X4 Foundations: What Does Each Missile Do Guide

There are 21 different missiles in X4 Foundations 4.20 but the in game encyclopedia is rather lackluster and missing some of the special attributes that some missiles have. In this guide we will cover every missile currently available and see what each one does.
Closed Captions available.
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X4: Foundations is the latest title in the popular X series of space simulation / sandbox games, played as action games from a first-person perspective in a living breathing universe, with TRADE FIGHT BUILD THINK as the common tag-line. X4: Foundations is unique in its depth, simulating an entire universe of NPC ships and stations, forming a realistic economy. It consists of a huge universe, simulated from the bottom up. Hundreds of stations, and thousands of ships, trade goods among themselves. Prices change based on supply and demand; resources are mined and processed in several stages. This economy is linked directly to the simulation of major conflicts in a universe with dynamically-acting factions. Every player decision can dramatically change the future of the game universe. Step in and live your very own space adventure!
#x4foundations

[@Shuulleecho]

As for disruptor missile - it is unique. Coming from game files, it has assigned special "influence" . It disables boost and travle drive for 30 seconds as EMP missiles do, BUT in addition it disables main engine thrust and maneuvering thrusters for 15-20 seconds, which means that enemy will be a real sitting duck, perfect for pirating and some other uses. There are also few more things that you may have missed (e.g. difference between encyclopedia missile range and launch range that AI uses) but they are kind of minor for most players, great video!

[@michaelmacdonell4834]

Did someone say "boarding"???

[@Valok]

i love how you say "its my favorite" and how the stickman hugging it fits. underrated details.

[@modestasbliznikas7105]

My man, don't stop doing what you doing, so far you are only youtuber for x4 who do not talk 20min to explain something you do in one sentence. LOVE THE VIDS

[@Fanunic]

I have over 200 hours in X4 and still find these videos super helpful -- thank you for making them!

[@michaelmacdonell4834]

He's damn' good at this.

[@CAnDA7D2]

@@michaelmacdonell4834 Same with over 500 hours in xD

[@umadbroimatroll7918]

Wait that's it? I've had the game for about a week and have 60 hours in it so far, on this speed I'll hit 200 in no time, nearly got my first station built and learned how to play so far.

[@alexchan1318]

40 hours and feeling less stupid after reading these comments

[@hamelionz]

@@alexchan1318 In X4, 200 hours means you have just installed the game...

[@Peter-Oak]

This video was very informative. You should make a whole series like that! L an M turrets, shields and engines. Even veteran players would learn something new.

[@JKNinja]

I have a script in the works for that very video! I started a reddit about it here if you would like to add anything: www.reddit.com/r/X4Foundations/comments/rkl29f/what_is_your_favorite_weapon_and_why/

[@04jeanpiero]

Thanks for your video! really I don't know why egosoft is so secretive about how missiles are suppose to function. Your guide is totally on point.

[@12Prophet]

"~hits with a boom boom" Never change, Ninja... You are correct the way you are.

[@kajarslibrary5404]

Maybe a bit late to the party, but the Heavy Dumbfire missiles are a great substitute for L Plasma turrets. The Mk2 for example has a dps of 960 with a targeting range of 10km. The big thing is that you can mount those on M turret slots. Meanwhile the L Plasma turrets are at around 1050 dps, depending on which variant, with some 8-9km range. So those Heavy Dumbfires can massively increase your ships anti-capital damage output. And the missiles inheriting the ships speed also allows for some fun shenanigans. With the (Heavy) Cluster missiles you can technically hit targets more than 200km away for example.

[@polarisproject1568]

I love your videos. Keep them up!

[@RainsvilleCovers]

Great work again on another video! Your videos are what you me into another X4 playthrough

[@ReinisIkass]

Thanks for the detailed and fun explanation!

[@markwright5848]

Man, solid videos, well researched, and good production value! Great work!

[@herbertpocket8855]

Great video! Perfect balance of information and fun. Bookmarked for my next playthrough

[@manoeuvringwithdifficulty]

Great stuff, I'm so glad you've shone a super-informative spotlight on the humble missiles of X4.

