Rapid Fire
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Rapid Fire
Rapid Fire (RF) is a combat modifier between unit types. The catalog value (for example ×5) is how many shots one shooter expects against that target type in a round — OGame-style — not a free damage multiplier and not unlimited splash kills.
RF is capped at 40 in combat calculations (so capital anti-fodder values in the ×30–×40 band are not clipped). Carrier screens can soften effective RF (see below).
Core rules (remember these)
- One shot hits one target. Full weapon damage goes into that one unit.
- Overkill is wasted. If you deal 100 damage to a 10-hull ship, the leftover 90 does not jump to the next ship.
- RF adds more shots, not bigger guns. Expected shots ≈ catalog RF when you keep hitting that RF type (after screens).
- RF cannot invent kills if your attack is too weak to finish (or meaningfully chip) the target — you still need damage.
- Soft / logistics hulls with RF 1 do not donate unused kill slots to capitals.
| Without RF | With RF ×R |
|---|---|
| 1 shot per living shooter per round | About R shots per living shooter per round (expected) against that target type |
| High attack vs soft swarm → mostly 1 kill (rest overkill wasted) | High attack vs soft swarm → about R kills if each shot one-shots |
| Low attack vs tough hull → chips one target | Low attack × R shots → more total chip damage; may finish a wounded ship in the same round |
Worked examples
Numbers below are toy examples (one attacker, one round, ignore shields/screens) so the logic is obvious. Real battles also use targeting priority, shared shield pools (ships + turrets share one absorb), and Carrier RF cancel.
1) Small attack vs higher hull — no RF
- Attacker: 10 attack, no RF
- Targets: ships with 15 hull each
| What happens | Result |
|---|---|
| 1 shot deals 10 into one ship | That ship goes 15 → 5 hull |
| No second shot | 0 kills this round — target is wounded, not dead |
| Next rounds | Need another ~10 damage into the same (or another) hull to finish |
Takeaway: Low attack without RF is slow; you chip, you do not clear lines in one volley.
2) Small attack vs higher hull — with RF ×2
- Attacker: 10 attack, RF ×2 against that type
- Targets: 15 hull each
| What happens | Result |
|---|---|
| Expected ~2 shots × 10 damage | About 20 damage applied as two separate hits |
| Shot 1 | One ship 15 → 5 |
| Shot 2 (often) | Finishes the wounded ship (5 → 0) or chips a second ship |
| Compared to no RF | You can get a kill in one round that RF 1 could not |
Takeaway: RF does not raise the gun from 10 → 20 on one hit. It gives another 10-damage shot. That is how low attack still “feels” RF.
3) Small attack vs lower hull — no RF vs RF ×2
- Attacker: 10 attack
- Targets: 8 hull each (one shot is enough to kill)
| Setup | Per round (expected) |
|---|---|
| No RF | 1 kill — 10 damage into one 8-hull ship; 2 overkill wasted |
| RF ×2 | About 2 kills — two separate one-shots; each wastes a little overkill |
| Not what happens | You do not get floor(10/8)=1 kill from leftover splash without RF, and you do not get floor(20/8)=2 from merging damage into one pool |
Takeaway: When you already one-shot the target, RF ≈ extra kills per round equal to extra shots.
4) Very high attack vs tiny hull — no RF
- Attacker: 100 attack, no RF
- Targets: 10 hull swarm (20+ ships)
| What happens | Result |
|---|---|
| 1 shot dumps 100 into one 10-hull ship | 1 kill; leftover 90 is wasted |
| Rest of the swarm | Untouched this round by that shooter |
| Wrong intuition | Not “100÷10 = 10 kills” |
Takeaway: Big guns without RF are inefficient vs soft spam — classic reason RF exists.
5) Very high attack vs tiny hull — with RF ×5
- Attacker: 100 attack, RF ×5 against that soft type
- Targets: 10 hull swarm
| What happens | Result |
|---|---|
| Expected ~5 full shots | About 5 kills per round if every shot hits that type and one-shots |
| Still wasted overkill | Each shot still throws away ~90 vs a 10-hull ship |
| Hard ceiling (feel) | About RF kills per shooter per round, not millions from raw attack÷hull |
| Safety in the combat model | Destroys of a given type are also bounded by roughly shooter count × RF (and you still need the damage) |
Takeaway: Capitals shred swarms through many shots, not by splashing one mega-hit across the whole blob.
6) Capital vs fighter swarm — why high RF matters
- Attacker: one Colossus (huge attack, RF ×35 vs Fighter)
- Targets: a large Fighter swarm (each Fighter dies to one Colossus shot)
| What happens | Result |
|---|---|
| Without meaningful RF (old feel: ~×3) | About 3 Fighters die per round — most of the Colossus gun is wasted as overkill into one tiny hull |
| With capital anti-fodder RF (~×35) | About 35 Fighters die per round from that one Colossus (still one kill per shot; leftover attack on each Fighter is wasted) |
| Still not unlimited | Ceiling is catalog RF (and the combat ×40 cap) — not “attack ÷ Fighter hull” |
How the three Realm 4 capitals split the job (feel, not a full table):
- Battlecruiser — strongest everyday screen clearer (Kamikaze / Fighter / Corvette / Frigate / soft logistics).
