Heavy Weapons

Some weapons are simply too big to be comfortably used without a tripod, fixed support, or vehicle mounting. Others require specialized training in the use of heavy munitions. Aside from their high damage, heavy weapons also bypass the armour protection of vehicle targets unless otherwise noted.
The weapons listed here all use the Shoot skill to determine hit bonuses, and unless otherwise noted, all require some sort of support for firing. Energy weapons use Type B power cells. Rocket launchers and hydra arrays use missiles as given on the gear tables, while heavy machine guns and wheatcutter belts consume large amounts of standard ammunition.
When firing at TL4 military vehicles such as gravtanks, mechs, or starship armor, most TL3 Heavy weapons don’t count as Heavy for armor-penetrating purposes. Demo charges and explosives do, however.

Ammo - Suppressive and directed heavy weapons consume ammunition as they fire. Every gun is listed with its magazine duration in rounds, its actual magazine capacity (in brackets) for slug-thrower weapons, and the cost required to purchase a magazine's worth of that weapon's ammo. This cost entry will also show, in brackets, what type of ammo or power cell that weapon requires. Note that some weapons have more expensive ammunition, particularly those which either have burst-fire capabilities or higher damage probabilities. See the 'Ammo' table for more information about ammunition.

Types of Heavy Weapon

Heavy weapons often use scaled-up versions of the same tech used in ranged weapons: plasma, slug, and grav being the most common. At the scale required for such destruction though the differences in each type of tech tend to level out somewhat - therefore heavy weapons are classified differently based on their firing mode.

Suppressive

This category of heavy weapon relies on firing lots of ammunition very quickly, machineguns being the most frequent example. Each of these weapons can be fired to suppress. Double the usual ammunition is fired in one round, and every target in front of the weapon that is not under hard cover is automatically hit for half normal damage. A successful Evasion saving throw eliminates this damage.

Explosive

Explosive weapons enact their effect over a wide range. They can have a variety of effects depending on their construction, but most commonly will use a burst of heat or shrapnel in order to inflict damage. Heavy explosive weapons always roll to attack AC 12 instead of the target's armour class and if their attack roll misses will always land and explode somewhere - though where exactly will depend on the weapon. Heavy explosive weapons completely ignore a target's armour or AC, but are vulnerable to being anticipated and avoided. Targets should make an Evasion saving throw, with a bonus equal to their speed in the case of vehicles, taking half damage minus half their margin on a success (rounded down). Ammunition for rocket launchers can be found in the Ammunition & Weapon Parts page.

Directed

Directed energy weapons fire single massively-damaging shots at their targets, their impact is so powerful that they are capable of knocking a stationary target backwards on a successful hit. For soft targets who fail an Evasion saving throw, they would be forced back 2d6 meters and knocked prone, success on the Save halves the distance and allows the target to stay on their feet. For vehicles, the driver must make a Physical or Evasion saving throw with a bonus equal to 1/10th the vehicle's tonnage, and on a fail their vehicle is knocked 1d6 meters off-course. This effect does not apply to starships.