Minigun

The minigun is a very heavy, multi-shot firearm in RimWorld which fires 25-shot bursts of rounds which deal a moderate amount of damage each; a short delay between each shot; a slightly longer time between bursts; slightly longer range and very low overall accuracy.

Acquisition

Miniguns can be purchased from outlander and orbital combat suppliers, outlander settlements, or obtained from the following raider kinds:

Raider Kind	Chance	Average Quality	Health
Heavy Mercenary	36.73%	Normal	70-320%

Miniguns can also be crafted at a machining table once the multibarrel weapons research has been completed; from 160 steel, 20 components and 60,000 ticks (16.67 mins) of work. A crafting skill of at least 7 is required.

Overview

The minigun takes what the LMG has and cranks it up to eleven. Raw damage output is by far the highest out of all traditional ranged weapons in the game; almost double that of the chain shotgun's and 2.5x that of the LMG's. This is combined with the range of an assault rifle, meaning that it has a notably longer range than the charge rifle and LMG.

Accuracy is very low overall though (especially at point blank), but due to the minigun's staggering 25-shot burst, this in fact allows for very good crowd control potential. Despite the aforementioned accuracy though, the minigun has the highest single-target damage output out of all traditional ranged weapons beyond short range, handily beating even the charge rifle in this area - though the chain shotgun and heavy SMG still have a higher single-target damage output within short range, and the minigun falls slightly behind even the single-shot autopistol at point blank.

However, the minigun generally isn't obtainable until lategame due to research requirements and the overall production cost, and the only raiders that use miniguns generally don't appear in raids until lategame either. The minigun also has a low stopping power, being unable to stagger humans - though overall damage output is generally high enough that legs should be shredded regardless.

Due to the long warmup/cooldown cycle as well as its accuracy profile, it's advisable to only give miniguns to skilled shooters to make the most out of them; inexperienced shooters will only be able to effectively use the minigun within distances where its accuracy is weaker, and won't be able to effectively use it within its optimal range unless against very large crowds.

In terms of use cases, the minigun is undoubtedly the king of crowd control at short-to-medium range, and is also extremely effective against large targets such as centipedes due to the accuracy bonus from their size. If you really wanted to, the minigun is also a somewhat decent hunting choice due to its moderate damage and decent range.

Against an unarmored human, a minigun can kill with 4 hits to the torso, 3-4 hits to the head, 3 hits to the neck or 1 hit to the brain; cripple or destroy limbs in 3 hits; and cripple or destroy eyes and digits with a single hit. It'll generally take around 7 hits (~8.6 seconds average) to incapacitate that human from pain shock.

Overall, the minigun is best paired with a careful shooter up to level 16, and a trigger-happy shooter onwards.

Melee Combat

Tool	Attack	Damage Type	Power	AP	Cooldown	Likelihood	Base DPS
Overall	-	-	11.7	18%	2.60s	-	4.50
Barrels	Blunt	Blunt	11.7	18%	2.60s	100.00%	4.50

Quality table

Quality	Beauty	Deterioration rate	Market Value	Accuracy (close)	Accuracy (short)	Accuracy (medium)	Accuracy (long)	Damage	Armor Penetration	Melee Damage Per Second	Melee Armor Penetration
Awful	-3	4/day	$580	12%	20%	20%	14%	9	13%	3.6	11%
Poor	-3	3/day	$870	14%	22%	22%	16%	10	15%	4.05	12%
Normal	-3	2/day	$1160	15%	25%	25%	18%	10	15%	4.5	13%
Good	-3	1.6/day	$1450	16%	28%	28%	20%	10	15%	4.95	15%
Excellent	-3	1.2/day	$1740	18%	30%	30%	22%	10	15%	5.4	16%
Masterwork	-3	0.6/day	$2900	20%	34%	34%	24%	12	19%	6.53	20%
Legendary	-3	0.2/day	$4160	22%	38%	38%	27%	15	22%	7.42	22%

Version history

In Beta 19 its forced miss radius is removed allowing it to hit single targets; to compensate, its accuracy has been nerfed. It also received a buff to damage and a nerf to fire rate; the overall damage is slightly higher.

Weapons