CE:Fuel Rod Gun

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Fuel Rod Gun
The Fuel Rod Gun in Halo: Combat Evolved campaign.
Gameplay role
Faction:	Covenant
Weapon tier (?):	Heavy weapon
Weapon class (?):	Launcher
Firing mode:	Charge (automatic release)
Effective range:	Medium
Counterparts:	Human (UNSC) Rocket Launcher Covenant Fuel Rod Gun (MP)
Weapon stats
Splash damage:	75 out to 0.5 wu, down to 40 at 1.5 wu (radius)
Projectile effects:	Detonates on impact
Projectile speed:	14 wu/s out to 0 wu, down to 5 wu/s after 100 wu 100% gravity
Hitscan range (?):	~0.466 wu
Max range (?):	0 wu
Rate of fire:	1.25s charge time
Spread (?):	0 degrees
Magazine size:	Grunt: 4 rounds Hunter: 0 rounds
Reserve ammo capacity:	Grunt: 24 rounds (6 magazines) Hunter: 0 rounds
Tag name (?):	fuel rod hunter fuel rod

The Fuel Rod Gun is a Covenant heavy weapon featured in the campaign of Halo: Combat Evolved and its remaster, Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary. It is one of two handheld fuel rod guns that appears throughout the Combat Evolved experience, appearing exclusively in the hands of NPC enemies throughout the campaign and unusable by the player. An alternate variant of the weapon which can be used is featured in the multiplayer of the 2003 PC port by Gearbox Software, alongside Halo: The Master Chief Collection.

Alongside the regular weapon held by Grunts, a second variant of the fuel rod is featured in Combat Evolved's campaign; an arm-mounted variant used by the Hunters and known in the game files as the Hunter Fuel Rod. While distinct in appearance, the Hunter variant is statistically and mechanically almost identical to the standard Fuel Rod Gun. This variant would be named Assault Cannon in later media.

Information on the Fuel Rod Gun found in the Halo: Combat Evolved's multiplayer component can be found here. For the Halo: Campaign Evolved iteration, further information can be found here.

Universe and lore

Main article: Zasqi-pattern fuel rod gun

The Zasqi-pattern fuel rod gun is one of multiple fuel rod gun models developed and used by the Covenant. In the game's Anniversary remaster the model was replaced with that of the Korva-pattern fuel rod gun from Halo: Reach.

While known in the internal files as the Hunter Fuel Rod, the Hunters' arm-mounted weapons are named in modern lore as assault cannons. In Combat Evolved the weapon is an arm-mounted fuel rod launcher with a rotary magazine; in Halo 3 onward this would be redesigned to fire incendiary gel, stored in glowing containers on the weapon. As with the regular weapon, in Anniversary the assault cannon was replaced with the model of the Halo: Reach Hunter.

Gameplay

Counterparts

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  Rocket Launcher

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  Fuel Rod Gun (multiplayer)

Campaign

This section is a stub. You can help Halopedia by expanding it.

The Fuel Rod Gun appears throughout the Halo campaign exclusively in the hands of Spec-Ops Grunts. They may use the weapon against the player, with it requiring a charge-up to fire and firing an explosive bolt. When the Grunt operator is killed, a dead-man's switch is activated, with a short delay before the weapon explodes similarly to a Plasma Grenade. This property is shared with the Energy Sword.

The Hunter Fuel Rods perform identically to the Grunts' shoulder-fired weapons, with their only difference being a lack of a reserve ammunition capacity. To prevent friendly fire incidents the Hunters are immune to their fuel rod blasts, giving them the unintended side effect of also being immune to munitions fired from a regular fuel rod launcher. Both weapons are additionally set such that they cannot hurt their operators.

Damage Modifiers

dirt	sand	stone	snow	wood	metal (hollow)	metal (thin)	metal (thick)	rubber	glass	force field	grunt	hunter armor	hunter skin	elite	jackal	jackal energy shield	engineer	engineer force field	flood combat form	flood carrier form	cyborg	cyborg energy shield	armored human	human	sentinel	monitor	plastic	water	leaves	elite energy shield	ice	hunter shield
1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	0	0	1	1	1	1	0	2	4	1	1	1	1	1	0	1	1	1	1	1	0

Production notes

Main article: Cut Halo: Combat Evolved weapons

The Fuel Rod Gun's design is based on a mix of two pre-Xbox weapons; the Flak Cannon and Fuel Rod Gun. In the 1999 builds of the game the Flak Cannon was to fire explosive projectiles in an arc, a behaviour that was replicated with the final PC port multiplayer fuel rod.

The weapon's visual design, however, comes from the 1999 Fuel Rod Gun, which was realised in Combat Evolved as a campaign NPC-exclusive weapon. In the base game the weapon is textured with a gold colouration (something which would be later followed up in Halo 2 onward), though the game shaders give it a black tint. When developing the PC port, Gearbox Software remodelled and textured the weapon in higher-fidelity and changed the colour to purple for consistency with other Covenant equipment.

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  1999 Flak Cannon.

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  1999 Fuel Rod Gun.

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  2001 Fuel Rod Gun (campaign).

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  2003 Fuel Rod Gun (multiplayer).

Gallery

Halo: Combat Evolved

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  A render of the fuel rod gun released by Bungie, with a gold shader more akin to the redesigns later featured in Halo 2-onwards.

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  A Special Operations Unggoy with a fuel rod gun in Halo: Combat Evolved.

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  Zuka 'Zamamee and a Spec Ops Grunt with the weapon.

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  The Hunter arm-mounted variant.

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  A Hunter firing its Fuel Rod Gun on The Silent Cartographer.

Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary

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  A Spec-Ops Grunt holding a Fuel Rod Gun.

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  Zuka 'Zamamee and a Spec Ops Grunt with the weapon.