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Firing Modes
May 16, 2026 at 01:33 AM
Initial version (2026-05-16)
Every weapon hardpoint on the TARTARUS can be set independently to one of three firing modes. The toggle sits at the per-hardpoint level rather than across the whole ship, so a player can run a manually aimed main cannon next to an automatically engaging anti-air battery while the rest of the broadside is queued for a coordinated salvo. For the broader pitch, see the overview.
Each mode changes who chooses the target for that hardpoint and when the trigger pulls. The table below summarises the three confirmed behaviours.
Mode | Who Targets | Best For |
|---|---|---|
Manual | The player directs every shot personally. | Precise strikes on specific high-value targets, careful fire on objectives where the broadside footprint would be too wide. |
Automatic | The weapon picks its own targets inside its arc and engages without further input. | Hands-off coverage of fast-moving threats and saturated battlefields, freeing the player to focus on another hardpoint or the strategic map. |
Focus Fire | Every hardpoint set to this mode redirects to the same heading at once. | Coordinated broadsides at a single dense target, signature city-leveling salvo windows, opening or closing strikes on a major engagement. |
Because the toggle is per hardpoint, the player can mix modes in the same engagement. A typical loadout might leave anti-air and point-defence guns on Automatic for survivability, hold the main cannons on Manual for precision strikes, and stage the missile arrays on Focus Fire so they all swing to one target the moment the order is given. The mode is part of the loadout configuration the player tunes on the planning screen and can be changed mid-fight when a hardpoint needs to switch register.
Focus Fire is the most-talked-about mode in pre-release coverage. When a player toggles a group of hardpoints to this mode, every weapon in that group simultaneously rotates to the same firing direction and discharges together. The result is the closest the game comes to a single overwhelming broadside: the kind of concentrated, ship-wide salvo that capital-ship anime traditionally builds set pieces around. The developer has framed it as the moment the dreadnought stops being a slow advancing presence and becomes a decisive one.
The firing modes interact with the rest of the ship's modular customization. The TARTARUS Battleship mounts seven equipment layers (hull structures, functional modules, main cannons, missiles, super weapons, carrier-based fighters, and support units) and each of the weapon-class hardpoints can be assigned a mode independently. Equipment unlocked through reverse engineering drops into the same hardpoint catalogue and inherits the same three-mode toggle.
The three firing modes describe weapon hardpoint behaviour on the dreadnought itself. The combat mech launched from the hangar bay is a separate scale of engagement with its own controls and is not currently described as using the same per-hardpoint mode toggle. Functional modules and support units that do not fire on targets directly are also not addressed by the mode toggle.
The mode toggle is well documented at a high level, but specifics have not been clarified. Treat the following as open questions until benkimchi shares more:
Whether each weapon category has additional mode-specific tuning (firing rate, ammunition pool, cooldown) on top of the three modes.
Whether Focus Fire requires a charge-up, a fire window, or other tactical cost.
Whether super weapons follow the same three-mode framework or use a separate trigger system.
How carrier-based fighters and support units are commanded relative to the three firing modes (likely separate, not yet confirmed).
Whether firing-mode presets or saved configurations can be assigned to specific loadouts.
