| 1 | %% This image was chosen in an Image Pickin' thread, please don't replace it without starting a new thread.%% |
| 2 | [[quoteright:330:[[Anime/SpaceBattleshipYamato https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/yamato_wave_motion_gun.jpg]]]] |
| 3 | [[caption-width-right:330:[[Film/JackieBrown When you absolutely, positively got to kill every motherfucker in the galaxy,]] [[TropeNamers accept no substitutes.]]]] |
| 4 | |
| 5 | ->''"I have traveled far and seen much. Yet nothing warms my heart so much as the sight of a gun so massive that its fury makes the very world tremble."'' |
| 6 | -->-- '''First Captain Lysander''' of the Imperial Fists, ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'' |
| 7 | |
| 8 | The CoolShip needs an equally cool weapon. If it's a sufficiently humongous CoolShip, it will be equipped with a [[EnergyWeapon Laser Beam]] on steroids: the Wave Motion Gun -- an enormous RayGun that fires a massive energy beam capable of blowing away an enemy ship (in the "blow a battleship in half" sense), sometimes an entire fleet, with one shot, and maybe even [[EarthShatteringKaboom blowing up an entire planet]]. It doesn't necessarily have to even hit; if you're too close, [[SplashDamage the sheer energy bleeding off from the beam can be deadly]]. And don't even think about trying to waste your time with puny DeflectorShields -- it'll just punch right through 'em. |
| 9 | |
| 10 | Frequently, the Wave Motion Gun is made of LostTechnology, or is [[SuperPrototype an experimental prototype]], but sometimes they're a dime a dozen. It also explains how a small fleet can [[ConservationOfNinjutsu win consistently against enemies that grossly outnumber them]]: the defense units just have to hold their ground until the Gun(s) are ready to fire. Invariably, just before firing, TheCaptain has to [[CallingYourAttacks order the attack]]. |
| 11 | |
| 12 | Naturally, such {{Superweapon}}s tend to have built in PowerLimiters in universes where the power level of everything isn't cranked up. Wave Motion Guns usually require a significant charging period before firing and re-charging/cooldown afterwards (occasionally depicted by SuckingInLines; the WaveMotionTuningFork is a popular subtrope used for visual effect). They can be TooAwesomeToUse or AwesomeButImpractical. These weapons can often be the weaponized equivalent of a DangerousForbiddenTechnique, especially the most powerful varieties. Some require ExplosiveOverclocking of the power grid they're attached to, making them [[DeathOrGloryAttack risky]] to use. Sometimes they draw so much power that [[DivertingPower everything else has to be shutdown to charge them]]. Others require [[{{beat}} ...]] ''[[ToxicPhlebotinum unconventional]]'' [[{{beat}} ...]] power [[PoweredByAForsakenChild sources]], or they may be a NuclearOption with risks of [[DestructiveSavior heavy]] [[WeaponOfMassDestruction collateral damage]]. |
| 13 | |
| 14 | This sort of weapon is frequently mounted on a KillSat and is likely to be fired using [[ConvergingStreamWeapon converging streams]]. If it's built into a famous real-world location, then it's a WeaponizedLandmark. If the bad guys have one, it's a DeathRay. When it's built into the ship so that it's always pointed straight forward, it's a FixedForwardFacingWeapon. KamehameHadoken is the equivalent of this trope for characters who use KiManipulation, FunctionalMagic, SupernaturalMartialArts, or some other form of [[StockSuperpowersIndex superpower]]. For dragons, it's a BreathWeapon. Facing one of these on foot often involves a CorridorCubbyholeRun. |
| 15 | |
| 16 | See also ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill, BigBulkyBomb. |
| 17 | |
| 18 | ---- |
| 19 | !!The Exemplifier is ready to fire in 3... 2... 1... |
| 20 | |
| 21 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 22 | |
| 23 | [[folder:Anime & Manga]] |
| 24 | * ''Anime/SpaceBattleshipYamato'': The [[TropeNamer eponymous main weapon]] of the ''Yamato''. Notably, the original Wave Motion Gun[[note]]Originally called "Hadou Hou" in Japanese (literally, "Wave ''Cannon''").[[/note]] itself wasn't just a heroes-only weapon: by season 2, most ships in the Earth Defence Force carried one (some had ''two''), and once exposed to the Wave Motion Gun, everyone else tried to copy or modify one. Desslok/Desslar had his Desslok Cannon (said to be weaker than the Wave Motion Gun, but not so much that you'd really notice), and the Comet Empire had their weaker (only one ship at a time) but longer-ranged Magna-Flame Cannon.\ |
| 25 | Interestingly, the Wave Motion Gun was not treated as something invincible: at the end of the first season, Desslar's one was reflected back at him, and in the second season we have three different incidents of Wave-Motion Guns utterly failing in their job (first was the Comet Empire's vanguard fleet flagship firing her Magna Flame Cannon while inside Saturn's ring, only for the energy beam to explode against the rings' particles, giving Earth's fleet the time to reach their weapons' range and annihilate the vanguard fleet; then the Earth Defense Force fired ALL their Wave Motion Guns at the Empire's comet fortress, but failed to do any damage; third was the ''Yamato'' finding herself attacked again by Desslar and charging the gun, only for Desslar to mine the space before the muzzle and get a good laugh as the ''Yamato'' couldn't fire without being destroyed by her own weapon). |
| 26 | ** The Wave Motion Gun's original name being made of two generic Japanese words, [[VideoGame/RType several]] [[VideoGame/NavalOps other]] [[Franchise/FinalFantasy series]] have gone ahead and [[ShoutOut used it as is]] for their variants. So even the name has become [[LawyerFriendlyCameo ubiquitous]], though the practice is [[LostInTranslation less noticeable]] in English because most translate it to the more apt [[SpellMyNameWithAnS Wave Cannon]] or the like. |
| 27 | * ''Anime/SpaceBattleshipYamato2199'' ups its lethality to ridiculous levels, showing that it's capable of wiping out a continent the size of Australia. Later, when the Yamato has to deal with an enemy base on Pluto, blowing up the whole damn planet [[PlutoIsExpendable is considered a viable option]]. NoKillLikeOverkill indeed. ''2199'' even gives the weapon a longer name: '''Dimensional Wave Motion Explosive Compression Emitter''' (though the cast still use the term ''Wave Motion Gun'' in practice). And they even explain how it works: by generating [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micro_black_hole Micro Black Holes]] out of the power from the Wave Engine and harnessing their ability to emit [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawking_radiation Hawking Radiation]] bursts, which is actually what shoots out of the gun's barrel.\ |
| 28 | It also becomes a point of morality in ''Yamato 2199'', where Starsha was horrified that the Star Force had weaponized the Wave Motion technology and almost didn't give them the Cosmo DNA as a result. [[spoiler:This was because the Iscandarians themselves had developed Wave-Motion Guns before, and went kinda DrunkOnTheDarkSide (unlike the ''Yamato'' crew, they ''didn't'' balk at blowing up planets with theirs)]]. |
| 29 | ** And you can totally see her fears manifesting in a time of crisis. [[spoiler:There was an artifact of activating the Cosmo DNA that saved the earth, it left a dimple in space and time called the Time Vault, where time ran much faster inside than out. This allowed Earth to build and field enough ships to - barely - withstand the overwhelming onslaught of the Comet Empire's fleet. But this survival was slowly costing the peoples of Earth their humanity.]] |
| 30 | ** Notably, Creator/BandaiNamco were effectively ordered by the production crew, for its appearance in ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWarsV'', to use AppliedPhlebotinum to disable the Wave Motion Gun for practically all of the game, purely to keep that moral code intact. It's ''only'' used unrestricted in two scenarios -- the final battle against the [[Anime/GetterRobo Invaders]] (since they're willfully-evil beasts who would eat every living thing in the universe given half the chance), and the last stage in the game, where it is the single most devastating weapon on the field, being able to, with the right commands, OneHitKO the final boss's entire force![[note]]It's also used, in a scripted event, to obliterate the final boss entirely.[[/note]] |
| 31 | * Likewise ''Anime/SpaceCarrierBlueNoah'', the SpiritualSuccessor/ripoff of ''Yamato'' by the same producer (The Nish), has the Anti-Proton Gun. |
| 32 | * The WaveMotionTuningFork-type Macross Cannon, AKA Superdimensional Converging Beam Weapon, as well as the Grand Cannon, in ''Anime/SuperDimensionFortressMacross'' and [[Anime/{{Macross}} its sequels]]. |
| 33 | ** The original Macross Cannon provides the impetus of the plot: the [[NeglectfulPrecursors Supervision Army]] gunship that later became the Macross had been rigged to fire upon Zentradi reconnaissance ships, which it did, prompting the arrival of a full combat fleet. Also, activation of the ship's [[{{Teleportation}} Fold Engines]] left the Cannon bereft of power conduits for a while, prompting the [[TransformingMecha iconic transformation]] (which allowed the Cannon to reconnect with its power source due to the new configuration.) |
| 34 | *** When the recon ships were fired on, they were below the horizon from the point of view of the Macross. It actually fired through several MILES of the Earth's crust, and still managed to spear the primary target through the center of mass, and killed the other through bleed-off. [[NoEndorHolocaust And somehow the planet was still inhabitable]]. |
| 35 | ** By the time of ''Anime/MacrossFrontier'' the concept is increasingly common in the U.N. Spacy fleet, finding itself as the Heavy Quantum Convergence Cannon of the smaller carrier Macross Quarter. ''Frontier'' also manages to pack a fully functional (if smallish) Macross Cannon into a ''[[TransformingMecha fighter]]''! It doesn't have [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill as much oomph]] as does the battleship version, but it still has enough power to punch out the DeflectorShields of a capital ship. Also, while the original Cannon was an integral part of the Macross' design, later models modified it into a detachable gunpod. ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7r25c8Ke1I That will be hard to clean up.]]'' |
| 36 | *** The [[HordeOfAlienLocusts Vajra]] from ''Frontier'' are giant sized InsectoidAliens, most of which carry a biological Wave Motion Gun. |
| 37 | *** In fact, fighter-scale craft with Converging Beam Weapons have been around [[http://www.macross2.net/m3/macrossdyrl/golg-gants-charts.htm since the original series.]] |
| 38 | ** The Zentradi Mobile Fortresses (Fulbtzs Berrentzs class) were each equipped with a Wave Motion Gun so powerful that any direct fleet engagement essentially boiled down to the question "who will be the first to fire?" This is vividly demonstrated in the movie adaptation ''Anime/MacrossDoYouRememberLove'', where Bodolza is so adamant about opening up on Lapramiz' MF that he willingly sacrifices thousands of his own screening force ships which just happen to be in the line of fire. |
| 39 | ** The Grand Cannon fired only a single shot in ''SDF''. The novelization of the US adaptation ''Anime/{{Robotech}}'' states that this destroyed more Zentradi warships than had been lost in the entire history of the species. It makes Dolza change his mind about eradicating the humans and decide he should ally with them against his other enemies. Too bad he'd already laid waste to the Earth and slaughtered most of the population. |
| 40 | * Synchro Cannons in ''WesternAnimation/RobotechTheShadowChronicles''. [[spoiler:The aliens who gave the REF the designs made them purposefully defective as part of an elaborate betrayal later.]] |
| 41 | * The Nadesico, from ''Anime/MartianSuccessorNadesico'', had the Gravity Cannon. When that got old and stopped working against the enemy, they upgraded to the Phase Transition Cannon. |
| 42 | ** Arguaby a Deconstruction in the latter case. They fired it once in battle, against live targets (they had been fighting mostly MechaMooks until then, they are so horrified by the ease and scale of destruction unleashed that they never fire the PT Cannon again. |
| 43 | ** The PT Cannon wasn't originally designed as a weapon. They salvaged a second PT engine (FTL drive) and attached it to the ship, basically to make it more powerful and faster. In desperation during a fairly hopeless fight, they decided to have the two engines focus opposing PT fields (warp fields basically) on the same area of space, literally folding space around anything in the area and crushing it out of existence, similar to what a black hole does. |
| 44 | ** Also from Nadesico, the Cosmos fires 7 Gravity Cannons. This is one of the few times a Wave Motion Gun also qualifies as a [[BeamSpam spammable attack]]. |
