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Analysis Of Uranium Turrets and Laser Turrets
By MagicManSlim
Herein Gun Turrets with Uranium rounds and Laser Turrets are examined: Maximum damage outputs, Resistances, Point Damage potentials, and other aspects of the two turrets are examined.
   
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Created by
MagicManSlim
Online
Category: Achievements, Game Modes, Gameplay Basics, Modding or Configuration, Weapons
Languages: English
Posted
Updated
2 Dec, 2023 @ 12:22pm
9 Dec, 2023 @ 12:36pm
892 Unique Visitors
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Guide Index
Overview
Summation, Motivation, Editorial Notes 
Technicals 
Damage Resistances 
Creative Accounting 
Turret Wall Density 
Grand Economic Strategy and Playstyle 
Comments
Summation, Motivation, Editorial Notes
Summation:
Uranium turrets are the superior choice, and by a considerable margin. Flamethrower Turrets are not discussed. The choice between using Laser or Gun depends on your factory strategy and playstyle.
Motivation:
I originally started this because I suspected Laser Turrets were the superior choice or Factory defence solutions. They are not. I thought for the longest time gun turrets were useless because they took some amount of damage, and taking damage means a structure is temporary at best. Sadly I must concede the superior waifu is the Uranium Turret.
Editorial Notes:

Note 1: A Uranium Turret will overpower a Laser Turret, in sheer damage output. No contest.
Technicals
Laser Turret:
36DPS, 24 range
-A substation has room for 4 (sometimes 5) rows and 9 (sometimes 11) columns of Laser Turrets in front of it. No enemy can resist Laser damage. No upgrades: Bulk damage = 1296 DPS (4Rx9C).

Gun Turret + Uranium Rounds:
240DPS, 18 range
-Turret setups may differ, but we know some basics. A turret takes up 2x2 squares and can be fed with logistics drones. No Upgrades: Bulk Damage = 8640 DPS (4Rx9C). This is the best possible case for maximum Turret damage.

Huh, Thats uh... alot. Well there goes my hypothesis. But, if I add 26 more Laser Turrets to describe the range advantage of Laser Turrets (6 squares or 3 turrets), the damage jumps to 1860 DPS ((7RX9C)-1).
Damage Resistances
We should consider Damage resistance next.

No mortal can handle the might of the Laser so the damage remains unchanged, either 1296 or 1860, depending on your preferred methodology.

We chose to use Uranium Rounds, which are definitely more of a late game thing. Therefore, the enemies are the Big and Behemoth types, we will ignore the medium component for simplicity and because I estimate they should make up about 20% of raid volume We will consider 2 scenarios, with 1 turret each and we will also have to do it on a shot by shot basis for the Gun Turrets. First with purely Big types, and then Purely Behemoth types, both split 50/50 Spitters/Biters.

The following describes a single second under Turret Fire.

******************************************************************
100% Big scenario:
Spitters have no bullet resistance.
Biters have the following reduction (according to the wiki):
Dmg taken Per Second = (Shots Per Second) x ((Shot DMG - 8) x 0.9)
Dmg taken Per Second = 10 x ((20-8) x 0.9)
Dmg taken Per Second = 108

Gun Turret, Uranium Rounds, 50/50 raid composition, Big type:
(240 + 108) / 2 = 174 DPS Received.
******************************************************************
100% Behemoth scenario:
Spitters have no bullet resistance.
Biters have the following reduction (according to the wiki):
Dmg taken Per Second = (Shots Per Second) x ((Shot DMG - 12) x 0.9)
Dmg taken Per Second = 10 x ((20-12) x 0.9)
Dmg taken Per Second = 72

Gun Turret, Uranium Rounds, 50/50 raid composition, Behemoth Type:
(240 + 72) / 2 = 156 DPS Received.
******************************************************************
Laser turrets are easier: Dmg Taken Per Second = 30, across the board.
******************************************************************
Creative Accounting
Yeah Ok I guess they kind of suck, but I like that I dont have to build support infrastructure to manufacture Uranium rounds. I dont think Ive ever bothered to refine Uranium on any of my playthroughs.

