Flare Gun

* Flare Gun
* Dual Flare Gun

## Dual Flare Gun

 File:Screen Shot 2018-08-27 at 9.51.32 AM.png
 File:Dual Flare Gun.PNG
The **Flare Gun** is a special, rare Pistol that uses Flare Ammunition and deals no damage. It was added in the v0.5.0 "Air drop it like it's hot" on July 26, 2018.

## Info

Unlike normal guns, the Flare Gun shoots a special type of Ammunition, the Flare ammo. The Flare Gun deals no damage, but it summons an Air Drop, either the normal Meteor Crate, or the Gold Meteor Crate which can reward you with special loot that only spawns in Air Drops such as the AWM-S, M1 Garand, OTs-38, M4A1-S, the CZ-3A1 (all of which are gold airdrop weapons), or some other weapons, some useful (like the M249 and Saiga-12), some not quite as much (like the M9). Since the Flare Gun summons an Air Drop, in which Air Drop can crush the player for 100 armor-piercing damage, the Flare Gun theoretically has the ability to summon the highest damaging projectile in the game (except the AWM-S which does 180 damage), which technically also means this gun does damage, but indirect damage. In a Solo game, when there are 14 people left, an airdrop will land somewhere on the map. When an airdrop automatically drops, it will never drop inside the Red Zone, or the approaching Red Zone area. It will always drop in the safe zone or in between the circle and the red zone. The Flare Gun uses Flare (Orange) ammo. If you see a Flare Gun on the ground without any ammo, don't pick it up, since it only has 1 piece of ammo, which is likely to be used by the person who first picked it up. If you want to spawn an Air Drop with an empty Flare Gun, you will have to find the ammo it uses, which is very rare and as such should not spend time doing such a thing. However, if you find the ammo, you can go to where an early airdrop landed and try to find the flare gun used for it to get the Air Drop. It is easily identified as the barrel of the gun is bright orange and very short.

Since the v0.6.3 Into the woods, you can find a Flare Gun in a Flare Gun Case at the Logging Complex.

In the v0.7.0 Incursion recursion update, the Commander of each team gets a flare gun. Flare guns in this game mode summon a Military Air Drop capable of well-equipping many team members.

## Rarity

Can be found in these following places:

* Very rarely as dual in lockers
* In the Eye Crate
* in a Flare Crate
* As World Loot
* In Deposit Boxes

## Sound

* Firing
* Reloading
* Reloading (Dual)

## Strategies

* Because Meteor Crates have great loot, they will also attract many people, turning the area surrounding it into a war zone very quickly. Consider this before shooting the Flare Gun.
* Firing in the red zone will deter enemies from reaching your airdrop. Health items are strongly recommended.
* You can use this attraction to your advantage by firing the Flare Gun directly next to a Barrel. When the airdrop lands, the barrel will explode, killing or heavily damaging enemies standing close to the airdrop.
* Attempting to use the Flare Gun as a weapon is a very tricky thing to get right. Only use it if you have no weapon, as it deals no damage, and the airdrop is unreliable to use as an actual weapon, as despite instantly killing anyone underneath, it is very easy to avoid and it will likely attract even more enemies unless you zigzag and draw a (hopefully) inexperienced player torward the airdrop in time for them to get killed.
* If you find a flare gun at the beginning of the game and don't want others to take the loot, fire the flare into the ocean. By doing this, there is a smaller chance for anyone to come for your airdrop, considering it is on the edge of the map where the red zone reaches first. Make sure that you have plenty of healing items before doing this. (This is easier to do early game since the red zone hurts less in its early stages)
* It is best to put this weapon away as soon as you use it, as it will make you a target for other players. In addition, Flare Guns are rare, so you will very likely find at most one in a game.
* You can also use the Flare Gun to summon an Airdrop, and then use that as bait. This is best done near places where you can hide (Containers, Trees, Stones, etc). When someone comes near the airdrop, quickly fire your weapon at them (shotguns are best for this) or throw a grenade, which will most likely surprise the player and catch them off-guard.
* Make sure to be prepared for this. Usually, more than one person will want the airdrop, so after finishing off one person quickly, get back to your hiding spot or retreat if necessary.
* When the airdrop lands, it releases a small puff of smoke similar to the Smoke Grenade. You can use this to briefly hide from an enemy.
* If you are pinned down behind a Meteor Crate, don't unlock it - it is impervious to damage whilst it has its metal outer shell attached.
* If you find a Flare Gun and you have a melee weapon that can break Ammo Crates (such as the Katana or Wood Axe), locate a Warehouse and break the double ammo crates for a chance to get a flare.
* Try to find a defensible or advantageous location to launch your Flare if you find this early in the game.
	+ The coast is a good option, as it will limit half the directions enemies may come from.
	+ Try punching walls off a Shack so the roof collapses, this will let you launch the Flare from the Shack interior while still retaining some walls to protect your flank.
	+ Try launching your Flare near the entrance to a building. This will give you an easy place to temporarily escape to if the Airdrop attracts too many people to handle. Alternately, you can sneakily dash out from hiding and quickly grab the loot while players are busy engaging one another.

