What is the best weapon? A definitive guide to War Robots...

Hi there,

Have you ever asked the same question in subject? If so, you may be interested in what I'm going to show in a coming series. 

I have been playing War Robots for over 6 months and I love this game so I spend a lot time every day to fight and level up. As someone who doesn't have a deep pocket to spend on gaming, I often wonder what is the best weapon for my robot, say Ares or Phantom in the sense that it produces most damage while costing least in silver to level up. I want to spend all hard-fought silver earned from various battles to the right weapon so I won't regret later on. And I found there are a lot War Robots players asked same question over and over again in various forums and Youtube. Though those War Robots gurus did provide their insight by showing shoot-out video to compare how quickly to destroy a target with like-for-like weapons in various setup and various scenarios, I feel I can actually calculate it based on data because the game is actually the result of mathematics. 

So I collect basic facts of each weapon I'm interested to use or to acquire and build a model to simulate the cumulative damage over time and distance.  The model does provide some very interesting or awakening insight. And it helps explain Pixonic's much-hated behavior in nerfing weapons, eg. nerf Avenger in near future.   

Before I show you some interesting result, let me explain something you need know about the model.


• Firstly, what it matters is a weapon's cumulative damage inflicted on target over time. Comparing damage per second doesn't make practical sense as a weapon may have very high burst damage per second but it may have long reload time, eg. Corona after nerf. 

• Then cumulative damage of a particular weapon is affected by 3 key parameters. That is, level, distance and firing time.  

• The comparison of weapons from my model is based on data on paper. Everything is static and taken at face value. A comparison may show weapon A produce 20% more cumulative damage than weapon B but you may still go with weapon B because you must choose your weapon based on your play style or your bot. The primary reason is the game is dynamic; your opponent in the game won't stand still waiting for you to unload all ammunition of your weapons.    

• The facts and parameters used by the model are all from War Robots Wiki. 

• Some weapons have to wait full-reload is completed before firing again, eg. Taran and some can fire while loading, eg. Cyro. From time perspective, I assume a weapon in question will first immediately after either full reload completes or first clip is reloaded.

• I consider line-of-sight weapons only in the model with focus on those introduced more recently in past 2 years. 

• I didn't include new weapons like atomizer or those for Titans since I don't have them. 

• I didn't consider corrosion damage or firing acceleration for those weapons that have these features.  

• Some weapons are affected by distance and spread, eg. Scourge and Storm. I use the accuracy or surplus/deficit in damage disclosed in War Robots wiki to simulate the increasing/decreasing damage over distance. When I tested true damage in the game I found there are a lot more discount or reduction in damage than disclosed. It leads to tuning of parameter in the mode in future.


Oh, one more thing to note. I did this as a hobby and I have a tiring full time job. So I may not be able to post update very often. Please bear with me.


Now let's look at comparison of 3 medium weapons, ie. Punisher-T, Corona (after nerf) and Corona (before nerf). A picture is worth a thousand words so I'll use graphs to tell stories.




This first graph contains lines that indicate cumulative damage these 3 weapons deal at a target in 150m for 10 seconds at all levels in both MK1 and MK2. The vertical bar at background is the cumulative silver required to upgrade to the level. It's a shock to me that Punisher-T produce almost double the damage of Corona before nerf at 1/6 of silver at MK2 level 12. Of course I know I need to discount damage of Punisher-T due to spread but even after the adjustment I still foresee the machine gun produce more damage than Corona. One more interesting revelation is how bad is the nerf to Corona. Now Corona has 27% reduction in damage at MK2 level 12 in this scenario due to the nerf. No wonder a lot players have ditched once-favorite shot gun!





This graph shows comparison of cumulative damage dealt by three weapons at MK1 level 10 over different distance. Clearly Corona should be best used in close combat within 150m and Punisher-T can push the range to 200m (without considering discount due to spread).  






The third graph shows cumulative damage three weapons at MK1 level 10 produce at a target in 150m over time. The blue line goes plateau for some time because Punisher-T needs time to reload in full. While both version of Corona has relatively steady slop due to firing while loading feature. Bear in mind the data you see hasn't been adjusted for spread yet.

I will post more comparison result if there is good feedback from the forum.