[@mrotama1412]

Absolutely love this video, you make really good content please continue.

[@Emanemoston]

Thanks for the video.

[@lightbringer502]

I just downloaded this and your guides are the best I've seen. Seriously, great job.

[@crym77]

I've been playing X series for years. Been playing X4 for years. You taught me about missiles in X4. Thank you!

[@stevestanley6130]

much needed video for new or old players. Great job

[@Njordin2010]

This video was top notch. Underrated youtuber here.

[@NotThatBob]

Mind boggling to think of all the things I never knew about this 1 game. Hope these videos never end.

[@jakeschroeder9221]

Thank you so much for making these videos. Exceptional quality and super super informative! Egosoft should make you their game mechanic explainer guy

[@mycu6351]

You are born to make X4 vids.

[@Matrix2Strata017]

I'm thankful for this video! So glad I now know what each missile does. I hate the encyclopedia so much it is super useless. There is no description for like 90% of the stuff.

[@user-tu1ly8sh3t]

You are a good youtuber. Spead out my man, x4 has to few ppl lookin for content. You will get big

[@rudolfp2885]

Just discovered your X4 videos - short, insightful, and witty. Please keep making these! (Also if you play X3FL similar for missiles and guns there would be amazing )

[@JKNinja]

Thanks! Unfortunately I don't have any experience with X3, I came into the X Universe through Foundations as one of the many Elite Dangerous refuges

[@sir_killalot]

Great video as always! Love it!

[@JKNinja]

I forget to mention how missiles inherit the ship speed 😲! Torpedo's are amazing, I really like the sound they make when a bunch of them explode. Very unique

[@michaelmacdonell4834]

Full speed ahead, and damn the torpedos!

[@AlexAnder-dh8qz]

Once I learned hard leason, that smart and swarm missiles can destroy surface elements and getting hit by several volleys can completely disable entire Syn for minutes, until crew can repair enough modules to at least defend the ship. So boarding operation against 1-missile-turret-left L class battleship could end up very poorly...

[@the-BOR-dojo]

Never used missiles before in any X game. i guess ill try them. Nice break down.

[@bobbywhite1645]

Was hoping for more comparison bar graphs like with the ship videos so we could see more what is what for damage, maneuverability, speed, etc for each type and light and heavy versions. But its a helpful video anyway, thanks

[@garrettflaherty5440]

Finally somebody discusses star urst and what it does

[@gerry919]

thx I'm a BIG Rocket Fan and was wondering if it's worth it and this Vid shows me that it absolutly is!! THX!!!

[@fishsnapz5501]

Tabbed back to game to check my trades just as that hull critical played at 6:44 played... scared the crap outa me.

[@quadg5296]

in defence of the disruptor missile. I just had a ZYA cobra prevent me from escaping with a newly stolen XL Monitor. every time I started the travel drive it hit me with a missile from outside my weapon range. it also cuts your system drive as well. it was so annoying that i had to teleport three sectors to a fighter, fly back and kill it. every other ship in sector was leading the ZYA fleet away. and i ignored 1 cobra. the disruptor missile almost wrecked a perfectly good cutting out expedition. I had to re watch this video to figure out what it was. good vid by the way.

[@james2042]

I use missiles in a few places. The big one is on my personal fighter, as it helps pump out lots of damage very quickly for when I'm out numbered to hopefully not get blown up. I will use missiles sometimes on frigates because they're not exactly maneuverable and since they have turrets, have a consistent form of damage anyways. Last one is a special use case which is a swarm of torpedo bombers to absolutely obliterate carriers or a medium ship (corvette pref) full of them to ambush destroyers

[@CaneMcKeyton]

It's hard to pull off but an alpha strike of torpedo bomber fighters on a capital ship or station is a sigh to behold

[@1110jesse]

One funny thing about some missiles is that if you launch them while you're moving, they will gain that speed as their own. Especially nice for torpedoes, cos the range on those things is not hard capped, it's just velocity multiplied by time, and if you increase velocity, the range goes up too. Been bombarding Erlking from 20km away with torpedoes that have 12km "effective range" in the encyclopedia. Might be cos I launch em while moving over 500 m/s, while the torps have their own velocity of 67 m/s. One caveat is that I do not know does the torpedoes launched in that way lose their speed over time and slow down to that 67 m/s speed, or do they perpetually keep that extra speed, tremendously increasing their maximum range. The torpedos max flight time is about 3 minutes, and how far can it go if I were to move at, let's say, 1200 m/s while in travel mode? Welp, way past 200 kilometers.

