Triple rocket launcher

The triple rocket launcher is a single use rocket launcher that fires 3 rockets, one after the other in short succession and will not stop until all three rockets are fired, even if the target is dead.

Acquisition

Triple rocket launchers cannot be crafted, and must be either acquired through trade, as a quest reward or looted from Raiders, specifically from Heavy Mercenaries in Outlander and Pirate raids. In the last case, care must be taken to kill or down the raider before they can fire the single use weapon.

Summary

As its name implies, the triple rocket launcher fires a burst of three rockets with a 20 ticks (0.33 secs) delay between rockets. Each rocket lands within a 2.9 of the target tile and explodes in 3.9 tile radius explosion doing 50 bomb damage.

Once it has been fired its burst, the launcher disappears completely. It cannot be reloaded, nor can any resources be salvaged from it. Note however, that the cooldown time of the weapon is still observed.

If it is damaged in item form, i.e. not held by a pawn, by Flame damage, it may explode^{[Detail needed]}. The launcher will spark and emit a hissing sound shortly before exploding some time later. The explosion deals 50 Bomb damage in a 3.9 tile radius around itself.

Analysis

Compared to its bigger brother, the Doomsday rocket launcher, it has a significantly smaller blast radius, worse accuracy, and lacks the incendiary secondary explosions but makes up for this by firing three shots, each inflicting the same amount of bomb damage as the single doomsday rocket. This makes them less effective at countering large raids but makes them more effective at killing hard targets by hitting them with up to three overlapping explosions. For the same reasons, triple rocket launchers in the hands of raiders are incredibly dangerous and should be made priority targets, either by focus firing on them, or by getting them to waste their single burst on an inconsequential or difficult to hit target.

The similar cost of the doomsday and the triple places the triple on the backfoot, as it is less effective in its niche than the doomsday is in its niche. That said, while acquisition of the doomsday should be prioritized over the triple, both should be acquired if possible.

Mechanoids

Mechanoids are immune to both flame damage and to being ignited. This significantly reduces the effectiveness of Doomsdays against them, and combined with the high health scale of centipedes, and to a lesser extent, termites, means that while a doomsday might do respectable damage, it is far from the raid-ending weapon it is against humans and places the now-unarmed user of the launcher at significant risk. In this regard, the triple rocket launcher can actually be superior, as its three rockets can overlap in explosive radius can hit targets multiple times.

Thus, the choice between the two launchers against mechanoids depends on three factors:

Whether the raid is predominantly populated with weaker mechanoids that the doomsday could feasibly kill, such as lancers.
Whether the larger AoE of the doomsday would be a significant benefit
Whether there is a significant opportunity cost for using the doomsday against a mech raid, as opposed to retaining it for its much more effective use against human raids.

Counter-structure attacks

Triples also shine against buildings, where the bomb damage it deals has a 2x multiplier against passable targets, a 4x multiplier against impassible targets, and an 8x multiplier against walls, stacking with the high base damage of the weapon and the three shots for a total damage of between a respectable 150 and a massive 1200 points depending on the multiplier in question.

This is especially useful against mechanoid clusters. Although it will be out ranged by most mech weapon, it provides a moderately, though not perfectly, safe and reliable way to destroy cluster structures from a distance. This is most useful against objects that are urgent to destroy such as auto mortars and EMI dynamos where the time need to overcome mortar fire's inherent inaccuracy through weight of fire cannot be afforded. A single triple is sufficient to destroy an automortar, while as many as three may be required to destroy a condition causer.

Version History

0.8.657 - Added

Original sprite of the Doomsday and Triple rocket launchers
Triple rocket launcher used by chasing pirates, two rockets out of three being fired at a manhunter revenge Thrumbo.