| 45 | * ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam'' and its sequels, spinoffs, and {{Alternate Universe}}s have a number of these. It's kind of a custom in ''Gundam'' now that every series must a huge Wave Motion Gun, sometime even two in one series. It's usually involved in the final battle or close to the end, and destroyed by the heros blowing up its [[AttackItsWeakPoint weak point]] and causing the whole thing to go kaboom. |
| 46 | ** While Universal Century timeline is usually overlooked in the BFG department, especially compared to ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamWing'', it is actually ''better'' supplied with various [=WMGs=] and offers such notable pieces: |
| 47 | *** Ordinary warship guns in the setting are called mega particle cannons. Starting with Big Zam from the original ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam'' many mobile armors were equipped with upgraded versions powerful enough to blow away multiple warships in one shot. Not to [[LensmanArmsRace be outdone entirely]] you later saw ships such as the [[Anime/MobileSuitZetaGundam Argama]] and [[Anime/MobileSuitGundamZZ Nahel Argama]] equipped with '''hyper'' mega particle cannons made to pulverize asteroid bases in one shot. This trope in its purest form, but not nearly the biggest guns in the setting. |
| 48 | *** For actual super weapons you have the Federation's Solar System - a scaled-up version of the mythical Archimedes DeathRay, using tens of thousands of computer-controlled mirrors to reflect sunlight at a target and possessing enough power to take a nice chunk out of the asteroid base Solomon. Zeon meanwhile has the confusingly named Solar Ray Cannon, also called a [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Colony Laser]], which is an [[ThatsNoMoon entire space colony converted into a laser cannon]]. |
| 49 | *** Both would be seen again under the control of the [[Anime/MobileSuitZetaGundam Titans]] in the form of Gryps II Colony Laser, as well as Solar System II was used by their prototype form during the pseudo-prequel ''[[Anime/MobileSuitGundam0083StardustMemory Operation Stardust]]'' to try and stop a ColonyDrop. |
| 50 | *** The eponymous Gundam and its deriatives from ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamZZ'' has a ''head-mounted'' version of this, called Hyper Mega Beam Cannon. It is so powerful to the point where it often drains the Gundam's fusion reactor after repeated use, and at full output it can produce a beam with 20% the power of the Gryps Colony Laser. |
| 51 | *** ''The 08th MS Team'' {{OVA}}. After the failure of [[ColonyDrop Operation British]], The Principality of Zeon commissioned the construction of the Apsalus, a Mobile Armor with a beam cannon powerful enough to simply blast through the dozens of meters of earth and rock protecting the Federation's underground Jaburo base. The completed Apsalus turns out to have scalable power output, capable of putting out anything from the full-force Mountain-killer to tiny, rapid-fire pulses for punching huge but precise holes in mobile suits. |
| 52 | *** Finally ''[[Anime/MobileSuitGundamUnicorn Unicorn]]'' gives us the Beam Magnum, essentially a super-charged version of the standard beam rifle. In the Universal Century, beam rifles have e-packs, effectively energy-based magazines which contain enough energy for roughly seven or eight shots; the Beam Magnum expends ''all'' of the e-pack's energy in a single shot, producing a battleship-class particle blast. It even has a specialized magazines containing several e-packs for recharging. The same series also fields the ''Nahel Argama'' again and [[spoiler:puts Gryps II back in service, requiring the Unicorn (and Banshee) to tank it with [[DeflectorShields psychic forcefields]]]] in the finale. |
| 53 | ** The ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamWing'' anime has a veritable collection: |
| 54 | *** In the early episodes, the role was filled by the Noventa Cannon, which barely had a chance to fire once before it was dismantled piecemeal by no more than two mobile suits manned by secondary character pilots. |
| 55 | *** Next came the cannon mounted to the Fortress Barge space battle station. In keeping with wave cannon tradition, it required a lengthy charging time and roomfuls of technicians to fire properly. |
| 56 | *** Finally, the weapon mounted to Battleship Libra was the series' achievement in high-velocity destruction. Along with wiping out any number of generic mobile suits, it destroyed not one, but two of the eponymous Gundams. Also, its lengthy recharge time was {{justified|Trope}} due to the fact that the engineers who designed it built a flaw into the design so that it could not be fired in rapid succession. |
| 57 | *** The titular Wing Gundam's signature Buster Rifle happened to be a ''[[{{BFG}} handheld]]'' one of these. It's a large beam rifle with replaceable e-pacs capable of firing beams at various output; at maximum power it can fire a ''150 meter'' wide beam capable of penetrating an entire ''space colony'' in one shot, though its e-pac can only allow for 3 shots of such output before reloading. Its predecessor Wing Gundam Zero wields the ''Twin'' Buster Rifle with not only twice the firepower, but can also be [[BifurcatedWeapon split into]] [[GunsAkimbo a pair of Buster Rifles]]. And since it is powered by a direct connection to the Wing Zero's powerful fusion reactor, the Gundam can practically fire it as many times as the pilot wants to. The Twin Buster Rifle is so powerful, [[spoiler:the recoil from firing it 3 times in a row is one of the primary causes of the destruction of the Wing Zero Custom (though Wing Zero Custom had been badly damaged by its previous combat engagements, and was also taking heavy fire from enemy forces on the ground - both of which may have contributed)]]. |
| 58 | *** Also worth mentioning is the Vayeate, designed by the Gundam scientists, which carries a large beam cannon as powerful as a Buster Rifle, but lacks the ammo restrictions because it's powered by a large energy collector strapped to its back. |
| 59 | *** In ''Endless Waltz'', there is the Tallgeese III's Mega Cannon, which Zechs uses to destroy the Mariemaia Army's base at asteroid MO-III. Like the Buster Rifles above its output is also variable, with its maximum output being comparable to the combined Twin Buster Rifles, but it cannot be split into two. |
| 60 | ** ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamSEED'' and ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamSEEDDestiny'' have a few of 'em: |
| 61 | *** ''Gundam SEED'' spacecraft of the Archangel (Earth Alliance vessels; specifically, the Archangel and the Dominion) and Izumo (Orb vessels; the Kusanagi) class have a weapon known as the Lohengrin, which is quite close to being a Wave Motion Gun. The Archangel-class has two of these, one in each leg. Insanely, the Izumo-class has FOUR, with two mounted to each side of the stern sections of its hull. It shoots a beam of ANTIMATTER at the target, although it's somewhat based in fact: It is a positron beam cannon, and positrons are a form of antimatter that have been proven to exist (they're electrons, but with a positive charge instead of the requisite negative charge). They have to be charged before use, which involves SuckingInLines. They're clearly based on the aforementioned ''Blue Noah'' version, up to the placement of the gun and charging animations. A long tradition, there! |
| 62 | *** The GENESIS (from ''Gundam SEED'') is a Wave Motion Gun powered by freakin' NUCLEAR EXPLOSIONS! Technically it fires a laser made of gamma radiation instead of light. However, the asteroid sized mirrors need to be replaced each time they're fired. |
| 63 | *** ''Gundam SEED Destiny'' has the Archangel and Kusanagi, which still have their Lohengrins. There are more Izumo-class Orb vessels, as well, meaning there are even more ships with the weapons, as well as artillery versions used by ground forces. ZAFT even gets in on the action with the Minerva, which has the Tannhauser, a positron cannon (essentially a positron beam cannon without the word "beam" in its name). |
| 64 | *** Remember the GENESIS from ''Gundam SEED''? Well, ''Gundam SEED Destiny'' has the Neo GENESIS. It's a smaller, faster-charging version of the original GENESIS, which was destroyed at the end of ''Gundam SEED''. ''Destiny'' also has the Requiem, which is a giant beam cannon fired from the far side of the moon (its beam can be redirected with magnetic fields, allowing it to be aimed at virtually anything). |
| 65 | *** And don't forget GENESIS Alpha in ''Manga/MobileSuitGundamSEEDAstray''. |
| 66 | *** The [[TransformingMecha GFAS-X1]] "[[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Destroy]]" is probably the closest a mobile suit gets in this series to packing one. In mobile armor mode, it wields two twin-barreled high-energy beam cannons on its back, while in mobile suit mode, it can launch blasts of multi-phase energy from three 1580mm cannons in its chest and one 200mm cannon in its mouth. Any one of these weapons is capable of blasting straight through an army, leaving behind nothing but molten slag. It also packs, between its two modes, [[MoreDakka twenty thermal-plasma composite cannons, ten beam cannons on its fingers, 24 missile launchers, and four 75mm automatic chainguns]], for extra killing power. |
| 67 | ** The Satellite Cannons of ''[[Anime/AfterWarGundamX Gundam X]]'', which had the power required to fire it beamed to it from a base on the moon. The DX has two Satellite Cannons and fires them both at once. It can also fire without almost no cooldown. |
| 68 | *** The Satellite Cannons have the distinction of being possibly ''the'' most powerful Gundam-mounted beam weapon in the franchise. They are '''anti-army''' weapons that are so overpowered that they're almost useless for most of the series. The first time the Twin Satellite Cannon is fired, it [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XatZ2grY0GQ#t=6m0s pretty much vaporizes an island]]. The first MidSeasonUpgrade the Gundam X gets, in fact, involves the ''removal'' of the Satellite Cannon in exchange for weapons more suited to actually downing other Mobile Suits. |
| 69 | ** ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam00'''s [[KillSat Memento Mori]] in the second season. |
| 70 | *** Every single one of Tieria's Gundams has at least one OneHitKill cannon on it. For Virtue and Seravee, it's the GN Bazooka; for Raphael, they're Seravee II's pincers. |
| 71 | *** And just like Seravee, Graham Aker's later machines, Susanowo and Brave have the Tri-Punisher, which creates a massive ball of GN particles and fires it at the target. |
| 72 | *** Don't forget the Gadessa's GN Mega Launcher, or the GN Particle Cannon on BigBad's mothership with the power to take out an entire fleet. |
| 73 | *** And of course, [[spoiler:Ribbons']] ship, the [[spoiler:Celestial Being]], which fires a beam so massive, it takes an ENTIRE GN DRIVE IN TRANS-AM (albeit a false one) just to fire one shot. And damn is it powerful! |
| 74 | *** Whenever someone uses [[SuperMode Trans-Am]], whatever they fire is MASSIVELY beefed up, with no ArbitraryWeaponRange ''at all''. Especially visible with the 00 Raiser which fires what looks to be a gigantic sustained shot but is actually a '''HUNDREDS OF KILOMETRES LONG [[LaserBlade BEAM SABER]]'''. The 00 Qan[T] has an even bigger version longer than the Moon's diameter. |
| 75 | *** Zabanya's Shield Bits can already cooperate with the Gundam's main weapon to produce BeamSpam but they can also combine into a chain of three rectangular frames that together fire a single crazy powerful shot with a maximum range in the tens of thousands of kilometres. |
| 76 | *** Then, of course, there's the Gadelaza, which has a beam that can blast a ship big enough for deep space exploration to bits in one shot. |
| 77 | ** ''Anime/MobileFighterGGundam'': Neo-America's secret weapon- the Statue of Liberty Cannon! It shoots from the torch. |
| 78 | ** ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamAGE'' has the Photon Blaster Cannon on the Diva, spruced up from the AGE Builder. |
| 79 | *** Which was beefed up even further with the development of the Photon Ring Ray, which in combination with the Photon Blaster can destroy colony sized targets. |
| 80 | *** AGE-3 has a handheld version of the Diva's Photon Blaster called the [=SigMaxiss=] Rifle, capable of killing almost any Vagan mobile suit in a single shot. It even comes with an attachment that acts as a portable Photon Ring Ray that's powerful enough to destroy capital ships. |
| 81 | *** The AGE-FX has the Stungle Rifle, which has even more power and range per shot than the [=SigMaxiss=] Rifle, while being about half the size. It can be attached to a larger barrel to form the Daidal Bazooka, easily capable of punching straight through capital ships. |
