History GameBreaker / X

* [=M7M=] missile frigates can wipe out an entire sector from a remote corner [[MacrossMissileMassacre using a full cargo bay of missiles]]; the sheer volume of rockets will completely overwhelm any target who isn't using Plasma Burst Generators, Ion Disruptors, or Phased Shockwave Generators. In addition, [[SuperPersistentMissile any [=M7M=] missile can lock on to new enemy targets after their original one is destroyed]]. And this is taken UpToEleven when you find and use the Missile Barrage command in the command console. Think about it: a single barrage of a single-warhead missile launches 8 missiles. [[RecursiveAmmo One multi-warhead missile fires as eight missiles]]. One barrage of a multi-warhead missile generates 64 of them at once. And of course, [[VideoGameCrueltyPotential you can determine how many barrages you want for your own liking]], though you do have to take note that more barrages can cause your computer to use a lot more resources; in other words, your game will lag. Thankfully, the AI never uses [=M7Ms=] for this in vanilla [=X3TC=], though the AI's inability to use [=M7Ms=] properly was rectified in ''Albion Prelude''. [[BossInMookClothing Be VERY afraid]].

* The player's ability to strafe (move laterally without turning) coupled with the game's highly visible and [[PainfullySlowProjectile ludicrously slow shells]] allow the player to stop at maximum weapon range and engage enemy ships with near impunity. Savvy players can use this combat tactic to destroy enemy M2s with M6 (or smaller!) ships. However, this doesn't work on the Kha'ak, who have quasi-HitScan weapons.

* The player's ability to strafe (move laterally without turning) coupled with the game's highly visible and [[PainfullySlowProjectile ludicrously slow shells]] allow the player to stop at maximum weapon range and engage enemy ships with near impunity. Savvy players can use this combat tactic to destroy enemy M2s with M6 (or smaller!) ships.
** Doesn't work on the Kha'ak.

* OTAS M2 Boreas has the distinction of being the ''only'' ship in the game that's capable of mounting anti-captial ship weapons in ''every single slot it has''. Combining that with good shield and the fact that it's ''the'' smallest M2 in the game (which makes it harder to get hit) makes the ship one of the best M2 you can buy. Even after the nerf it received in ''Albion Prelude'', reducing the maximum shield from 10GJ to 8GJ, doesn't diminish its usefulness.

* M8-wise, the Terran Claymore outperforms every other M8 due to the fact that its torpedo weighs only as half as the Commonwealth counterpart (takes up 1 cargo space instead of the Commonwealth Tomahawk's 2) while having more range, damage, and extra detonation method. Meanwhile, the ship itself has the 2nd best cargo space of all M8 bombers. This is only fixed in ''Albion Prelude'' by making both of the torpedoes take up 6 spaces instead, which reduces the staying power of the Claymore, and thus making the OTAS Auster Hauler (which has the highest cargo space) actually a worthy contender.

* The ATF M6 Vidar is a corvette with TEN main weapon slots when most have six or eight, two twin-slot turrets, high shield capacity and the single highest turn rate of any M6 ship in the game. It is also one of only two corvettes that can turn almost as quickly as M3 fighters (the other being the Xenon P). Couple this with the Matter/Anti-Matter Launchers with their high damage output and the fact that they're ammo-based (using no energy), and you have a ship that can sustain high intensity combat for long periods, rack up large kill counts and effectively engage almost any enemy.

** Due to a typo in the data for its anticapital weapon, the ATF Skirnir is a GameBreaker even by [=M7M=] standards. Like all [=M7Ms=], it has eight missile tubes. Its primary weapon is the Shadow missile, which has [[RecursiveAmmo eight warheads]]. Each warhead does 755 megajoules of damage. The toughest ship to appear in the vanilla game has 12 gigajoules of shielding. Then activate the Missile Barrage command with the Shadow for only one round. [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill Do the math]][[note]]The answer: The total damage is 48.32 gigajoules or 755 [=MJ=] multiplied by 64 after launching a single barrage. Yes, even the sturdiest of space stations cannot withstand this much damage in the game. Meanwhile, the missile's base total damage is 6.04 [=GJ=] when all 8 warheads connect[[/note]]. ''Albion Prelude'' fixed the Shadow so Argon characters don't get their heads blown off the minute a Skirnir shows up.

