Electric Railcannon

For information about the other variants, see Railcannon (disambiguation).

The Electric Railcannon is the blue variant of the Railcannon, unlocked in the level [ 2-2: DEATH AT 20,000 VOLTS ].

Description[]

A powerful instant piercing shot.
Pierces through all enemies. Pay attention to your positioning to maximize destruction.
Don't use in water.
- The Terminal.

The Electric Railcannon is a large blue and silver gun that, as its name suggests, resembles a hybrid between a railgun and a cannon. Three yellow-orange wires run from its base to the tip of its barrel, and four horizontal screws run along either side which steadily screw themselves in and spin as the weapon recharges. When fully charged, the light on the top as well as at the base will start to glow, a wheel on the side begins to spin, the barrel crackles with electricity, and the entire weapon will begin vibrating and emitting a powerful electronic thrumming noise.

Mechanics[]

Primary Fire[]

Pressing primary fire will instantly fire a piercing hitscan beam, which can pierce through an infinite amount of enemies and deal 8 damage on each hit. After firing, all Railcannons will go on cooldown, taking 16 seconds for the player to be able to fire any Railcannon again. This is indicated by a lightning bolt meter on the HUD, and the weapon will make a distinct electric noise when it is ready to fire again, even if it is not currently equipped.

The Electric Railcannon's beam can ricoshot off of coins, allowing the player to push the weapon beyond its already respectable 8 damage. If ricocheted off of 1 coin, the beam will gain +2 damage for a total of 10 damage. Each subsequent coin after the first will add +1 damage, with two coins dealing 11 damage, three coins dealing 12 damage, and so on. The Electric Railcannon is unable to splitshot in any way.

The Railcannon's piercing can also be taken advantage of with careful placement of coins to hit a single enemy multiple times. This technique is informally referred to as "railcoining" and can be very powerful when pulled off correctly. For more information on this technique, see railcoining.

Nails inside an enemy can explode for extra damage if the enemy is hit by the Electric Railcannon, lightning from the environment or Ferryman, or Jumpstart Nailgun alt-fire, giving the [+CONDUCTOR] style bonus, dealing 0.0666 damage for each nail, and destroying all nails in the enemy. This aftershock damage can stack to a maximum of 6 damage, which requires 90 nails total. If there are nearby enemies when electrocuted, those enemies will take the aftershock damage (minimum 2 damage). Any shocks on an enemy after the first within one second has a minimum damage of 0.5 instead 2 and cannot trigger aftershocks. Magnets, coins, rockets, and enemies with nails/magnets will trigger another electric explosion when shocked. While in water, the weakened shock's minimum damage is 1 instead of 0.5, enemies take aftershock without nails, and V1 as well as all enemies in the same water source are shocked by the electric explosion from an enemy, regardless of distance. V1 takes 50 damage and 50 hard damage, but can only take electric damage every second.

Alternate Fire[]

Holding alternate fire will halve the player's FOV, zooming in for more precise shots. Railcannon variants are designed to only have a primary fire, but Hakita did not want people bothering him about the absence of an alternate fire, so the function is made deliberately useless.

Strategy[]

The Electric Railcannon is best used by periodically shooting stronger enemies to deal high amounts of damage in one blast. Unlike the other Railcannons, the Electric Railcannon deals incredibly high impact damage, and a well-positioned shot can pierce a large number of enemies. Utilizing coins can mean even more damage, with regular ricoshot chains increasing damage additively and more complex railcoins increasing damage multiplicatively. Railcoins in particular are incredibly useful for dealing massive amounts of damage against high-health enemies like Gabriel, Cerberus, and Malicious Faces. However, they’re tricky to pull off, requiring practice to master.

A somewhat complex combo can be pulled off utilizing the Attractor Nailgun, Overheat Nailgun, Marksman Revolver, and Electric Railcannon in quick succession. First, fire a magnet into a large enemy, following up with a short burst from the Attractor Nailgun. This will instantly charge the overheat meter of the Overheat Nailgun, which you can now use to unload a barrage into the enemy assisted by the nail magnet. Finally, you can follow up with either a railcoin or a relatively easier ricoshot chain with the Electric Railcannon, which will deal massive damage up front along with the bonus damage from the conducting nails.

Trivia[]

Although in regular play the Electric Railcannon must be picked up to progress, it can be skipped using an out-of-bounds trick from the location of the level's first Blood Orb, making full weaponless runs possible.
The humming sounds that the Electric Railcannon produces as it recharges change with each screw that spins and come together to form part of an E flat major chord.
Electric Railcannon shots deal massive knockback to ground-based enemies. However, this can only be observed in normal gameplay against Sentries and V2 as they are the only enemies below the heavy Weight class with enough health to withstand a single shot. While Gabriel is also of the appropriate weight class and with sufficient health, he has innate knockback resistance keeping him from being humorously blown across his arenas.
How many watts does it actually fire out as soon as you fire it? Are there any watt/amp indicators? I'm just asking. I'm assuming 1 gigawatts?
Uniquely for non-explosive weapons, killing an airborne non-flying enemy with the Electric Railcannon will yield the +FIREWORKS style bonus rather than +AIRSHOT.
Shooting the Electric Railcannon while underwater (or shooting water that you're standing in) deals 50 Hard Damage to the player. This applies even in 5-1.
As of the Arsenal update, the text saying "Don't use in water" in the terminal is now true as of the update to conduction.
In older builds of the game, the Electric Railcannon was simply named "Storm".