Buzzsaw

### Damage

22.5 (x18.75 damage against foreground bracing, x12.5 damage against background bracing)

## Characteristics

### Cons

Ammo limited to 3 shots. Mostly harmless against anything besides wood. Easily stopped by Sandbags, Armour, or Energy Shields.

### Special

Self-destructs after 3 shots (without damaging anything close).

The Buzzsaw is a weapon unlocked by the Workshop. It specializes at destroying bracing and background bracing. It is added by the Moonshot DLC.

### Overview

The Buzzsaw is a highly specialized weapon, launching volleys of sawblades which shred through large layers of wooden bracing.

While dealing negligible damage to anything else in the game, the Buzzsaw delivers devastating to any wooden structure. This gives it multitude of uses. Obliterating defensive layers of wood usually present around vulnerable spots of the base, or eliminating bridges to key expansion spots, form some of its typical uses.

Buzzsaw shots will directly damage background bracing, unlike almost all other weapons in the game, which would phase through harmlessly.

A unique property of a Buzzsaw is its limited ammo. A Buzzsaw can only fire three volleys - after the third salvo, it will self-destruct regardless of how much damage it has taken (without dealing any collateral damage).

The sawblades launched by the Buzzsaw will damage everything in some distance in a straight line from the point of impact, a mechanic referred to as "ray damage". This is the only weapon in the game with this kind of behavior.

### Strategies

Because of its incredibly high damage multiplier against wooden braces, offset by its limited ammo, it is a situational and specialized tool. It is best used when the opponent leaves a strategic spot protected mostly with wood only. When countermeasures against Buzzsaw attacks are in place (such as Sandbags) the weapon works well when used in tandem with other weapons specifically targeting that kind of defense - Miniguns, in case of Sandbags.

The weapon has a potential use in all stages of the game. Serving as early harassment in early game - for example, destroying exposed Wind Turbine platforms - or otherwise countering an overly aggressive opponent who forgoes metal defense in favor of a faster weapons rush. In late game, it still has a high potential to cause chaos, by delivering surgical strikes at key spots, or brute-forcing the front of the opponent's defense, when means of protecting against the Buzzsaw are stripped by other weapons.

In extreme cases, a Buzzsaw shot can even collapse an opponent's fort all by itself.

The Buzzsaw becomes especially threatening when playing Scattershot, as one of his abilities amplifies the Buzzsaw by extending each salvo from 3 sawblades to 4.

The Buzzsaw is especially impactful in Capture Point games, as the gamemode relies on connecting to several Derricks across the map. Since Armour is prohibitively expensive, most players simply use Bracing or Background bracing to construct bridges; the Buzzsaw can take advantage of this and either slice through the weak connection or force a hefty metal investment into armor.

In a pinch, the Buzzsaw can be used as a form of anti-air, capable of intercepting highly damaging projectiles like Warheads or Howitzer shells, aided by the perfect accuracy and high velocity of the sawblades. While such use is highly inefficient due to limited ammo, this kind of move can occasionally save the player from a dangerous predicament.

### Counters

As mentioned before, the Buzzsaw deals phenomenal damage against wooden structures, but almost no damage against anything else. As such, its attacks can be easily defended with the use of Armour, Energy Shields, or even Sandbags - the last of which are especially effective due to their nearly nonexistent cost.

In certain setups, Wind Turbines can actually be used to block Buzzsaw attacks, as having it hit a turbine instead of wood, prevents it from applying the full extent of its heavy ray damage, while the turbine itself will only receive scratch damage, and can be easily repaired. This is especially useful in the Capture Point gamemode, where Wind Turbines can be used in place of Armour in certain spots to defend vertical bridges.

Because of its limited ammo, paired with the notable build cost (200 metal and 2000 energy puts it in the league of an average Workshop/Armoury-tier weapon), the Buzzsaw should be used sparingly, as excessive use can be highly taxing on the economy.