Oppenheimer Energy Lance: FAQ

What is it?

A late-game superweapon that runs on electricity. You dial in a charge, pick a spot on the map, and confirm. It spends about 15 seconds pulling power into its capacitor banks, then fires a beam that burns for about 11 seconds and ends in a detonation. The blast radius runs from about 30 tiles at 1% up to 2,000 tiles at 100%.

How far can it shoot?

Up to 10,000 tiles from every installation, from the moment you build it. The minimum range is 64 tiles, and the designator refuses any target inside 1.1x your own blast radius.

Does it need Space Age?

No. It only needs base Factorio 2.0. Space Age adds the lava-and-cooling ground effects and the lightning storm around the blast.

How do I unlock it?

Research Oppenheimer Lance. It needs Military 4, Tank, Concrete and Radar, and costs red, green, blue, military and yellow science. One technology follows it:

• Capacity (9 levels) allows one more installation per level, up to 10.

How do I build one?

Place the turret first. It lays out its own pad and puts ghosts on every slot. Fill in:

• the capacitor banks (8 is the minimum, 32 gets you the full dial)
• the four Lance Substations
• the lamps

Connect one substation to your grid. Installations must stand at least 42 tiles apart.

How do I fire it?

1. Open the status panel from the shortcut bar and choose a yield.
2. Grab the Lance Designator from the shortcut bar and click a target. The barrel starts turning.
3. When the ground lamps turn solid amber, click the same spot again to confirm.
4. You have until the beam ignites, about 15 seconds, to abort. After that you can't take it back.

Can several installations fire together?

Yes. Installations that fire within 96 tiles of the same strike join it: one sphere, one detonation, their power added together with a bonus for firing together. A full battery of 10 pushes the blast toward, but never past, a 3,000-tile radius.

How much power does it need?

If your grid can't keep up, or you haven't built enough banks to take in the charge, the shot still lands where you aimed. It just detonates at the yield you actually delivered.

If the grid fails outright mid-charge, the shot aborts and the installation goes dark until power returns.

Will it hurt my own base?

Yes, if you let it.

• The beam spares your own buildings but not players. Anyone standing in its path is vaporized, including you.
• The blast isn't picky about whose buildings are in the crater. The designator refuses targets inside your own blast radius, but the gun only protects itself. Aiming across your own outposts is on you.

How long is the cooldown?

About 15 seconds after each shot, the length of the spin-down sound.

Is it heavy on UPS?

Large shots are. A 100% detonation moves a shock wave across thousands of tiles and generates any terrain it passes that hasn't been generated yet. Expect a noticeable hit while a big one plays out, especially on unexplored ground. Small shots are cheap.

Does it work in multiplayer?

It's written to be multiplayer-safe, but it hasn't been tested in a real multiplayer game yet. Please report any desyncs.

I'm updating from an older version. Will my save break?

It shouldn't. Old installations are migrated automatically. If a capacitor bank was sitting where a substation now goes, it gets dropped on the ground next to the installation rather than deleted. Check each pad for ghosts after loading.

The Targeting Range, Cycling and Payload technologies no longer exist; saves that researched them still load.

Why does the mod folder say "artillery"?

The mod started out as an artillery turret. Renaming a prototype deletes it from every existing save, so the internal names stayed. Only the display names changed.

Was this made with AI?

Yes. It was built with Claude Opus, with the design, direction and all in-game testing done by me. The physics was developed with the help of an astrophysicist. It's still a work in progress.

Can I use this in my modpack or build on it?

It's released under the MIT License. You can use it, modify it and include it in modpacks, as long as the copyright and license notice stay with it.

Found a bug?

Post it in the Discussion tab. Include your mod version and the error text or a screenshot.