[@christopherpollard3809]

This was a great video. I've always stared at the missiles in the encyclopedia trying to figure them out wanting to use them but not wanting to spend the credits to experiment. Also I'd love to see a video on how to fix the npc stations not producing any wares if possible.

[@JKNinja]

If you scan a station (I believe 66% minimum) you'll be able to access the logistical view and see what is stopping production. If you are still having problems upload a screenshot to reddit or discord and we can see further what is the problem

[@christopherpollard3809]

@@JKNinja awesome thanks for replying. I'll start scanning stations. Normally I just end up restarting the game since the vast majority of the sectors stop producing wares. This should be way better. At least I should be able to take advantage of the market issue 😄

[@umahorseman]

Heavy torpedos are my favorite so far. Put 1 of em on a chimera and 4 other main gun of your choice and you're Gucci. For fighting big stuffs at least. I use those setup as my raptor carrier's strike force for when I've deployed my tanky fighters to distract enemies turrets

[@proxima7199]

THank you! A very good video. Which missiles would you recommend for S fighter to fight against capital ships?

[@JKNinja]

torpedoes or cluster missiles

[@sim.frischh9781]

While there are some quite interesting ones in the collection, the limited weapon hardpoints the ships in X 4 have compared to earlier titles means that missiles are not really attractive. Yes, each launcher holds additional missiles, but overall you HAVE to fly for reloads after every single fight, as you otherwise risk running out of ammo mid next fight.

[@XxKidnoffxX]

About your intro, it's because space missiles and in atmosphere is not the same at all. Space ships go so fast

[@gatorbill5710]

Excellent video. Is there a way to switch between missile types?

[@modestasbliznikas7105]

i think is K button

[@JKNinja]

you can create custom firegroups to switch between missile types, but you will have to wait for them to reload every time you switch. Check out this page for how to setup those hotkeys: www.egosoft.com:8444/confluence/display/X4WIKI/Combat+And+Weapons#CombatAndWeapons-MainWeaponFiregroups

[@gatorbill5710]

@@JKNinja Thank you so much

[@gufbrindleback]

Here's a few good ones for you to do, JK! Can you do a video explaining support ships and carriers? Why would you use one vs. the other? How do you get a carrier to take on supplies, if it (apparently?) can't have traders? How do you manage ship-launched fighters on other types of ships? Do support ships rearm ships in or out of a fleet that can't land on them? How do you get your ships to go get repaired and rearmed, and is there a way to do that besides having them in a fleet? Thanks JK! Happy New Year!

[@JKNinja]

I'd like to make a carrier/supply ship video but I personally go destroyer spam so don't have a lot in experience with them. I need to spend more time with those two ships so that video is going to happen, but it might be later rather than sooner

[@gufbrindleback]

@JK Ninja I'm in about the same boat! I resurrected a game I'd left off a while ago. I have destroyers with service crew to fix them up, but my small ships accumulate damage and never go get fixed up despite my global orders. I wound up picking up a supply ship, but he's leaving confused traders when the fleet moves to a new sector. I'm pretty interested in building out bomber squadrons and experimenting with missiles, after seeing some videos of people doing that. I'd avoided them due to the micromanagement of ammo, but if I can get my employees to take care of that, well.... that has my attention!

[@Jehutyv4]

Your timing... is accurate 🤣

[@MrPhiltri]

Was playing X3 a decade ago and realized that the entire combat mechanic stops working if you just use enough missles. Had a missle boat mod installed. Was hella fun, but also somewhat op...