| 82 | *** Not to be left out, the Vagans have their space fortress La Gramis, which can be configured to fire a gigantic beam that can wipe out entire fleets. |
| 83 | ** ''Anime/GundamReconguistainG'' has the Conque de Venus which is a Mobile Armour which microwaves enemies. Yggdrasil has the tender beam which keeps branching off into lesser beams creating a giant "tree" of beams that destroy entire fleets. |
| 84 | ** [[spoiler:''Anime/MobileSuitGundamIronBloodedOrphans'' has one in the form of Mobile Armor Hashmal, an ancient AI-controlled mobile armor and a relic from the Calamity War, it attacks mobile suits in proximity indiscriminately]]. |
| 85 | ** ''Anime/SDGundamForce'' gives us the end of all examples; ultimate villain General Zeong has a beam that, at full power, can wipe out the entire universe when fired. To put it into perspective, a blast at 0.01% caused shockwaves that can be felt in ''another dimension.'' |
| 86 | * The [[LimitBreak Medaforce]] behaves like this or a WaveMotionTuningFork for most of the VideoGame/{{Medabots}} that can use it. |
| 87 | * The Iron Ri Maajon (and a number of other Ri Maajon patterns) from ''Anime/{{Simoun}}''. Strictly speaking, they aren't ''guns'', but rather Wave Motion ''Prayers''. |
| 88 | * ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'': |
| 89 | ** The Positron Rifle can manage just two shots in the available time and needs to be ''slowly charged with all the electrical power of Japan''. |
| 90 | ** The angel that said Positron Rifle is employed against (Ramiel) produces a fusion-powered beam that goes through several buildings. Then it applies [[TimTaylorTechnology more power]] and fires right through a custom heat shield many meters thick. Next comes a series of blasts that seriously disfigure the surrounding countryside, vaporizing elements of Tokyo 3's point defense system. Finally (when hit by a beam from the Positron Rifle mentioned above), it gets ''[[TurnsRed really pissed off]]'' and charges a blast that ''melts away'' a fairly large mountain. |
| 91 | ** There's also a Positron Cannon, a combat version of the Rifle (the rifle was a prototype and wasn't supposed to be used at all). Too bad it didn't really help Asuka when facing off against [[MindRape the 15th]]. |
| 92 | * ''Anime/RahXephon'' had the Vermillion equipped with an assault rifle. While it's primary function was that of a machine gun, the weapon could also fire an energy bolt that exploded with the force of a small nuke. |
| 93 | * From ''Franchise/LyricalNanoha'': |
| 94 | ** The title character has three attacks that are basically a magical Wave Motion Gun, the first being "Divine Buster", the second being "Excelion Buster", and the third being the ''even more'' powerful "Starlight Breaker." The CoolStarship, the Arthra, also has the "Arc-en-ciel", which is famously used to [[spoiler:destroy Reinforce's berserked defense program]]. |
| 95 | ** Several of Nanoha's other characters have Wave Motion Guns of their own; Fate and Hayate in particular have their respective attacks "Plasma Zanber Breaker" and "Ragnarok", and the original Reinforce had a virtual arsenal of these attacks, some of them copied from the heroines. Hayate probably still has most of them. |
| 96 | ** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBArXz3cWos This video]] shows why Quattro's face was once the page image for OhCrap (and has been reinstated as the Anime and Manga page image). |
| 97 | ** More or less, any mage that has the title of "Ace" (Nanoha was already an Ace in the first season) or above have their own versions of the Wave Motion Gun. |
| 98 | * Arika's "Bolt From The Blue" in ''Anime/MyOtome''. Unfortunately, her equal and opposite number Nina has a similarly-powerful attack as well [[spoiler:in both her robes]]. Natsuki also has her Howling Silverwolf attack, debuting near the end of the series in a massive BeamOWar with Nagi's siege cannon. |
| 99 | * Similarly, in ''Anime/MyHime'', Mai's CHILD Kagutsuchi can take out an entire aerial fleet. |
| 100 | * The super weapon in ''Anime/TheLegendOfBlackHeaven'' falls under this trope as well as being rather hard to activate. |
| 101 | * In ''Manga/TheRedRangerBecomesAnAdventurerInAnotherWorld'', Tougo's Victory Kizuna Buster unleashes a huge laser that causes a massive explosion on impact. But it only works if all of its users are in sync and not arguing with one another, otherwise the beam will split in half and completely miss its target. |
| 102 | * The rifles carried by the gigantic Nobuseri leaders almost qualify, but more properly, the main guns of the Imperial Capital ''Anime/SamuraiSeven''. |
| 103 | * ''Anime/SpaceRunawayIdeon'' has more than one. |
| 104 | ** The Ideon Gun is one of the most powerful examples, powerful enough to devastate a good portion of a star system. It's particularly fun to use in the ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWars'' series, as it can oftentimes wipe out the entire enemy force (and maybe some friendlies) in a single shot if you line it up right. |
| 105 | ** In the movie ''Be Invoked'', the Buff Clan have their own WMG in the form of a colossal space station that concentrates the energy of a supernova into a beam. [[spoiler:It finally destroyed Ideon, at the cost of getting rid of ''everyone''.]] |
| 106 | * In ''Anime/ElHazardTheMagnificentWorld'', both the OVA and TV incarnations of [[RobotGirl Ifurita]] wield a "Power Key Staff" whose full power gun blast is basically a "nuclear bomb ray." She destroys an entire city with it in in the anime, and a mountain in the manga. It takes some time to recharge, but not much. How she wields it is probably the crucial difference between the two continuities. OVA-Ifurita is [[SympatheticSentientWeapon a tragic figure, struggling to balance her nascent emotions with her nature as a living weapon of mass destruction]]. TV-Ifurita is a [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} massive ditz]] with a ''really big gun''. |
| 107 | * The manga series ''Manga/{{Blame}}'' features the ''Gravitational Beam Emitter'', a wave motion '''''pistol'''''. Its power is so great that if it were to be used in a regular atmospheric environment (like, you know, ''ours''...), it would have irreversible environmental side effects. [[InformedAbility Or so]] [[WordOfGod we've been told...]] The GBE is considered a Class 9 weapon of mass destruction in Blame and is VERY rare to to come across. To give you an idea, at lowest setting, it can shoot a beam 70 km long. Anything in this path is obliterated. At maximum firepower...um...you'd have to see it for yourself. |
| 108 | ** And the recoil is so powerful that it has a pretty good chance of utterly obliterating the wielder's arm and flinging him like a ragdoll on anything but the lowest setting. |
| 109 | ** Pretty much every non-mook gun in a Tsutomu Nihei series. The various artificial humans in Biomega all have these; the male lead has two, just in case. |
| 110 | * In the ''Franchise/{{Digimon}}'' franchise, a few machine-based {{Mons}} have these, most notably Imperialdramon (his type isn't Machine if you wanna get technical, but his design is based on TransformingMecha). He's got ''three'', ranging from "standard finishing attack" through "frag the whole area" to "CombinedEnergyAttack as strong as a small nuke." |
| 111 | * In ''VisualNovel/FateStayNight'' and ''Literature/FateZero'': |
| 112 | ** Odd as it might seem, Excalibur is essentially a {{Wave Motion|Sword}} ''[[WaveMotionSword Sword]]''. When [[PowerGlows it is charged]], it can fire off [[SwordBeam waves of destructive light]]. Using it one-handed reduces it to mere concrete-rending level; using with both hands can raze cities. |
| 113 | *** Actually makes sense from a mythological standpoint--Excalibur's legend was derived largely from the sword Caladbolg in Irish Myth/CelticMythology, a two-handed sword which can emit destructive energy beams. |
| 114 | ** Ea, the Sword of Rupture, was specifically designed to resemble [[ThisIsADrill a subterranean tunnel drill]], and [[PowerGlows once charged up]]--via, naturally, spinning--it can rip apart space-time. For a while, it was the only weapon in Franchise/{{Nasuverse}} ever classified as "Anti-''World''." As of [[VideoGame/FateGrandOrder FGO's]] release, it's now matched by Rhongomyniad. |
| 115 | * Bizarrely enough, ''Manga/OnePiece'' has these, thanks to its OceanPunk theme allowing for even a pirate ship to be armed with one of these things: |
| 116 | ** The Thousand Sunny, the Straw Hats' second ship, has the "Gaon Cannon" technique, which concentrates three barrels' worth of cola into a massive, badass and powerful energy beam. Luffy was brought to TearsOfJoy the first time he saw that attack. |
| 117 | ** Marine Admiral Kizaru can shoot massive beams of light from his hands and feet thanks to his Devil Fruit, the Glint-Glint Fruit. |
| 118 | ** The Pacifistas, robot weapons built in the likeliness of Warlord Bartholomew Kuma, have laser beams as their main weapons in lieu of the real deal's Paw-Paw Fruit power. These beams were implemented thanks to Dr. Vegapunk's research on the Glint-Glint Fruit. |
| 119 | ** After the TimeSkip, Franky upgraded his body with some of Vegapunk's technology, allowing him to use his own freakin' laser beam, the Franky Radical Beam. His RobotMe, the General Franky, has one of its own for good measure. |
| 120 | ** The oldest example in the series dates back to the very first movie; non-canon though it is, its villain El Drago had consumed the Scream-Scream Fruit, which gave him the ability to project beams of energy from his mouth using his vocal chords. |
| 121 | ** Eustass Kid is able to summon a massive cannon with his Devil Fruit. Referred to as "Damned Punk", it was key to getting Big Mom off Onigashima. |
| 122 | * In ''Manga/MyHeroAcademia'', Yuga Aoyama's Quirk gives him a small-scale version of the trope, allowing him to shoot lasers from his navel. His customized costume allows him to shoot from other parts of his body as well. |
| 123 | * ''Anime/TheBigO'' has the [[ForgottenSuperweapon Final Stage]] attack, which, [[spoiler:in something of a twist, ''misses''.]] |
| 124 | * Hadron cannons in ''Anime/CodeGeass'', which come in both mech-mounted and battleship varieties (the latter are the really powerful ones). Then there's the Guren's Radiant Wave Surger. |
| 125 | ** Don't forget the Shen-Hu's Baryon Cannon. |
| 126 | * Guchuko from ''Anime/{{Potemayo}}'' has two "horns" on the sides of her head that function like this. |
| 127 | * In ''Franchise/{{Zoids}}'', a few Zoid types are equipped with Charged Particle Cannons, usually piloted by [[TheDragon Dragons]] or the BigBad. Of particular note is the Berserk Fury, which has ''three'' charged particle cannons. |
| 128 | * In ''Manga/NausicaaOfTheValleyOfTheWind'', the God Warrior's primary weapon is essentially a Wave Motion Gun. [[spoiler:Which is of the same design, origin, and firepower as the Eye of the Crypt of Shuwa. The God Warrior and the Crypt even fire their respective beams at one another during the manga's climax.]] |
| 129 | * In ''Anime/CastleInTheSky'', Sodom and Gomorrah were but two places destroyed by it, according to Muska. |
| 130 | * ''Manga/GetterRobo'': |
| 131 | ** In the original, the Eagle Unit (one of the three machines that forms the eponymous CombiningMecha) was a small jet that could fire puny laser beams. By ''Shin Getter Robo'' it had [[BiggerIsBetter upgraded itself]] to a ''beyond planet sized'' star-ship, and its laser appropriately became a fleet/planet busting Wave Motion Gun with an energy output high enough to potentially ''cause a Big Bang.'' |
| 132 | ** And in ''Will of Evolution'' [[spoiler:it actually happens. In fact, it's implied that this is how the universe was created. By a HumongousMecha-slash-CoolShip shooting beams of [[EvolutionaryLevels evolutionary energy]] into space]]. |
| 133 | ** Shin Dragon in ''Getter Robo Armageddon'' has one inside the dragon's mouth powerful enough to blow up one of Jupiter's moons! |
| 134 | * ''Manga/{{Trigun}}'': Vash the Stampede's Angel Arm is a proper, honest-to-goodness wave motion gun. If it gets shot at medium power, it annihilates entire cities. If it's shot at full blast, it ''carves gigantic craters in other planets''. The best part is that it basically consists of a tiny cylinder of AppliedPhlebotinum in his revolver. Talk about miniaturization... |
| 135 | * In the ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'' manga series: |
| 136 | ** Chakra cannons were basically this, charged up by the chakra of groups of ninjas. One of them was powerful enough to potentially destroy the moon. |
| 137 | * A lampshade is hung on this in ''Anime/ExcelSaga'', where Excel calls the weapon on the Puchuu starship a Wave Motion Gun, in the episode that parodies [[SpaceOpera space operas]]. |
