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Unreal The subject of this article appeared in Unreal Tournament. The subject of this article appeared in Unreal Mission Pack: Return to Na Pali. The subject of this article appeared in Unreal Championship. The subject of this article appeared in Unreal Tournament 2003. The subject of this article appeared in Unreal Tournament 2004. The subject of this article appeared in Unreal Championship 2: The Liandri Conflict. The subject of this article appeared in Unreal Tournament 3. The subject of this article appeared in Unreal Tournament 4.

The Flak Cannon is a weapon in the Unreal series. It is present in all Unreal games with the exception of Unreal II: The Awakening.

Overview

In general, the primary fire launches flak shell shards, and the secondary fire launches a flak shell bomb. The primary differences between the Flak Cannon's incarnations are the damage it causes, the number of times the flak shards bounce, and the distance the flak bomb flies.

Across all the games, several key components of the Flak Cannon remain the same. Mainly, all Flak Cannons have a "bumblebee yellow" coloration, slight wear, and the fact of the flak shell always visible.

Unreal and Return to Na Pali

"The somewhat cumbersome Flak Cannon uses jagged shards of metal for ammunition. Don’t let its lack of pyrotechnic flash fool you: a little shrapnel can dish out a hell of a lot of damage.

Primary Fire: Extremely fast spray of shrapnel, which ricochet off walls, ceilings and floors.
Secondary Fire: Large shrapnel-filled shell explodes on impact, spraying shrapnel in all directions."
Unreal manual

In Unreal, it was the replacement for the Quadshot. It had one metal extension connecting the weapon together.

Unreal Tournament

"Primary Fire: Fires chunks of hot jagged shrapnel.
Secondary Fire: Lobs a shrapnel grenade that explodes on impact.

This portable enemy blender can deliver instant death at any range. While the rate of fire is slow, the Flak Cannon’s destructive power is formidable. The primary fire discharges a concentrated explosion containing several pounds of jagged metal shrapnel. At point-blank range, the result is usually lethal. The secondary fire launches a shrapnel grenade that explodes on impact. Few opponents survive a direct hit from a Flak Cannon grenade."
UT manual

Classification
Heavy Shrapnel
Primary Fire
White hot chunks of scrap metal spray out in a wide spread. (8 shrapnels shoot out per shot, each does 24 damage)
Secondary Fire
A flak grenade is launched out of the gun with a high arc, which will inflict 105 damage on impact in its center with an explosion and spawning 5 flak shrapnels.
Tactics
The Flak Cannon is useful for close combat situations as well as bouncing around corners.

In Unreal Tournament, this weapon acts (and has always acted) as a close-combat weapon. Visually, 2 connectors are used, along with a lighter shade of yellow.

The Flak Cannon is one easy weapon to shred your enemies at close quarters. The primary fire launches linear shrapnels that can deplete any armor and kill the target with a single, or a maximum of 2 hits. The secondary fire hurls a chunk of molten metal at mid-range, which provides splash damage enough to kill one or two players. The secondary fire can also be useful to shoot enemies sitting behind cover. With an ammo capacity of 50, this weapon is handy in a Deathmatch, but need not to be, as in Assault matches.

Unreal Championship and Unreal Tournament 2003/2004

"Trident Defensive Technologies Series 7 Flechette Cannon has been taken to the next step in evolution with the production of the "Mk3 Negotiator." The ionized flechettes are capable of delivering second- and third-degree burns to organic tissue and cauterizing the wound instantly. Payload delivery is achieved via one of two methods: ionized flechettes launched in a spread pattern directly from the barrel; or via fragmentation grenades that explode on impact, radiating flechettes in all directions."
Weapon description

Primary Fire
White hot chunks of scrap metal are sprayed forth, shotgun style. The chunks glow as they do in UT, but they also create a trail of yellow behind all the chunks, making it easier to see. The damage they do goes down over their flight time, but a point-blank shot is extremely deadly. This fire mode fires 9 shards that do 13 damage each.
Secondary Fire
A grenade full of shrapnel is lobbed at the enemy, spraying shrapnel in all directions upon detonating. If you're luckily some of the shards it sprays upon detonation will hit your enemies, causing further damage. This means that sometimes you can kill someone with 100 health with a single flak shell even though the shell itself is only supposed to do 90 damage max.

The Flak Cannon in UT2003 is very similar to the one of |UT2004. The only difference is that it generally fires faster and has a slightly bigger arc of the alternate fire. It also has more ammo so it wouldn't be out of ammo too soon, keeping in mind the increase of the speed.

In UT2004, there's hardly a difference between it and the Flak Cannon in UT99 other than a visual change. It had visible circuitry, a TC-036B decal on the front, and 3 connectors on the weapon. Also, the 'weapon equip" animation was simplified to just a pull-out, with the Flak Shell seemingly always there.

Even though not much is known about the Flak Cannon of Unreal Championship, it is supposed to be very similar to the Unreal Tournament 2003 version. Only the appearance differs; it looks like something between Unreal Tournament's Flak Cannon (the 1st person view) and the Unreal Tournament 2003 and Unreal Tournament 2004 model (the 3rd person view) as its back, where the remaining ammo amount was displayed in UT, is left from Unreal Tournament, and the overall looks are updated to be similar to Unreal Tournament 2003 model.

