Gameplay

CE:Fuel Rod Gun

From Halopedia, the Halo wiki

Fuel Rod Gun
A screenshot of the campaign version of the Zasqi-pattern fuel rod gun, taken in the Halo Editing Kit by manually disabling the auto self-destruct feature.
The Fuel Rod Gun in Halo: Combat Evolved campaign.
Gameplay role

Faction:

Covenant

Weapon tier (?):

Heavy weapon

Weapon class (?):

Launcher

Weapon type (?):

Explosive

Firing mode:

Charge (automatic release)

Effective range:

Medium

Counterparts:

Human (UNSC)
Rocket Launcher
Covenant
Fuel Rod Gun (MP)
Gameplay 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 [Note 1]

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[1]
hunter fuel rod[2]

 

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.[3][4][5]

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.[2] 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[edit]

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.[6] In the game's Anniversary remaster the model was replaced with that of the Korva-pattern fuel rod gun from Halo: Reach.[6]

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[edit]

Counterparts[edit]

Campaign[edit]

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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.[1][2]

Damage Modifiers[edit]

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[edit]

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