* The Hyperion M7. While it's by no means a God Ship, and is easy to kill when piloted by the AI, it becomes a one-size-fits-all pocket destroyer when flown by the player. Its superior weaponry lets it kill any other ship of its size, and its speed makes it fairly easy to dodge fire from ships several times its size -- all the while pumping laser blasts in their hull. Bigger ships are still useful for massive fleet actions, but in solo play once you get that particular vessel it becomes redundant to get anything else at all. It returns in ''Terran Conflict'', albeit nerfed to have its firepower and shielding being more in-line with corvettes; it was also reclassified as an M6+ Heavy Corvette as the newly introduced M7 Frigates are proper capital ships. Still ends up being the [[InfinityMinusOneSword best corvette after the (much more difficult to acquire) Springblossom]], though.

* The Hyperion M7. While it's by no means a God Ship, and easy to kill when piloted by the AI, it becomes a one-size-fits-all pocket destroyer when flown by the player. Its superior weaponry lets it kill any other ship of its size, and its speed makes it fairly easy to dodge fire from ships several times its size -- all the while pumping laser blasts in their hull. Bigger ships are still useful for massive fleet actions, but in solo play once you get that it becomes redundant to get anything else at all. It returns in ''Terran Conflict'', albeit nerfed to have its firepower and shielding being more in-line with corvettes; it was also reclassified as a M6 Corvette as the newly introduced M7 Frigates are proper capital ships. Still ends up being the [[InfinityMinusOneSword best corvette after the (much more difficult to acquire) Springblossom]], though.

* M8-wise, Terran Claymore outperform every other M8 due to the fact that its torpedo weight only as half as the Commonwealth counterpart (weight 1 instead of Commonwealth 2) while having more range, damage, and extra detonation method, and the ship itself has 2nd best cargo space of all M8. This is only fixed in ''Albion Prelude'' by making both of them weight 6 instead, which reduce the staying power of the Claymore, and thus making OTAS Auster Hauler (who has highest cargo space) actually a worthy contender.

* [=M7M=] missile frigates can wipe out an entire sector from a remote corner [[MacrossMissileMassacre using a full cargo bay of missiles]]; the sheer volume of rockets will completely overwhelm any target who isn't using Plasma Burst Generators or Phased Shockwave Generators. In addition, [[SuperPersistentMissile any [=M7M=] missile can lock on to new enemy targets after their original one is destroyed]]. And this is taken UpToEleven when you find and use the Missile Barrage command in the command console. Think about it: a single barrage of a single-warhead missile launches 8 missiles. [[RecursiveAmmo One multi-warhead missile fires as eight missiles]]. One barrage of a multi-warhead missile generates 64 of them at once. And of course, [[VideoGameCrueltyPotential you can determine how many barrages you want for your own liking]], though you do have to take note that more barrages can cause your computer to use a lot more resources; in other words, your game will lag. Thankfully, the AI never uses [=M7Ms=] for this in vanilla [=X3TC=], though the AI's inability to use [=M7Ms=] properly was rectified in ''Albion Prelude''. [[BossInMookClothing Be VERY afraid]].

* M8-wise, Terran Claymore outperform every other M8 due to the fact that its torpedo weight only as half as the Commonwealth counterpart (weight 1 instead of Commonwealth 2) while having more range, damage, and extra detonation method, and the ship itself has 2nd best cargo space of all M8. This is only fixed in ''Albion Prelude'' by making both of them weight 6 instead, which reduce the staying power of the Claymore, and OTAS Auster Hauler now has advantage over Claymore in cargo space.

