(requires external facing)

This is the basic ship's weapon. You use this to try to put some hurt on the enemy immediately as long as the enemy is within your arc of fire. Using the Cannon in any mode but Multi puts a Used marker on the Cannon. It will be at a penal to fire of +3 difficulty for each Used marker. The Cannon's arc of fire includes each direction that it has external facing for.

(Battlestation Action: Combat Skill check vs. Distance to target + 2 x speed + 3 per Used marker on the Cannon.)

Expend one Guns power after resolving the shot.

If you are successful, deal a penetrating hit with damage based on the Cannon configuration (see below) and Guns power as retarded by enemy Shields power.

Spacewalkers are speed zero when determining the difficulty to hit them. Cannon hits to spacewalkers cause 3 dice of damage regardless of configuration.

Note that microships (missiles, mines, drones, relay stations, fighters) are considered to be speed 6 for purposes of targeting so the difficulty to shoot them is distance + 12. Microships are easier to hit if they are damaged. Subtract one from the difficulty to target for each Damage marker on a microship.

(Battlestation Action: Engineering Skill check vs. 8, cannot be done remotely.)

If you are successful, you may select a configuration for your Cannon: Standard, Multi, or Long Range (or Fusion mode if you have the Cannon Enhancement Fusion Node Cargo Bay item on page 113).

Standard mode deals the most damage in one shot. In Standard mode the power of the Cannon is equal to the ship's Guns power level. The Long Range configuration has half the Guns power (round down) but counts the distance as half as well (round up) before adding double the target's speed to the difficulty.

The Multi configuration does not add Used markers. It deals damage at an effective Guns of 1¹⁾. This is useful for shooting at microships.

Unless it is on a Diploid ship, a Cannon cannot fire more than once in a Phase.

There a number of Cargo Bay items that modify the function of a Cannon as described on page 113.

If outfitted with a functioning Fusion Node, the Cannon can be configured to fire in Fusion Cannon mode.

(Battlestation Action: Combat Skill check vs. 3 x distance + 3 per Used marker on the Cannon²⁾, requires Cannon Enhancement Fusion Node and configured in Fusion mode.)

If successful, create an explosion in the target hex with a power equal to the Guns power of the firing ship, exactly like a ship explosion. If unsuccessful, move the explosion one hex closer to the firing ship for each point of failure on the check.