Unreal Championship 2: The Liandri Conflict

"The Flak Cannon was first employed against humans during the suppression of the Green's World Rebellion. Alt-fire lobs a deadly explosive shell. Primary fire detonates the shell in the barrel to fire a spread of hot metal fragments."
Weapon description

Primary Fire
Fires shards of flak from a pre-exploded shell. The fragments can bounce off of walls and move slowly, so they are easily reflected. They also glow so they are highly visible.
Secondary Fire
A grenade full of shrapnel is lobbed at the enemy, spraying shrapnel in all directions upon detonating. If you're luckily some of the shards it sprays upon detonation will hit your enemies, causing further damage. Difficult to reflect because of it's heavy trajectory.

Unreal Tournament 3

"Trident Defensive Technologies continues to tweak and refine the flak cannon with their newly released Mk4 "Peacekeeper." In spite of its new name, the flak cannon remains banned from most military conflicts for high incidences of maiming and collateral damage. Still, the flak cannon is the weapon of choice for unconventional warfare in urban terrain. The primary mode detonates the flak shell in the barrel, launching shrapnel forward in a deadly shotgun pattern but often deafening the operator. The cannon also lobs an explosive flak shell that detonates on contact, sending shrapnel in a dangerously wide and unpredictable radius."
Weapon description

Primary Fire
White hot chunks of scrap metal are sprayed forth, shotgun style. The chunks glow as they do in UT, but they also create a trail of yellow-red behind all the chunks, making it easier to see.
Secondary Fire
A grenade full of shrapnel is lobbed at the enemy, spraying shrapnel in all directions upon detonating. If you're luckily some of the shards it sprays upon detonation will hit your enemies, causing further damage.

The Flak Cannon returns, and it's just as devastating as ever. It has been upgraded to make it more powerful. It had received the biggest overhaul of the Flak Cannon's visual look, replacing the front component with 4 sub-pieces that expand slightly upon equipping the Flak Cannon, the Flak shell shrinking greatly, and a less rifle-related look on the weapon compared to the previous editions.

Unreal Tournament 4

"The primary fire mode of the Flak Cannon fires metal shards. The secondary fire mode launches an explosive shell at an arc."
Weapon description

Primary fire
Shoots a quick burst of shrapnel that ricochets off of surfaces. Extremely deadly up close and in tight environments, less effective at longer ranges. Beware of backsplash!
Alternate fire
Lobs an entire shell in a medium range arc. Harder to predict but extremely deadly in direct aspect. If the shell explodes at the environment it causes a shrapnel splash explosion.
Tips - Shrapnel jumping
Shooting a shell into the ground while closeby will propel you upwards. This comes at a large cost to health, so it should be used wisely.

The Flak Cannon makes a return in UT4, with an appearance reminiscent to the UT00-era Flak Cannon.

The primary fire sprays forth white hot chunks of scrap metal, shotgun style. The secondary fire lobs a grenade full of shrapnel at an opponent, spraying shrapnel in all directions upon detonating. The shards it sprays upon detonation may hit your enemies, causing further damage.

Tips and tricks

  • For more power, do not fire the flak shells at the walls to reflect into enemies, as it makes them weaker and less accurate. Also don't fire from long range, as the pellets get less accurate over time. Just rush up to the enemy, face forwards, and shoot them to death for best results. If you HAVE to kill them from long range you can use the alt fire anyways, remember that in UT3-4 the "grande" oneshots people without a shield in a direct hit.

Unreal

Unreal Championship

"The flak cannon is the deadliest close-range weapon. Its one-hit kill makes it hard to beat in close quarters, and the secondary fire is just as deadly at medium range.
It’s of little use at long range, however, and must be used with care in tight spaces. Flak can ricochet back at you.

The primary fire is like a shotgun blast. It spreads out in the shape of a cone. At near ranges, it turns opponents into pulp. Hold your fire until you see the whites of their eyes for one-shot kills.

The secondary fire lobs a flak grenade that explodes with a tight blast radius. Hitting an enemy dead-on usually results in a one-shot kill. When the enemy is too far away to wipe out with the primary fire, switch to the secondary blast. Don’t aim at the feet, though. A direct hit is far more effective.

Rocket launchers are most useful in tight maps and in areas that are well traveled. The flak cannon is exceptionally useful in tight quarters, where it gives you a great chance of surprising an enemy up close. You can also do damage to groups by firing off the flak cannon in the midst of a battle.
The Flak Cannon is inefficient in multilevel warfare. It’s difficult to hit foes above you, and the secondary fire’s splash damage isn’t strong enough to do much damage when fired from above.
Know your distances, which tell you which attack to use. Aim for the upper torso and don’t be afraid to wait until you get a good, close shot. Your enemy goes down with a single blast."
Unreal Championship Prima's Official Strategy Guide


Gallery

Trivia

  • With the absence of the Ripper from UT2003 and UT2004, the Flak Cannon's primary firing mode was given an extra boost in its reflective physical properties.
  • According to information in Unreal Championship 2, the Flak Cannon was first employed against humans during the suppression of the Green's World Rebellion in 2267.

External links and references


See also

Game not specified.

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