destroyers (for attacking other ships), Frigates. Not the best on cruisers or cutters

Interceptor Squadron
Higher range, but damage is laughable, and the squadrons are very slow, as well as having less HP compared to bombers. They can be used as a 'scout' squadron to trick enemy ships into firing high damage shots and make room for the bombers behind it, or more commonly, to entirely replace bombers in fleets level 39 and below.
They are still better than fighters (due to fighters having low range), but are nowhere near bomber in terms of power.

Pros

• Longest range
  
• Launches first before the bombers (due to range), so they can possibly take high damage shots and make room for the bombers.

Cons

• Overall inferior to bombers
  
• Annoyingly slow travel speed that reduces damage even further because it takes longer to return to the carrier.
  
• Standard squadron weaknesses.

This Cruiser only weapon fires a burst of 2 shots, each will then bounce up to 2 times, increasing damage with each bounce
This makes it an excellent weapon against multiple enemy targets, its DPS stat is just a flat out lie, as the first shot damage is nowhere near the damage after the final bounce
Its an ECHO ray, but its in some ways better, and worse
its significantly lighter, and can possibly achieve higher damage potential, however, the damage can be a bit unpredictable as you cant choose where the chain wil go, and damage without the bounce effect is pitiful at best

Pros

• Huge damage vs Crowds of ships
  
• Bounce effect multiplies its damage output
  
• Good Range

Cons

• Low damage to single target
  
• Bounce can be unreliable
  
• Cruiser only

Anti Squadron Rating :2
Must be massed (as with most other energy weapons), but as a bonus, your shots may bounce over from enemy squadrons into their ships, however, as of the latest patch, shots will no longer bounce between squadrons and will simply pass through them, making htis one of the worst weapons to use vs squadrons due to a low first shot damage

These Weapons are simply outclassed compared to higher tier weapons in terms of their performance. They can still to a degree compete with Meta weapons and Alternative weapons, but unless your opponent is bad, don't expect much out of them. Unless you already have the weapons earlier on this guide, you might want to skip them in favor of a better weapon / special / base weapon during an event.
Also, we are going to keep it shorter after this, the descriptions are not going to be as long. And im not going to give a pros and cons because you shouldn't use these if possible. The pros and cons is pretty much just to compare weapons of a similar power, these weapons are just weaker than the meta and alternative weapons.

All 4 Projectile blueprint weapons
The Weapons that fall under this category are the Gladius Driver, AP Driver, Wave Driver, and Gemini Driver.
To put it simply, these weapons are hopelessly outclassed in terms of damage and accuracy (chance to miss) compared to current energy weapons and even the Vector.
The main downsides of the projectile weapons are that they are slow firing, deal less overall damage, isn't likely to hit multiple targets, and can miss. You also pretty much need Iridium Magnets or Phased Magnets, and even then you are not guaranteed to hit.
Plus, phase damage these days are not very useful due to the overall reliance on armor on the current meta.

The Gladius is somewhat arguable to put into this, as it is more accurate and deal more damage than the rest, but ultimately it still doesn't compare to the ECHO or Aurora in terms of damage.
The AP fires faster and can penetrate, but loses damage per shot, and no one is stupid enough to line their ships up It also misses a lot more. You faced a deadlier version on Vsec Zeal Battleships on riots, and you can pretty easily beat them, so you can beat the weaker, player controlled versions.
The Wave used to be a fun weapon for dealing damage directly to armor and killing weakly armored fleets, and to a degree that could also be correct to this day, but it misses too often and its performance vs squadrons is horrible. You also need to pretty much either decide on
equipping phased magnets for a subpar phased effect, equip magnets for a marginally greater chance to hit, or equip both phased projectiles and iridium magnets and have no thruster equipment.
The Gemini also can be a fun weapon on some cruiser and cutter builds using phased projectiles and sometimes iridium magnets, but main problem here is the short range (same as hydra) and it can still often miss even at that short range. I still don't see the point of using this over SICOs or Hydras, other than dealing direct armor damage with phased projectiles.

