Tank Cannon Weapon Reference

Intermediate30-40 minutesCross-platformUnturnedAsset EditorText Editor

The Tank Cannon -- full asset name Tank_Cannon -- is a vehicle-mounted weapon defined in Unturned's asset files. It carries item ID 1300, the GUID 6ba6d68072014ae8817df797c0825219, rarity Legendary, and occupies the Primary equipment slot. Its in-game description reads: Tank rocket launcher chambered in Missiles.

This article is a data reference for modders. It catalogues every field the asset file exposes, explains what each field controls, and addresses where the weapon appears -- or does not appear -- in the game's loot tables. It does not provide play advice, vehicle operation tips, or damage maths beyond the values the file literally contains.

Why this reference exists

When a modder opens an Unturned weapon asset file, they see fields and numbers. The file does not explain why Action is Rocket but the weapon name says "cannon," or what Turret changes about the aiming system. This reference answers those questions field by field, using the Tank Cannon's actual extracted values.

The Tank Cannon is a useful study asset because it combines two systems that are important to understand separately: the projectile-based action system (shared with all rocket, missile, and grenade launchers) and the turret-mount system (shared with all emplaced and vehicle-mounted weapons). These two systems interact: the turret system controls how the player aims and fires, while the projectile system controls what happens after the round leaves the barrel. A modder who understands where one system ends and the other begins can edit either without breaking the other.

Asset identity

Every item in Unturned is identified by three values that appear together in the asset file: the asset name, the item ID, and the GUID. The asset name is the internal identifier the game engine uses to load the file from the Bundles directory. The item ID is a numeric key used by commands, save files, and the item-spawning system. The GUID is a 32-character hex string that uniquely identifies the item across all assets in the game.

For the Tank Cannon these identifiers are:

Attribute	Value
Asset name	Tank_Cannon
Item ID	1300
GUID	6ba6d68072014ae8817df797c0825219
Rarity	Legendary
Slot	Primary

The Rarity field controls which colour the item's name displays in the inventory UI. Legendary items appear in gold.

The Slot field determines which equipment slot the weapon occupies. Primary means it competes with rifles, shotguns, and other large weapons in the inventory slot system. However, because the Tank Cannon carries the Turret flag, the weapon is not typically held as an inventory item by a player character. The Primary slot assignment is a formal requirement of the asset system (every weapon must declare a slot) rather than a practical inventory concern. When the weapon is mounted on a vehicle, the slot system is bypassed entirely -- the player interacts through the vehicle's turret interface, not through their personal inventory.

The asset name Tank_Cannon is descriptive in a way that differs from the HMG (HMG_Fighter_Jet). While the HMG's name reveals its specific vehicle origin (a fighter jet), the Tank Cannon's name is generic -- it could be mounted on any tank-class vehicle. The Tank_ prefix groups it with other tank-related assets in the bundle file listing, while Cannon distinguishes it from other tank weaponry such as machine guns or secondary armaments.

Projectile weapons and turrets: how the systems compose

The Tank Cannon combines a turret-mount system with a projectile-based firing system. Understanding how these two systems compose is essential before editing any individual field.

The turret system (controlled by the Turret flag) governs how the player interacts with the weapon. The player sits in the vehicle's turret seat. The camera is detached from the player's body and attached to the turret's gimbal. Moving the mouse rotates the turret independently of the vehicle's hull. Pressing the fire key sends a fire event to the turret system, which then passes it to the weapon's firing logic.

The projectile system (controlled by the Action Rocket field) governs what happens when the fire event reaches the weapon. The weapon spawns a physical projectile at the muzzle transform. The projectile travels through the world, collides with geometry or entities, and triggers its explosion.

These two systems are independent: you can change how the turret aims (by editing the vehicle's turret-configuration asset) without affecting what the cannon fires (the projectile asset), and you can change the projectile's behaviour without affecting how the player aims the turret. The weapon asset sits between them, receiving fire commands from the turret system and spawning projectiles in response.

This independence is important for modding. If you want a tank with a faster-turning turret, edit the vehicle's turret-rotation speed, not the weapon. If you want the cannon's explosion to have a larger radius, edit the projectile asset, not the weapon. The weapon asset is only modified when you want to change the weapon's own stats: its range, firerate, recoil, spread, calibre, and magazine.

Turret system mechanics in detail

The turret system is an independent game subsystem that handles emplaced and vehicle-mounted weapons differently from handheld firearms. When a weapon carries the Turret flag, the game engine routes all input through the turret pipeline rather than the standard first-person character controller. Understanding this pipeline step by step reveals where a modder can intervene and where the behaviour is determined by other asset types.

Seat detection

The turret system activates when a player enters a vehicle seat that is designated as a turret seat in the vehicle asset file. Not every vehicle seat is a turret seat. The vehicle asset defines a list of seats, and each seat carries its own role: driver, passenger, or turret gunner. When the player enters a turret seat, the game switches the player's control mode from character locomotion to turret aiming. The player can no longer move their character independently; all movement input is routed through the vehicle's movement system while in the seat.

The seat designation is a vehicle-asset field. A modder who wants the Tank Cannon to be usable from a passenger seat must edit the vehicle asset to mark that seat as a turret seat. The weapon asset itself has no control over which seat a player must occupy to use it.

Camera attachment

When the turret seat is occupied, the game detaches the camera from the player character's head-bone transform and attaches it to a camera transform defined in the vehicle's turret configuration. This camera transform is typically positioned at the gunner's viewport: a periscope, gunsight, or monitor screen inside the turret basket. The field of view, zoom level, and any optic overlay are all defined by the vehicle asset's turret camera settings, not by the weapon asset.

The weapon asset supplies the firing behaviour (recoil, spread, damage). The vehicle asset supplies the gunnery interface (what the gunner sees and how the camera moves). If a gunner reports that a turret's field of view is too narrow or its zoom level is inappropriate, the fix is in the vehicle's turret-camera configuration, not in the Tank Cannon weapon asset.

Gimbal rotation

The vehicle asset defines rotation limits for the turret's gimbal: minimum and maximum horizontal (yaw) angles and minimum and maximum vertical (pitch) angles. These limits prevent the turret from rotating through the vehicle's own geometry, from pointing into the vehicle's hull, or from exceeding the physical range of the turret ring. For the Tank Cannon, these limits are defined in the tank vehicle's turret configuration. If a modder mounts the same Tank Cannon on a different vehicle with different gimbal limits, the aiming behaviour changes even though the weapon asset is identical.

A tank turret typically has a wide horizontal arc, often a full 360 degrees on vehicles where the turret basket extends below the hull roof line. The vertical arc is usually narrower: the barrel must depress enough to engage ground targets at close range and elevate enough to engage targets above the vehicle, but the vehicle's own engine deck and hull roof limit how far down the barrel can point. These limits are vehicle-side constraints that the weapon asset knows nothing about.

Fire-command routing

When the player presses the fire key while in a turret seat, the input travels a specific path through the game's event system. The turret system performs several checks before dispatching a fire event to the weapon asset:

1. Seat validation. The turret system verifies that the player is still occupying a turret seat. If the player has exited the seat between the key press and the event processing, the fire command is discarded.

2. Ammunition check. The turret system checks that the weapon has a round chambered or that the magazine has rounds available. If the magazine is empty and no round is chambered, the fire event is blocked and the player hears an empty-click sound (or silence, depending on the weapon's audio configuration).

3. Reload lockout. If the weapon is in a reload cycle, the fire event is queued or discarded depending on the weapon's fire-mode flag. With Semi, the event is typically discarded; a new trigger press is required after the reload completes.

4. Obstruction check. The game casts a line from the muzzle transform forward and tests whether the vehicle's own collision geometry blocks the shot. This prevents the player from firing the cannon into their own tank's engine deck or hull roof. The obstruction check is performed by the turret system, not by the weapon asset, so modders cannot disable it by editing the weapon alone.

If all checks pass, the fire event is dispatched to the weapon asset. The weapon then executes its fire logic: it applies recoil to the turret camera, adds spread to the projectile direction, spawns the missile projectile at the muzzle transform, decrements the ammunition count, and begins the reload cycle if the magazine is now empty.

Exiting the turret seat

When the player leaves the turret seat, the turret system saves the current gimbal angles and the weapon's state (ammunition count, reload progress) to the vehicle's state data. The camera is reattached to the player character. The turret's gimbal returns to its default rest position (typically centred forward and slightly elevated), which may or may not be animated depending on the vehicle model's rigging.

