X4 Foundations: Which Gun is Right for You Guide

[@biggreenthugs]

I just wanted to point out that the vanilla faction weapons are all available from alliance of the word except the blast mortar

[@dondumitru7093]

You do have to somehow improve faction relations with them, and since they don't have many stations, the normal "just do auto-mining in their sectors and your reputation will build" doesn't work so well. So you can do missions with them. Or my preferred way to get reputation for a particular faction in order to unlock something, camp in a light fighter near one of their stations, and shoot any enemy mass traffic that shows up. It's a full point of reputation for each enemy mass traffic ship you destroy, so while it's not "quick" it's also not super slow.

[@JKNinja]

I really need to stop forgetting that the Alliance of the Word even exists 😅

[@RK-252]

@Bob Smith, 500 hours and I keep forgetting ALI. Thanks for the reminder!

[@biggreenthugs]

Setting up a repeat orders trader with a fighter will get you to 10 rep rather quickly. FYI pirates do not harass military ships unless you are piloting them.

[@egoaut]

Spoiler Alarm: You can exploit it by selling items 1 by 1 and repeat it until you have the standing you want. Btw: they sell all commonwealth modules and lot of ships.

[@normis_classic]

1:02 beam emitter (weak laser) 1:43 pulse laser 2:20 bolt repeater (machinegun) 3:04 plasma cannon 4:02 shard battery (shotgun) 4:48 ion blaster (anti shield) 5:29 muon charger (charge before shoot) 6:04 blast mortar (plasma analog) 6:56 mass driver (snipper rifle with zoom) 8:06 burst ray (anti hull attachments like turrets, engines, etc) split 9:20 thermal desintegrator (pulse laser with damage over time on hull) 9:55 neutron gatling (bolt repeater without reload time) 10:45 tau accelerator (automatic shotgun) 11:27 boson lance (sniper rifle less range more damage) terran 12:18 pulse laser (better then stock) 12:48 proton barrage (updated terran pulse laser, expensive, mk2 only terran ships) 13:50 messon stream (sniper rifle huge damage and reload time, only terran ships)

[@sim.frischh9781]

Neutron Gatling takes its name to heart.

[@trlavalley9909]

TY for taking the time to time stamp this. Brand new and this will help.

[@kohlrak]

Summary appreciated

[@benjaminsullivan5386]

Senpai, there's a new expansion out. Humanity requires a hero to rise up and answer the call of covering the Boron stuff. You are the Chosen one, the prophecied bringer of knowledge. Seriously though, good luck in the future, whatever you decide to do

[@marshalleastin1753]

I think this is the only in-depth overview of all the weapons I have found. Awesome!

[@cmdt.brezonte9023]

This is the best analysis of X4 weapons that I have seen so far, I want or rather need an update of this great work, thanks Ninja

[@dusk1947]

I just wanted to say thank you. Over the last year, I think I've watched this in entirety at least twice and have used it as a reference a good dozen other times. All of your guide have been extremely useful

[@Baleur]

Katana with 4 Meson Streams. Build just four of those and have em escort you. Melts anything in one attack run. Doesnt matter that the weapons need to cool down, since the AI does 6km sweeping travel drive turns anyway.

[@varanzmaj]

I need to try this. I've been experimenting with escort ships for my Split destroyers, but they all seem to get deleted pretty fast as soon as any kind of enemy destroyers get added into the mix.

[@Emberheart_]

My general rule of thumb with fixed weapons is to only put them on fighters with a central/nose gun point.

[@JKNinja]

definitely agree, the best place to put a fixed weapon

[@Koshea69]

You just keep nailing it with useful video's. Keep up the great work!

[@Peter-Oak]

Very good vid. I laughed hard at the ion blaster presentation xD It was 100% on point

[@Fanunic]

Fantastic video, can't wait for the turret one!

[@CuriousMind477]

Thanks!

[@JKNinja]

Thank you!

[@CuriousMind477]

Your videos are easily my favorite for X4 walkthrough and breakdowns on various mechanics. You helped me get into the game.

[@thoraero]

I came here and checked so many times these weeks I started playing. Really appreciate it.

