Weapon guide

In Elite: Dangerous there are weapon types, and different mounts. Firstly, lets look at the various weapon mounts - which are fixed, gimballed or turrets.

Fixed weapons

Fixed weapons are those which can not move. Instead the whole ship must turn, so it can hit the target. This isnt ideal, but fixed weapons do deliver more damage (usually double that of gimballed). I personally do not recommend fixed weapons, because the extra damage is usually offset by the amount of misses. However some weapons can only be found in fixed form.

Gimballed weapons

Gimballed weapons are weapons that can track a target within a certain radius - usually the view from the cockpit. However they do less damage than fixed weapons. However because they hit more often, I find them stronger than their fixed counterpart. Gimballed weapons can also be used like fixed weapons, by removing the selected target (caused by a Chaff launcher). I personally would recommend only using Gimballed weapon if possible.

Turreted weapons

The last type of weapon mount is turreted. These types of weapons can move independently, allowing them to track target that are off-view. However for the extra functionality, they do less damage. I often find them missing when turning, as they can be a little slow to track. However in certain cases, they can be useful - allowing you to deliver damage when facing another direction.



However, we dont just have weapon mounts, but also weapon types such as beam, pulse etc. I am not going to explain about every single type of weapon just a quick overview.

Pulse

To me the pulse is the backbone weapon, delivering both shield and hull damage (but best at shield). It uses a medium of energy (usually nothing too bad) and doesn't produce too much heat. Pulse lasers are also fairly cheap, and dont require any ammo.

Burst

Burst lasers are basically pulse lasers, but fire three times instead of once. They use more energy and more heat but only deliver a faction more damage. Since they are pulse lasers, burst are best against shields. They also dont require any special ammo.

Beam

Similar to that of the pulse, the beam weapon create a continuous beam of energy rather than a single pulse. They do a high amount of damage but use a lot of energy, and make a fair amount of heat. At close range, they can be deadly. Like both the pulse and burst lasers, beams are best when used on shields. Beams dont require ammo.

Multi-cannons

These machine-gun type weapons fire high speed projectiles at their target. These projectiles are highly effective at delivering a lot of hull damage, once the shields are down. However they do use ammo which is fairly cheap. Multi-cannons do use some energy but not much, and they also develop a little amount of heat. They are best when combined with a pulse, burst or beam weapon.

Missiles

Missiles are a great source of hull damage but not very effective against shields. However they usually only have a limited amount of ammo, which can be rather expensive to rearm. Missiles can come in dumb or target form. Missiles can be very good at chasing down targets that are running away (with no shields).

Rail-guns

These are charge-up type weapons are great at doing shield damage, however due to the charge-up nature can make them hard to aim. They also require ammo, which is rather low - making them more like a PvP type weapon.

Plasma Accelerator

Plasma Accelerators are designed to be a strong weapon, dealing a lot of damage to both shields and hull. However you can only find them in fixed mount, making aiming hard work. They also require ammo, however usually can last awhile.