If the vehicle is destroyed while the player is in the turret seat, the player is ejected and the turret weapon is destroyed with the vehicle. The weapon's state is not preserved: if the player re-enters a replacement vehicle with a new Tank Cannon, the new cannon starts in its default spawn state (one round chambered, loaded from the vehicle's ammunition reserve).

If the player exits the turret seat mid-reload, the reload cycle continues in the background (the autoloader finishes feeding the next round while the turret is unoccupied). When another player enters the turret seat, the weapon's state at that moment controls whether the cannon is ready to fire or still reloading. The turret persists its weapon state across occupant swaps within the same vehicle life.

Independence from weapon asset fields

The turret system reads its configuration from the vehicle asset, not from the weapon asset. Fields like rotation speed, gimbal limits, camera field of view, and camera position are all vehicle-side. The weapon asset contributes only the fields listed in this reference: damage, recoil, spread, firerate, range, calibre, magazine, and muzzle. A modder who wants a faster-turning turret must edit the vehicle asset. A modder who wants more cannon damage edits the weapon asset. The boundary between these two asset types is firm and must be understood before editing either.

A corollary of this separation is that the Tank Cannon weapon asset can be dropped onto any vehicle that has a turret mount point and the result will be a functional turret whose aiming behaviour is determined by the new vehicle, while its firing behaviour is determined by the Tank Cannon. The weapon is vehicle-agnostic by design. A tank destroyer with a narrow-arc casemate gun and a scout car with a 360-degree ring mount would both fire identically if given the same Tank Cannon asset; only the aiming characteristics would differ.

Ballistics fields

The ballistics block controls how the weapon fires, what ammunition it draws from, and how the projectile behaves after leaving the barrel.

Field	Value
Range	14
Firerate	50
Action	Rocket
Caliber	29
Muzzle	42
Magazine	1302
Ammo_Min	1
Ammo_Max	1

Range (14) determines the maximum distance the projectile travels before the game despawns it. The unit is game metres. A value of 14 is in the same bracket as other rocket-action weapons (the Rocket Launcher has Range 12), but much lower than hitscan weapons (which commonly have Range values of 150-500).

For a tank cannon, a Range of 14 is a deliberate design choice. Tank combat in Unturned typically occurs at medium-to-close range in urban or forested environments, where sightlines rarely extend beyond a few dozen metres. A Range of 14 ensures the projectile reaches anything the player can reasonably target from the tank's turret camera, while keeping the simulation cost bounded -- the game does not need to simulate a projectile travelling 300 metres across the map.

Modders who increase Range should be aware of the performance implication. Each active projectile consumes server resources for physics simulation, collision detection, and network replication. A tank cannon with Range 200 firing into a populated area could leave projectiles in flight for extended periods. For single-shot weapons with a slow fire rate, this is unlikely to be a problem, but it is worth keeping in mind when tuning.

Firerate (50) is the internal tick count between shots. This is a raw engine value. For the Tank Cannon, Firerate of 50 combined with Ammo_Min and Ammo_Max of 1 (single round) and the Semi flag means the firerate primarily governs the minimum delay between the shot and the start of the reload cycle. Because the weapon must reload after every shot, the reload time dominates the total time between shots.

If a modder increases the magazine capacity (by editing magazine item 1302) to hold multiple rounds, the Firerate becomes meaningful: it sets the delay between consecutive shots in the sequence. A Firerate of 50 with a multi-round magazine would produce a slow, deliberate firing cadence.

The firerate value lives in the weapon asset, but its practical effect is determined by the magazine's capacity (magazine asset), the reload speed (magazine asset), and the fire-mode flag (Semi in the weapon asset). These four fields from two different asset files together define the weapon's actual rate of fire as experienced by the gunner. Changing any one of them changes the cadence.

Action (Rocket) is an enum that determines the projectile type and firing mechanic. Rocket tells the game to spawn a physical projectile at the muzzle transform. The projectile then travels through the world governed by its own asset file, which defines speed, gravity influence, blast radius, explosion damage, and visual effects.

For the Tank Cannon, the Rocket action spawns a missile projectile. This is consistent with the in-game description (chambered in Missiles) and differentiates the Tank Cannon from hitscan vehicle weapons like the HMG (which uses Action Trigger). When comparing the Tank Cannon to other turret weapons, the Action field is the primary differentiator: turret plus Trigger equals a machine-gun turret; turret plus Rocket equals a cannon turret.

If a modder changes the Action from Rocket to Trigger, the weapon becomes a hitscan turret. The missile projectile would no longer spawn; instead, the game would draw an instantaneous ray from the muzzle and apply damage to the first hit target. This would fundamentally change the weapon's behaviour and would require adjusting Caliber, Magazine, Range, and likely the damage values to match the new action type.

Caliber (29) is the ammunition-calibre identifier. Each ammo item carries its own Caliber number; the weapon reloads only from items with a matching Caliber. The Tank Cannon's calibre of 29 links it to missile-type ammunition. To find which ammo items the Tank Cannon accepts, search the asset database for every ammo asset with Caliber 29.

The calibre system is an exact integer match. There is no partial compatibility or calibre family. If the ammo item's Caliber is 29, the weapon can use it. If the ammo item's Caliber is 28 or 30, it cannot. Changing the Caliber field on the weapon severs the link to all old-calibre ammo and creates a link to all ammo of the new calibre.

For vehicle-mounted weapons, the ammunition is typically stored in the vehicle's inventory rather than the gunner's personal backpack. The vehicle asset specifies an ammo storage container. When the turret system triggers a reload, it searches the vehicle's ammo inventory for items matching Caliber 29. If the vehicle has missile ammunition, the autoloader transfers a round from the vehicle's magazine to the weapon's chamber. The calibre match is the only criterion: any ammo item with Caliber 29, regardless of its other properties (name, rarity, item ID), is valid ammunition for the Tank Cannon.

Muzzle (42) is the transform index along the weapon model's bone hierarchy. The game spawns the missile projectile at this transform's world-space position and rotation. For a tank-mounted weapon, the muzzle transform is on the tank's turret model -- specifically at the end of the cannon barrel. Index 42 is a high index number, which means the model has a deep bone hierarchy with many transforms. This is typical of detailed vehicle models where the turret barrel is a chain of bones from the turret base, through the elevation joint, along the barrel, to the muzzle tip.

Each bone in the hierarchy has a transform: a position, rotation, and scale relative to its parent bone. Index 0 is typically the model's root. The barrel bones descend from the turret base (which descends from the vehicle hull root), passing through the elevation pivot, the barrel breech, the barrel mid-section, and finally reaching the muzzle tip at index 42. To count the transforms in a specific vehicle model, a modder can inspect the model in Unity's hierarchy view or export the transform list from the asset bundle.

When adapting the Tank Cannon for a different vehicle, the Muzzle value must match the new vehicle model's transform index at the barrel exit. If the new model has a different bone count, index 42 may point to the wrong bone -- the missile would spawn from an incorrect position such as the turret ring, the hull roof, or the vehicle's centre of mass. Test the muzzle placement by firing a slow-moving projectile (or a tracer effect if available) and verifying it emerges from the visual barrel exit.

The muzzle transform's rotation is equally important. The projectile spawns with a forward vector equal to the muzzle transform's local forward direction. If the muzzle transform is rotated incorrectly (for example, if index 42 on the new model corresponds to a bone whose forward axis points sideways because of how the model was rigged), the projectile will fly in the wrong direction. This is a common bug when adapting turret weapons to custom vehicle models. Always verify both the spawn position and the spawn direction.

Magazine (1302) is the item ID of the magazine or feeding device. The game's reload system uses this value to look up the magazine item asset. For a vehicle-mounted weapon, the magazine typically represents an internal ammunition supply rather than a detachable box -- the vehicle carries the ammunition, and the reload cycle represents the autoloader mechanism cycling a new round into the breech.

The magazine item at ID 1302 defines the weapon's reload speed, ammo capacity, and (if applicable) the model of any visual ammo-feed component. To understand the Tank Cannon's reload characteristics, open the item asset with ID 1302 and read its fields. The weapon asset only points to the magazine; the magazine asset defines the reload behaviour.

In a tank autoloader context, the magazine is not a physical box the gunner swaps out. It represents the vehicle's internal ammunition stowage: a rack, carousel, or conveyor that holds rounds and feeds them into the breech automatically. The magazine capacity is the number of rounds the vehicle can carry internally before needing resupply from an external source (such as an ammo crate or a logistics vehicle). The reload speed defined in the magazine asset is the autoloader's cycle time: the interval from the spent casing ejecting to the next round being fully seated in the breech.