* [[{{Unobtanium}} Nividium]] mining in ''Terran Conflict'' and previous games. Nividium is an extremely valuable, rare mineral that can only be mined by breaking up asteroids and picking up the debris in ships. Normally, doing this will result in the nividium being depleted. However, ordering your ships to pick up the debris when you are not in the same sector results in the game basically "faking" your ships picking up the debris -- they'll fly around in the debris fields, and the game will cheat in nividium into their cargo bay, in order to save processing power. The game does ''not'' get rid of the nividium that the ship is pretending to pick up, meaning that doing this results in effectively infinite nividium. Mine the debris for an hour, load it all into one ship, sell it for 30 to 50 million credits at a shipyard, rinse and repeat till you have billions of credits. This exploit was fixed in ''Albion Prelude''.

** Doesn't work on the Kha'akh.

* The ATF M6 Vidar is a corvette with TEN main weapon slots when most have six or eight, two twin-slot turrets, high shield capacity and the single highest turn rate of any M6 ship in the game. It is the only corvette that can turn almost as quickly as M3 fighters. Couple this with the Matter/Anti-Matter Launchers with their high damage output and the fact that they're ammo-based (using no energy), and you have a ship that can sustain high intensity combat for long periods, rack up large kill counts and effectively engage almost any enemy.

* The ATF M6 Vidar is a corvette with TEN main weapon slots when most have six or eight, two twin-slot turrets, high shield capacity and the single highest turn rate of any M6 ship in the game. It is the only corvette that can turn almost as quickly as M3 fighters in the game. Couple this with the Terran Matter/Anti-Matter Launcher with its high damage output and the fact that it is ammo-based (using no energy), and you have a ship that can sustain high intensity combat for long periods, rack up large kill counts and effectively engage almost any enemy in the game.

* The ATF M6 Vidar is a corvette with TEN main weapon slots when most have six or eight, two twin-slot turrets, high shield capacity and the single highest turn rate of any M6 ship in the game. It is the only corvette that can turn almost as quickly as M3 fighters in the game. Couple this with the Terran Matter/Anti-Matter Launcher with its high damage output and the fact that it uses ammo, thus using no energy, and you have a ship that can sustain high intensity combat for long periods, rack up large kill counts and effectively engage almost any enemy in the game.

* The player's ability to strafe (move laterally without turning) coupled with the game's highly visible and PainfullySlowProjectiles allow the player to stop at maximum weapon range and engage enemy ships with near impunity. Savvy players can use this combat tactic to destroy enemy M2s with M6 (or smaller!) ships.

** Due to a typo in the data for its anticapital weapon, the ATF Skirnir is a GameBreaker even by [=M7M=] standards. Like all [=M7Ms=], it has eight missile tubes. Its primary weapon is the Shadow missile, which has [[RecursiveAmmo eight warheads]]. Each warhead does 755 megajoules of damage. The toughest ship to appear in the vanilla game has 12 gigajoules of shielding. Then activate the Missile Barrage command with the Shadow for only one round. [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill Do the math]][[note]]The answer: The total damage is 48.32 gigajoules or 755 [=MJ=] multiplied by 64. Yes, even the sturdiest of space stations cannot withstand this much damage in the game. Meanwhile, the missile's base total damage is 6.04 [=GJ=] when all 8 warheads connect[[/note]]. ''Albion Prelude'' fixed the Shadow so Argon characters don't get their heads blown off the minute a Skirnir shows up.

