Platform Gun
| “ | It does what it says on the box. By firing a combination of highly volatile chemicals at a nearby wall, the result is a rapidly solidifying concrete-like foam that can support several tons of weight. Do not ingest! |
The Platform Gun is the Traversal Tool used by Engineer. It is a massive, long-barrelled cannon that fires a unique material composite called Plastcrete. During the reload animation, the Engineer is presumably mixing the chemicals by spinning the cylinder.
The Platform Gun fires Plascrete as a spherical shape and morphs into a semi-oval shape with a flat top upon impact against terrain, creating a makeshift piece of terrain that has many potential applications. Plastcrete is bright yellow and vulnerable to destruction such as mining and flame. While the Platform Gun remains consistent in firing accuracy, the accuracy will become significantly skewed to the left or right when a player or object is too close to the front of the player.
Using the Laser Pointer on a Platform will display if it is equipped with the Plastcrete MKII mod (fall damage reduction). A Platform without the mod will have "PLASCRETE FOAM" written, while a Platform with the mod will show "PLASCRETE FOAM MKII".
Mechanics
Platforms cannot be suspended in midair. The projectile will fly until it comes into contact with a surface that it can build to. If the supporting surface that the platform is connected to is destroyed, then all platforms attached will also be destroyed.
Platforms can be built through a Gunner's zipline.
Restrictions
There are multiple terrain objects and stationary enemies that platforms cannot be built on. If a platform is connected to one such restriction, it briefly expands before disintegrating. In other cases, the projectile will travel through the object as if it was nonexistent.
Modifications
There are three tiers of modifications and each tier has one to three upgrades. Only one modification can be equipped per tier.
| Engineer Upgrades | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mod | Effect | In Game Description | Price | |||||||
| Tier 1 |  Supercharged Feed Mechanism |
+1 Rate of Fire | "We overclocked your gun. It fires faster. Don't ask. Just enjoy. Also probably don't tell Management, please." |
| ||||||
 Expanded Ammo Bags |
+8 Max Ammo | "You had to give up some sandwich-storage, but your total ammo capacity is increased!" |
| |||||||
 High Capacity Magazine |
+4 Magazine Size | "The good thing about clips, magazines, ammo drums, fuel tanks ...you can always get bigger variants." |
| |||||||
Tier 2 4
|
 Plastcrete MKII |
Reduces the amount of Fall Damage
taken when landing on Platforms |
"Shock-absorbing compound reduces fall damage" |
| ||||||
| Tier 3 8
|
Expanded Ammo Bags |
+8 Max Ammo | "You had to give up some sandwich-storage, but your total ammo capacity is increased!" |
| ||||||
 Repellant Additive |
+Bug repellant | "Enemies will avoid walking on the Plastcrete Foam whenever possible." |
| |||||||
 Disabled Inertia Inhibitor |
+Disabled Inertia Inhibitor | "This tweak ensures that the user's velocity is transferred to the projectile. Useful in high-speed applications but it requires doing more math in your head." |
| |||||||
Unique Modifications
| Unique Modifications | ||
|---|---|---|
Plastcrete MkII |
Technically, this upgrade increases Plastcrete's velocity threshold for Fall Damage from 10 m/sec to 15 m/sec (See Fall Damage), which increases the safe jump height from 5.1m to 11.48m and effectively negates up to 87.5 damage that would otherwise be dealt normally. | |
Repellant Additive |
Repellant Additive will force all Glyphid enemy types (including Dreadnoughts) to path around platforms, Rival Tech is unaffected by the repellant. Repellant Additive causes the enemy AI to consider the platform surface area (Including a small invisible aura around the platform) as 2x the amount of space they have to path through, causing them to go around it as if it were a natural terrain obstacle.
There are certain scenarios where glyphids will ignore the repellant: Such as, if a dwarf is touching a repellant platform (or standing very closely next to them), this will cause enemies to path straight towards them, but, platforms placed away from that dwarf will still cause glyphids to avoid them only if those platforms are outside an estimated area of 10-15 meters of that dwarf and platform. Also, too many platforms in one area will cause enemies to ignore them, this is because the AI has calculated that pathing over the platforms was either the only way to it's destination (e.g. standing on a tower of platforms), or, the platforms have taken up too much surface area, leaving the AI no choice but to walk over them to reach their target. To avoid these scenarios placing platforms with, at the maximum, around 1 meter of space between them, and keeping the amount to approximately around 4 to 10 in one area will not trigger enemies to walk over them in most cases. Leaving strategic gaps wide enough for enemies to walk through will solve this as well. Repellant additive is very useful for creating kill-zones by forcing swarms of enemies to funnel together into a group for AOE attacks to finish them off. Platforms can also be strategically placed to cut off blind spots when defending an objective and therefore forcing flanking enemies to attack you head on. In open spaces, placing a line of platforms together is useful for kiting enemies, as they will constantly re-path around the platforms as long as you maintain a distance. The M.U.L.E. will also path around platforms just like a glyphid would, you can use her to test your platform setup to see how enemies would path around it. | |
Gallery
Trivia
- In an earlier version of the Update 21 Experimental Branch, there were two experimental modifications, one of which would cause the gun to fire cubic platforms, the other doubled the radius of the platforms. Both were removed before release for unknown reasons. Relatedly, the Plastcrete MKII platform modification made the platforms very similar to Deep Snow in function, with snow particles and being melted by fire in the neighboring experimental update.
- You can use platforms to see through the world to find buried Cargo Crates, Machine Events, and more by shooting a platform at eye height while in a pit or wall. More platforms added above or below can increase the size of the window and it can even make you fall out of the world in which you teleport back up or somewhere else with varying amounts of fall damage.
- Sticky Flames can melt Plastcrete MKII platforms with a heavy amount of smoke. This is likely due to their similarity to snow piles. It is unclear if the melting is intended or if it is a side effect of inheriting the properties of Deep Snow.
- Platforms can be used to mine terrain that requires more than 1 hit faster, such as the Ommoran Heartstone Beamers.
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