Ammo_Min (1) and Ammo_Max (1) set the random range for the number of rounds the weapon carries on spawn. Both values are 1, so the Tank Cannon always spawns with exactly one round. This is the expected configuration for a single-shot cannon. The player fires the one round, the autoloader cycles, and a new round is chambered from the vehicle's ammunition reserve (the magazine at ID 1302).

If a modder wants the cannon to start with more rounds loaded -- perhaps a multi-round clip or an autoloader with a ready rack -- raise Ammo_Max to the desired maximum. The min-max range introduces randomness: with Ammo_Min 1 and Ammo_Max 3, the cannon spawns with 1, 2, or 3 rounds, each equally likely. With both values set to 3, the cannon always spawns with exactly 3 rounds.

These fields only control the spawn state. The magazine item at ID 1302 controls the post-reload capacity. If the magazine says capacity 10, reloading fills the cannon to 10 rounds, regardless of the spawn values.

A particular interaction worth noting: if Ammo_Min and Ammo_Max are both set to 1, but the magazine at ID 1302 has a capacity greater than 1, the weapon spawns with 1 round, fires it, and then reloads with the number of rounds the magazine provides. The spawn state is a floor, not a ceiling. The magazine capacity is the ceiling. This means a player who acquires a fresh Tank Cannon always starts with exactly 1 round before the first reload, even if the vehicle's magazine holds many more.

Player damage fields

The player damage block defines how much damage the Tank Cannon deals to other players. Like other rocket-action weapons, the damage is uniform with no per-zone multipliers.

Field	Value
Player_Damage	200

Player_Damage (200) is the base damage value delivered to any player within the missile's blast radius -- subject to armour and server-side damage modifiers. The absence of limb-multiplier fields means the damage does not vary by hit zone: a direct hit to the head and a near-miss that clips the feet both receive the same 200 base damage (before distance falloff).

This is standard for explosive weapons. The damage is delivered through an area-effect system that measures proximity to the blast centre, not through a raycast that identifies a specific body part. The projectile asset defines the blast radius and the damage falloff curve; the weapon asset provides the base number that the falloff curve scales.

For modders, the key implication is that editing the Tank Cannon's explosion damage may require editing the projectile asset, not the weapon asset. The weapon's Player_Damage of 200 may serve as an input to the projectile's damage calculation, or the projectile may define its own independent damage value. Until you inspect the missile projectile asset, you cannot be certain which value controls the actual in-game damage. When in doubt, change the projectile asset's damage value, since that is the authoritative source for explosion damage.

Zombie damage fields

Zombie damage follows the same single-value pattern.

Field	Value
Zombie_Damage	200

Zombie_Damage (200) matches the player damage exactly. The missile deals the same base damage to NPCs as it does to players. There is no PvE-versus-PvP damage tuning at the weapon-asset level.

This parity is consistent with the Rocket Launcher (which also has 200 across all three target classes). For launcher-class weapons, the base damage is already high enough that differentiating by target type would have minimal gameplay impact -- 200 damage is 200 damage regardless of whether the target is a player, a zombie, or an animal.

Animal damage fields

Animal damage follows the same model.

Field	Value
Animal_Damage	200

Animal_Damage (200) completes the three-way damage parity. The Tank Cannon deals 200 base damage to every target class. This is the same pattern seen in the Rocket Launcher, reinforcing that explosive weapons in Unturned typically use uniform base damage across all target types.

The uniform damage model simplifies modding: a modder who wants to change the cannon's damage output changes one field (or three, if they maintain parity) and the effect is consistent across all target types. There is no need to tune PvP damage separately from PvE damage or to worry about a change that makes the cannon effective against players but weak against NPCs. The design of 200 across all three classes tells the modder that the Tank Cannon is meant to be equally lethal to everything it hits, and that differentiation between target types is not a design goal for this weapon.

Handling and recoil

The handling fields control how the weapon moves the camera and where the projectile spawns relative to the aiming direction. The Tank Cannon has recoil values characteristic of a heavy vehicle-mounted weapon -- tighter than a shoulder-fired launcher but with visible spread.

Field	Value
Recoil_Min_X	-3
Recoil_Min_Y	3
Recoil_Max_X	3
Recoil_Max_Y	5
Spread_Aim	0.2

Recoil_Min_X (-3) and Recoil_Max_X (3) define the horizontal camera-kick range. The game picks a uniform random value between -3 and 3 on each shot and applies it as a horizontal view-angle offset. The symmetric range means the turret's aim can drift left or right with equal probability. The magnitude of 3 is modest compared to shoulder-fired weapons -- the Rocket Launcher, for comparison, has horizontal recoil from -15 to 15.

Recoil_Min_Y (3) and Recoil_Max_Y (5) define the vertical camera-kick range. Both values are positive, so the turret's aim always kicks upward. The range from 3 to 5 means the upward shift is between 3 and 5 units, with a 2-unit band of variation. This is a narrow, predictable vertical kick.

The tight recoil values are consistent with a heavy vehicle turret. A tank's cannon mount is stabilised, counterbalanced, and massive -- the recoil impulse is absorbed by the vehicle's suspension and the turret's recoil mechanism rather than translated into camera movement. The designer tuned the recoil to be present but not disorienting: the turret visibly shifts on each shot, but the gunner can reacquire the target quickly.

For modders who convert the Tank Cannon to a handheld weapon, these recoil values will feel too subtle. A handheld cannon with -3 to 3 horizontal recoil and 3 to 5 vertical recoil would barely move the player's view. Increase the values to match the Rocket Launcher's ranges (-15 to 15 horizontal, 25 to 30 vertical) as a starting point, then tune based on testing.

Spread_Aim (0.2) is the angular deviation applied to the projectile spawn direction when aiming. The game generates a random offset within a cone of 0.2 angular units around the crosshair direction. A value of 0.2 is notably wider than the Rocket Launcher's Spread_Aim of 0.1, and far wider than precision weapons (0.001 to 0.01).

The wide spread is intentional for a tank cannon. Tank gunnery in Unturned is not expected to be pinpoint -- the cannon fires an area-effect missile, and a spread of 0.2 means the projectile will land within a general area rather than on an exact pixel. This prevents the cannon from being a long-range sniper weapon and keeps engagements at the medium-range distances the vehicle is designed for.

For a modder who wants a more accurate cannon, reduce Spread_Aim toward 0.1 or 0.05. For a less accurate cannon (perhaps a low-tier or jury-rigged vehicle weapon), increase it toward 0.3 or 0.4. Test with the actual vehicle, since the turret camera's field of view and zoom level affect how the spread feels in practice.

Absence of shake fields. The Tank Cannon's extracted data contains no Shake_Min_X, Shake_Max_X, Shake_Min_Y, or Shake_Max_Y fields. This means the weapon produces no screen shake on fire. The absence is appropriate for a vehicle-mounted turret: the turret camera is attached to the vehicle, and screen shake is typically omitted from turret assets because the vehicle itself absorbs the vibration. If you convert the cannon to a handheld weapon, consider adding shake fields to give the shot visual impact -- start with Shake_Min_X -0.003, Shake_Max_X 0.003, Shake_Min_Y -0.003, Shake_Max_Y 0.003 and adjust.

Why the recoil values are so low

The Tank Cannon's recoil profile -- horizontal range of -3 to 3, vertical range of 3 to 5 -- is the lowest of any explosive weapon in the game by a wide margin. This is not a balancing oversight. It is the direct consequence of the weapon being mounted on a stabilised vehicle turret.

The physics of a mounted weapon

A shoulder-fired rocket launcher transmits the full recoil impulse through the operator's shoulder. The game represents this with large camera-kick values because the character's aim point is directly coupled to their body: the character absorbs the recoil through their skeletal animation rig, and the first-person camera (which is attached to the character's head-bone) shifts accordingly.

A vehicle-mounted turret operates through a completely different physical model. The recoil impulse travels from the barrel, through the breech, into the turret's traverse and elevation mechanism. That mechanism is bolted to the turret ring, which is welded to the vehicle's hull. The hull rests on the vehicle's suspension. The combined mass of the barrel, breech, turret basket, turret ring, hull, and suspension absorbs the energy of the shot. The camera, which is attached to the turret's gimbal rather than to the gunner's body, moves only as much as the gimbal mechanism flexes under load. The modest recoil values of -3 to 5 represent this flex rather than the full impulse of the cannon.

The asymmetry: horizontal symmetric, vertical always upward

The recoil profile's asymmetry reflects real turret physics. A turret's horizontal traverse is powered: an electric or hydraulic motor drives the turret ring through a gear train. This motor resists rotation in either direction equally, so the horizontal recoil is symmetric around zero -- the turret can kick left or right with equal probability, and the return-to-centre force from the traverse motor is the same in both directions.