[@repatomonor21]

The Disruptor missiles were part of the story in X3 Reunion, they basically disabled the engines of ships for a while. Maybe they do the same in X4?

[@JKNinja]

Yeah, Shuul brought that up as it's another hidden feature missing from the encyclopedia. I knew I had to be missing something because otherwise that missile is just so bad

[@repatomonor21]

@@JKNinja Needless to say, your videos are really informative and even I learn something new by you! For instance, I never really bothered with missiles, you summed them up pretty well!

[@StoneLegion]

Been about a year and a half. Did someone help Egosoft find that text box yet ;) ?

[@D4RKxMARAUDER]

Do a video on the benefits of owning a sector please

[@JKNinja]

I've thought about it but it would be a very short video as Egosoft haven't developed sector ownership yet

[@rpscorp9457]

@@JKNinja I think the biggest gain right now would be able to set the sector "rules", so you didnt have to deal with anyone elses.

[@trlavalley9909]

How did you get that K to just sit around and play target for your test. That could prove hugely useful if you could share how that is set up.

[@JKNinja]

It was spawned in without a pilot. There is a mod (forgot the name) that allows you to do this

[@trlavalley9909]

@@JKNinja Cool, worth checking into. Have a better one.

[@Gellidus]

I find swarming large ships with torp bombers is the most satisfying thing ever.

[@trlavalley9909]

Oh I so wish I had captured this.., So my Minotaur bomber gets in a scrape with a Minotaur pirate. After a couple minutes I finally get the upper-hand and beat the Pirate down to about 25% hull; Suddenly my turrets shut down, I just can't get them to fire. I think I'm supposed to board or something. So I swap weapon sets and unload two heavy torpedo's into that bad boy. You would have soooo loved that boom at 1K, just so satisfying. "We Surrender" BOOM "Wha?? oh never mind."

[@gospoddinchev5024]

very good video i love it but you don't tell us HOW to manufacture missiles i want to build my own missiles but HOW to do it ????

[@JKNinja]

You get them from wharfs and shipyards. If you have your own you supply missile components but you dont make the individual missiles for transport

[@gospoddinchev5024]

@@JKNinja ok but what blueprints do i need to manufacture missiles and torpedoes "missile components production" ok got that i have it and i got all the blueprints for missiles but what is the main building that makes the missiles do i need a ship fabrication bay or maybe ship maintenance bay

[@JKNinja]

Either bay will work. If you have the missile blueprint (light missile for example) it will appear on the consumables tab when you are installing your loadout

[@Rysdad1]

What mod gives you that blue square tracking cursor?

[@JKNinja]

that is the tracking icon for missiles when it doesn't have a lock on

[@polarisproject1568]

I would love to see a video of the elite and how useless it is.

[@michaelmacdonell4834]

Weirdly, I like it better than, say Teladi options. I find it's one of the better dogfighters

[@dh8203]

Yeah, I don't get how X4 is still missing so much intended text in the Encyclopedia.

[@MidKnight2142]

Still want to live my fantasy of firing a full broadside of torpedoes in a capital ship on capital ship engagement. Like in the Wing Commander movie from the 90s.

[@JKNinja]

Agree. Turrets are more effective but there is a "cool factor" that only a broadside can give you

[@specrtre]

🤣 love the 40k reference

[@Sheppardsg1]

so where do i get them? i got some scores to settle with laser sattelites on one mission

[@JKNinja]

Missiles are purchased at wharfs, shipyards, and equipment docks under the same tab as deployables. You'll need to equip a launcher on the ship first them to see them

[@Sheppardsg1]

@@JKNinja much tnx

[@flankspeed007]

Have a comment for the algorithm. Anyone who uses a clip from Top Gun to explain missiles deserves more views!

[@v44n7]

i am new into x4 with 50 hours in, i never used missiles yet but gonna try, what i have noticed is that the IA doesn't use much of missiles, it this intended?

[@JKNinja]

the AI rarely uses missiles, but I find that they increase missile usage as the games goes on. May be due to getting the supply chain up and running for it

[@TheIceThorn]

i really miss the hornet

[@spoonikle]

Interceptor missile carrier, for fly swatting 😂

[@houstonhelicoptertours1006]

0:12 no actual air-to-air missile in service causes damage this extreme. Real life is rather unspectacular.