[@ThySovereignLP]

You need to make more videos. That great voice of yours is SO nice to listen to

[@tonytwotimes2859]

Love your vids. I generally specialize my ships for their intended roles when I can, but when I send a ship to defend a gate for general purpose defense, I usually send them with bolt repeaters, (I prefer them over the neutron gatling despite it's superior daka daka because of better accuracy and damage) tau accelerators (great against fighters and capitals, as long as you are close), and burst ray/thermal disintegrator (depending on the size of the ship being sent, so it can disable the big boys, even if it can't kill them on it's own).

[@itsgrego5186]

You can deploy your mines faster in the info menu under the ships load out tab. Select the mines under deployables. Deploy button pops up.

[@JKNinja]

Didn't know that! Thanks!!

[@TESI303]

Amazing! I literally had no prior idea about all this info. Keep it coming!

[@Incureus]

Great video once again. Also, congrats to 1.000 subscribers, you earned it!

[@JKNinja]

Thank you very much!

[@ZakEmber]

I picked up this game on Steam a couple days ago since it was on a massive sale, and it's been in my Wishlist for a while. This isn't an easy game to get started in, so I REALLY appreciated this guide on the guns! It's hard to know exactly what you're looking at or thinking of buying in advance in this game, and it's definitely not a game where grabbing the most expensive item automatically means it's the best weapon! (Or ship. Or anything else, really.) Thanks for putting this together!

[@elgwynnyapit2683]

Keep the videos coming my brother

[@JManElite95]

Love the vids man, exceptional as always

[@SpaceWolfHudson]

Very helpful guide, thanks. A guide for weapon modifications and which are preferable for which type of weapon would also be greatly appreciated UwU

[@JKNinja]

I've been wanting to make a modification video for awhile now. I want it to be more than a stats dump, still stuck on putting together a script that would be entertaining and fun. Once I figure that out I'll be sure to make one 👍

[@SpaceWolfHudson]

@@JKNinja Awesome, thanks! :)

[@Nagymedve100]

Very good video. I don't have the patience to experiment, so this video is for me. Until now, I only chose based on the data of the guns and I didn't know that the "Burst Ray" had such special "knowledge". So: you have "won" a subscriber and thank you for this outstanding demonstration.

[@Centrioless]

Thanks, this is so helpful. I wish there are more comprehensive guides for x4, like what we had for x3tc/ap

[@SpaceWolfHudson]

10:18 "How much dakka do you want?" "Yes."

[@thimotedubois6116]

Great video. Simple and clear. Thx a lot.

[@MicStreams]

What a guide, now i gotta go and watch it again, cause you had me laughing my ass off the entire time! Great job!

[@shatteredstar9565]

Been looking at this game for awhile. Your wh40k reference and the sell pushed me over the edge.

[@skalapunk]

Thank you for demystifying the guns

[@Dank713g]

Excellent vid!

[@net2000man]

JK, Happy New Year to you and all of your viewers and subscribers! And congrats on yet ANOTHER awesome video my friend! Thanks and keep 'em coming!! I should update you on my Pirate playthrough, which you absolutely inspired. I've captured more than 20 SCA Phoenix Sentinels and SCA Behemoth Vanguards, and have recently gotten 5 Rattlesnakes and a bunch of Minotaur Raiders (40ish - I use these as my main capturing vessels, and use a Shuyaku Sentinel parked at the Argon shipyard for Marine reinforcements so I can transfer crew with the Minotaurs and buy more marines at the shipyard). I'm having so much fun capping ships that I'm not even doing missions anymore because of the funds selling ships brings in . . . I am currently stalking an Asgard that has crept into Argon space, so this should be fun. I plan to use this one as a Xenon killer and assemble a large strike force, along with a bunch of small and medium fighters/corvettes to roll up the Xenon sectors. Too much fun!!

[@JKNinja]

Happy New Year to you as well! 40 Minotaur Raiders!! You really have taken to the pirates life, glad that you are enjoying the game 😄

[@net2000man]

@@JKNinja Yes, I have them split into capping fleets of 10 each, with 3 of these chasing down the big boys and a spare fleet on patrol in the TEL sectors looking for new targets. Keep up the great work, JK!

