GTW UD-8 Kayser

The GTW UD-8 Kayser is an advanced primary weapon that is now in its late OpEval period. It has high marks for both shield and armor penetration, beyond even the formidable GTW Prometheus S. Its shots move fast, reach a decent range, and pack a heck of a punch. That's the good news. The bad news is that, as expected for a prototype weapon, its compatibility with existing fighters and bombers is poor. Few craft can mount this cannon. The weapon's energy requirements are also very high. Still, when you see one of these on the battlefield, you should immediately be very cautious. It's a powerful device, given only to veteran and elite squadrons. Special Operations Command, especially, seems to have priority selection.

Weapons in Descent: FreeSpace

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Weapons in FreeSpace 2

Primaries Secondaries Turrets Weapon Comparison Table, FS2

The GTW UD-8 Kayser

Tech Room Data

The GTW UD-8 Kayser is the result of an intensive study of Shivan weapon technology. The Kayser emits focused waves of subatomic particles that bombard its target. Impact causes the wave function of the particles to collapse and emit extremely intense, zero-point energy microbursts. Standard policy dictates that weapons of this magnitude be mounted only on bombers, but it has become common practice for field technicians to mount them on fighters.

Performance

Statistics - UD-8 Kayser

Range	975 m
Rate of Fire	4 shots per second
Velocity	650 ms-1
Base Damage	28
Armor Damage	Full	28
Shield Damage	Very Good	25.2
Subsystem Damage	Poor	9.8

Statistics - UD-D Kayser

Range	975 m
Rate of Fire	3.33 shots per second
Velocity	650 ms-1
Base Damage	16.8
Armor Damage	Full	16.8
Shield Damage	Full	16.8
Subsystem Damage	Average	9.8

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.

Terran Compatibility		Vasudan Compatibility
Ship Class	Compatible	Ship Class	Compatible
GTF Ulysses	✗	GVF Thoth	✗
GTF Loki	✓	GVF Serapis	✗
GTF Hercules	✓	GVF Horus	✓
GTF Hercules Mark II	✓	GVF Seth	✓
GTF Myrmidon	✓	GVF Tauret	✓
GTF Perseus	✓	GVF Ptah	✗
GTF Pegasus	✗	GVB Osiris	✓
GTF Erinyes	✓	GVB Bakha	✗
GTF Ares	✓	GVB Sekhmet	✗
SF Mara (Terrans)	✗
GTB Zeus	✗
GTB Medusa	✗
GTB Artemis (Inc. D.H.)	✗
GTB Ursa	✗
GTB Boanerges	✓

Notes

Veteran Comments

Please read the Veteran Comments policy before editing this section.

If there is a gun that you want to have when dogfighting, this is that gun. Combining rapid fire with high damage, a well-aimed volley of Kayser fire can convert most fighters to small amounts of debris with little difficulty. The downside is high energy requirements, which somewhat reduces the advantage of the rapid firing rate. Make no mistake: if somebody comes at you spraying Kayser pulses, he's not going to do it for long, but you could well be dead before he stops.

When I first got to use the Kayser, I stopped using other primary weapons when I had the chance. This gun delivers such a punch that it can actually deplete weak shields and still have enough power to damage the hull. In fact, for some of the fighters with little hull plating, even a direct hit from four Kayser projectiles can knock their shields from full to null.

The Kayser is a good anti-fighter and anti-bomber primary. However, it devours too much energy to be of much use against freighters and cruisers. In such cases, it is advisable to take some Trebuchets or forget the Kayser and take a Maxim or dual Prometheus S cannons. Like most high-consumption anti-bomber cannons, sacrifice some speed for a higher primary recharge rate. With Kaysers, you may run out of energy real fast and at the worst time. Most typically, you will use the Kayser in the main campaign with a GTF Erinyes, the eight guns of which will eat all your primary energy in a few seconds. This might be discouraging, but on a 4-gun Perseus, Kaysers serve well, both as anti-fighter and anti-bomber.

The Kayser is an excellent dogfight weapon if you have a quick, moderately-armored ship. You'll need the extra speed and padding so you can divert some energy to your primaries. If you need your speed and all the shielding you can, you should go with something else, such as dual Prom-S.

The Kayser is essentially a more balanced Banshee, sacrificing extra shield damage for more hull devastation.