Artillery

The cannon, an artillery piece in Conqueror's Blade

In Conqueror's Blade, Artillery refers to the large fixed weapons which can be deployed by heroes for a quick source of powerful ranged firepower. Artillery can contribute greatly to the outcome of any battle but must be supplied from the hero's own inventory in most cases.

Acquisition

Artillery can be obtained through several different means:

• Most artillery pieces can be crafted at fiefs with a high enough level.
• Artillery can be sold and bought on the player market for silver.
• Artillery can be purchased from the shop for sovereigns.
• Some event battle modes will supply heroes with artillery, only usable during the battle.
• Random artillery boxes and artillery selection boxes can be obtained from a variety of sources, including but not limited to:
  • Seasonal battle pass,
  • Daily login rewards,
  • Artillery components,
  • Fame store,
  • Territory war,
  • Limited time events.

Usage

Pre-Deployment

A picture of artillery being selected and equipped. The button for selecting an artillery piece is on the bottom-right of the screen.

Artillery pieces must be equipped before they can be deployed on the battlefield. Players may choose to equip up to a single artillery piece either in the pre-battle lobby or when in the menu at a supply point. The choice of artillery differs between gamemodes:

• In most matchmade PvP and PvE battles, players can choose artillery from their inventory, wagon, or supply dump.
• In battles conducted in the open world, players can choose artillery from their inventory or wagon.
• In certain event gamemodes (e.g. Colosseum), players can choose artillery from a selection provided for free by the gamemode.

Note that in matchmade battles, almost all siege battle maps and some other maps besides will have pre-placed artillery pieces. The exact placement of these artillery pieces depends solely on the map (i.e. the same map will always have the same artillery pieces in the same locations, no matter how many times it is played). This does not apply to territory wars, in which there are no pre-placed artillery pieces.

Deployment

In battle, an equipped artillery piece can be deployed via the artillery menu. This is accessed by holding down the keyboard key G and either left-clicking on the icon of the equipped artillery piece or hovering the cursor on the equipped artillery piece and releasing G. Once deployment is initiated, the hero will enter an animation of deploying the artillery piece; this process is further indicated by a progress bar and an outline of the artillery piece being deployed. The deployment process is cancelled if the hero is inflicted with a control effect or if the hero undertakes any other action. In this case the artillery piece will still be equipped and available for deployment, but the deployment process must be restarted again from scratch.

Artillery pieces are consumable items; they are lost from the hero's inventory permanently once deployed. This includes artillery pieces placed in Unit Training or custom battles. In the case that artillery is provided by an event gamemode, no change is made to the player's own artillery stocks since the artillery was not owned by the player to begin with.

Usage

Heroes can interact with a deployed artillery piece by standing nearby, pointing the camera at, above, or below the artillery piece, and pressing the Interaction key (default key F). Once interacted with, the hero will be placed in a certain position relative to the artillery piece (varies by artillery type; will either be directly behind or to the left). The camera will then shift to the perspective of the artillery piece. The player can rotate the artillery vertically and horizontally by moving the camera, although it must be noted that all artillery pieces have a limited rotation range.

A player can fire an artillery piece via left-click. Once fired, the artillery piece will automatically reload after some time (time dependent on artillery type); the player using the artillery piece can freely leave it while it is reloading. The reload time can be viewed as a progress bar whilst using the artillery piece or by viewing it while nearby. All artillery pieces have a limited amount of ammunition; once all ammunition is expended the artillery piece will no longer be capable of firing (although it can still be interacted with and swiveled). Artillery pieces cannot be given additional ammunition.

Some artillery types also have a shot camera (default key Z). Pressing the shot camera hotkey will shift the camera perspective to the artillery projectile as it is travelling through the air, if there is one.

Artillery pieces can be destroyed by dealing damage to them. Artillery cannot be damaged by any heroes or units on the team of the hero who last used the artillery piece, except via explosion damage which can friendly fire. Units will not target artillery pieces for attack, although some units can be made to damage artillery pieces using their unit orders.