[@twistedpixel756]

the Muon Charger is actually really good, i like to pair it with the Ion blaster. I get 3-4 Muons and 2 ions, and give the ions a weapon fire rate modification. I had to learn to use the space bar to fire, but in practice, this combo is really effective for taking out modules on larger ships. the ions clear the shields in an instant while the muons charge, once you hear they're charged, release and repeat. the muons finish off the hull. its great for piracy, and gives you a nice rhythm to keep when popping out from cover to take out those pesky turrets.

[@ansd1513]

Very helpful demonstration! Thx for your work! And happy new year buddy!

[@JKNinja]

Thank you! And Happy New Year to you as well!!

[@mazdysoraya6121]

Enjoyed so much your review.

[@creedrichards137]

Wonderful video, seeing how each weapon works is most useful. As for me, my most recent game I'm Terran all the way (Though I am flirting with the Boron since the latest expansion came out) and my favorite ship is a Katana with 3 Proton Barrage Mk.2s and a missile launcher.

[@ZOMGFAGS]

Very enjoyable and informative, great video.

[@NotThatBob]

I love Ninja's videos, but this one is amazingly useful. Thanks sooooo much.

[@PaddyyYY]

One of my favourite videos about x4! I hope you will do an update at some point.

[@Wayne-fe1ed]

Awesome. The burst ray will take on a new life for me. Thanks.

[@RS250Squid]

I was out of sector in the game, and this video started in the background. Cue mass panic when I heard a bunch of explosions!

[@jean-claudeallard8359]

I love the Muan weapon because it’s powerful and accurate. I’ve had trouble with other weapons hitting smaller targets on my medium ship. And it has a solid 4K range

[@RevengA4]

For anti fighter combat I tried many weapons but no one performs as well as the simple pulse lasers. The bullet speed just matters a lot because even the highest damage won’t help if you can’t hit the target and the pulse lasers just do great. Also like the tau and thermal gun of the split because they are really fun ;D

[@fluffysnowgryph4527]

Burst ray on a fighter/heavy fighter was a go to for my early game when dealing with xenon K's or I's, perfect for stripping off their turrets and models if you are early game and dont have a feet large enough or lacking funds for a destroyer. Really handy if you have your first station and a I or K comes along to say hi, rip off all its turrets and then let the local sector patrol deal with it.

[@maximilianyuen]

just got the game and tons of tutorial, this channe is the best

[@p5eudo883]

Exceptionally helpful video! Thanks!

[@PolarfuchsMusicFav]

Love those videos :)

[@abranubes9571]

Great video... Could we have something similar, but broken down by Ship size ? You already plan maybe a turret-specific video... I think it is great, for example Beam might be so-so on main (except the use cases you mentioned), but on L turrets for capital ships, it can help well to swat flies. What about gunboats then ? etc.. Keep rocking !

[@JKNinja]

Gun size is tied to ship size. This video here is applicable to small and medium ships and the upcoming turret video will cover the large and extra large. I'm hoping that between the two videos it should be able to give you a general idea for a loadout on every ship

[@VonBlade]

Sorry that you gave up. Hope all was well with you. Anyway, on the off chance you return, this video is straightforwards enough it earnt you a sub.

[@michaelgiertz-rath7994]

Thank you for that great vid. Really helps, newbies and old vets as well. I'm something in between. Will fix my little fleet ASAP as it got the wrong outfit to be effective.

[@monstrosity8855]

So many weapons. So many to forget...

[@polarisproject1568]

Freakin' awesome!

[@ch_r0me_one]

Oh, this video needs the Mk2 to account Boso's fellows guns 😅

[@erikturkelson9500]

It's been a while since I used it, but I think the Muon benefits from a small AOE effect when charged up. And you don't have to charge it up to fire a quick blast at smaller power. It seems to be made for S fighter or bomber groups that are sent after the bigger ships.

[@stahlknecht7872]

your x4 videos are excellent!! 😘

[@Demiurge13]

10:20 that's a lotta daka and i love it

[@TwstedTV]

Wow REALLY nice video & very helpful. thank you. :)

[@cyrilmetodej3614]

i love my combination for Odyssey, there is split Tau accelerators on M turrets + paranid plasma on L turrets, fleet of 5-6 such ships is able to kill anything in this game

[@YoutoKSK]

I love the muon charger on my fighter anyway, even I need to charge for every single shot but still it make good damage as S weapon, also it take forever to overheat so in my view it even better than the plasma, at least I don't need to wait for the long cooldown after every 3 shot.