| 138 | * Parodied in ''Anime/TheGirlWhoLeaptThroughSpace''. When Leopard asks Akiha to fire his antimatter cannon -- and he's a living space colony, so this is a huge cannon -- he prepares for it with bravado. It's a dud. Then played straight when the right components are obtained. [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything The show being what it is, though...]] |
| 139 | * ''Anime/TengenToppaGurrenLagann'' 's [[spoiler:Infinity Big Bang Storm is a borderline version; how many times do you see someone being attacked with the [[NoKillLikeOverkill Everlasting Hellfire of The Universe's Creation]]?]] What's more important about this one is the fact that [[spoiler:the main characters not only block it, but through sheer awesome ''absorb'' it and turn its power against its wielder.]] |
| 140 | * In ''Manga/NegimaMagisterNegiMagi'': |
| 141 | ** [[spoiler:One of Asuna's {{flashback}}s reveals during magical war, among (slightly smaller than the above mentioned demon) god soldiers, ancient war dragons, and {{Magic Knight}}s, [[SpaceWhale battle whale ships]] that wielded one of these called the divine/spirit cannon. Presumably the strongest artillery weapon in the [[MagicalLand Magic World]], Asuna's [[AntiMagic Magic Cancel]] completely eliminated it]]. |
| 142 | ** And then there's Chachamaru's Artifact, [[spoiler:a freaking ''KillSat'' she uses to utterly obliterate the EldritchAbomination that a few moments earlier had cut in half a Gold Dragon like butter.]] |
| 143 | * ''Anime/DetonatorOrgun'' has a solar-powered, chest-mounted WMG. |
| 144 | * ''Manga/{{Guyver}}'' has the Giga-Smasher, a plasma cannon whose range, beam width, and power appear approximately equivalent to a Macross Cannon. It's a [[spoiler:one shot weapon only, however. It can only be used one time by one of the Guyver's equipping the Gigantic upgrade; One shot with the Giga-Smasher uses up the upgrade's energy reserves and it automatically detaches from the user, leaving them with just their normal Megasmasher and an assload of fatigue.]] |
| 145 | * ''Manga/TheFiveStarStories'' has the Buster Launchers, enormous cannons the bigger of which (starting from the 2 meter caliber) are fully capable of [[EarthShatteringKaboom obliterating planets]]. The common ''Prowler'' SpaceFighter usually mount at least two of these, and as such is considered [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill overpowered]], and was replaced by the [[HumongousMecha Mortar Headds]] planetside. Later, though, a couple of [=MHs=] were armed with busters, making them the most heavily armed mechas in the universe. |
| 146 | * ''Anime/MazingerZ's'' [[ChestBlaster Breast Fire]] was always close to this, but ''Anime/{{Mazinkaiser}}'s'' Fire Blaster goes all the way when it's fired over the heads of several Mechanical Beasts... and ''still'' melts them. |
| 147 | ** While the [[EyeBeams Photon Beam]] is usually ''Mazinger Z's'' weakest attack, the one from ''Anime/ShinMazinger'' becomes this after being throttled to maximum power. |
| 148 | * The flagship of the Iron Tribe's fleet is equipped with one of these in ''Anime/HeroicAge''. It can destroy and ignite entire planets, causing massive shockwave damage to nearby units. The Az-Azoth fleet commanded by Nilval Nephew also has specialized "core" units that apparently serve no other purpose than to be enormous space-based cannons. Bellcross's rarely used mouth-beam attack also qualifies, as does Artemia's more powerful beam attacks. Finally, [[spoiler:the Argonaut has the capability to shift into an enormous gun form, firing a Wave Motion Gun aptly named the "Star Blaster".]] |
| 149 | * Something that has remained fairly constant throughout the various incarnations of ''Manga/AstroBoy'' is Astro's arsenal. One of his staple weapons, aside from the small laser guns in his fingertips (and the infamous machine gun barrels in his butt), is turning his arms into laser cannons. |
| 150 | * In ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'': |
| 151 | ** [[spoiler:Coyote Starrk]] has pistols that fires Cero in his released form. Think of [[Manga/{{Blame}} Gravitational Beam Emitter]], [[GunsAkimbo times two]]. |
| 152 | ** In the first movie has something called the Kido Cannon, which destroyed an entire pocket dimension. |
| 153 | * ''Anime/EurekaSeven'': [[spoiler:The ultimate attack of the spec-[=III=] Nirvash [=typeZero=].]] |
| 154 | * ''Manga/FairyTail'': |
| 155 | ** The Magical Convergent Cannon: Jupiter. Extra points... to Erza, actually, because she just tanked it in the face before going off to kick even more ass. |
| 156 | * In ''Anime/AngelLinks'', the Links Cannon ("shooooo-toh!") settled pretty much every fight. Some fans, expecting more frenetic space combat scenes in the style of ''Manga/OutlawStar'', were a bit annoyed by this. |
| 157 | * The combined power of four Weapons and one meister, Kirikou (with a little help from Kim), creates one of these in ''Manga/SoulEater'' which destroys [[spoiler:Medusa's Black Clown]]. [[ElementalPowers Lightning, fire]], and [[TheGunslinger two pistols]]. |
| 158 | * ''Anime/{{Gunbuster}}'s'' Buster Beam. It destroys fleets with one shot. |
| 159 | ** And the sequel, ''Anime/DieBuster'', slices a planet in half with the weapon. |
| 160 | * From ''Literature/{{Slayers}}'': [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-msoYUAIAto Dragon Slave!]] |
| 161 | * In ''Literature/LegendOfTheGalacticHeroes'' the fortress Iserlohn is equipped with the weapon "Thor's Hammer" that is more than capable of destroying entire fleets in a single blast. |
| 162 | * ''Manga/BattleAngelAlita: Last Order'', features a 500 ton Jovian combat cyborg among other things armed with a miniature wormhole connection to the inner parts of the planet Jupiter. You may try to imagine the scale of destruction caused by the pressurized plasma-or-whatever-may-be-the-next-state-of-matter-after-plasma in there being released in a focused beam, but it's probably nowhere close. |
| 163 | * ''Anime/{{Tekkaman}}'' and its reimagining ''Anime/TekkamanBlade'' both have the Voltekka as ultimate attacks. |
| 164 | * ''Anime/SuperAtragon'': The enemies' giant black cylinders fire lasers that can cut a modern destroyer in half in seconds. |
| 165 | * ''Anime/IriaZeiramTheAnimation'': |
| 166 | ** The burabudin cannon is basically a hand-held WMG. While capable of firing controlled and precise blasts, it can also fire massive continuous beams that can sweep whole armies off the map. |
| 167 | ** The maduradin cannons are similar to the burabudin, but in vehicle form. |
| 168 | * ''Literature/StarshipOperators'', the ''Amaterasu's'' plasma cannon. |
| 169 | * In ''Anime/VividredOperation'', Vivid Yellow's Vivid Collider is a human portable particle accelerator / wave motion cannon capable of vaporizing the show's monster of the week pretty much instantly. |
| 170 | * ''Manga/ArpeggioOfBlueSteel'' Super Graviton Cannons. The weakest variants, wielded by Fleet of Fog heavy cruisers, can easily vaporise anything in line of sight, likely up to and beyond low Earth orbit considering their weaker laser weapons can do this. The most powerful are the battleship-class cannons that take up the entire length of a ship and do a significantly scaled-up impression of Moses parting the Red Sea while they charge up; they ''warp spacetime'' in their line of fire. |
| 171 | * ''Anime/TransformersArmada'' has the Hydra Cannon, a DoomsdayDevice formed by the combination of the three MacGuffin weapons. |
| 172 | * In ''Literature/UnlimitedFafnir'', Yuu can summon a variety of these thanks to his contract with Yggdrasil, which can be used to kill dragons. Unfortunately it's a DangerousForbiddenTechnique, as summoning these weapons costs him some of his memories. |
| 173 | * ''Manga/MadeInAbyss''--Reg has one of these implanted in each of his robotic hands; it's made from unidentified {{precursor|s}} technology, and dubbed the "Incinerator" by Riko. Most of the time he focuses it into a relatively small beam, but the first time he fires it after losing his memories, [[HowDoIShotWeb he goes overboard]] and vaporizes a cluster of stone pillars the size of skyscrapers; whether even that was the limit of its power is unknown. This has a major AchillesHeel in that he passes out for two hours shortly after firing it. |
| 174 | * Artralia in ''Manga/TheDarkQueenAndIStrikeBack'' is a massive stationary railgun that can hit anywhere on the continent with enough power to reshape the landscape. It's also [[spoiler:[[PoweredByAForsakenChild powered by the lives of inhumans]]; this fact discourage the inhumans from using it when they capture it.]] |
| 175 | * ''Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagicaTheMovieRebellion'': Mami is known for making firearms with her magic, but we get to see her Tiro Finale which she conjured on a dual rail line, and it's powerful enough to annihilate several city blocks and kaiju sized familiars. |
| 176 | * ''Literature/RebuildWorld'': |
| 177 | ** When Akira upgrades to his fifth model of PoweredArmor, the KIRYO CA 31R, it comes with a back mounted AF anti-material cannon particle weapon to deal with MiniMecha or {{Kaiju}}. He can also put it onto the remote weapon mounts of his CoolBike to allow his VirtualSidekick Alpha to fire it. It has a dispersed blast mode for use against smaller enemies gathered in TheSwarm, but that’s not cost-efficient. |
| 178 | ** When Akira gets hired for an EscortMission of a BigBadassRig convoy, the vehicles are equipped with some of these to handle the bigger monsters common to the east of where Akira lives. |
| 179 | ** When a giant cloaked FlyingSaucer attacks said convoy, it sends smaller black AttackDrone saucers down while providing fire support with its own beam weapon. The transport Akira is on nearly gets obliterated by it, but since the saucers are targeting a different group of monsters, Akira destroys the last one of those just in time to make it fire its huge blast at a different monster further away. |
| 180 | ** Akira ends up fighting a [[BeeAfraid giant bee shaped]] MechanicalMonster with one of these in place of a stinger, designed for air-control by the Old World NeglectfulPrecursors. |
| 181 | ** Carol eventually brings a laser cannon equivalent to Akira’s AF cannon she uses for CombinationAttack strikes with Akira and Alpha. After spending part of TheSiege of Akira and Sheryl’s HomeBase jumping [[{{Roofhopping}} between rooftops]] to take out enemy armor, Carol ends up losing the cannon in the chaos, where it’s eaten and assimilated by a monster. |
| 182 | ** Akira eventually replaces his AF cannon with a TGP Laser Cannon. |
| 183 | * ''Anime/GaoGaiGar'': The Solitary Waves used by the synchronized Mic Force demonstrate immense destructive force. |
| 184 | * ''Anime/{{Blame}}'' in the early sequences of the movie, Killy saves the electro fishers with his Gravity Beam Emitter which fired an extremely long red beam that instantly put a large perfectly cut hole in everything it touches. |
| 185 | [[/folder]] |
| 186 | |
| 187 | [[folder:Card Games]] |
| 188 | * ''TabletopGame/YuGiOh'' has a couple of these, such as the much-loved/loathed/feared/dreaded [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Wave-Motion_Cannon Wave Motion Cannon]], which charges up as the turns go by and can be removed from the field to blast the enemy for 1,000 damage per turn it has charged; [[KillSat Satellite Cannon]], a monster that cannot be killed by anything below a certain level and possessing a similar charge-up ability (1000 ATK per turn, loses it after it attacks); and more than one of [[TheRival Seto Kaiba's]] signature monsters -- [[CombiningMecha XYZ Dragon Cannon]] uses this whenever he discards, etc. |
| 189 | * ''TabletopGame/{{ZG}}'' has a special class of weapons intentionally referencing this trope. It is differentiated from ranged weapons by laying down a pattern of cards that hits everyone in the designated "zone". It is called a Zone Weapon. |
| 190 | * ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'''s Kaladesh set has the Aetherflux Reservoir, a massive artifact that resembles a cross between a water tower and a snowglobe, and has been nicknamed the Death Star for its ability to blast any target for a full 50 damage in one shot. For context, Emrakul, a cosmic horror that is basically the in-universe equivalent to Cthulhu, can take 15 total damage before dying. Yes, this thing can one-shot an ancient eldritch god ''three times over''. Of course, firing this monster requires you to expend an equivalent amount of life, but it also lets you charge it up by granting you exponentially increasing amounts of life for each spell you cast on the same turn. |
| 191 | [[/folder]] |
| 192 | |
| 193 | [[folder:Comic Books]] |
| 194 | * The ComicBook/DarkEmpire series of ''Franchise/StarWars'' comics gave us the Eclipse-class Star Destroyer, which has a bow-mounted, downsized version of the Death Star's superlaser. ("Downsized" means "Won't actually blow the planet apart, but will still kill everything living on it.") |