 File:Screen Shot 2018-09-23 at 5.08.27 PM.png
 File:Flare gun shot.PNG
 File:Image (6)2.png
## Pros and Cons

### Pros

* Summons an Air Drop once it is fired, and Air Drops gives good loot
* Can be dual-wielded since it is a Pistol, and that gives you two airdrops
* Can use to bait other players by quick switching to another weapon
* This can do damage when it comes down on players or especially knocked players

### Cons

* Summoning the Air Drop will make yourself a target.
* Uses the rarest Ammo.
* You may kill yourself by being under and crushed by your summoned Air Drop if you are not careful.
* Deals no damage and useless in protecting oneself.
* It cannot be fired inside buildings.

## History

* 0.7.4
	+ Added the ability for Flare Guns to be dual-wielded
* 0.5.0
	+ Added Flare Gun to the game

## Trivia

* The Flare Gun is commonly mistaken to have dealt 10 damage in the past, however this had to do with people accidentally swapping it's damage and falloff values.
* The Air Drop can drop a Flare Gun, despite the fact that the purpose of the Flare Gun is to call an air drop. With extreme luck, you could theoretically get infinite Air Drops.
* Flare Guns projectiles can go through walls/players (at least visually)
* The Flare Gun *can* be dual-wielded, like all other pistols. However, this was only added in the v0.7.4 Rotato potato update, so it used to not be able to be dual-wielded.
	+ This was only added because of the fact that the swapping to a random weapon every kill/when you break a Potato made it useful to exist, as swapping to it would give the player 2 Air Drops as opposed to 1 if they got the regular.
* The Flare Gun is the first weapon in the game to not shoot any form of a damaging bullet.
* The Flare Gun is the 3rd gun in the game to have its own unique ammo type, the other being the DEagle 50. and the M29. You can get additional ammo by opening armored crates with the Wood Axe or Katana.
* When shot, it produces a bright orange translucent circle that glides in a straight line for a few seconds, and then disappears.
* An Air Drop will drop on the spot where you fired the gun, not where the flare disappears
* It usually takes about 15 seconds after a flare is fired for an air drop to appear, then 8 seconds for it to hit the ground.
* The Flare Gun also ejects a 12 gauge shell when fired. This makes sense since the in-game model resembles an Orion model flare gun, which fires 12 gauge flares.
* The Flare Gun cannot be fired indoors. When this is attempted, a warning comes up saying "**Gun cannot be fired here!**", similar to other messages like "**Better item equipped!**" This is due to the fact that an airdrop can't penetrate the roof, and also because the pilot of a plane would not see the flare. Due to a bug, it can sometimes be fired in buildings with destructible roofs, although it usually can't.
* The Flare Gun's reload sound was originally the exact same as the QBB-97's reload sound, but without the cocking bit at the end.
	+ The Flare Gun has since then got its own unique reload sound.
* During the Desert Rain Event, Flare Gun spawning rate is massively increased.
* Realistically, if the flare hits an enemy, it should cause damage through burn wounds. However, in surviv.io, it doesn't. This is likely due to the fact that the survivr is actually shooting the flare gun at the air as opposed to shooting directly at the aimed area. It can also explain why the survivr can't shoot it indoors.
* The shot and bullet from a Flare Gun have the lowest velocity and speed of any projectile in the game.
* Flare guns are used as emergency signals in the real world, or as a light in the darkness.
* The Flare Gun though actually looks like a shot fired from an SV-98 with an orange glow around it.
* There is a glitch in the Bank: The entrance of the bank vault has a pixel-perfect part, and it is considered outside of the map. You can perform the glitch by standing on the exact pixel part and shoot the Flare Gun.
* Flare Gun, along with OTs-38, G18C, and P30L, are the only dual-wieldable Pistols that can have their dual-wielded versions dropped as a single item.
* Dual Flare Guns can actually spawn in Tier World, being confirmed as a rarer drop than the M249 and 15x Scope there.
* Firing a flare in the Halloween Map where it is dark, does not illuminate the area in any way.
* If you obtain a Marksman Helmet in the Desert Rain Event and a Flare Gun, you can get infinite air drops and infinite guns from Airdrops. This is also possible if you get the endless ammo perk during a Savannah, or Potato Event.
	+ This was changed in a secret update in Perky potatoes event, removing the ability to have unlimited flares.

Screenshot 2019-06-28 at 11.12.39 AM.pngDual Dual Flare GunsDual Flare guns spawn.pngDual Flare Guns on ground in the Main Map. Notice how they are spawned as a dual-wielded version.7666AD42-3285-4149-8F3B-1A24D2A52B22.pngDual Flare Guns during the Desert Rain event
## Links

* http://surviv.io/img/loot/loot-weapon-flare-gun.svg
* http://surviv.io/img/loot/loot-weapon-flare-gun-dual.svg

zh:信號槍