Weapons
Xonotic has 9 core weapons. Players spawn with Blaster and Shotgun; all others are map pickups. The Blaster has no ammo cost and doubles as the primary movement tool.
Source: Halogene’s Newbie Corner (https://xonotic.org/guide/)
Blaster
No ammo cost. Low damage. Fires a projectile that creates a blast on impact, pushing anything nearby away from the impact point.
Primary use is movement (see Movement). Secondary use: displacing opponents, breaking movement, pushing players off edges on space maps. Aim at feet for splash on moving targets. Secondary fire switches to previous weapon.
Shotgun
Spawn weapon. High damage up close via instant-hit pellet spread. Push force slows targets moving toward you, useful against players descending from jump pads. Secondary: melee slap, deals significant damage at point-blank.
MachineGun
Also called “uzi.” Primary: high spread, close to medium range. Secondary: burst fire, lower spread, medium to long range. Push force plus rapid fire is effective at stopping fast-approaching players. A ring around the crosshair tracks ammo; the gun auto-reloads when empty. Re-press the weapon bind while holding it to manually reload at a convenient time.
Mortar
Ballistic grenade launcher. High direct and splash damage plus push force. Primary detonates on impact. Secondary detonates exactly 0.5 seconds after the first bounce. This is precise enough to time deliberately. Strong against non-flying targets and for spamming corners.
Electro
Primary: rocket-like projectile, not useful for self-jumps. Secondary: fires up to 3 slow-moving blobs. Detonate the blobs with a primary fire hit for ~130 damage. Works via splash, so hitting a surface near the blobs is sufficient. Can set off through walls (place blobs around a corner, hit the wall beyond them with primary). Best used for entry denial, multi-opponent clusters, or predictive area spam.
Crylink
Unique: negative push force. Hitting a player with Crylink slows them dramatically regardless of movement direction. Multiple particles landing simultaneously can stop a player at full speed. Widely used by CTF defenders to shut down flag runners.
Primary has high spread, but releases the spread inversion mechanic: while holding primary, spread is constant. When you release primary, all particles converge to a single point. Time the release so the convergence lands on the target.
Secondary: low constant spread, faster particles, no bounce. Can break trick jumps or pull players in mid-air via negative push. Movement application (“Crylink running”): just as you leave the ground on your first bunny hop, shoot the floor at ~45° in front of you with secondary. The negative push catapults you forward. Also enables wall climbing: face a wall, jump, shoot the wall above your head with secondary.
Vortex
Hitscan beam, zero spread, shoots through players. Charges automatically while held (no ammo cost). Charge ring around crosshair is visible; full charge glows red. Full charge: 80 dmg. Immediate second shot: 76 dmg. Minimum (switch away immediately after firing and switch back): 59 dmg. Secondary only zooms. Most powerful weapon in capable hands.
Hagar
Rapid-fire rockets, no spread. Primary: continuous. Secondary: hold to load up to 4 rockets, release to fire in a three-point star pattern. Holding too long triggers an automatic release with a warning beep. High close-range damage from the volley, but significant splash self-damage risk. No-spread makes it viable at range despite slow projectile travel. On most competitive servers: press primary while holding secondary to cancel the load without firing.
Devastator
Remote detonation: secondary fire immediately detonates any in-flight rocket. No need to directly hit a target. Get it close and detonate. Guided rockets: hold primary and move mouse to steer in flight. Combine guidance and detonation.
High push force on explosion, best tool for knocking airborne players off maps.
Self-boost (“rocket flying”): while airborne, fire a rocket downward and immediately detonate it. Deals heavy self-damage but can save you from the void or extend a Blaster jump to reach a distant platform.
Weapon Comboing
Weapon switch delay is shorter than any weapon’s refire time. Switching immediately after firing lets you land a second hit faster than waiting for the same weapon to refire, increasing effective damage per second. Also lets you stack effects, e.g. Crylink to stop a fast target, then Vortex to finish.
Direct weapon key binds are strongly recommended; mouse wheel and default layout make reliable comboing nearly impossible. Some players remap movement from WASD to ESDF to free up nearby keys.