| 195 | * ''ComicBook/AllFallDown'' has the Reducto-Beam, a colossal shrink ray on the moon that runs on Living Batteries. |
| 196 | * ''ComicBook/AlbedoErmaFelnaEDF'' has the Matter Conversion Cannon, a weapon so powerful, it can, in theory, ''dwarf in power'' the ''Anime/SpaceBattleshipYamato2199'' version of the TropeNamer, since [[spoiler:it can destroy ''a whole galaxy'' in a single shot by eating matter from near sources and weaponize it against a single target. Eating the matter from a star could, in theory, destroy not only the star itself but also everything near it due of a supernova]]. |
| 197 | * In the Pre-Crisis days of DC's ComicBook/LegionOfSuperHeroes, one of their many overpowered weapons was known as the Concentrator, which would supposedly channel all of the energy in the universe at once into a single, concentrated death ray. When it was fired, all the stars temporarily went out, cars and other machines ground to a halt, etc. (Although [[FridgeLogic for some reason]] people and other living beings continued to be able to move and act just fine). |
| 198 | * ''ComicBook/PrimalWarriorDracoAzul'': Draco Azul's usual finishing move is the Draco Striker, which fires a massive beam of concentrated lightning that obliterates almost anything it hits. |
| 199 | * ''ComicBook/BeastWarsUprising'': The ''Grand Mal'', former ship of Decepticon leader Thunderwing and later private military base on a 'unified' post-war Cybertron, has these. Since it looks like a giant floating head, they come out the eyes. When TheManBehindTheMan reveals themselves in the final story, they seize control of the ''Grand Mal'' and use those laser beams to wipe out entire ''swathes'' of the Predacon army laying siege to it. Another beam hits two Combiners, instantly killing the parts of them it hits. |
| 200 | [[/folder]] |
| 201 | |
| 202 | [[folder:Fan Works]] |
| 203 | * In ''ComicBook/PowerGirl'' story ''Fanfic/AForceOfFour'', the heroes use the Purple Ray, a giant energy canon, to destroy [[WarGod Mars]] once and for all. |
| 204 | * The first chapter of ''Fanfic/{{Bait and Switch|STO}}'' has a brief mention that the ''Kira Nerys'', an obsolete Bajoran patrol frigate that the protagonist served on as a noncom, featured a spinal phaser cannon that took long enough for the bridge to bring to bear against an Orion Syndicate pirate ship that the Orions shot up the ship pretty bad and were able to beam several {{boarding part|y}}ies aboard. Once they got it into position, though, it blew the other ship away in one shot. |
| 205 | * ''Fanfic/DoingItRightThisTime'': When Shinji talks about Ramiel and his humongous particle beam, he describes that {{Robeast}} as "the Angel of Wave Motion Gun". |
| 206 | * ''Fanfic/{{HERZ}}'': In order to try to gain the upper hand against [=HERZ's=] Evangelions several countries build downright massive proton cannons, some of them mounted on weaponized satellites, which shot huge laser blasts. They [[spoiler:were effectively used against the MP-Evas.]] |
| 207 | * In ''Fanfic/MonstersInParadise'', we get Water Sign: Newton's Wave Cannon, the first step in Patchouli's plan to develop a Last Word spellcard for herself. Its appearance isn't outright revealed in-story, although a bed-ridden Remilia complains that Patchouli pretty much ripped off the Master Spark when creating it. |
| 208 | * ''Fanfic/OnceMoreWithFeeling'': In episode 7 the cast fights Ramiel -an EldritchAbomination armed with a huge laser blast-, building a gigantic cannon shot a massive particle ray. |
| 209 | * In ''Fanfic/{{Origins}}'', a ''Franchise/MassEffect''[=/=]''Franchise/StarWars''[[spoiler:[=/=]''[=Borderlands=]''[=/=]''[=Halo=]'']] MassiveMultiplayerCrossover, the Star Dreadnaught ''Ultimatum'' mounts one of these in the form of a superlaser. So does Cronos Station--but [[PhlebotinumBreakdown that one doesn't work]]. Just because you know how to build a superlaser [[PossessionImpliesMastery doesn't mean you can do it right]]. |
| 210 | * In ''Fanfic/ThousandShinji'', The [=UDPIDTEPW=], or Unidirectional Positron Initiated Deuterium-Tritium Enhanced Plasma Weapon is a very big thermonuclear weapon. Unofficially it's actually called the Wave Motion Gun. |
| 211 | -->“It’s called the Wave Motion Gun by the build team, isn’t it?” Shinji suddenly asks. |
| 212 | * ''Fanfic/ACrownOfStars'': The positron cannon that protected Postdam's missile launch complex was a massive laser beam cannon. It was capable of blasting an eighty-meter-tall TransformingMecha. |
| 213 | * Two of these show up in ''Fanfic/FantasyOfUtterRidiculousness''. The first is the [[Anime/SpaceRunawayIdeon Idiot Gun,]] courtesy of Megas, and it lives up to its name [[spoiler:with no small thanks to Sagume Kishin]]. The second is Yuuka's Double Spark; it was already a powerful attack in its own right, but after she was scaled up to Megas's size, the resulting beam becomes large enough to be seen from space. |
| 214 | * ''Fanfic/TheNewAdventuresOfInvaderZim'' has the LostSuperweapon known as Project Domination, which at minimum power unleashes beams of energy the size of airplanes, and at maximum power is speculated to be able to punch holes into the Earth's surface the size of ''Lithuania''. |
| 215 | * In ''Fanfic/BlessedWithAHerosHeart'', Megumin creates a spell she names "Big Bang" with Izuku's knowledge about nuclear physics, which is much stronger than Explosion and consumes less mana. She later modifies it by leaving a hole in the containment field to force the energy out through it, creating a death ray strong enough to blast through the Destroyer's barrier and split its head, calling it "Eraser Blast". |
| 216 | [[/folder]] |
| 217 | |
| 218 | [[folder:Films -- Animated]] |
| 219 | * The Zeus Cannon from ''Anime/FinalFantasyTheSpiritsWithin'', which is also a KillSat. |
| 220 | * The WesternAnimation/{{Superman theatrical cartoon|s}} "WesternAnimation/TheMadScientist" has a MadScientist using one of these to threaten the world. Superman beats it by [[RuleOfCool punching through the laser]]. |
| 221 | [[/folder]] |
| 222 | |
| 223 | [[folder:Films -- Live-Action]] |
| 224 | * ''Franchise/StarWars'': |
| 225 | ** ''Film/ANewHope'', ''Film/RogueOne'' and ''Film/ReturnOfTheJedi'' all feature the Death Star (in the case of ''Return'', a second one). The Death Star is a space station roughly the size of a small moon, [[ParanoiaFuel capable of traveling anywhere in the galaxy]], featuring a superlaser that [[EarthShatteringKaboom blows up planets]] (or in the second Death Star's case, blows up capital ships ''and'' planets). ''Rogue One'' and its supplementary materials particularly play off the [[FantasticNuke nuclear weapon]] metaphor: it was first conceived as part of an arms race during a war, and on the lowest "only destroy a city" level, it leaves a giant mushroom cloud. The first Death Star is famously weak in [[AchillesHeel a tiny thermal exhaust port at the end of a long trench]]. |
| 226 | ** ''Film/TheForceAwakens'' [[SerialEscalation tops the Death Star]] with the Starkiller. ''Its'' Superlaser is embedded inside an ice planet, Thousands of times the size of the Death Star. It drains the mass of a nearby star and converts it into multiple beams that can destroy an entire star system on the other side of the galaxy. The Death Star showing up in your system would be bad news, but with the Starkiller, [[ParanoiaFuel you wouldn't even get that warning]]. |
| 227 | ** In ''Film/TheLastJedi'' [[spoiler:the First Order brings out a battering ram cannon, which is a massive cannon bigger than an AT-AT that is built on miniaturized Death Star superlaser tech.]] |
| 228 | ** And then ''Film/TheRiseOfSkywalker'' tops all that with [[spoiler:a fleet of Star Destroyers that are all armed with planet-busting superlasers]]. |
| 229 | * ''Franchise/{{Godzilla}} and related films:'' |
| 230 | ** The reoccurring Maser Cannon weapons, which fire a beam of electro-atomic energy, and are actually one of the few manmade weapons that consistently hurt kaiju. |
| 231 | ** Kiryu also had the '[[KillItWithIce Absolute Zero Cannon]]', which was capable of equal destruction. |
| 232 | ** In ''Film/GodzillaVsMegaguirus'', the humans decide to try and use one called the Dimension Tide on Godzilla, which literally fires a Black Hole. Side effects include ripping a hole in the fabric of space and time and [[spoiler:creating the movie's main monster]]. |
| 233 | ** The [[spoiler:Mirror of Amaterasu]] from ''Film/YamatoTakeru'' is capable of launching [[ThePowerOfTheSun a beam of divine sunlight]] powerful enough to destroy [[spoiler:Tsukuyomi's physical form]]. After it helps Yamato Takeru [[spoiler:transform into the giant warrior Utsuno Ikusagami]] it turns into an even more powerful weapon, [[spoiler:and delivers the final blow to the Yamata no Orochi]]. |
| 234 | * The surprisingly good Roger Corman B-Movie ''Film/BattleBeyondTheStars'' (''Seven Samurai'' [-[[RecycledINSPACE IN SPACE]]-]) features a weapon called the "Stellar Converter". It appears to be exactly what it says on the tin, in that when the villain uses it, the weapon appears to ignite an inhabited planet into a small white dwarf star. |
| 235 | * The "Hammer", the primary weapon equipped to the city-destroyers in ''Film/IndependenceDay'' certainly qualify. Fired down from the saucer, they can easily demolish an entire city. |
| 236 | * The Bifrost, properly mishandled, is almost one of these in ''Film/{{Thor}}''. And it has the greatest range of anything on this list, striking through wormholes, though it takes longer to get to work. |
| 237 | * Half of the super weapon used by the bad guys in ''Film/StarTrek2009''. [[spoiler:It's actually an orbital mining laser used by the Romulans to get Red Matter into the core of a planet.]] |
| 238 | * ''Film/StarWreckInThePirkinning'' has got the ''Excavator'', the most powerful battleship from the [[Series/BabylonFive Babel-13]] universe. It is equipped with an extremely powerful and destructive main RayGun which draws a lot of energy from the ship ''after'' it has been fired: The ''Excavator'' remains devoid of electricity for one minute. Everything has to shut down, including the heating. |
| 239 | * In ''Film/WarOfTheWorlds2005'', the [[TripodTerror Tripods]] have these, on top of their [[DeathRay heat rays]]. While the heat rays function primarily as antipersonnel weapons, turning a victim (quite explosively) into a cloud of ash without even burning through their clothing, the larger energy weapons used by the same [[HumongousMecha war machines]] are capable of turning an entire block to rubble with no effort, or shredding the Bayonne Bridge like it's made of cheap cloth ribbons. |
| 240 | [[/folder]] |
| 241 | |
| 242 | [[folder:Literature]] |
| 243 | * The Dr. Device/Little Doctor in ''Literature/EndersGame'', so named because it was developed as the '''M'''olecular '''D'''isruptor Device. Somewhat different in that it has a short-range area effect rather than being a projectile or beam, but this field can start a chain reaction of apparently unlimited size - it obliterates everything in its area of effect, everything ''next'' to its area of effect, everything next to that, and so on until it hits an area without enough mass to continue the chain-reaction. It allows Ender to rewrite the book on military strategy by attacking the enemy formation where its ships are most heavily concentrated. Ender asks if the device could be used on a planet; the response is a horrified shudder. [[spoiler:And then he tries it on the Bugger homeworld, annihilating it in a single shot.]] |
| 244 | ** In the [[Film/EndersGame film]], the weapon has a recharge rate of several minutes, and only a single ship is equipped with it. Also, despite annihilating a large Formic fleet, it [[spoiler:only turns their homeworld into a volcanic hellhole instead of atomizing it]]. |
| 245 | ** Thousands of years later, the weapon has been turned into a torpedo. Why? Because it has a relatively short range on its own, and trying to use it against anything big (like a planet) will likely result in the firing ship being destroyed as well. A torpedo essentially consists of an engine, a guidance system, and the Little Doctor. The Little Doctor is designed to fire at the inner housing of the torpedo, effectively turning the torpedo's own mass into the initial blast, meaning the torpedo doesn't actually have to impact its target, just get close enough for the destructive field to reach the target. It's also designed to be easily disarmed to avoid any accidents. Another advantage of using a torpedo is that the firing ship doesn't actually have to decelerate from near-light speeds to deploy it, thus sparing the crew from spending too much time decelerating and accelerating (let's ignore the Park Shift for this one). |
