Tier 3

## Overview

The Tier 3, also commonly referred to as the T3 or tier 3 mortar, is an advanced strategy in which one uses a technique to give weapons a vertical angle. This allows a player to fire their weapons to hit their enemies from above, an angle often not well defended by most players.

There are many variants of the tier 3, and some setups are easy whilst others are more complicated. Some designs have the risk of damaging or destroying your own fort when not build correctly.

## Variants

### Rope Tier 3

The rope tier 3 abuses the fact that ropes allow a connected platform to rotate over its joint. Whilst most joins between materials will break when rotated beyond a certain angle, joints with rope will not break easily. For the setup, one is required to make a small platform that fits a weapon. Ropes will have to be attached to the frontside of this brace to a connection point above the platform. After this is connected, the player will place a weapon on the platform. Finally disconnecting all other attachments to the platform which aren't the ropes will disconnect this platform from the base. The platform will swing from the ropes and angle itself vertically. Finally, reattaching the platform back to the base will allow control of the weapon again. Stabilization of the platform is important, as to make sure the weapon's recoil will not break it.

### Portal Tier 3

With the introduction of portals in the moonshot DLC, weapons can be aimed vertically without requiring the rotation of the weapon itself. Portals can be placed in any direction, allowing users to build them at an angle to change the flight direction of projectiles. When building a weapon, putting a portal in front of the weapon, and a portal on the roof of your fort linked together allows for vertical fire with a horizontally aiming weapon. When using this design, one will have to remember that portals use energy and will deactivate when energy runs out. Due to high energy costs for firing weapons, this can result in the portals turning off whilst firing. Only noobs do them.

### Ropeless Tier 3

Whilst uncommon, one can build tier 3s without ropes or portals. All materials can compress and stretch out a certain amount when weight is applied. When the high weight of a weapon is applied offset to a stable connection point, a structure will start to bend. This design takes a lot more skill due to the more precise placement of bracing making it less viable to players with little experience.

### Buoyancy Tier 3

When using the High Seas DLC, boat forts are not stuck to the ground, and can be rotated in full by abusing how buoyancy works. This is another way to make a tier 3. Whilst safe, this method does take quite a few resources and is rather time intensive compared to other methods.

## Weapons

The tier 3 strategy can be used with many different weapons. Some might not add extra functionality or use, whilst others are a viable strategy.

Many Weapons can be

### Cannon

The original tier 3 was built with a cannon and have since been the most popular weapon to make a tier 3 with. They are fairly accurate, and have high damage potential. Most tier 3 designs have been built using the cannon in mind. Extremely potent in High Seas team games due to difficulty of directly hitting opponents with non-Tier 3 cannons and target boat widths.

### Howitzer

The howitzer is also able to be used as a tier 3. Due to the naturally high possible arc of fire, a t3 howitzer can be constructed by just angling the beam to the limit of device placement. This allows the howitzer to shoot upwards. The benefit of this is that AA will be distracted and have a harder time hitting the howitzer shell. The shell will be longer in the air allowing AA to fire more volleys at it however.

### 20mm cannon

Tier 3s can also be built using 20mm cannons. These variants have the benefits of more shots in a greater area, having an increased chance of hitting the target, but having the drawback of less damage due to missed shells. When combined with the scattershot commander, these types of tier 3s are often favorable due to the higher accuracy and more damage total.

### Flak

Whilst not used often, tier 3 flak can be extremely useful in certain situations where the opposing team has an overwhelming amount of machineguns with no defense on the top. Flak's damage to materials is minimal, but can cause serious harm when not properly repaired due to the fast reload speed of flak. More favorable on large team maps with wide bases.

### Other weapons

Rarely are other weapons used for tier 3 as their use is questionable. This has not stopped certain players from trying. The power of the tier 3 comes not only from its weird angle, but also because most do not expect it until its fired. This means one can land weapons in ways the opponent was not prepared for.