The turret's elevation mechanism lifts the barrel against gravity. When the cannon fires and the barrel recoils backward, the recoil impulse pushes the barrel upward because the elevation gear resists downward movement (it is holding the barrel up against gravity) but has less resistance to upward movement (the barrel is already fighting gravity in that direction). The barrel kicks upward, and when the recoil cycle completes, the elevation gear returns the barrel to its pre-fire elevation. The result is a positive-only vertical kick of 3 to 5 units.

Implications for lighter vehicles

If a modder mounts the Tank Cannon on a lighter vehicle -- a technical, a flatbed truck with a jury-rigged mount, or a lightweight reconnaissance vehicle -- these recoil values would be unrealistically low. The lighter vehicle's lower mass would transmit more of the recoil impulse to the turret camera rather than absorbing it. For lighter-vehicle conversions, increase the recoil values gradually and test with the actual vehicle asset.

A useful tuning approach: start with the Tank Cannon's base recoil of -3 to 3 horizontal and 3 to 5 vertical. For each step down in vehicle mass class (main battle tank to light tank to armoured car to technical), roughly double the horizontal range and multiply the vertical range by 1.5. So an armoured car might use -6 to 6 horizontal and 4.5 to 7.5 vertical. A technical might use -12 to 12 horizontal and 9 to 15 vertical. These are starting points, not finished values. Test each configuration from the actual turret camera position and adjust until the recoil feels appropriate for the vehicle's visual mass and suspension travel.

What the recoil values do not control

The recoil fields control only the camera movement. They do not control the visual recoil of the turret model (the barrel sliding back or the turret rocking on its mount). Model animation is controlled by the vehicle's animation controller and the model's rigging, not by the weapon asset's recoil fields. A modder who wants the turret barrel to visibly recoil must edit the vehicle model's animation clips or add a recoil animation state to the turret rig.

Why the spread is 0.2

The Spread_Aim value of 0.2 is wide by rifle standards, but it is a deliberate design choice for the Tank Cannon. Three factors explain the value.

Area-effect weapons do not need pinpoint accuracy

The Tank Cannon is an area-effect weapon. A single round delivers 200 base damage in an explosive blast. The projectile does not need to score a direct hit on the target's exact position to be effective: a near miss that lands the projectile within the blast radius does full damage, subject to the distance-falloff curve defined by the missile projectile asset. A spread of 0.2 ensures the projectile lands in the general vicinity of the crosshair without requiring the gunner to achieve pixel-precise aim.

This is different from a hitscan turret like the HMG, where each bullet is a single point-trace and must hit the target directly to apply damage. A hitscan turret benefits from tight spread because missing means zero damage. An explosive turret like the Tank Cannon benefits from a spread value that is tight enough to be reliable at the weapon's intended engagement range but wide enough to prevent the weapon from becoming a long-range precision tool.

Preventing long-range precision use

Without spread, a tank gunner could sit on a hilltop and deliver pinpoint missile strikes across the map. The spread of 0.2 introduces enough deviation that long-range shots become unreliable, encouraging the gunner to close to medium range where the spread cone is small enough that the projectile reliably hits the intended target area.

The relationship between spread and range is geometric. At short range, a spread cone of 0.2 angular units is a physically small circle at the target distance -- the projectile deviates by only a fraction of a game metre. At long range, the same angular spread produces a large deviation circle. The spread value interacts with the weapon's Range of 14: at the maximum range of 14 game metres, the spread cone defines the maximum possible deviation. By the time the projectile reaches Range 14, the deviation is at its largest. A modder who increases Range should expect the spread to become more noticeable at the new maximum distance.

Interaction with turret camera zoom

The spread value interacts with the turret camera's magnification level, which is defined in the vehicle asset. If the turret has a zoom optic, the spread cone appears larger the more the camera is zoomed in. What looks like a tight grouping at 1x magnification becomes a visibly wide cone at 4x magnification. The vehicle asset designer chooses the camera zoom; the weapon asset supplies the spread. These two values must be tuned together, but they live in different asset files.

For the Tank Cannon, the spread of 0.2 is calibrated for a typical turret-sight magnification level found on tank-class vehicles. A modder who adds a high-magnification optic to a tank turret (via the vehicle asset's camera settings) may find that the existing spread feels too wide at the new zoom level, because the magnification makes the angular deviation more visible on screen. Conversely, a low-magnification or no-zoom turret sight may make 0.2 spread feel reasonable or even tight.

Modding the spread value

For modders who want to create a tank destroyer variant -- a cannon optimised for long-range anti-vehicle engagement -- reduce Spread_Aim to a lower value. For a close-range demolition cannon (perhaps mounted on an urban assault vehicle), increase the spread and compensate by increasing the blast radius in the missile projectile asset. The spread and the blast radius are complementary: wider spread demands a larger blast radius to maintain effectiveness at the intended engagement range.

Always test the spread value from the actual turret camera position and zoom level. The feel of spread is critically affected by the camera configuration, and a value that looks correct in the asset editor may feel wrong in-game once the camera is active. Fire multiple shots at a static target at the weapon's intended engagement range and observe the spread pattern before finalising the value.

Flags

Flags are boolean or tag-like properties that modify weapon behaviour. The Tank Cannon has a short, focused flags list compared to the Rocket Launcher or the Shadowstalker -- no crafting flags, no attachment hooks, just the two core behavioural flags.

Flag	Effect
Semi	Weapon fires one round per trigger pull
Turret	Weapon behaves as an emplaced or vehicle-mounted turret

Semi enables semi-automatic fire. The weapon fires exactly one round when the player presses the fire key. If the player holds the key, no additional rounds are fired -- the firing logic waits for the key to be released and pressed again. This is the expected fire mode for a single-shot cannon: press to fire, then the autoloader cycles, and the weapon is ready for the next trigger pull.

If a modder removes Semi and adds Auto, the weapon would fire continuously while the key is held. However, with Ammo_Min and Ammo_Max both at 1, there is only one round available, so full-auto would fire one shot and then halt until a reload completes. For full-auto to be meaningful, the magazine item (ID 1302) must have a capacity greater than 1, and the Ammo_Min/Ammo_Max range must be set appropriately.

The absence of other fire-mode flags (Burst, Safety) is notable. The Tank Cannon has no burst-fire capability, and unlike the Rocket Launcher and Shadowstalker, it has no Safety flag -- the weapon is always ready to fire when the player presses the fire key. This simplicity is appropriate for a vehicle-mounted weapon: the vehicle's own control scheme (entering the turret seat, switching to the turret camera) serves as the safety mechanism.

Turret tells the game that this asset is a turret rather than a handheld firearm. When the Turret flag is present, the game routes the weapon through the turret system:

• Aiming: The player's mouse movement rotates the turret independently of the vehicle hull. The turret gimbal has defined rotation limits (set in the vehicle asset) that prevent the turret from rotating through the vehicle's geometry.
• Camera: The player's camera is attached to the turret, not the player character. Zooming in (aiming down sights) may switch to a turret-specific optic with its own magnification level.
• Fire command: Pressing the fire key sends the fire event through the turret system, which validates that the player is in the turret seat, that the turret has ammunition, and that the turret is not obstructed by the vehicle's own geometry.
• Mounting: The turret system expects a mounting point defined in the vehicle asset. The turret's position, rotation, and gimbal limits are all controlled by the vehicle configuration, not by the weapon asset.

Removing the Turret flag converts the weapon to a handheld firearm. This is a significant change that requires the model to have hand-bone attachment points, the attachment system to be configured (if hooks are desired), and the recoil to be tuned for handheld use (the current values of -3 to 5 are far too low for a shoulder-fired cannon). Test extensively after removing the Turret flag -- the weapon's model, animations, and aiming behaviour are all designed for turret-mount use, and converting to handheld may expose visual or mechanical issues.

Turret weapon comparison: Tank Cannon versus other turret-class weapons

The Tank Cannon is one of several turret-class weapons in Unturned. Comparing it to other turret weapons reveals what makes it distinct and helps a modder predict the effect of changing individual fields.

Tank Cannon versus HMG. The HMG (asset HMG_Fighter_Jet) is the other prominent vehicle-mounted turret weapon. Both carry the Turret flag, both occupy the Primary slot, and neither appears in loot tables. The critical difference is the Action field: the HMG uses Action Trigger (hitscan, instant-travel bullets), while the Tank Cannon uses Action Rocket (physical projectile, travel time, explosive impact).