[@davidasteed]

outstanding and highly useful!

[@ZlothZloth]

Now we need a little appendix for the Boron weapons!

[@gerry919]

Nice video was wondering what weapon is for me. From my own tryst I'm a big Split Gatling fan. There can't be to mutch daka But the best thing are still Rockets can't even say why I just like them.

[@JKNinja]

more dakka is always a good thing

[@boogiebomber2191]

May I ask what that super cool Scout ship at the beginning(1:30) is?(not the Vanguard)

[@JKNinja]

That is the Kestrel

[@boogiebomber2191]

@@JKNinja May I ask from what faction?

[@sim.frischh9781]

@@boogiebomber2191 I think it´s a Teladi design. So you can pretty much buy it right from the start as soon as you encounter a Teladi Warft/Shipyard.

[@martynaskrivaitis1961]

5x Thau acceleratord on chimera speed and "slasher" moded are THE way to go. Nemesis is the best for newbs, but once you learn how to fly, dodge and acquire targets fast - nothing beats chimera imo. Once i made a mistake and got into a dogfight deep in xen territory, after i was done i counted 27 dead s/m xen fighters. At some point i was fighting 10~ all at once.

[@martynaskrivaitis1961]

Mistake, i did that with 4x thau and 1 torp launcher. Torps are used do disable engines on large ships or insta-pop P's

[@egoaut]

Ares with ingame mods is a nice alternative, then you have a proper shield tank instead of hull tank. This let you kill more enemies before you have to flee and reload shields goes quick.

[@martynaskrivaitis1961]

@@egoaut no amount of shield will help you when facing 10 other fighters, dodging or boom & zoom are the only real ways to solo the swarm. Boom and zoom is most effective, but boring. Dodging and dogfighting is way more fun and intense. Ares has it niche though, but its pretty limited.

[@kiiper13]

I think it’d be awesome if you looked at a few mods as well, not sure if you’re into using them but the ones in weapon variation expansion are cool and I wonder how that stacks against vanilla weapons

[@zsheets7483]

Ion paired with thermal disintegrators is a favorite combo of mine.

[@lorenzwiedemar1837]

Ah the guns... I fell in love with the bolts once I mounted my nemesis with all 5 of them. Is makes for a very satisfiing Brrrratatata. Only downside is, I tend to get too confident when using it, like: Brrratatata aaah I'm invincible.

[@JKNinja]

completely understand, there is just something so satisfying about rapid firing solid projectiles

[@sim.frischh9781]

@@JKNinja Dragon with 6 Neutron Gatlings. NEEDS MOAR DAKKA!

[@michaelmacdonell4834]

That split weapon - I may have to get some, just to re-invent the A-10 Warthog

[@BizarroStormy]

God bless you for the timestamps 😊

[@facecheck9101]

I liked it just because you added orks with dakka

[@AEsir2023]

Home alone 2 reference made me spew coffee every where

[@sergeyporivkin4530]

Hope to see the same about Boron weapons too! (by you) ^_^

[@xaleypoo4779]

You mention mines, but I'd like to give a shout-out to my man the MK1 laser tower. Get something fast and can take a couple hits, like a Katana, and load it with as many turrets as you can. Then, fly towards an enemy formation, start dropping them when you get close, and GTFO when everything is deployed. Once the enemy is destroyed, you can just move back in and pick up the remaining turrets and any loot that was dropped, or, if the tower swarm is in a good place like in front of a Xenon gate, just leave them there to pick off anyone foolish enough to come anywhere close. Yes, it's expensive, but it's just so fun.

[@albortiiemango4094]

I like using muon charger on small, fast fighters that get really close. The projectile speed is quite low so I don't really like using it outside of knife fights but it does nutty damage even to m ships so I am a staunch supporter of this gun

[@silverlightsun]

LOL I just tested the Burst Ray. Most OP weapon in game. x,D You have L or XL Ship? Prepare to be a sitting duck with no weapons, no shield and no engines, within an instant. I disabled an L class Transport within 1 minute or so. Thanks for the Video.

[@ProsperCraft]

Quite helpful thank you.