** Due to a typo in the data for its anticapital weapon, the ATF Skirnir is a GameBreaker even by [=M7M=] standards. Like all [=M7Ms=], it has eight missile tubes. Its primary weapon is the Shadow missile, which has [[RecursiveAmmo eight warheads]]. Each warhead does 755 megajoules of damage. The toughest ship to appear in the vanilla game has 12 gigajoules of shielding. Then activate the Missile Barrage command with the Shadow for only one round. [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill Do the math]][[note]]The answer: The total damage is 48.32 gigajoules or 755 [=MJ=] multiplied by 64. Yes, even the sturdiest of space stations cannot withstand this much damage in the game[[/note]]. ''Albion Prelude'' fixed the Shadow so Argon characters don't get their heads blown off the minute a Skirnir shows up.

** Due to a typo in the data for its anticapital weapon, the ATF Skirnir is a GameBreaker even by [=M7M=] standards. Like all [=M7Ms=], it has eight missile tubes. Its primary weapon is the Shadow missile, which has [[RecursiveAmmo eight warheads]]. Each warhead does 755 megajoules of damage. The toughest ship to appear in the vanilla game has 12 gigajoules of shielding. Then activate the Missile Barrage command with the Shadow for only one round. [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill Do the math]][[note]]The answer: The total damage is 48.32 gigajoules or 755 [=MJ=] multiplied by 64. Yes, even the sturdiest of space stations cannot withstand this much damage[[/note]]. ''Albion Prelude'' fixed the Shadow so Argon characters don't get their heads blown off the minute a Skirnir shows up.

** Due to a typo in the data for its anticapital weapon, the ATF Skirnir is a GameBreaker even by [=M7M=] standards. Like all [=M7Ms=], it has eight missile tubes. Its primary weapon is the Shadow missile, which has [[RecursiveAmmo eight warheads]]. Each warhead does 755 megajoules of damage. The toughest ship to appear in the vanilla game has 12 gigajoules of shielding. Then activate the Missile Barrage command with the Shadow for only one round. [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill Do the math]]. ''Albion Prelude'' fixed the Shadow so Argon characters don't get their heads blown off the minute a Skirnir shows up.

* [=M7M=] missile frigates can wipe out an entire sector from a remote corner [[MacrossMissileMassacre using a full cargo bay of missiles]]; the sheer volume of rockets will completely overwhelm any target who isn't using Plasma Burst Generators or Phased Shockwave Generators. In addition, [[SuperPersistentMissile any [=M7M=] missile can lock on to new enemy targets after their original one is destroyed]]. And this is taken UpToEleven when you find and use the Missile Barrage command in the command console. Think about it: a single barrage of a single-warhead missile launches 8 missiles. One multi-warhead missile fires as eight missiles. One barrage of a multi-warhead missile generates 64 of them at once. And of course, [[VideoGameCrueltyPotential you can determine how many barrages you want for your own liking]], though you do have to take note that more barrages can cause your computer to use a lot more resources; in other words, your game will lag. Thankfully, the AI never uses [=M7Ms=] for this in vanilla [=X3TC=], though the AI's inability to use [=M7Ms=] properly was rectified in ''Albion Prelude''. [[BossInMookClothing Be VERY afraid]].

* The Terran M1 Tokyo was formerly considered a mild GameBreaker by the standards of its class, because unlike most full-size carriers its weapons generator was powerful enough for it to fire its anti-capital guns indefinitely. This ability was removed in the 3.0 patch. However, the ship's asymmetrical design causes a weird problem that can't be fixed as easily: the "center" of the ship that enemies will target is essentially floating in empty space ahead of the [[BuffySpeak flying-saucer-bridge-thingy]]. This causes most weapons to miss the ship entirely unless manually aimed by the player, or when the weapons are fired at the Tokyo from the left or right sides.

* The Hyperion M7. While it's by no means a God Ship, and easy to kill when piloted by the AI, it becomes a one-size-fits-all pocket destroyer when flown by the player. Its superior weaponry lets it kill any other ship of its size, and its speed makes it fairly easy to dodge fire from ships several times its size -- all the while pumping laser blasts in their hull. Bigger ships are still useful for massive fleet actions, but in solo play once you get that it becomes redundant to get anything else at all.