This single field difference cascades into different behaviours for every aspect of the weapon. A hitscan turret like the HMG applies damage instantly when the shot is fired -- the gunner aims, clicks, and the target receives damage in the same game frame. A rocket turret like the Tank Cannon spawns a projectile that must travel from the muzzle to the target; the damage is delayed by the projectile's flight time. The delay makes the Tank Cannon harder to use against fast-moving targets at long range, but it also makes the weapon more forgiving: the blast radius means a near miss still does damage, while a near miss with a hitscan weapon does nothing.

The HMG's firerate supports continuous fire. The Tank Cannon's single-round magazine (enforced by Ammo_Min 1 and Ammo_Max 1) and the Rocket action mean each shot is followed by a reload cycle. The HMG suppresses an area with sustained fire. The Tank Cannon deletes whatever the round hits. A modder choosing between adapting the Tank Cannon or the HMG for a new vehicle should consider whether the vehicle's role is burst damage or sustained suppression.

The HMG carries the Invulnerable flag (preventing the turret from being destroyed by incoming fire). The Tank Cannon does not. This means an HMG turret can survive the vehicle's destruction (potentially creating a floating gun in the wreckage), while a Tank Cannon turret is destroyed with its host vehicle. The flag difference has implications for server balance, which are addressed in the Invulnerable section below.

Tank Cannon versus other rocket-action weapons. The Rocket Launcher uses Action Rocket but lacks the Turret flag. It is a shoulder-fired weapon with much larger recoil ranges and tighter spread. The Tank Cannon's spread of 0.2 is wider than the Rocket Launcher's typical spread because the tank's turret gimbal introduces inherent mechanical imprecision that a shoulder-fired weapon does not have. Conversely, the Tank Cannon's recoil is much lower because the turret absorbs the impulse, while the Rocket Launcher operator's shoulder transmits it directly to the camera.

The comparison illustrates the design principle: turret weapons trade accuracy for stability. The gunner gives up the precision of a handheld launcher in exchange for the stability of a mounted platform. The result is a weapon that rewards positioning and vehicle choice over raw aiming skill. A handheld launcher can be carried anywhere and fired from any position. A turret cannon can only be fired from the vehicle it is mounted on, but when fired from that vehicle, it is more stable and its projectile is more likely to land in the intended area despite the wider spread.

What the Tank Cannon's flag list lacks. The flags list contains only Semi and Turret. When compared to the Shadowstalker (which carries Semi, Safety, Auto, Hook_Sight, Hook_Tactical, and Craft_Repair) or to the Rocket Launcher (which carries Semi, Auto, Safety, No_Sprint, and Hook_Sight), the Tank Cannon's flag list is sparse. Each absence has a reason.

The absence of No_Sprint is explained by the turret context. A handheld launcher restricts sprinting while equipped because the character is carrying a heavy weapon. A turret gunner cannot sprint in the first place -- they are seated in a vehicle, and the vehicle controls movement. The No_Sprint flag would be redundant.

The absence of Safety is explained by the vehicle's entry and exit mechanics serving as the safety mechanism. A handheld weapon needs an explicit safety toggle because the fire key could be pressed accidentally while the weapon is equipped. A turret weapon can only be fired when the player is seated in the turret; exiting the turret seat immediately disarms the weapon. The vehicle entry and exit are the safety.

The absence of Auto is explained by the single-round magazine. Full-auto fire with a one-round capacity is not useful. If a modder increases the magazine capacity, adding Auto becomes a meaningful option. Similarly, the absence of Burst is explained by the weapon's role as a single-shot cannon. Burst fire on a cannon would fire multiple explosive rounds in quick succession, which is not the intended behaviour of a tank cannon as the designers conceived it.

Absence of Invulnerable. The Tank Cannon does not have the Invulnerable flag. This distinguishes it from the HMG turret (which carries both Turret and Invulnerable) and has implications for gameplay. A Tank Cannon turret is potentially destructible -- enemy fire that hits the turret's hitbox may damage or destroy it, depending on how the vehicle asset propagates damage to mounted components.

The absence of Invulnerable also affects what happens when the vehicle is destroyed. If the vehicle's health reaches zero, all mounted turrets are destroyed with it. Without Invulnerable, the turret follows the normal destruction path. With Invulnerable, the turret would survive the vehicle's destruction, which could result in a floating, indestructible turret in the wreckage -- usually not the intended behaviour.

For modders, the absence of Invulnerable is important information. If you are creating a boss vehicle or a raid encounter and you want the Tank Cannon turret to remain functional even after the vehicle is disabled, add the Invulnerable flag. Be aware that this creates a turret that cannot be destroyed by conventional means: players must either destroy the vehicle (if the turret's survival is tied to the vehicle) or find another way to neutralise the turret (if it survives the vehicle). An indestructible turret in a PvP context may be a balance problem. In a PvE context against NPCs who do not target turrets specifically, Invulnerable may have little practical effect.

For server owners, the absence of Invulnerable means that a Tank Cannon turret can be disabled through sustained fire at the turret hitbox. Players engaging a tank do not need to destroy the entire vehicle to silence the cannon; they can target the turret specifically. This introduces a tactical choice: aim for the turret to disable the weapon, or aim for the hull to destroy the vehicle entirely. The turret's destructibility makes tank-versus-tank combat more nuanced than a simple health-bar race.

Absence of attachment hooks. The flags list contains no Hook_Sight, Hook_Grip, Hook_Tactical, or Hook_Barrel entries. The Tank Cannon does not support attachments of any kind. This is typical of vehicle-mounted weapons: the weapon model is part of the vehicle asset and does not expose individual attachment transforms. The cannon barrel is a fixed piece of geometry; there is no threaded muzzle for a suppressor, no rail for a scope, and no grip mount for a foregrip.

The absence of hooks is a property of the weapon model and the vehicle model working together. The weapon asset declares that no hooks exist (by omitting the flags). The model has no attachment transform bones at the indices the attachment system expects. Even if a modder adds Hook_Sight to the weapon asset, the scope attachment would have no transform to attach to and would either not render or would render at the model's origin point, which is typically the vehicle's centre of mass.

For a tank cannon, the lack of attachments is functionally irrelevant. A vehicle-mounted cannon does not need a foregrip (the gunner is not holding it), a tactical laser (the turret has its own sighting system built into the vehicle's turret camera), or a barrel suppressor (the cannon is already loud, and the vehicle's engine noise makes stealth irrelevant). The only attachment that might make conceptual sense is a scope, but the turret's camera system already provides optics, making a weapon-mounted scope redundant.

A modder who wants the Tank Cannon to accept attachments must do three things: add the relevant hook flags to the weapon asset, ensure the vehicle model has attachment transforms at the correct bone indices, and test that the attachments render and function correctly when equipped. The first step is trivial. The second step requires editing the vehicle's .unity3d model file in Unity to add attachment-point transforms to the turret's bone hierarchy. The third step requires in-game testing with each attachment type. For most modders, the effort-to-reward ratio of adding attachment support to a tank cannon is poor: it is a large amount of model-editing work for a feature that adds little to the weapon's role as a vehicle-mounted cannon.

Loot table presence

This weapon does not appear in any extracted loot table. It is obtained another way (NPC reward, crafting, or admin-only).

This finding is consistent with the Tank Cannon's role as a vehicle-mounted weapon. Turret-class weapons that are part of a vehicle asset are not intended to be found as standalone items in the world. The acquisition path for the Tank Cannon is almost certainly through the vehicle system: the player obtains the tank vehicle (through a vehicle spawn, a plugin, or admin command), and the cannon comes with it as an integrated component.

Implications of zero loot-table entries. When a weapon has no loot-table presence, four things are true for players on a vanilla server:

1. The weapon cannot be found by searching containers, lockers, crates, or any world-loot spawn.
2. The weapon cannot drop from enemy NPCs (zombies, animals, or human NPCs) since NPC drops reference loot tables.
3. The weapon cannot appear in airdrop crates or care packages, which also reference loot tables.
4. The only acquisition methods are: /give 1300 (admin command), a server plugin that spawns the item directly, a kit or shop that references the item by ID, or a crafting recipe that produces it.

For server owners, this means the Tank Cannon is an entirely gated item -- it does not exist in the loot economy by default. If you want it to appear through normal gameplay, you must either add it to loot tables manually or provide it through a crafting recipe.

