Flamethrower turret

Flamethrower turret is a defensive building that fires a continuous stream of flame using flamethrower-type ammunition and burner energy. It does not shoot an instant-hit projectile; instead it projects a flame stream toward the target's position at the moment of firing. The turret creates persistent fire on the ground where it fires. The ground fire lasts 2 seconds by default and can intensify up to 30 seconds and up to six times the base damage if the turret keeps firing at the same spot. Multiple flamethrower turrets firing at the same location do not accelerate intensity growth because there is a cooldown between intensity increases that is longer than the turret's firing rate.

Flamethrower turrets gain a multiplicative damage bonus depending on the type of oil supplied as ammo, and that bonus stacks multiplicatively with research and other flamethrower-ammo and turret damage bonuses. The turret is defined as using the "flamethrower" ammo type, so both turret-focused technologies and flamethrower-ammo damage bonuses apply together to the turret's damage output. This multiplicative stacking makes flamethrower turrets scale well with research, allowing their damage to keep pace with other turret types that benefit from multiple upgrades.

Flamethrower damage has several components and application methods. The direct splash part of the flame stream deals many small hits per second. The fire sticker effect (applied to entities that can be ignited) deals damage over time. Fully intensified fire patches on the ground deal a higher periodic damage. Ignited enemies receive a long-lasting effect that deals substantial damage over its duration; the ignited status lasts 30 seconds and, without upgrades, deals 100 damage per second. The combined effect of direct hits, stickers, and intensified patches means ignited enemies can take a total of around 3000 damage, which is lethal for almost all enemy units. Flamethrower turrets will preferentially target the closest non-ignited enemy and only target already-ignited enemies when no non-ignited ones are in range.

Fire resistance and flat resistances strongly affect flamethrower effectiveness. Spawners and larger worms have 3 flat fire resistance, which largely negates the direct splash but not the intensified patch damage. Tanks, trains, and spidertrons have 15 flat fire resistance, which negates much of the direct damage; however, at higher flamethrower damage upgrades the intensified fire patches overcome that resistance and make these vehicles vulnerable. Some environments and creatures have special resistances: flamethrowers are burner devices and cannot be placed on space platforms; asteroids have 100% fire resistance; pentapods on Gleba have no fire resistance; demolishers on Vulcanus have 100% fire resistance.

• Flamethrower turrets are very effective against biters and spitters because these enemies lack fire resistance and are easily ignited.
• Position turrets to cover chokepoints or locations where fire patches can persist; continuous firing on the same spot increases patch intensity and long-term damage.
• Be aware that the flame stream can miss the intended target in crowds by hitting enemies behind the primary target; turrets tend to hit closest non-ignited units first.
• Invest in both turret and flamethrower-ammo damage technologies because their bonuses multiply, yielding much larger overall damage than either alone.
• Flamethrower turrets cannot be used in space platforms and are ineffective against entities or biomes with 100% fire resistance.