Youve Activated my Trap Card: Creative Accounting
Remember that 3 Turrets worth of Extra Range? Lets throw that in there too.

A single map Square is 1 meter, and we have 6 squares of extra firing before the biter reaches the Gun Turret Range. The biters (big and behemoth) move at 18m/s and the Spitter moves at half that, 9m/s. Therefore, we can add 0.33s and 0.66s to our Laser Turret calculations. Lets also denote the rows facing the Biter, 1 being the closest and 4 being the Laser Turret at Gun Turret Range. The Biter Spend 0.11 seconds in a Laser Turrets beam before It activates the next row. The Spitter spends Double.

For the Biter:
0.11s Exposed to 1 Turret Beam
+ 0.11s Exposed to 2 Turret Beams
+ 0.11s Exposed to 3 Turret Beams:
(0.11s x 30 DPS) + (0.22s x 30 DPS) + (0.33s x 30 DPS) = 19.8

Spitter is just double, = 39.6

Adding this to our Totals, where we just measured with 1 second under Fire, but this time we have 3 more Laser Turrets firing, and the additional beam time for travel.

(Biter OR Spitter):
DMG Taken = 30 DPS + (3 x 30 DPS) + (19.8 OR 39.6)
= 139 to 159.6 Damage Taken in the second standing in Gun Turret range, plus the Time spent approaching the Turret.
Turret Wall Density
Taking a rough stab at a formula for Maximum Damage Potential of a given thickness walled Turret density Setup, where n is number of rows, and q describes the travel time approaching the gun turret wall which is a number not relevant because uranium still wins.

Laser = 30n + 119.7
Uranium Turret = 165n + q

For a single enemy touching the Laser Turret wall, its possible that up to 868 squares of laser turret can fire on an enemy. This includes Power poles. Thats 217 Turrets, Or a maximum of 6510 DPS for any point touching the wall.

For a single enemy touching the Uranium Gun Turret wall, its possible that up to 472 squares of turret can fire on an enemy. This assumes 100% Logistic Bot Resupply. Thats 118 Turrets, Or a maximum of 28320 DPS touching the wall for any point touching the wall.
Grand Economic Strategy and Playstyle
There are two aspects that influence Turret choice. First, short term economics. what immediate investment is required to create the system? Second, long term economics. How much does the system cost to maintain and feed? Third, replacement. Fourth, evolutionary impact.
9 Comments
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LuX 7 Dec, 2024 @ 9:59pm 
Oh, and flamethrower damage upgrades are applied multiplicativly twice . Once for the ammo and again for the turret. Use flamethrowers! Those dead oil patches might as well be doin' something.
LuX 7 Dec, 2024 @ 9:35pm 
But uh... that's not how flamethrowers do. You see, once ignited, the flamethrower can move on to a new target. And they always do . Flamethrowers prioritize un-ignited enemies, so they actually do 3 "contact" damage plus 13 ground-fire damage to their current target plus 100 damage per second to every enemy they've ever hit .

Forget the piddly contact damage and ground fire. Just the ignite gets you 740,000 damage per GJ per enemy . Flamethrowers are downright busted against large waves.

Well, their AI is anyway. They always aim where the enemy is at the moment they fire, and flames have travel time... so they miss. A lot.

So pair them with tesla turrets. Stun then ignite. Busted.
LuX 7 Dec, 2024 @ 9:30pm 
Calculating a fixed crude/heavy/light oil per unit energy isn't possible. The energy consumption of a pump jack doesn't change as the oil patch yield, and thus the crude output, of the pump jack decreases.

Worst case, you get 2 crude per second at 90 kW or 3 crude per 135 kJ.

That's 116 damage for 135 kJ or 860,000 damage per GJ.

Wow.
LuX 7 Dec, 2024 @ 9:20pm 
As for flamethrower turrets:

It's hard to calculate.

They have a shooting speed of 30 shots per second, but shots of what? They don't just "hit" targets, they hit targets, ignite them, and start fires on the ground which themselves deal damage.

They deal a base 3 "contact" damage, which I interpret as being the same as a gun turret that deals 3 damage per shot. They create fires which deal 13 damage per second, presumably to anything in the same space as the fire. They also ignite, dealing 100 damage per second over 30 seconds.