| 246 | ** The weapon's development is shown in the prequel ''Literature/FormicWars'' series. Originally designed as an efficient means of [[AsteroidMiners asteroid mining]] (vaporize the rock, vacuum up the molecules), the "gravity laser" (or "glaser") has proven to be nearly as dangerous to the mining ship as to the asteroid due to the size of the field. During the First War, they are used both as weapons and in so-called "shatterboxes", which are two boxes, each holding a glaser, pointing at one another and connected by a rope. They're launched bola-style at the enemy and use the opposing gravity forces to limit the size of the field to the target ship. |
| 247 | * The LensmanArmsRace is a trope for a reason. Creator/EEDocSmith's novel ''[[Literature/{{Lensman}} Second Stage Lensmen]]'' features the sunbeam, a weapon which concentrates into a single beam '''the entire radiant energy output of a star.''' (And the enemy had plans to extend the principle to novae or supernovae.) Starkiller Base from the Star Wars franchise operates on much the same principle for its energy, but the Sunbeam uses various dispersed deflectors and beam-steering grids floating in space and has a much more limited range (its developers admit they can't hold the beam together from the sun of the enemy system to its eighth planet). |
| 248 | ** The "primaries", so-called because they're the primary weapons of the ships. When some new (readily portable) tech comes along, those become the primaries and the former primaries become secondaries (or tertiary, and as far down the list as you care to go before they're no longer worth the mass/space to take along). The culmination of this (which happens even before they start throwing planets around) is the one-shot primaries, which are the strongest beam weapons available deliberately overloaded so that they emit one unbelievably strong pulse before exploding. This was initially developed by some Boskonian genius who realized that trading one gun and its crew for one enemy ship and ''its'' crew was actually a pretty good exchange if you weren't a member of the gun crew involved. The Patrol, once they figured out what was going on, made it non-lethal (to the attacker) by shielding the hell out of the inside of the turret and operating them by remote control. |
| 249 | ** The ''ultimate'' ultimate weapon of the Lensman series was a psychic Wave Motion Gun, since the Eddorians could not be killed by any physical force, however applied. It consisted of the gestalt mind of the Children of the Lens (the UNIT), backed by the integrated minds of all of Arisia and powered by the maximum-effort mental output of every Lensman of the Galactic Patrol. |
| 250 | * In one of Creator/JohnWCampbell's Arcot, Wade and Morley novels, the eponymous heroes come up with the molecular motion gun, which turns the random molecular motion of an object (heat) into motion in a single direction. The ray is catalytic in nature, so basically any object it is used on, from a city to (in one chapter) an entire star, is a) frozen to absolute zero, and b) hurled off in any direction desired. |
| 251 | * The most powerful weapon in the ''Literature/{{Antares}}'' novels is probably the antimatter projector, which fires a continuous stream of antimatter. Not only is it pretty much unbeatable, but it's standard armament for both human and alien blastships. |
| 252 | * Creator/StanislawLem's ''Literature/TheInvincible'', while having a crew that was at best MildlyMilitary, certainly didn't lack in firepower. Even its recon planes packed an antimatter gun, and the starship herself could, quoting from the novel itself, "boil a medium-sized sea". |
| 253 | * Ed Hamilton's ''Literature/TheStarKings'' featured a ''Disruptor'' -- the gun that destroyed the ''space itself''. It ate up a good part of a starship's energy balance, but where it hit, nothing remained. |
| 254 | * In [[Creator/IainBanks Iain M. Banks]]'s ''Literature/AgainstADarkBackground'' the Lazy Guns were ancient weapons created by a long dead race that destroyed their target with a suitable dark humoured effect. A person might suffer a heavy anchor to appear above them, or a shark to materialize and bite their head off. A city will be unexpectedly hit by a comet or have a volcano erupt in its main square. The implication is it plucks something from elsewhere in the multiverse and pops it into its own universe where it dispatches the target - with a sense of humour. |
| 255 | * In the universe of [[Literature/TheCulture the Culture]], there are several versions of this, from [=CREWs=] (Coherent Radiation Emitting Weapons), basically lasers, to "Line Guns" which go largely undescribed but appear to generate transient 1-dimensional gravity singularities -- effectively a black hole beam. |
| 256 | * In Sergey Snegov's ''Literature/TheMenLikeGods'', people use a device called "Tanev's annihilator", which can convert spacetime to matter and vice versa, ''as an engine''. While not initially being [[MildlyMilitary all that warlike]], they find the side effects of their favorite space drive [[SuperweaponSurprise quite useful]] later, when rather unfriendly aliens appear. The heroes go on to ''[[DefeatMeansFriendship befriending]]'' the crap out of said aliens, in the best [[Franchise/LyricalNanoha Nanoha-style]], and then teaming up with them when the next bunch of the enemies arrived. THREE TIMES. Also, the Ramirs (ancient super-advanced civilization, which lives in the galactic core) utilise Roton Beam, which can be switched from "burn the planet" to "blow up the star" mode and has an interstellar range. |
| 257 | * The ''Literature/ForgesOfMars'' novel ''Priests of Mars'' brings us an especially remarkable example -- in [[TabletopGame/Warhammer40000 a setting]] where you already have weapons capable of destroying suns -- during the climactic space battle of the book in the form of [[spoiler:the Speranza's secret main gun, a chrono-weapon from [[AndManGrewProud the Dark Age of Technology]] that none the crew of the ship [[SuperweaponSurprise were even aware of]] which is capable of generating [[UnrealisticBlackHole a black hole]] that [[RealityWarper disrupts space and time]] without the need of [[HyperspaceIsAScaryPlace Warp sorcery]] in an astronomic area of effect.]] |
| 258 | * Creator/LarryNiven's ''Literature/KnownSpace'' stories include several of these: |
| 259 | ** In ''Literature/RingworldsChildren'', human starships are armed with a weapon called simply "the Anti-Matter Bullet". Guess what it fires. |
| 260 | ** In ''Man-Kzin Wars'', the Terran system is defended from invaders by the Mercury Laser; it's a laser the size of the equator of the planet Mercury, and is capable of destroying ships as far out as the orbit of Neptune. It turns out that while a purpose-engineered Wave Motion Gun is fun in itself, [[SuperweaponSurprise lasers powerful enough to drive solar sails]] are just as grand. |
| 261 | ** In "The Warriors", a human colony ship uses [[WeaponizedExhaust a photon drive as its means of propulsion]]. When a Kzinti warship pulls up near them with hostile intentions, the crew has no idea what to do as [[CrystalSpiresAndTogas war and weapons haven't been seen on Earth for hundreds of years now]]. The captain has a [[ActualPacifist disturbingly sick idea]] and turns the ship so the engine faces the Kzinti ship and turns it on, which slices the Kzinti ship cleanly in two. He explains that since he was trying to get away from the Kzin ship, he naturally pointed the drive in exactly the opposite direction: directly ''toward'' the Kzin ship. His crew are [[ActualPacifist still pretty squicked by it]], because there's considerable evidence he knew ''exactly'' what he was doing. |
| 262 | ** There are a lot of [[SuperweaponSurprise devices]] like the previous two examples in the era of peace leading up to the first Man-Kzin War. Mining lasers for slagging asteroids that can slag warships just as easily, light-sail launch cannon that can fire coherent beams to the orbit of Neptune, mass drivers for sending material between planets that can just as easily sling chunks of metal at high speed towards invading ships, highly efficient photon drives that double as super-lasers, super-powerful fusion drives for interplanetary and interstellar ships that can spray streams of hot plasma over planetary distances. All of which were key in humanity's overwhelming victory over the Kzinti warfleet in the first Man-Kzin War, since Kzinti telepaths had reported that "humans have no weapons at all." It's all but WordOfGod that all these technologies [[GovernmentConspiracy were created with a dual-purpose in mind by the paranoids of ARM]]. |
| 263 | ** The story "Madness Has Its Place" has as protagonists a former ARM agent and some allies who go to some lengths to arrange that one of them will be at the Mercury Laser station at all times, just in case it needs to be pointed at ... something. It's left somewhat ambiguous whether they actually got away with the plan or were ''allowed'' to get away with it, and whether the very existence of the Mercury Laser in the first place is a lucky happenstance or a matter of foresight on the part of like-minded people years ago. |
| 264 | ** "The Soft Weapon" features a multi-function alien device that can, in one of its modes, convert matter into energy at a distance. It should be noted that this is a ''hand-held'' device. |
| 265 | ** The ''Wunderland Treatymaker'', based on an alien 'excavation tool', creates two areas, one that suppresses the negative charge of electrons, and one that suppresses the positive charge of protons. [[HumansAreBastards The humans made an]] [[KillSat orbital version]]. After it was used, they renamed the planet '''Canyon''' after its defining feature. |
| 266 | ** The Literature/{{Ringworld}} itself is defended by a laser that is generated from artificially produced sunspots. It shoots a laser beam larger than Earth's moon. The kzin on the team comments, "With such a weapon I could boil the Earth to vapor." |
| 267 | * ''Literature/{{Footfall}}'' (by Niven and Jerry Pournelle) has some real-world realizable ones: The climactic battle involves the Orion-drive powered ''Archangel Michael'' (see RealLife section below for a description of what the ''fuel'' for one of these suckers is like) that also drops 'spurt bombs' into the drive blasts to power them up. They fire beams of coherent x-rays. The aliens use landing vessels the size of an aircraft carrier, which are launched back up to orbit on launch lasers. That means they've got ''ground based'' lasers with hundreds of times the sustained energy output of the largest chemically powered rockets. |
| 268 | * In Jack L. Chalker's ''Literature/WellWorld'' series, the entire universe is actually a simulation running on a gigantic computer called the Well of Souls. Humanity figures out how to hack it to a minor degree and builds "Zinder Nullifiers" for use in a major intergalactic war, weapons that basically reformat a large region of space into a default empty vacuum state. The war gets a bit heated, the Nullifiers are overused, and the Well World starts suffering a progressive memory fault that will eventually destroy the entire universe unless our intrepid heroes are able to get into the Well of Souls' control center to fix it. |
| 269 | * Colin Kapp's ''Literature/TheChaosWeapon'' was powered by pulling multiple '''stars''' into its ammunition feed; it used a ring of black holes to focus the resulting beam. What this beam did was manipulate entropy: if something bad would '''ever''' happen in the target area, the Chaos Weapon could make it happen '''NOW'''. Lightning strikes, dams giving way, earthquakes.... You say that star's not due to go nova for another twelve million years? Guess what. |
| 270 | * In Creator/AlanDeanFoster's ''Literature/HumanxCommonwealth'' series: |
| 271 | ** The various [[{{Precursors}} Precursor races]] developed a number of these, especially the Tar-Aiym and Hur'rikku who fought a galaxy-spanning war 500,000 years in the past. One weapon (the Krang) requires a planet-sized power source and creates miniature artificial black holes, while another (the anticollapsar weapon) creates ''reversed'' black holes made out of pure antimatter. The latter's unique power source has a charging time on the order of thousands to hundreds of thousands of years, quite possibly a record in fiction. |
| 272 | ** It gets better in the GrandFinale, ''Flinx Transcendent''. Flinx finds a roaming Tar-Aiym [[LostSuperweapon weapons platform]] that has ''hundreds'' of Krangs, which when fired simultaneously can cross the intergalactic void and destroy entire star systems from the backlash alone. Even [[TheWorfBarrage that isn't enough]], though, so he goes and locates a Xunca superweapon that extends across multiple dimensions and pulls in several million galaxies' worth of energy. |
| 273 | * The 'Hell-class' weapons from Alastair Reynold's ''Literature/RevelationSpaceSeries''. Some can blast big holes in a planet's crust. Others can ''destroy stars'' (or so we're told). |