Anti Squadron Rating : AP and Gladius : 3 (they have splash radius and enoguh damage to kill)
Wave and Gemini : 1 ( no splash, needs to shoot down one by one.)

Polaron Ray
Has decent damage and can achieve the same range as ECHO, but overall its just a weaker version of it. But you can use it on lower level ships.
Anti Squadron Rating : 2 ( no splash damage)

Creeper Torpedo
Putting this weapon here is somewhat debatable, some players still like using them to rush bases and especially as weapons for decoy tanks. But for the former, i think the impulse just flat out replaced the Creeper on that role (unless one goes for mass collateral damage, but that doesn't work every time. ).
For decoy tanks, the main reason the Creepers are used is that they can be used without any specials (to make room for armored hold 3) to shield the destroyers from squadrons and help destroy miners on the outer edges of the base. But that is a very niche role and i can't warrant putting it any higher.
Anti Squadron Rating : 3 (can instakill squadrons, but you need to get lucky with the spread, or already have a lot of creepers laid down, so kinda unreliable)

Thermal Beam
Effectively an underpowered but slightly faster Impulse that can't pierce. less risk of overkill, and the damage is good, you can kill people with this, but its just not comparable to the impulse.
Anti Squadron Rating : 1 (reason : same as impulse)

Bayonet Missile
Shoots 3 Missiles in an arc (similar to the arc missile), but trades shield piercing for more damage and the ability to pierce compared to Arc missile. For every pierce, an AoE explosion is created, making this weapon able to multiply its damage output against clumped targets.
Needless to say, combined with its spread, its not a very useful weapon. Its only really good if your enemy clumps up for an extended period of time, and if you use Volatile fuel to compensate for its slow projectile speed.
Combine it with the Iron Star only restriction and this weapon is just too niche, the Iron Star needs more DPS in a smaller package to compensate for the reduced weapon slots, and this weapon doesn't fit that.
Anti Squadron Rating : 3
pretty good vs squadrons, can achieve 1 shot kills, but slow rate of fire and projectile speed keeps it from 4.

Archer Beam
An Impulse Beam with slightly more range, but trades it in for more mass, (significantly) less DPS, and Destroyer only restriction.
Needless to say, the Impulse is flat out better.
To elaborate, the main reason why the Archer Beam has lower DPS is because of a Longer charge time, and a (much) longer beam duration, which means its damage is dispensed into the target over a longer period of time, instead of a very short burst like the Impulse or in 1 shot like the Siege Driver.
For me, just use the Impulse.
Anti Squadron Rating : 1
you wont even get to fire it before the squadrons hit you.

Arrestor Beam
Effectively, it's an Archer beam that slows ships instead of dealing damage, having an identical charge up time and beam duration.
A small red glow is seen on the ship that is charging an arrestor.

offensively, this weapon is great for snagging ships and pulling them to their doom, but you have to sacrifice part of your ship's DPS for it, and an agility support field boosted Cutter will be enough to catch up to any ship in the game, add to that a long 4 second charge up time before firing gives your opponent plenty of opportunity to avoid the beam, still, should the beam fire, it's no escape for the victim

Defensively, the 4 second charge up time makes it nearly worthless, the NET's fire and forget nature works much better, in addition, the NET can slow multiple ships while the Arrestor can only slow 1 at a time

The NET Torpedo with volatile fuel simply does everything the Arrestor does but better, plain and simple, the weapon also becomes excessively heavy with focused optics

Anti Squadron Rating : 1
It's a beam weapon, expect that, also it deal 1 DPS.