So... 3 damage per second for "contact" plus 13 damage per second for the ground fire plus 100 damage per second for the ignite. That's 116 damage per second.

They consume 3 fuel per second.
LuX 7 Dec, 2024 @ 9:06pm 
Small correction: taking advantage of the reactor neighbor bonus doesn't increase your damage per energy ratio, it actually increases the energy sacrificed per unit damage for uranium rounds.

And another: I calculated the damage per GJ for laser turrets using 20 damage per shot. They do 24, so that number should actually be higher .

I also want to retract that "negative damage" thing. I had read somewhere that the pollution required to make piercing rounds is outpaced by behemoth generation, and I mixed that up in my haste. Even so, some back of the napkin math leaves me doubting even that claim.

Even with the colossal difference in energy efficiency, I'm considering mixing gun turrets into my defense strategy. The DPS of gun turrets is attractive. Bursting down the big boys while the lasers handle the fodder seems viable.
MagicManSlim  [author] 7 Dec, 2024 @ 6:41pm 
What a quality response, thanks for your input.
LuX 7 Dec, 2024 @ 3:17pm 
And that number isn't even accounting for the neighbor bonuses of the reactors. In the limit, you get just over 108,000 damage per GJ with lasers.

Snark aside, I'm missing a lot of factors. I think that fuel cells are the winners when it comes to productivity. There's at least one more processing step involved.

There are also damage resistances to consider, but I don't think anything has 99.9% damage resistance. 100%, sure, but I think the next highest resistance is 80%?

Oh, and here's the kicker: at a high enough evolution factor, producing enough uranium rounds to kill a behemoth also produces enough pollution to spawn more than one behemoth! You're adding more biter health to the map than you take away. You're literally doing negative damage! At least, until evolution caps out and your damage upgrades catch up.

Man, I hope that math holds up. Pick away at it though; this'll be a fun discussion.
LuX 7 Dec, 2024 @ 3:15pm 
The Kovarex enrichment process converts 3 U-238 into 1 U-235. 19 U-238 plus 3 U-238 (converted to U-235) can be processed into 10 uranium fuel cells. 128 U-238 times 10 fuel cells per 22 U-238 = 58 uranium fuel cells.

If you convert all your uranium into uranium fuel cells, you get 68 uranium fuel cells. 68 uranium fuel cells times 8 GJ per cell = 544 GJ.

30,720 damage plus 80 GJ minus the quantity 544 GJ = 30,720 damage and negative 464 GJ.

In other words, by converting all your U-238 into uranium rounds magazines, you generate 30,720 damage by sacrificing 464 GJ, or 66 damage per GJ.

A laser turret deals 20 damage per shot and shoots 1.5 times per second. A laser turret consumes 1.2 MW. 20 damage per shot times 1.5 shots per second times 1.2 MW = 36 damage per MJ.

There we have it! Uranium rounds dish out about twice as much damage per GJ than-whoa hold up.

G J

M J

Oh.

36 damage per MJ is 36,000 damage per GJ.
LuX 7 Dec, 2024 @ 3:14pm 
Bear with me:

10 Uranium fuel cells costs 1 U-235 and 19 U-238. From mining, you get 141 U-238 for every 1 U-235. 10 uranium fuel cells can produce 80 GJ.

10 depleted uranium fuel cells can be reprocessed into 6 U-238.

If you make 10 Uranium fuel cells, you are left with 122 U-238. Reprocess the depleted uranium fuel cells, and you get a total of 128 U-238 left over for every 1 U-235.

Each uranium fuel cell is equivalent to 8 GJ. We will ignore the energy cost of all the machines and miners. I started to do that math, but it turned out to be pretty insignificant compared to the energy density of the uranium fuel cells.

1 uranium rounds magazine has 10 rounds at 24 damage each. 128 uranium rounds magazines times 10 rounds per magazine times 24 damage per round = 30,720 damage.

That's a grand total of 80 GJ and 30,720 damage, if you make all your leftover U-238 into uranium rounds magazines.