Artillery turret

The artillery turret is a long-range, ammunition-based defensive building that fires explosive shells to strike targets at extreme distance. It does not require electricity and can be used in two modes: automatic mode, where it scans and fires at valid targets within its preset automatic range, and manual mode, where a player uses an artillery targeting remote to point-and-click any location in the world or map to call individual shells. Artillery turrets outrange other fixed defenses by an order of magnitude and are capable of killing most enemies with a single shell when supported by artillery damage research.

Automatic mode only considers enemy structures (spawners and worms) as valid targets; mobile enemies such as biters and spitters are not targeted automatically. Automatic mode’s default maximum range is 224 tiles (7 chunks). Manual mode allows targeting up to 560 tiles (17.5 chunks) by default and can be used to strike unexplored areas — shells will reveal any chunks they pass through. The artillery targeting remote displays how many loaded, fire-ready artillery pieces (including stationary turrets and wagons, subject to wagon stationary rules) are in range of the cursor when held, and each manual click consumes one shell delivered to the selected position.

Artillery has a minimum firing range of 32 tiles; shells cannot be targeted closer than that. Firing speed, range, and damage can all be improved through research. Infinite firing-speed research increases firing rate by +100% per level and applies to both stationary turrets and artillery wagons in both automatic and manual contexts. Range research increases both automatic and manual ranges by +30% of base range per level. Artillery damage research increases shell damage and raises the maximum enemy evolution at which spawners and worms can be killed in a single shot; at higher damage-research levels behemoth worms become one-shot targets (becoming possible around higher-tier artillery damage research).

Logistics and defensive context heavily shape practical use. Artillery shells stack to size 1, so any container holds only a modest supply and inserters transfer a single shell at a time. The turret itself stores 15 shells; the artillery wagon stores 100 shells, providing a larger buffer and allowing wagons to double as transport for shells to remote outposts — an artillery wagon can hold twice as many artillery shells as a standard cargo wagon. Artillery wagons with auto-targeting disabled can deliver shells to outposts while avoiding firing automatically.

Because artillery shelling provokes large, concentrated enemy responses centered on the impact site rather than the usual aggression radius, artillery emplacements require protection from conventional short-range defenses such as walls, gun turrets, laser turrets, flamethrower turrets, or player intervention. Artillery’s slow base firing rate and inability to auto-target mobile units make it unwise to rely on artillery alone for perimeter defense; combine long-range bombardment with nearby defenses and consider on-site shell assembly for sustained operations.