Artillery turret

The artillery turret is a long-range defensive building that fires artillery shells at enemy structures from extreme distances. It outranges other fixed fortifications by a large margin and does not require electric power, since it is ammunition-based. Unlike most combat buildings, it can be used in two distinct ways: automatic mode, where it scans for valid targets on its own, and manual mode, where an artillery targeting remote is used to order strikes at a chosen point on the world map or zoomed-in map.

In automatic mode, the turret targets enemy structures only, specifically spawners and worms. It does not target mobile enemies such as biters and spitters, although those units inside the shell’s blast radius still take damage from the explosion. Automatic targeting can be turned off from the turret GUI by toggling the Auto targeting box. In manual mode, each click with a targeting remote corresponds to one shell fired at that location, provided at least one working artillery turret or wagon is in range. Manual fire can also be ordered on unexplored territory, and shells reveal the chunks they travel through, though not the surrounding chunks.

The default firing range is 224 tiles in automatic mode and 560 tiles in manual mode. Both ranges can be increased through infinite artillery range research, which adds 30% of base range per level. Artillery damage research also applies to these attacks; with enough levels, even very durable enemies such as behemoth worms and heavily evolved spawners can be destroyed in a single shot.

Despite its power, an artillery turret is not a complete standalone defense. It has a minimum range of 32 tiles, so it cannot fire at nearby targets, and its slow rate of fire makes it vulnerable without supporting defenses. Shelling an area also provokes nearby mobile enemies, causing them to rush the artillery position regardless of their usual aggression radius. For that reason, artillery emplacements should be protected by walls and conventional defenses such as gun turrets, laser turrets, flamethrower turrets, or by the player directly. Large bombardments can create major attack waves centered on the firing position, so close-range defense is especially important.

Logistics are another major consideration. Artillery shells stack to 1, which makes bulk transport inefficient. An artillery turret itself stores 15 shells, while an artillery wagon stores 100, giving a useful buffer when supply lines are interrupted. Because of this, permanent artillery positions are often best supplied by on-site shell production. Artillery wagons with auto targeting disabled can also be used to transport shells to regular artillery outposts, since they can carry twice as many shells as a cargo wagon.