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There are three categories of ship guns in Star Citizen. We’ll cover missiles in another guide. 

Cannons: #

High alpha damage, low fire rate. 

They are good for fighting large ships that move slowly and have lots of health. 

They can also be good when equipped to a large ship because you have to hit fewer shots to do the same damage, though you will have more trouble landing those shots on highly maneuverable targets.

Repeaters (laser/distortion) and Gatlings (ballistic):

High fire rate, lower alpha damage. 

They are best against fighters and small ships that can maneuver quickly, because the high fire rate means you can land more shots per second on target

Projectiles #

Within these weapon types you have three types of projectiles; laser, ballistic and distortion.

Laser:  #

• These weapons use energy from your ship capacitor to fire plasma bolts. 
• All equipped laser weapons draw from the capacitor even if they’re powered down. 
• Their magazine recharges when the gun is not being fired, and they cannot run out of ammo. 
• The magazine capacity and recharge rate is determined by your ship’s capacitor, which you cannot change, and the amount of power allocated to weapons, which you can. The current maximum magazine size is 75 shots. 
• These weapons do extra damage to shields
• Unlike ballistics they do not do hull damage until the shields are fully down. 

Ballistic:  #

• Ballistic weapons fire material projectiles. 
• They can penetrate shields and do hull damage while the shield is fully up, however, shields apply a damage reduction. 
• In addition, all ship hulls and components have a base ballistic damage resistance between 25% and 60% (the current stand in for simulated armor). 
• Ballistic weapons have an overheat mechanic instead of a magazine size. Firing too long will require a pause for the weapon to cool down.
• They also have an ammo pool that will need to be reloaded when dry.
• Ballistic weapons require minimal power and have a lower EM signature than laser or distortions. 
• Their IR signature climbs as they heat up from firing

Distortion: #

• Distortions function the same as laser weapons with regards to power and capacitor.
• Distortions do the most damage to shields.
• They don’t do any hull damage, instead they shut down components.
• Components have a stat for distortion shutdown damage and distortion reboot time. These indicate how much distortion damage it takes to shut down the component, and once it’s shut down how long it takes to reboot. For shields, coolers, radar and life support the reboot time is anywhere from 1 to 10 seconds. 
• When the power plant is shut down it will take 5 minutes to reboot, during which the ship has no power and is essentially soft deathed.
• EMPs function like a burst of distortion damage that can instantly shut down the power plant from close enough range. If you see a blue bubble around a fighter, get back!

Projectile speed is an important stat for weapons. This is how fast the shots travel, and it’s dependent on the individual weapon. It’s not directly related to projectile type or weapon type. The faster the projectile speed the less you will have to lead shots and the easier it is to hit targets at any range. 

Suggested loadouts #

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It’s important that all your weapons have the same or very similar projectile speed. If they don’t you will have two pips and will miss half your shots. 

In the current meta it’s recommended to match all your weapons to the same projectile and weapon type. Switching between weapon groups just limits the amount of guns you have firing at a time. 

Light fighters and small single seat craft #

• Laser repeaters with high projectile velocity are necessary to hit other fighters in fast dogfights.
• Ballistics don’t currently do enough damage to be competitive in fights where just a few hits can make a big difference 
• As of 4.1 the CF line of repeaters are the meta (Bulldog, Badger, Panther, Rhino and Galdereen), as well as NDBs which have to be salvaged
  • These are a good default choice for all ships

Medium fighters #

• Similarly, CF and NDB repeaters are meta for general use 
• However, since medium fighters can take on larger ships, laser cannons such as the Omnisky series with high velocity but lower fire rate give high alpha damage that helps take on larger targets, while still allowing a skilled pilot to hit small targets. 
• Ballistics can be usable for PvE or just for fun, but currently their damage output is significantly lower than lasers. 

Heavy fighters #

• CF and NDB repeaters are still the meta
• Heavies can benefit even more from cannons since their main role is to take on large ships 
• Heavies struggle against smaller fighters, but fast repeaters will make it a bit easier than cannons
• Attrition repeaters are currently the best against large ships. Their damage ramps up the longer you fire. 
• For turrets you can either equip ballistics if you mainly fly solo, or repeaters if you have a gunner. Distortions can be effective in heavy fighter turrets. 

Medium and large cargo ships, occasional combat #

• You will want to equip any turrets with ballistics so the pilot can have the full capacitor when flying solo
• Cannons or repeaters can work depending on what you prefer
• Attrition will make quick work of PvE bounties, as well as Omniskys. M7A cannons are fun for the huge alpha damage, but they have a slow fire rate and slow projectile speed. 

Medium and large combat ships #

• Equipping one turret with distortions can help drop shields quicker. 
• Otherwise, the above info still applies depending on the size of targets you’ll be engaging.
• Ballistics are not recommended because they will run dry quicker than you think and large combat ships need staying power in a fight.

Industrial ships #

• Some people unequip the weapons because you won’t win many fights in an industrial ship like the Prospector or Vulture, but there’s no real downside to keeping them. They can be some deterrence to small ships or inexperienced pilots just trying to harass you

Racing ships #

• If its a dedicated racing ship unequip all weapons, missiles and shields for weight savings
• If you’re using it as a light fighter, see above

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