All Prefix Weapons (EXCEPT infernal weapons) (Precise Gauss driver, Brutal Hydra, Repeating Polaron, etc)
These weapons usually have 1 gimmicky effect compared to their regular version, but sacrifice a bit of range, damage, or accuracy.
But the main reason why its not very good, is because of it's scarcity, its only obtainable as a reusable weapon from Civil war prizes and alien mobilization in relatively small batches...
But still, even if you manage to fit a full fleet with one of these, its probably not as good or at most just as good as the same thing but with the standard version of the weapon, if you don't get them, you are not missing out on much

Gatling Ray
The Gatling Ray is a powerful weapon in its own right, the ability to hit 2 enemies lining up certaintly has its uses, but the main reason the Gatling is useless, is that it just doesn't compare to all other top tier energy weapons, the Aurora and ECHO (and Impulse to an extent)
Main Reason is that it has poor damage per shot, probably the worst damage per shot out of all weapons. The pierce ability is mostly a gimmick, as you need to have your ship, the target, and a third ship in a perfect straight line. That rarely happens, and it needs to happen for an extended period of time, because of the lack of burst damage.
To add to that, this weapon can miss......because it doesn't home into targets like ECHO or Aurora, further reducing potential damage. And it also is pretty heavy to mount, as kixeye intended it to deal 2x damage with the pierce ability.
It also has a delay when switching targets, don't know why that's there, since the weapon is already weak anyway. I guess kixeye just doesn't want the entire screen to be filled with lasers all the time.
Not much else to say, the weapon just is too weak on a per shot basis, despite what the DPS Stat says.
Contrary to popular believe, you can only hit 1 squadron at a time with this weapon, because it doesn't have AoE. But you can hit 1 Squadron on 2 ships provided that the rounds pierce the first ship with squadrons and hit the second one.
Anti Squadron Rating : 2

Overall useless in PvP (Compared to their competitors), although some of them may still find use in farming, or very low level combat.


Every Researchable Projectile Weapons
They miss 99% of the time, and even if they hit they deal next to no damage. Nope
Anti Squadron Rating : 1

Every Researchable Explosive Weapons
These are your first steps to getting the Hydra missile early on into the game, but once you get it, refit every single one of your ships with it and never look back.
Reason : they miss, and doesn't have the volume of fire like the SICO to justify the loss of accuracy.
they are pretty good vs squadrons however, due to quick fire rate and area damage.
Anti Squadron Rating : 3

Pulse Ray
Nuff said
higher level pulse rays does have a surprisingly good damage per shot, but its only comparison is pretty much the distruptor ray.
Anti Squadron Rating : 1

Distruptor Ray
Effectively a very underpowered burst ray. Get the thermal beam, its way better.
and considering the burst ray is in the riot rotation, this thing will get obselete very quick once you get it.
Anti Squadron Rating : 1

Arc Missile
These things just do not deal enough damage to justify their spread pattern (which makes them miss) and their slow rate of fire. The shield piercing? look at the projectile quadtuplets.
Some people use Arc Lances to hit bases, but still they deal next to no damage vs turrets. and have less range. The main reason people use this for basing is that they can hit a lot of base buildings, but you just don't deal enough damage to the turrets............its only really good against clustered bases, and even then its only moderately effective.
Anti Squadron Rating : 2 (depends on where the missiles are when the squadrons arrive.)


Brimstone Torpedo
I should have written this earlier.....
The Brimstone fires a Cluster warhead that travels HALFWAY its max range before exploding, dealing damage and releasing its payload of cluster bombs in all directions.
That last part is what makes this weapon bad, this means that less than half of the micro warheads actually hit, and the damage this weapon does in the first place is already pretty meager. Even if all of the smaller explosives hit (say an enemy enters half range), the damage done will still be comparable to, say an Aurora Ray salvo.
The smaller micro warheads also DOES NOT benefit from Explosive specials, only the main warhead benefits from them.
Volatile Fuel does not increase the speed or AoE of the cluster bombs, Spectral warheads doesn't give them shield piercing, etc.

Anti Squadron Rating : 3
Because squadrons come to them so fast, usually some of the cluster bombs will explode and deal pretty considerable damage.


Figher Squadron and Raider Squadron
Not. Enough. Range.
Low health is pretty much insult to injury.

That's done, now go to the void and start blasting.
Thank you for your time reading, hope you appreciate it. Consider sharing this to fellow rebels.

See you in the Void.