| 274 | ** The Hypometric weapons are rather less flamboyant, but in many ways more alarming. They simply cause everything in a specific volume of space to just... disappear. No debris, no radiation, no explosion. The effect propagates at lightspeed, and appears to be impossible to defend against (though perhaps the Inhibitors might have some tricks in that regard). |
| 275 | ** The Inhibitors have a range of techniques and designs for [[ApocalypseHow dealing with troublesome interstellar species]]. [[spoiler:They used one such trick to generate a lethal solar flare and destroy the civilisation on Resurgam. When the inhibitors noticed a ''new'' civilisation there, they decided to construct a "Star Singer": a device built around its star that triggers a gigantic and continuous solar flare, or in other words an interplanetary flamethrower, to reduce the surface of the inner worlds around the star to slag one by one. This substantially reduces the star's mass, turning it into a red dwarf.]] |
| 276 | * The ''Andalite Chronicles'', a side-story of ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}'', mentions that a dome ship's main shredder is a laser "as thick as a tree trunk, capable of blasting chunks off a planet". |
| 277 | * Stephen Donaldson's ''Literature/TheGapCycle'' features the awesomely named Super-Light Proton Beam cannon, which, in addition to being stupendously powerful, is the only weapon in the series capable of dealing DeathFromAbove to planets... ''we're told''. However, despite essentially being the series' main antagonist for the last three books out of five, the weapon is never (successfully) fired. A sort of a reverse ChekhovsGun. Despite its supposed usefulness, the good guys do not have one -- even at the space police headquarters at Earth. |
| 278 | * Andrey Livandny's ''Literature/TheHistoryOfTheGalaxy'' series has the LIGHT annihilation system, developed by the [[LaResistance Free Colonies]] to combat the technological superiority of the [[TheEmpire Terran Alliance]]. How it works is not explained, but it acts as a weapon of mass destruction on a planetary scale. As an example, the first time it was used in battle it obliterated a [[EarthShatteringKaboom moon]] and two armadas. Needless to say, it was later more used as a deterrent than a weapon. The reason was stated that the firepower of the weapon could not be adjusted. It simply turned to energy anything in its path with destructive results. Apparently, anything within a light minute of the target is simply vaporized. One of the novels has a Terran Alliance admiral plotting to capture an intact LIGHT system, even though his NumberTwo keeps pointing out the ridiculousness of the action. The Alliance could build one if they wanted to, they've done enough scans of the colonial weapon to be able to reproduce it, it's just that it's not worth the expenditure in time and resources due to its uselessness as a weapon of war. The admiral in question actually wants the weapon as part of his plan to usurp the leadership of the Alliance from the aging Admiral Nagumo. It's to be his ultimate deterrent against his political opponents trying anything. [[spoiler:The colonials manage to self-destruct the system, though.]] |
| 279 | * In Mikhail Akhmanov's ''Literature/ArrivalsFromTheDark'' series has many alien races using Annihilators (i.e. antimatter cannons), the only defense to which are DeflectorShields. The first novel, ''Invasion'', shows [[CurbStompBattle humans get their asses handed to them]] by an alien starship armed with these, while humans are still using [[MacrossMissileMassacre missiles]], [[MagneticWeapons magnetically-launched icicle spreads]], and low-power [[EnergyWeapons plasma weapons]]. The subsequent novels shift the Annihilators into the more common variety of weapons with missiles and magnetic weapons relegated to ground-based use (no one in their right mind would use antimatter weapons in an atmosphere). Plasma weapons remain as secondary weapons for capital ships and primary weapons for fighters. |
| 280 | ** These also can be used to turn a planet into a smoldering hellhole in about an hour, although this is rarely done, as habitable worlds are valuable. |
| 281 | * In the Creator/DaleBrown novel ''Literature/FlightOfTheOldDog'', the Soviets use a laser system rated at hundreds of megawatts for anti-ballistic missile, anti-satellite and basically anti-whatever purposes. The eponymous AirstrikeImpossible is carried out to destroy it. |
| 282 | * Creator/TimothyZahn's ''Literature/TheConquerorsTrilogy'' has the human's CIRCE weapon, which is capable of completely obliterating any fleet it goes up against. Subverted because [[spoiler:CIRCE doesn't actually exist. The first and only battle where it was 'used' was actually won by an insane fluke of luck. The politicians of the allied nations who owned the fleet came up with a fake ultimate weapon as an explanation and used it as a threat to secure their own political power.]] |
| 283 | * In the Franchise/StarTrekExpandedUniverse novel ''Vendetta'', the USS ''Repulse'' uses a deflector dish weapon (much like the ones used in ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' -- see below) to blow a Borg ship to bits. To be fair, though, that cube had already been heavily damaged in a battle with a spaceborne version of TheJuggernaut. |
| 284 | ** Additionally, the AlternateUniverse ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' story ''Places of Exile'' seems to reference the trope itself; shortly after Species 8472 blew up a Borg planet (like in "Scorpion"): |
| 285 | --> This time they were not so lucky. "The first bioship is on a pursuit course," Tuvok reported.\ |
| 286 | "Just one? That's a relief," said Paris. "I'd hate to have to take on the other nine and that wave-motion gun of theirs." Janeway assumed the weapon description was another of Tom's obscure twentieth-century cultural allusions. |
| 287 | ** As the Romulans are the first recurring race to use one in the series proper, Creator/DianeDuane saw fit grant them ''two more'' in the ''Literature/{{Rihannsu}}'' series. The first to show up is the Sunseed protocol, a way to stimulate a star to "seed" it and cause a ion storm followed by a solar flare powerful and long-ranged enough to obliterate a world in the habitable zone of said star (such as Earth, if you "seed" the Sun)[[note]]Something extremely similar to Sunseed, in preparation and effects, was used in the ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' episode "[[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS07E02ShadowsAndSymbols Shadows and Symbols]]" to obliterate a Dominion shipyard[[/note]]. The other is a variant of the old plasma torpedo... Only this time you can't dodge it because ''[[HomingProjectile it homes on the target]]''. [[OhCrap You can guess how Kirk and crew reacted when they noticed it was following them]]. |
| 288 | * Hellbores are fusion cannons rated in ''megatons per second'' and standard armament on Literature/{{Bolo}}s; the larger Bolos mount several. They were originally developed from weaponry intended for use as the primary armament of space ''battleships''. |
| 289 | ** Eventually Hellbores were made part of a Bolo's secondary weapons to the point where a Bolo could have over a dozen Hellbores, granted the secondary Hellbores were smaller in size. |
| 290 | ** Some Bolos were equipped with a Hellbore variant called a Hellrail. These were normally larger than the Bolo's main armament, but could not be depresed to engage ground targets. They were intended explicitly to engage spacecraft. As a Hellbore is capable of pin-point accuracy at interplanetary range, this is a serious threat to any enemy operations in an entire star system. |
| 291 | * Besides the Death Stars mentioned above, the Franchise/StarWarsExpandedUniverse has several other superlaser platforms, mostly large ships. They're not planet killers, but are instead mostly used against other large ships. [[BigDumbObject Centerpoint Station]] also has a [[http://www.jedipedia.net/wiki/Datei:Centerpoint_Station.JPG pretty impressive gun.]] |
| 292 | ** Special mention must go to the Hutt superweapon, the Darksaber, which was quite literally a Death Star stripped down to the bare essentials, an engine, a powercore, and a superlaser, shaped like a [[LaserBlade lightsaber]]. [[spoiler:Except it didn't work because the Hutts cheaped out on the construction. Worst. BigBad. Ever.]] |
| 293 | * In ''Literature/TroyRising'', the SAPL is one. The acronym stands for Solar Array Pumped Laser (the protagonist had a lot of FunWithAcronyms, "SAPL" was intended to also stand for "Serious-Ass Powerful Laser" and was made of various "Very Dangerous Arrays," "Very Scary Arrays," and "Big Damn Arrays" that officially stood for something else), despite it not actually being a laser; it consists of a whole friggin' lot of mirrors in solar orbit, the most critical of which have Lots of High Tech in order to reflect up to petawatts of sunlight without immediately blowing up. The first time they're used, against an alien cruiser that basically took over the Earth in the first chapter, the beam is aimed at a patch of shield that was collapsed by a breacher round. It misses, hits the undamaged front shields, and punches straight through the entire ship. |
| 294 | ** Then they upped output by few magnitudes. Best part? It was used primarily for orbital mining. |
| 295 | * The ''Literature/MortalEngines'' Quartet uses them as a plot device with MEDUSA (salvaged from old tech) and then ODIN, the KillSat. |
| 296 | * ''Literature/HonorHarrington'': |
| 297 | ** {{Zigzagged}} in the first novel. Honor is horrified that her ship is stripped of most of its regular armament to make room for one of these. Why? Because it only works at short range, and her opponents can easily blast her light cruiser to smithereens long before she gets there. Then DoubleSubverted in that the novel conspires to put Honor and her opponent in ''exactly'' the situation where she can legitimately use the weapon against him. Then turned back into a subversion with the brass accepting the overall uselessness of the weapon, and electing to not mount it on any more ships. |
| 298 | ** {{Defied|Trope}} at some point prior to ''In Enemy Hands''. A NoodleIncident mentioned by Admiral White Haven had saner heads veto an attempt by Admiral Hemphill[[note]]the MadScientist who came up with the above-mentioned gravity lance, but also the far more useful missile pods and multi-drive missiles[[/note]] to fit ships of the wall with enormous spinal energy weapons. The obvious problems being A) at this point in the series it's impossible to generate a DeflectorShield to cover the front of the ship, so you're leaving yourself open when you attempt to use it, and B) it would still probably be drastically outranged by missile spam. |
| 299 | * The protagonist of Creator/CharlesStross's ''Literature/{{Accelerando}}'' uses a "blaster" at one point. Apparently it consists of a wormhole system, one end of which orbits within the photosphere of a star. Pulling the trigger briefly opens the portal, and (rather surprisingly) ''doesn't destroy everything in the vicinity''. Some of the highest levels of overkill in a handweapon, given that the same design could conceivably slag an entire world. |
| 300 | * The ''Literature/HostileTakeoverSwann'' series has the [[KillSat Linac]], a kilometer and a half long [[MagneticWeapons railgun]] that accelerates projectiles to half the speed of light. It is unique in the universe, not because no one else has the technology to build one, but because no planetary government would allow such a thing in orbit around their planet. Bakunin has no government, so when Proudhon Spaceport Corporation built it, no one bothered to stop them. |
| 301 | * ''Literature/PerryRhodan'' tends to not make much use of this trope in part because after the introduction of the transform cannon fairly early on at the latest the setting's mass-produced ''stock'' weapons are already incredibly destructive. When your battleships can already teleport dozens of 1,000-gigaton nukes per salvo each wherever they want them, subject only to the limits of their targeting systems, and keep that bombardment ''going'' for fairly extended periods, there's not much call for even ''bigger'' guns. (Some rare examples have come up, such as the [[NoPlansNoPrototypeNoBackup one-of-a-kind]] Selphyr-Fataro device installed on the [=BASIS=] which was in principle capable of sending matter in a large sector of space on a one-way trip into hyperspace; however, that one in particular, while used as a plot device a couple of times, never actually fired a shot in anger at an enemy.) |
| 302 | * In ''Literature/TheNightLand'' and ''Literature/AwakeInTheNightLand'' the human CitadelCity can release a powerful blast of energy on order to obliterate a horde of monsters trying to invade the city. However this is only used in extreme circumstances, since it consumes too much energy and leaves the city without power for days. |