Why the weapon is not in loot tables. The design reason is straightforward: the Tank Cannon is part of a vehicle. Spawning the cannon as a standalone inventory item would leave the player holding a tank cannon with no tank to mount it on. The weapon's Turret flag means it expects a vehicle mount point; without one, the weapon is either unusable or behaves unpredictably. The designer's choice to exclude the cannon from loot tables is the correct one for a component that only functions as part of a larger system.

Adding the Tank Cannon to loot tables. If a server owner wants the cannon to appear as standalone loot, the process is the same as for any weapon: add an entry to the desired spawn table with the item ID (1300) and a weight value. However, before doing so, test what happens when a player picks up the cannon and tries to use it. Does the Turret flag prevent equipping? Does the weapon appear in the player's hands with a broken animation? Does the game crash? The answers depend on the specific game version and any plugins running on the server. Test in a controlled environment before deploying to a live server.

Vehicle acquisition and spawn considerations

Because the Tank Cannon has no loot-table presence, the only way players encounter it in normal gameplay is through the vehicle it is mounted on. This section addresses how server owners and map makers can control the cannon's availability through vehicle spawning.

Vehicle spawns as the cannon's distribution channel

On a vanilla Unturned server, vehicles spawn at fixed points on the map defined by the map's vehicle-spawn table. Each spawn point specifies the vehicle asset ID, a spawn chance (as a weight relative to other vehicles that can spawn at the same point), and a respawn timer. If a tank-class vehicle is included in the map's spawn table, the Tank Cannon arrives with it automatically: the tank spawns, the cannon is mounted on its turret hardpoint as defined by the vehicle asset, and the cannon is ready to fire when a player enters the turret seat.

The cannon's availability is therefore a function of the tank's availability. Server owners who want the Tank Cannon to be more common should increase the tank vehicle's spawn weight, add more tank spawn points to the map, or reduce the tank's respawn timer. Server owners who want the Tank Cannon to be a rare, high-value asset should do the opposite: reduce the spawn weight, limit spawn points to high-risk areas, or increase the respawn timer so that a destroyed tank stays gone for longer.

Plugin-based vehicle spawning

Many community servers use vehicle-spawn plugins that replace or supplement the vanilla spawn system. These plugins often allow per-vehicle configuration: a server owner can set a maximum number of active tank vehicles, a spawn cooldown, a spawn cost (in currency or resources), and spawn restrictions by group, rank, or permission level.

If a server uses a vehicle-spawn plugin, the Tank Cannon's availability is gated by the plugin's configuration for the tank vehicle, not by the cannon's own item data. The cannon has no spawn configuration of its own. To make the Tank Cannon available, the server owner configures the tank vehicle in the plugin. To restrict it, they restrict the tank vehicle. The cannon follows the vehicle's availability rules automatically.

Map-editor considerations

Map makers who build custom maps should include tank-class vehicle spawns if they want the Tank Cannon to be available on their map. The map editor's vehicle-spawn tool places a spawn point and assigns a vehicle asset ID to it. The vehicle type must be one that mounts the Tank Cannon on a turret hardpoint. Not every vehicle with a turret hardpoint mounts the Tank Cannon by default: the vehicle asset file specifies which weapon is mounted on each turret hardpoint. A map maker can place a tank spawn point, but if the vehicle asset at that spawn point mounts a different turret weapon, the Tank Cannon will not appear.

To guarantee that the spawned vehicle carries the Tank Cannon, inspect the target vehicle's asset file and verify that its turret-hardpoint configuration references the Tank Cannon (Tank_Cannon, item ID 1300). If the vehicle mounts a different weapon, the Tank Cannon will not be present on that spawn, regardless of the map maker's intentions.

Spawning the cannon via admin commands

For testing or controlled distribution, server admins can spawn the Tank Cannon directly with the /give command: /give <player> 1300. This places the Tank Cannon in the player's inventory as a standalone item. What happens next depends on the server's plugin configuration and the game version. The player may be able to equip the cannon in their hands (with potentially broken animations). They may be able to place it on a turret hardpoint if a compatible vehicle is nearby and the turret-placement system is active. Or the cannon may sit in the inventory as an unusable item because no vehicle is available to mount it on.

Admin-spawning the Tank Cannon for players is not equivalent to giving them access to a tank. The cannon is one component of a vehicle system. Without the vehicle, its turret, its ammunition supply, and its protection, the cannon alone provides limited utility. Server owners who want to distribute the Tank Cannon should consider distributing the tank vehicle instead, which brings the cannon as an integrated component along with everything the gunner needs to use it effectively.

Canned Beans

There are no Canned Beans associated with the Tank Cannon's loot tables in the extracted data. This is the expected result for a weapon with zero loot-table entries: if the weapon appears in no tables, it cannot share a table with beans.

For the broader context of beans in Unturned lore, see Canned Beans Lore.

Practical use for server owners and modders

Server owners who want the Tank Cannon to be available should assess how it reaches players. Without loot-table entries, the primary acquisition path is through the vehicle the cannon is mounted on. This has two implications:

First, the cannon's availability is tied to the vehicle's availability. If tanks spawn naturally on the map or through a vehicle-spawn plugin, players acquire the cannon by finding or claiming a tank. The cannon is not a separate item -- it is inseparable from the tank. Server owners who adjust vehicle spawn rates are indirectly adjusting the cannon's availability.

Second, the cannon cannot be lost independently of the vehicle. If the tank is destroyed, the cannon is destroyed with it. The player cannot drop the cannon, trade it, or store it separately. This makes the cannon a persistent feature of the vehicle rather than a transferable inventory item.

If you want the Tank Cannon to be available as a standalone item (for use on custom vehicles or as a deployable turret), you have three options:

1. Add loot-table entries: Add the weapon to spawn tables as described above. Test equipping and placement behaviour before deploying.

2. Provide through a shop or kit: Server plugins like Uconomy, KitManager, or custom shop plugins can give the item directly by ID (1300). The plugin bypasses the loot system and spawns the item in the player's inventory.

3. Create a crafting recipe: Add a blueprint asset that produces the Tank Cannon as output. The blueprint approach lets you control the crafting cost, workstation requirement, and any skill or progression gates.

The cannon's 200 base damage across all target classes makes it a high-impact weapon. Combined with the Rocket action type (area-effect explosion), a tank-mounted cannon can clear groups of NPCs or destroy vehicles in one shot. Server owners should consider the balance implications of making this weapon widely available, especially on PvP servers where vehicle-versus-vehicle combat is common.

Vehicle-centric acquisition: the recommended approach

For most servers, the recommended approach to Tank Cannon availability is to control it through vehicle spawns rather than through item distribution. The vehicle-centric approach has several advantages. It keeps the cannon integrated with its intended platform, so players who acquire it also get the protection, mobility, and ammunition supply the tank provides. It prevents the cannon from appearing in unintended contexts (a player carrying a tank cannon as a handheld weapon). It ties the cannon's availability to a vehicle that can be balanced independently: a server owner can make tanks rare without making the cannon unobtainable through other means.

If you choose the vehicle-centric approach, document the vehicle's spawn behaviour for your players. A wiki page or server guide that lists where tanks spawn, how often they respawn, and what players need to do to claim one gives your community a clear path to acquiring the Tank Cannon without admin intervention. The cannon then becomes a reward for players who explore the map, control territory near tank spawns, or complete objectives that grant vehicle access.

Ammunition logistics for server owners

The Tank Cannon's ammunition supply is controlled by the vehicle's inventory and the magazine at item ID 1302. The vehicle spawns with its default inventory, which includes the magazine. The magazine defines how many rounds the autoloader can feed before the vehicle needs resupply.

Server owners who want tanks to have limited ammunition should configure the vehicle's spawn inventory to include only a finite number of missile rounds (ammo items with Caliber 29). Once the vehicle's ammo reserve is depleted, the cannon cannot reload, and the tank becomes a mobility platform without offensive capability. Server owners who want tanks to have effectively unlimited ammunition can configure a plugin that periodically restocks the vehicle's inventory, or set the magazine's capacity high enough that depletion is unlikely in a typical session.

The ammunition supply chain (ammo-crate loot, crafting recipes for missiles, shop prices for missile ammo) is a separate system from the Tank Cannon itself. The cannon only declares what calibre it accepts (29). How players obtain and manage ammunition for that calibre is a server-design question, not a weapon-asset question.

Modders editing the Tank Cannon asset should focus on the fields described in this reference. The key edits a modder is likely to make are:

• Adapt for a different vehicle: The most common modding scenario. Change the Muzzle value to match the new vehicle model's transform index at the barrel exit. Verify that the new vehicle has a turret mount point and that the mount point's bone name matches the reference in the turret configuration. If the projectile spawns at an incorrect position, increment or decrement Muzzle until it aligns with the visual barrel. This may require trial and error if the model's transform indices are not documented.