[@tiloiam]

Super helpful, thanks! Can you make a missile one as well pls?

[@JKNinja]

I got you! kzbin.info/www/bejne/mICafoSBdrOpe80

[@michaelbennett7561]

He did already make a missile one, it was the video before this one.

[@artur39111]

Tried Terran proton barrage and TER pulse weapon. It took longer time to kill xenon P with proton barrage, while on small fighters it didn't do the trick at all, because their agility is too fast. So my combination is 2 TER pulse + 2 ARG anty surface lasers. That helps my fighter to keep up against every ship in the game. Besides I. You can try it against I thoug, but I wouldn't recommend....

[@planexshifter]

Love the Muon charger- you don’t HAVE to charge it- You can just quickly tap n fire em off’ Your pilots with 3 stars or better use them pretty well.

[@sim.frischh9781]

For weapons like the Mass Driver, a ship with tight weapon grouping seem the obvious choice. Argon Heavy Smalls should profit off of this weapon type., most other races have their gun hardpoints spread out farther except for the terran one, forgot the name... The Nodan should work well with them too.

[@undynelove]

An- TIG - uh - neeee ant - IGGG - on - knee But thank you, great video, there are still people getting around to X4 and this was raw awesome. Rawesome, if you will.

[@BlackRainEntertain]

5:28about the muons: combine these badboys, with the nodan, pack the most overpowered shields and engines on em, buy 5 and make groups of 5, not 6, not 4. just 5 patroll specific areas, where your miners are mining. a 5 man groupe of these OUT OF SECTOR ONLY will eradicate, every khaak assaults while never loosingtheir own shields. in "out of sector" fights, the AI, counts "Numbers only" and currently 2022 there is an other hidden mechanic in "out of sector" fights against KHAAK. imagine, 10 kahks, against 5 nodans... you would think every nodan gets dmged by 2 khaaks. in fact, it is 5 nodans against 1 khaak at a time. 5 muon guns almost oneshots a khaak every time. and the "time to kill" is what is important when you're actually trying to give your miners a save living. for example if you build 20 exlipse. with low standard config , they will take sooo long for a single khaaak, that the respawn rate of new khaaks, overweights their success. so these 20 ships are basically in an eternal doom cirlce of death, while new spawned khaaks get to destroy 3-4 more miners before accidently jumping in on it. you better use 2-3 5 nodan squads and youre medium sized miners will thank you for that. very helpfull before having the money for s/m ship fabrication blueprints.... i mean later on you gonna build l miners only but that is the nieche these guns do have for me. why nodans? they are very very fast and have the highest tankiness in a game. you need the speed when they should do their job propperly. just repeat orders, "fight all enemies" 5-6 areas per squad and your sector is safe

[@brohvakiindova4452]

I don't get your Nodan recommendation, it's not worth it at all... it only has 2 guns, you said yourself time to kill is key, 2 guns is way too bad. Also it's not the tankiest at all, by a very long shot. Also muon chargers are quite expensive as a standard weapon. Doesn't matter at some point ofc but still. Moreya is better in everything, has 4 guns, but has ~100 less shield, which doesn't matter, Ares is way tankier ~tripple shield but slower with 4 guns, Chimera is faster, has 5 guns more expensive with ~250 less shield and last the new GOAT the Shih has 4 guns, is a bit slower, is even a bit tankier than Ares, has 4 guns and is stupidly cheap. Cost effectiveness wise Shih and Moreya are undefeatable. Even if you take the Chimera with it's ~2x price, you get 1.5 times the guns as the Nodan. Fit any of the suggested ships with full plasmas and they wreck everything OOS ~10 Shih take on a K without losses. I never had any issues with Khaak anyway, they are weak as hell, never lost anything to them.

