GTW Banshee

GTW-7 Banshee

Weapons in Descent: FreeSpace

Primaries Secondaries Turrets Weapon Comparison Table, FS1

Weapons in FreeSpace 2

Primaries Secondaries Turrets Weapon Comparison Table, FS2

The GTW-7 Banshee

Tech Room Data

An electromagnetic weapon - sends rapid pulses of exceptionally strong electromagnetic energy resulting in a 1.63 x 105 J blast that forces its way through any known shield technology and produces a dramatic shearing effect which quickly destroys the target ship's materials - named for the fact that in an atmosphere, the pulse creates an atmospheric disturbance similar to a quasi-human scream at 140 dB - uses up a tremendous amount of available ship energy - already, it is has been used by many GTA fighter aces and test pilots as a coup de grace, although such a use for this massively powerful offensive weapon is officially viewed as poor sportsmanship by the GTA.

The GTW-7's impressive anti-shielding capabilities make it the weapon of choice against the Shivans. The main limitation of this weapon is low weapons compatibility. It can only be fitted on a GTF Valkyrie or a GTF Hercules.

Command Brief Animation

Performance

Statistics

Name	GTW Banshee
Range	975 m
Rate of fire	2.5 s-1
Velocity	650 ms-1
Damage	31.2
Armor damage	18.2
Shield damage	31.2
Subsystem damage	9.1

Additional properties

• Weapon is a primary cannon (Primary weapon)

Compatibility

The following table refers to weapons compatibility in singleplayer, and does not reflect the compatibility of dogfight variants in multiplayer. A ✓ mark indicates that a ship can mount the weapon, whereas an ✗ mark indicates that it cannot.

Compatibility
Ship Class	Compatible
GTF Apollo	✗
GTF Ulysses	✗
GTF Valkyrie	✓
GTF Hercules	✓
GTF Loki	✓
GTB Athena	✗
GTB Zeus	✗
GTB Medusa	✗
GTB Ursa	✗

Notes

Veteran Comments

Please read the Veteran Comments policy before editing this section.

The Banshee's higher energy requirements, extremely slow firing rate in paired banks, and lower hull damage are, in general, not worth the added shield-stripping punch when compared to the Prometheus. At the very least the Banshee requires being paired with a more powerful anti-hull cannon, or missiles like the Hornet or Interceptor.

The only primary weapon with an actual value matched to it. The yield is 163 kJ, which is about equivalent to about nine .50 BMG rounds, and several orders of magnitude below the yields stated for the missiles.

The Banshee is useful for Shivan vessels with high shield to armor ratios, best when coupled with hull damaging weapons- either the GTW Avenger or the GTW Prometheus, or even the GTM Fury.

The addition of the Banshee to a fighter greatly increases its destructive rate against other fighter craft. The energy use is quite a bit higher than other weapons, but it's nothing you can't alleviate with good energy management. A Banshee paired with a Prometheus is probably the most powerful and versatile weapon combination in FS1. You'll also find that, in a pinch, the Banshee isn't *that* bad against hulls on its own.

Even on its own, the Banshee is lethal, though mainly to weakly armoured, heavily shielded Shivan fightercraft. If you plan to do intercept in a mission, it's not a bad idea to equip all gun banks with this, but not entirely advisable either. They are not spectacular when it comes to hitting hulls, but not horrible either.

By far the best weapon to use against Shivan fighters, which have exceptional shielding and minimal hull. The Banshee is perfectly balanced against them - but can only be used on the Hercules or Valkyrie in the base game. In Silent Threat it can additionally be used on the Loki or Zeus, but its use is not as effectual given most of your enemies are going to be Terrans.