• Convert to handheld: Remove the Turret flag. Add recoil fields with higher values (start with Recoil_Min_X -15, Recoil_Max_X 15, Recoil_Min_Y 25, Recoil_Max_Y 30 -- matching the Rocket Launcher as a reference). Add Shake_Min_X, Shake_Max_X, Shake_Min_Y, and Shake_Max_Y for screen shake. Add Hook_Sight, Hook_Grip, and Hook_Tactical if attachments are wanted. Test by equipping on a player character and verifying that the model positions correctly in the hands, the firing animation plays, and the recoil feels appropriate.

• Edit the projectile asset: The cannon's explosion behaviour (blast radius, damage falloff, projectile speed, impact effects) lives in the missile projectile asset, not the weapon asset. Find the projectile by searching for assets that reference the Tank Cannon's GUID (6ba6d68072014ae8817df797c0825219) as a parent, or by searching for projectile assets with matching calibre (29). Edit the projectile asset directly to change the explosion characteristics.

• Change the fire mode: Remove Semi and add Auto if the magazine supports multiple rounds. Add Burst for burst fire. Consider adding Safety if you want a safety toggle (the Rocket Launcher and Shadowstalker both have it; the Tank Cannon is unusual in omitting it). Each fire-mode change requires testing the interaction with the turret interface, since the turret system may have its own fire-logic that overrides the weapon's flag behaviour.

• Change calibre and magazine: Modify Caliber to match a different ammunition type. Update Magazine to an item ID whose calibre matches the new value. Verify that ammo items for the new calibre exist and are obtainable. For vehicle-mounted weapons, the ammo supply is typically the vehicle's inventory, so the ammo item's availability is less important than for handheld weapons -- the server owner controls the vehicle's ammo loadout.

• Add attachment support: Add Hook_Sight, Hook_Grip, Hook_Tactical, or Hook_Barrel flags. The vehicle's turret model must have attachment transforms at the indices the attachment system expects. For most existing vehicle models, these transforms do not exist, so the hooks will be present in the data but non-functional in practice. Adding attachment transforms requires editing the vehicle's .unity3d model file in Unity.

When editing the asset, always keep a backup of the original values. The Tank Cannon's stat profile -- uniform 200 damage, Rocket action, Semi fire, Turret camera handling, tight recoil of -3 to 5, generous Spread_Aim of 0.2, single-round spawn, and complete absence of attachment hooks or crafting flags -- is a focused configuration designed for one role: a vehicle-mounted single-shot cannon. Any change that deviates from this role (such as adding full-auto, removing the turret flag, or adding attachments) should be tested in isolation and verified before combining with other edits.

Modding scenarios in depth

The previous section summarised the key edit categories. This section expands each modding scenario with step-by-step guidance, edge cases, and testing recommendations.

Scenario 1: Adapt the Tank Cannon for a different vehicle

This is the most common Tank Cannon modding scenario. A modder wants to mount the cannon on a custom vehicle, a different vanilla vehicle, or a vehicle from another mod. The goal is to make the cannon fire from the new vehicle's barrel exit rather than from the original tank's muzzle transform.

Step 1: Identify the new vehicle's turret hardpoint. Open the target vehicle's asset file and confirm it has at least one turret-hardpoint definition. The turret hardpoint specifies the weapon slot, the weapon asset ID it mounts by default, and the mount bone name. If the hardpoint currently mounts a different weapon, you will need to change the weapon asset ID to reference the Tank Cannon (1300).

Step 2: Find the new vehicle's muzzle transform index. This is the critical and most error-prone step. The new vehicle's turret barrel model has a chain of transform bones. The bone at the tip of the barrel (where the projectile should emerge) has a specific index in the bone hierarchy. If the vehicle model was created by a different modder, the index is unlikely to be 42 (the Tank Cannon's original muzzle index). You have three options to find the correct index:

• If the vehicle model is documented: look up the barrel-tip transform name in the mod documentation and count its position in the bone list.
• If you have access to the Unity project: open the model prefab, expand the turret barrel hierarchy, and note the index of the muzzle-tip bone.
• If you have neither documentation nor Unity access: use trial and error. Start with the vehicle's bone count as an upper bound and work downward, testing each candidate Muzzle value by firing a shot and observing where the projectile spawns.

Step 3: Set the Muzzle field. In the Tank Cannon weapon asset, change Muzzle from 42 to the new vehicle's barrel-tip transform index.

Step 4: Verify the spawn position. Enter the vehicle's turret seat in-game. Fire one round (ensure the hit area is clear of structures and other players). Observe where the missile projectile appears. If it appears at the tip of the barrel, the Muzzle value is correct. If it appears behind the barrel (inside the turret), the index is too low: the projectile is spawning at a bone closer to the turret base. Increment Muzzle. If the projectile appears in front of the barrel (in empty space), the index is too high: the projectile is spawning at a transform that does not exist or is beyond the barrel tip. Decrement Muzzle.

Step 5: Verify the spawn direction. Even if the spawn position is correct, the spawn direction may be wrong. Fire a round at a distant reference point (a building corner, a tree). If the projectile flies straight toward the crosshair, the rotation is correct. If it flies at an angle relative to the crosshair, the bone at the Muzzle index has a local rotation that differs from the original tank's muzzle bone. This is a model-rigging issue. The fix is either to rotate the muzzle bone in Unity (if you have access to the model source) or to find a different bone whose forward axis aligns with the barrel direction.

Step 6: Test recoil and camera. With the cannon mounted on the new vehicle, fire several rounds and observe the turret camera's behaviour. The recoil values (-3 to 5) are tuned for a heavy tank. If the new vehicle is lighter, the recoil may feel too subtle. Adjust the recoil values as described in the recoil section above.

Step 7: Test gimbal limits. The new vehicle's turret gimbal may have different rotation limits than the original tank's. Verify that the turret can rotate through its full intended arc without the barrel clipping through the vehicle's geometry. If the barrel clips through the hull, the gimbal limits in the vehicle asset need adjustment. If the turret cannot aim low enough to hit ground targets at close range, increase the minimum elevation angle (more negative pitch).

Scenario 2: Convert the Tank Cannon to a handheld weapon

This scenario removes the Turret flag and converts the cannon into a weapon the player can carry and fire from the shoulder. It is a substantial change that touches nearly every field in the asset.

Step 1: Remove the Turret flag. This tells the game to route the weapon through the standard first-person weapon controller instead of the turret system.

Step 2: Add recoil. The current recoil of -3 to 5 is invisibly small for a handheld cannon. Set Recoil_Min_X to -15, Recoil_Max_X to 15, Recoil_Min_Y to 25, and Recoil_Max_Y to 30. These are the Rocket Launcher's values, which serve as a reasonable starting point for a handheld explosive weapon of this calibre. Adjust upward for a heavier feel (representing a weapon the character struggles to control) or downward for a lighter feel (representing a more advanced recoil-dampening system in the handheld version).

Step 3: Add screen shake. The Tank Cannon currently has no shake fields. For a handheld cannon, the shot should produce visible screen shake. Add Shake_Min_X -0.003, Shake_Max_X 0.003, Shake_Min_Y -0.003, Shake_Max_Y 0.003. These are conservative starting values. Increase the magnitude if the shot feels underwhelming; decrease if it is disorienting.

Step 4: Adjust spread. The current spread of 0.2 is calibrated for a turret camera at turret magnification. A handheld weapon viewed through a first-person camera at a different field of view will perceive the same spread differently. Test the spread from the first-person perspective. If the crosshair bloom feels too wide, reduce Spread_Aim. If it feels too tight for a weapon of this calibre, increase it. There is no single correct value: spread is subjective and must be tested with the actual camera configuration.

Step 5: Add attachment hooks (optional). If you want the handheld cannon to accept scopes, grips, or tactical attachments, add the corresponding hook flags: Hook_Sight, Hook_Grip, Hook_Tactical, Hook_Barrel. The weapon model must have attachment transform bones at the expected indices. If the original tank cannon model has no attachment transforms (which is likely -- turret models rarely include them), the hooks will be present in the data but non-functional. You must either edit the model in Unity to add attachment-point transforms or accept that the hook flags enable the attachment menu in the UI without actually rendering the attachments on the weapon.

Step 6: Add No_Sprint (optional). The Rocket Launcher carries the No_Sprint flag to prevent the player from sprinting while the weapon is equipped. Consider adding this flag if you want the handheld cannon to feel heavy and restrictive.