[@BlackRainEntertain]

sorry for answering that late. Let me tell you why chimera and Shih fo fail miserably specific in the job, of securing your miners by automated repeat order "attack all enemies in the area" command set up Nodan beats both fighters in : 1. speed. it is ment to operate fast otherwise you will gonna need tons of squads patrolling the sector in order to aquire the same achievement of having a secure habour for more than just 5 mineral miners, as the more mineral miners you have distract more khaaks in a sector 2. Shields. shields and the capability of repairing themselve define, how mutch manual work you will have to put in, in order to keep them functioning for ever, since auxillary ships are unable to repair all ships in a sector and have to be bound to a commander, and since a commander in "repeat orders" does not interact with auxillary ships at all, whatever fighters you will use for the job, have to be selfsufficiant and that leads us to the last point, wich realy seperates fighters in their specific usecases the nodan has a crew capacity of 4. wich further helps selfsustaining and if you break it down to the mathematics of cost effectiveness it comes down to 2 major factors you choose the nodans, and will find out that no other fighter squad of 5-6 fighters is able to fullfill all these requirements or you choose something else, but than youll gotta have to use like 12 moreyas to achieve the same goal. and were talking about earlie game, where every penny you spent hits you hard. not about the point where 10 selfcreated asgards even in the utter garbage command patroll manage to do the job my 6 nodan fighters do right from the get go. the shih looses in speed, and the moreya in selfsustain a couple ideas for specialisation: you could use a shi for a little pirate squad, supported by a marinee carrier or the chimera, for Xenon L-XL class destruction as they beat the shi in Speed only a hand full of ships tent to realy fail in comparrison with its competition. egosoft made sure, that youll find a nieche usecase for the most of ships i for example like using split boa mineral miners as my personal mineral mining quest ship 2 guns, high speed, low carrycapacity. i even go Sonra for Pirating L class destroyers, 175 marinees and 6500 travel speed 10 M Class turrets and a carry capacits for small ships of 20 or something, only getting outclassed by my personal speedy boy, the pegasus with 8800 travelspeed (pimped engines) yes, my sonra beats your catana in a race through the galaxy bigtimes as long im handling the flight assist manually ;D in my pirating L Class ship squad is even space for the outdated Pyranid utility ship, as no other utility ship has faster engines and its supporting my sonra and its burstray/terran pulslaser mk2 equiped shii fighters

[@Maethendias]

"they removed parts of the gun, to make more room for more gun" thats split alright...

[@shrillcrayfish6168]

Wish you'd come back to makeing x4 vids I loved watching your vids

[@efxnews4776]

I love the neutron gatling from the split, i has a feature of penetrate shields. Ng gun goes brrrrrrr.

[@angeltensey]

Yeah, this is the vulcan of the X4. I love this gun so much, i even sacrificed balance to fun and installed a mod that fixes it's accuracy.

[@dh599]

8:06 My pirate weapon! >:D Going to get up to abit of tom foolery using that!

[@ClaytonMileto]

ty!

[@Ekstrax]

i'm going to remember the sacrificial fire ship the most

[@simontometschek6218]

realy nice vid thx m8 about the teran lasers i dk why but i dont get them to work .... i miss every time xD

[@megalamuschi3149]

Are you considering on doing a video looking at the Boron weapons and ships from the Kingdom End DLC? @JKNinja

[@Razerfreak1]

i wish u included the upgrade system and what kind of upgrades are good for what weapon setup

[@hochmeisterr]

All guns are right for me. The question is, which guns are best for the Ai.

[@Shinarock]

id love to see raptor with neutron gatling turrets :P

[@vincediscombe7360]

10:00 "no reloading, ey? Constant stream of bullets, ey? 10:19 WAAAAAAAAAAAAAA- 10:24 well I feel called out...

[@jasonscarborough94]

0:48 wait, what's the point of including destroyers if you can't customize their load out?

[@icenote1591]

Amazing video. I've been looking through google to see where I can obtain certain weapons. I can't find a good answer. This game's wiki has few relevant info. Subbed and liked. Also, what is your personal preference with s , m, and l weapons? What do you think about the missiles as well? It would be dope as well if you could compare all engines and shields like this video.

[@JKNinja]

I do have an engines and shields video here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/n2rPamRtab-WpbM

[@LuisEdGm]

Can you make a guide for VRO weapons? Vanilla balance is wacky

[@JKNinja]

I normally stay vanilla, havent done VRO yet

[@1986Colin]

Omg i have hundreds of hours in this game why am i just learning about blast mortars now

[@JKNinja]

Definitely try them out, they are so good

[@Kris.G]

Amazing.

[@Astrosisphere]

No Phased Shockwave Generator in X4? That one was the best shield-stripper in X2.