- Titan — fleet breaker: solid light RF plus the best mid-line Rapid Fire (Cruiser, Destroyer, Battleship, Heavy Cruiser, Dreadnought).
- Colossus — highest light-fodder RF and the siege kit (soft turrets / domes), so a lone capital is no longer helpless against crumb swarms.
Carrier screens still cut enemy RF (at most by half) — swarms with Carriers remain a real answer, just not “ignore every capital.”
Takeaway: Capitals counter fodder the OGame way — many shots — not with %-damage reduction vs lower tiers.
7) Same tonnage, different hulls — who clears the screen?
Roughly one Colossus of tonnage (~2830) as four fleets, no research, asking how many soft hulls they can fully wipe in ≤3 rounds while still alive (engine RF + one-shot clear):
| Fleet (~equal tonnage) | Tonnage | Fighters cleared (≤3r) | Kamikazes cleared (≤3r) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 Colossus | 2829 | ~105 | ~120 |
| 1.5 Titan (same mass as 1 Colossus) | ~2832 | ~90 | ~113 |
| 3 Battlecruisers | 2925 | ~270 | ~315 |
| 30 Heavy Cruisers | 2820 | ~460 | ~1080 |
Read it this way:
- Per tonnage, mid Heavy Cruisers still clear the largest light screens — many hulls × solid RF (×7 Fighter / ×12 Kamikaze).
- Battlecruisers are the capital screen specialists: far above a lone Colossus/Titan on crumbs, still below a full HC line.
- Colossus / Titan are not useless vs fodder anymore (tens of kills per round), but their job is not “best pure swarm eraser” — they bring siege / mid-line RF and raw toughness.
- If the light swarm is enormous, return fire can end the fight in one round — you only get that first volley’s RF kills. The table above is the size you can still finish in three rounds.
Takeaway: Equal tonnage ≠ equal anti-swarm. Capitals gained real RF; count × RF still favors a mid screen-clear line for pure Fighter/Kamikaze farms.
Quick comparison table
| Case | Attack | Target hull | RF | Expected this round (1 shooter) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chip, no RF | 10 | 15 | none | Wound only (0 kills) |
| Chip, RF ×2 | 10 | 15 | ×2 | Often 1 kill (two chips) |
| One-shot, no RF | 10 | 8 | none | 1 kill |
| One-shot, RF ×2 | 10 | 8 | ×2 | ~2 kills |
| Overkill, no RF | 100 | 10 | none | 1 kill (90 wasted) |
| Overkill, RF ×5 | 100 | 10 | ×5 | ~5 kills (not 10+) |
What players feel in real fleets
- High RF into a type you can kill (or finish with the extra shots) → that line melts fast.
- Realm 4 capitals now carry real anti-fodder RF (tens of shots) — pure light spam is no longer a free answer to a lone capital stack.
- High RF into a type your gun cannot break → mostly wasted catalog text; raise firepower or pick a better counter.
- Mixing endless cargo/probes in front of capitals does not give capitals free multi-kill budgets.
- Carriers make enemy RF softer against your fleet, but never erase a strong RF edge completely.
Carrier screen
Carriers (and similar escorts with RF-cancel) soften enemy rapid fire against your fleet:
- Each Carrier contributes cancel/cover points (Carrier: 2 cancel points covering 20 friendly hulls each in catalog terms).
- Screen points are capped (about 3 cancel points max in the combat model).
- Screens cancel at most half of the attacker’s RF advantage — you always keep at least half of a strong RF edge.
- Screens are recomputed each round — lost Carriers mean thinner protection later in the fight.
- Guardian class improves RF cancel effectiveness (about +50% to cancel points).
Screens reduce RF pressure; they do not erase it.
Practical tips
- Bring Carriers when you expect RF-heavy enemy fleets (Battlecruisers, Titans, Colossi, Destroyers, etc. into your light lines).
- Do not rely on cargo/probes to “soak” RF kill budgets for your capitals.
- Against pure light swarms, prefer the capital whose RF matches the screen (Battlecruiser / Colossus for crumbs; Titan when mid hulls mix in).
- Check each ship or defense page’s rapid-fire list when theorycrafting counters — and ask “can this gun actually kill that hull in one shot (or two with RF)?”
- Soft defense spam still needs enough shots that land after shields; RF on turrets only helps if the damage reaches hull. Colony ships and turrets share one attacker shield pool each round (not two separate absorbs).
- Turrets follow the same front-screen bias as fleets when they fire — and when ships + turrets fire together, that priority is applied once to the combined volley.