Step 7: Add Safety (optional). Handheld launchers in Unturned typically have a safety toggle. Adding the Safety flag gives the player the ability to switch the weapon to safe mode, preventing accidental discharges. Whether to include this flag is a design choice that depends on whether you want the handheld cannon to follow the Rocket Launcher's control conventions.

Step 8: Test model placement. Equipping the Tank Cannon on a player character is the hardest part of this conversion. The weapon model was designed to be mounted on a vehicle turret hardpoint. When equipped in a player's hands, the model may appear at the wrong position, at the wrong rotation, or at the wrong scale. It may clip through the player character's body. The barrel may point in the wrong direction. The firing animation may be missing or broken because the model has no animation clips for handheld use.

These are model-side issues that cannot be fixed by editing the weapon asset alone. If the model is severely broken in handheld mode, you have two options: find or create a handheld version of the cannon model (a standalone .unity3d file with hand-bone attachment points and firing animations), or use a model-replacement plugin or mod that swaps the tank cannon model for a compatible handheld model at runtime.

Step 9: Test firing. Fire the handheld cannon in a safe area. Verify that the projectile spawns at the correct position (the barrel tip of the handheld model), flies in the correct direction (toward the crosshair), and that the recoil moves the camera appropriately. Verify that the reload cycle works: the character should play a reload animation, the magazine item at ID 1302 should be consumed if applicable, and a new round should be chambered.

Step 10: Balance testing. A handheld Tank Cannon with 200 base damage across all target classes is an extremely powerful weapon -- arguably the most powerful handheld weapon in the game, since it combines the Rocket Launcher's explosive damage with potentially unlimited ammunition from a reloadable magazine. Test it in the context where it will be used. If it is intended for PvE against horde-mode zombies, the 200 damage may be appropriate. If it is intended for PvP, the 200 damage with an area-effect explosion may be unbalanced. Adjust the damage values (Player_Damage, Zombie_Damage, Animal_Damage) based on testing.

Scenario 3: Edit the projectile asset

The Tank Cannon's weapon asset determines what happens before the projectile leaves the barrel (firerate, recoil, spread, ammo consumption). The projectile asset determines what happens after (speed, trajectory, blast radius, damage falloff, visual and audio effects). Editing the projectile is a separate task from editing the weapon, but the two are linked by the calibre (29) and by the projectile's parent GUID.

Finding the projectile asset. Search the asset database for projectile assets that reference the Tank Cannon's GUID (6ba6d68072014ae8817df797c0825219) as a parent. Alternatively, search for projectile assets with a matching calibre (29). If multiple projectiles use calibre 29, the one parented to the Tank Cannon's GUID is the one the cannon fires. If no projectile is parented to the Tank Cannon's GUID, the game may use a default rocket projectile for the Rocket action type.

Fields to edit in the projectile asset. The projectile asset typically defines: projectile speed (how fast the missile travels), gravity scale (whether the missile arcs or flies straight), blast radius (the radius of the explosion sphere in game metres), damage falloff (how damage decreases from the blast centre to the blast edge), explosion visual effects (particle system, decal), explosion audio (sound effect played on impact), and impact force (how much physics force the explosion applies to rigidbodies and vehicles).

Testing projectile changes. Changes to the projectile asset apply to every weapon that fires that specific projectile. If you increase the blast radius, every weapon using that projectile (not just the Tank Cannon) now has a larger explosion. If you want to change the Tank Cannon's explosion without affecting other weapons, create a new projectile asset, parent it to the Tank Cannon's GUID, and point the cannon to the new projectile. The mechanism for linking a weapon to a specific projectile varies by game version: it may be the calibre match, a direct GUID reference in the weapon asset, or a lookup table in the game's configuration.

Scenario 4: Change the fire mode

The Tank Cannon's current fire mode is Semi with a single-round magazine. This scenario covers changing to full-auto or burst fire.

Prerequisites for meaningful full-auto. Before adding Auto, the magazine (item ID 1302) must have a capacity greater than 1. If the magazine capacity is 1, full-auto fires one round and stops, which is functionally identical to semi-auto. Edit the magazine asset to increase its capacity. Also set Ammo_Min and Ammo_Max to values that provide more than 1 round on spawn, or players will start with a single round and need to reload before full-auto becomes usable.

Interactions with the Firerate field. With a multi-round magazine, the Firerate of 50 controls the delay between consecutive full-auto shots. The same Firerate value that was functionally irrelevant in semi-auto mode (because the reload time dominated) now determines how fast the cannon cycles. If the full-auto fire rate feels too fast, increase Firerate. If it feels too slow, decrease it. Test with the magazine capacity and reload speed to find a cadence that feels appropriate for a cannon.

Burst fire. Adding the Burst flag causes the weapon to fire a fixed number of rounds (typically 3) per trigger pull. The burst count is defined in a field that may or may not be present in the Tank Cannon's asset depending on the game version. If the burst-count field is absent, the weapon may default to a 3-round burst. Test to confirm.

Safety flag. Adding Safety gives the weapon a safety toggle. In the turret context, the safety toggle may be redundant (the vehicle entry and exit serve as the safety), but for a handheld conversion or a turret that you want to be explicitly disarmable, Safety adds an extra layer of control. The safety toggle state is preserved when the player exits the turret seat, so a turret that was left on safe remains on safe for the next gunner.

Scenario 5: Change calibre and magazine

This scenario changes the ammunition type the Tank Cannon accepts and the magazine it draws from.

Step 1: Choose a new calibre. The new calibre must match an existing ammo item that players can obtain. Check the asset database for ammo items and note their calibre numbers. Choose a calibre that corresponds to the ammunition type you want the cannon to fire. For example, changing from calibre 29 (missile) to the calibre used by a different explosive weapon would make the Tank Cannon share ammunition with that weapon.

Step 2: Change the weapon's Caliber field. Set Caliber to the new calibre number.

Step 3: Update the Magazine field. Find or create a magazine item whose calibre matches the new value. Set Magazine to the new magazine's item ID. Verify that the magazine's capacity, reload speed, and any visual components are appropriate for the new ammunition type.

Step 4: Update ammo availability. If the new calibre's ammo items are not in the game's loot tables or vehicle spawn inventories, players will have no way to reload the cannon. Add the new-calibre ammo items to appropriate loot tables, vehicle inventories, shop lists, or crafting recipes.

Step 5: Test the full reload cycle. Spawn the cannon, fire it until empty, and verify that the reload cycle draws ammunition from the expected source (vehicle inventory or player inventory, depending on the turret context). Verify that the new ammunition item is consumed and that the correct number of rounds is loaded based on the magazine's capacity.

Scenario 6: Add attachment support

This scenario adds attachment hook flags to the Tank Cannon. As noted in the attachment hooks section above, this scenario is largely theoretical for most existing vehicle models because the model must have attachment-point transform bones, which turret models rarely include.

For a vehicle-mounted turret: Adding attachment hooks without editing the vehicle model will produce no visible effect. The hook flags enable the attachment UI but do not create attachment transforms on the model. If you have access to the vehicle's Unity source project, add transform bones at the required indices to the turret barrel hierarchy, export the model, and rebuild the asset bundle. Then add the hook flags to the weapon asset and test.

For a handheld conversion: If you have a handheld cannon model with attachment transforms, the hook flags will work as expected. Add Hook_Sight to enable scope attachments. Add Hook_Tactical to enable laser sights and rangefinders. Add Hook_Grip to enable foregrips and bipods. Add Hook_Barrel to enable suppressors and barrel extensions. Test each attachment type individually before declaring the hook system functional.

The effort-to-reward calculus. Adding attachment support to a tank cannon is a large amount of work (model editing in Unity, asset-bundle rebuilding, testing each attachment type) for a feature that adds little to the weapon's intended role. A tank cannon does not need a scope (the turret camera provides optics), a foregrip (the gunner does not hold the barrel), or a suppressor (the cannon is already among the loudest sounds in the game, and the vehicle provides no stealth benefit). The only attachment that might have a meaningful gameplay effect is a rangefinder (tactical attachment), which could display the distance to the target in the turret UI. For most modders, this is not enough value to justify the modelling work.

When editing the asset, always keep a backup of the original values. The Tank Cannon's stat profile -- uniform 200 damage, Rocket action, Semi fire, Turret camera handling, tight recoil of -3 to 5, generous Spread_Aim of 0.2, single-round spawn, and complete absence of attachment hooks or crafting flags -- is a focused configuration designed for one role: a vehicle-mounted single-shot cannon. Any change that deviates from this role should be tested in isolation and verified before combining with other edits.