[@TroaBarton]

Step 1 get a carrier Step 2 fill it with high speed torp dispensers Step 3 insta nuke anything Step 4 hate your decision when you need to reload all your fighters

[@TurKlack]

Really wish Egosoft would look at modern Naval Warfare for their Space Combat. Long Range = Missiles, torpedos and Siege weapons, medium = heavy Turrets and Shortrange = Anti fighter. And they really have to stop balancing the damage of their weapons. Instead create weapons that workaround a problem. Laserdefense to strong? Make Countermeasure mines that imitade a Fighter Jet. Also with Long Range I really mean LONG. 50 km at least.

[@JKNinja]

I would prefer that as well but Egosoft want their combat to be like Star Wars, not modern warfare. Unfortunately it is what it is

[@ben8929]

In X3 there were Missile Frigates that could bomb anything from extreme distance but a lot of players didn't like them and considered overpowered, I guess they decided to scrap that idea for X4

[@Josivis]

I play Chicken with the enemy then when he is about to pass I hit the launch button

[@cmdrgogen3203]

If we produce these, would Argon buy it in large quantities?

[@JKNinja]

Not the assembled missiles, but they will by the missiles components, energy cells, and smart chips needed to make them

[@Rysdad1]

X4 drastically needs more missile types and MUCH larger and more visually appealing explosions.... and most of all it needs better flak representation maybe on only L ships. Honestly just more weapon types and greater weapon visuals in general

[@whiskizyo2067]

how many more variations can you deliver damage in a missile that's unique enough to warrant another type?

[@Rysdad1]

@@whiskizyo2067 different effects, colors, explosion colors, and area of effect. Plenty of ways to do it

[@whiskizyo2067]

@@Rysdad1 can you name 10 more effects and aoe variations? as for colours and explosion colours, lol. also would then up making 50 missile types with stats showing mostly only 12 are used, and that's without considering balance

[@Rysdad1]

@@whiskizyo2067 I'm sorry I didn't realize you were mentally challenged

[@hariseldon3786]

LOL Interstellar differences are much different (slower for obvious reasons) that planetary missiles...

[@TotalyRandomUsername]

EMP sounds promising, but to be honest all missiles i ever used turned out to be completly useless. Way to few damage in compare to your main guns.

[@skylarc6063]

I hate what they did in X4 with missiles. Its like they got PTSD from X3:TC Terran Missile Terror just erasing entire systems and said "Lets make missiles overly difficult to use and nearly impossible to justify carrying over other guns.". THeir damage and speed on top of low ammo counts paired with logistics issues if you want to arm fleets with them make them really only good for player ships for niche purposes.

[@stallker3000]

Not gonna lie - I have more than 3500 hours in x4. Never used missiles. I have some stuff to do now.

[@Nuno.A]

Fighter bombers armed with torps makes capital ship fighting a thing of the past, a very short past.. bit sad actually, the challenge in conquering all the known world it's the stupid AI

[@majesticturtle7037]

"Anti anti missile missile" 🤣

[@joereedster]

Thank you for this info! Here's a link about where "Mk" comes from -- it's usually pronounced "mark." en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_(designation)

[@michaelmacdonell4834]

This is much-needed information. Clear, too. Has anyone said you sound like a younger Nathan Timmel? I'm just downloading the V6 beta to see what will be coming down the road. One thing of interest is they list improvements to encyclopedia entries as a change. If you are on Steam you can get the download easily enough. Back-up your savegames, R-click the game in the left sidebar, go "Properties", Betas, and type in the password IBackedUpMySaves . You should then see the option public_beta in the dropdown list of options. Something to note, if there's a reason to roll back the game to an earlier iteration they are all in that list. Just be aware that there's a difference between X-game number, game engine series number, version number and "Tech" number" For that, you'll have to go to the egosoft forum, because my brain hurts now! www.egosoft.com/community/news_en.php