| 303 | * Sure people know the [[PlanetKiller planet-busting weapons]] of the ''Franchise/StarWars'' movies and perhaps the now non-canon books or comics. But long before the Death Star, the galaxy had the mighty turbo-laser. One of the DK info books mentions how powerful some of the Star Wars weapons were. When put to max power, the laser cannon on an X-Wing becomes a kiloton class weapon, while proton torpedoes and concussion missiles are 4 times more powerful than that. But the turbo-laser on a Star Destroyer clocks in as a whopping megaton class weapon, with power equalling the Hellbores of ''Literature/{{Bolo}}''. |
| 304 | ** When the Rebellion became the New Republic, they used their new-found wealth to buy Turbo-Laser artillery to deal with Imperial hold-outs. These were basically an anti-grav blimp with a Star Destroyer gun. One shot from this would punch through any fortifaction and instantly vapourize the near-invulnerable AT-AT walker. |
| 305 | ** In the now non-canon stories, the superweapon before the Death Star was the Torpedo Sphere. This was a mobile space station with large batteries of proton torpedoes. The torpedoes were used in mass against worlds that had planetary shields, but when the shields were down the Sphere would then use its real hitter: large batteries of turbo-lasers that would bombard cities and defense installations. |
| 306 | * Creator/LEModesittJr uses the same [[FantasticNuke magical]] Wave Motion Gun in two different series, ''The Spellsong Cycle'' and ''The Literature/SagaOfRecluce'': a magic spell which [[SolarPoweredMagnifyingGlass concentrates all the sunlight for dozens (or hundreds) of miles around into a destructive beam of energy]]. |
| 307 | * Literature/TheExpanse has a couple. [[spoiler:In Persepolis Rising there's the Magnetar-Class battleship's main cannon, which shoots out a directed wave of magnetism so powerful it spaghettifies everything in its path.]] [[spoiler:In Tiamat's Wrath, the PrecursorKillers cause a neutron star on the edge of collapsing into a black hole to collapse, releasing a gamma ray burst so powerful it destroys the star's gate, the gate opposite that gate in the Slow Zone, possibly the star system that second gate led to, and everything that was in a straight line between them [[MadeOfIndestructium aside from the central station]], which is left glowing for weeks afterwards.]][[/folder]] |
| 308 | |
| 309 | [[folder:Live-Action TV]] |
| 310 | * ''Series/BabylonFive'': |
| 311 | ** The Vorlon ''Eclipse''-class "[[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Planetkiller]]" seen towards the end of the Vorlon-Shadow war. |
| 312 | ** The Great Machine on Epsilon III was hinted to be such, and certainly seemed to have the power to do it, but its ultimate purpose was never completely revealed. |
| 313 | * The main weapon of the ''Victory''-class Destroyers in the ''Series/BabylonFive'' spinoff ''Series/{{Crusade}}'' is definitely an example: It's an incredibly powerful (and visually impressive) Vorlon beam weapon that draws so much power from a relatively underwhelming Minbari-sourced power plant (rather than the Vorlons' usual hyperspace tap) that it cripples the ship for a minute after firing. |
| 314 | ** Also, Earth Alliance has its own variation in the heavy particle beams mounted on combat satellites and the new ''Warlock''-class advanced destroyers (which have ''two''). The satellites had been already hinted to have it in ''Babylon 5'' proper, and when they finally fired ([[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QsNtqoi2oRg here from 3.20]]) anything they hit was one-shot into oblivion. On the ''Warlocks'', we only had WordOfGod about it for a long time, but in ''The Lost Tales'' we saw one firing, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zh1PWY96QtQ for obliteration of its poor victim]]. |
| 315 | *** According to the ExpandedUniverse, they acquired the design from the Drazi, a ProudWarriorRace with expansionist tendencies. Thankfully, they don't build warships large enough for it, so they only have it on defensive satellites and space stations, and gave the design to Earth during the [[HopelessWar Earth-Minbari War]] for defensive purposes (then again, HumansAreBastards, and the Earth-Minbari War left them a bit scarred...). |
| 316 | * ''{{Series/Lexx}}'': |
| 317 | ** The primary weapon of the Lexx. In fact, the ''only'' weapon of the Lexx. Being a living ship and the most powerful weapon in two universes, it's not like the Lexx needs additional firepower. As an added bonus, the CGI effect of the Lexx firing even ''looks'' like a wave front. |
| 318 | *** The fact that the Lexx has no other weapons ''did'' cause plenty of trouble to the protagonists (usually involving boarders). [[FridgeBrilliance This was likely a deliberate flaw in order for the ship to be recaptured easily should it fall into the wrong hands]] (coupled with the quickly removed RestrainingBolt that prevented the Lexx from firing on His Divine Shadow's ships). |
| 319 | ** In the very first minute of the very first episode, there's a rather hellish weapon (the Foreshadow, the flagship of His Divine Shadow) that eradicates the surface of a planet in about 5 shots. |
| 320 | * The ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' episode "[[Recap/StarTrekS2E6TheDoomsdayMachine The Doomsday Machine]]" features a miles-long Planet Killer, a conical-shaped machine made of a virtually indestructible material that destroys planets and then uses the rubble to refuel itself. It was theorized by Kirk that the Planet Killer was created as a bluff to keep an all-out war from occurring, but that it somehow was activated and couldn't be stopped, destroying both its creators and their enemies before continuing through the universe. The episode makes a very un-subtle allusion to the H-bomb. In a stroke of {{irony}}, it is then stopped by essentially a ''real'' H-Bomb -- [[spoiler:an impulse engine overload]]. |
| 321 | * ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'': |
| 322 | ** The navigational deflector dish of the ''Enterprise''-D is modified into one of these on two separate occasions, most notably during "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS3E26S4E1TheBestOfBothWorlds The Best of Both Worlds]]", in which it is used against a Borg cube. [[spoiler:It doesn't work, though it ''would'' have -- the Borg were forewarned and protected themselves against it. It also doesn't work the only other time it was used, to try to free the ship from a NegativeSpaceWedgie. Other than its complete failure in field testing]], the deflector "cannon" features all of the ''drawbacks'' of the Wave Motion Gun trope, including long charge times, potential damage to the ship from the firing process, and even the necessity of clearing all the decks surrounding the dish to avoid irradiating the crew. You have to wonder whether the weapon would have fared better if tested on the ''Enterprise'''s sister ship... the USS ''[[{{Pun}} Yamato]]''.[[note]]No, not a ShoutOut to ''Anime/SpaceBattleshipYamato'' -- the ship was named after [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_battleship_Yamato the Imperial Japanese battleship]], the writers not knowing that the earlier anime had gone one step further and actually had said WWII-era battleship [[ResurrectTheWreck resurrected as a spaceship]].[[/note]] |
| 323 | ** Conversely, the future ''Enterprise'' in "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS7E24AllGoodThings All Good Things...]]" features an enormous phaser cannon on the bottom of its saucer section which can destroy powerful Klingon warships with a single shot; it does not appear to cause significant power drain or require a long reloading time. |
| 324 | * ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'': |
| 325 | ** In "[[Recap/StarTrekVoyagerS3E25S4E1Scorpion Scorpion]]", Species 8472 combine the output of nine ships into one single [[EarthShatteringKaboom wave of destruction]] -- which even ''looks'' like a wave. |
| 326 | ** The Doctor uses a weapon called the "Photonic Cannon" during one of his daydreams in "[[Recap/StarTrekVoyagerS6E4TinkerTenorDoctorSpy Tinker, Tenor, Doctor, Spy]]". Obviously, the ''Voyager'' has no such weapon, but [[spoiler:they later pretend to in order to scare off a superior foe]]. |
| 327 | * ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'' reveals the "verteron array" on Mars. Although primarily used to divert comets to the Martian ice caps, it can also fire a powerful beam of death anywhere in the solar system...which turns out to be a bad thing when an AbsoluteXenophobe seizes control of it. |
| 328 | * In ''Franchise/SuperSentai'', and by extension its adaptation ''Franchise/PowerRangers'', the heavier HumongousMecha tend to have these. The drawbacks usually aren't mentioned... however, such an attack ''is'' usually only used as a finisher or after conventional weapons have already been tried. Rangers themselves can often [[AllYourPowersCombined combine their weapons]] for a [[{{BFG}} smaller one of these]]; the team-wide SuperMode, as well as US-exclusive power-ups like the Battlizers, may or may not have these as well. |
| 329 | * ''Series/DoctorWho'': |
| 330 | ** The Delta Wave from "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS27E13ThePartingOfTheWays The Parting of the Ways]]" may have been one of these, except that the Doctor refuses to use it because it would have wiped out two races (Humans and Daleks). |
| 331 | ** No longer HoldingOutForAHero, Earth has invested in one of these, first seen in "[[Recap/DoctorWho2005CSTheChristmasInvasion The Christmas Invasion]]". |
| 332 | * In the old German SF series ''Series/{{Raumpatrouille}}'', the starship has the aptly-named "[[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill Overkill]]" weapon capable of blowing up small planets. |
| 333 | * Though not technically a gun per se, the wormhole weapon in ''Series/{{Farscape}}'' fits this trope; [[spoiler:it makes a freaking black hole.]] |
| 334 | ** Lo'La's Weapons Cascade. |
| 335 | * The [[Series/StargateSG1 Ori]] put these as standard armament of their HUGE warships. These things can oneshot a Ha'tak with full shields as well as heavily damaging 304-class ships, potentially destroying them if they can land three hits. Combined with the [[NighInvulnerable freakishly strong]] Ori shields, these guns make Ori ships the spaceship equivalent of {{Physical God}}s. |
| 336 | ** Asgard plasma beam weapons can also qualify since these are the only weapons known to be able to defeat even Ori ships. And unlike the Ori super-cannon, plasma beam weapons have the same rate of fire but are MUCH smaller to the point where at least four can be fitted onto a single 304-class ship, turning them into {{Pintsized Powerhouse}}s. |
| 337 | *** These prove to be useless in the ''Series/StargateAtlantis'' series finale against the super-Hive, a combination of Wraith and Ancient tech. Given that even the Ori motherships can be fairly easily taken down with these beams, this makes the super-Hive the single toughest vessel in the known universe. |
| 338 | ** And of course there's the Ori satellite weapon. And the much bigger Lantean version that can literally cut a Wraith hiveship in half. Really, the Ancients are rather good at these. |
| 339 | *** The Asurans have a version of this that involves strapping a hyperdrive to a stargate and sending it to the target location, at which point an extremely-powerful beam is fired at their stargate back on Asuras. The power of the beam can keep the gate open indefinitely (beyond the usual 38-minute cut-off) and also powers the NighInvulnerable shield around the "aiming" gate. Essentially, it's a weapon that can destroy anyone without ever leaving home. |
| 340 | ** The Eye weapon built by Anubis for his mothership is capable of fighting off an entire fleet of Ha'taks and destroying the surface of a planet. |
| 341 | * ''Series/TwelveMonkeys'': It's revealed in [[FinaleSeason Season 4]] that this is the true purpose of [[SuperVillainLair Titan]], the Army of the Twelve Monkeys' city-sized time machine. Once completely and fully functional, it's capable of destroying the world simultaneously across every day of existence, creating a [[RealityBreakingParadox paradox so big]] that [[TimeCrash time would totally collapse]]. |
| 342 | [[/folder]] |
| 343 | |
| 344 | [[folder:Music]] |
| 345 | * Music/MarcyPlayground actually have a song called "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owWjcZFWvek Wave Motion Gun]]" from their sophomore album ''Shapeshifter'' (it's actually about heroin and depression, but ''does'' have a reference to ''Anime/StarBlazers'' aka ''Anime/SpaceBattleshipYamato''). |
| 346 | * The song "[[https://youtu.be/5y9YWjrbpzk I'ma Firin' Mah Lazah]]" by Morbicae is based on the Shoop da Whoop meme, so of course it is all about this trope. |
| 347 | [[/folder]] |
| 348 | |
| 349 | [[folder:Pinball]] |
| 350 | * Bally's ''[[Pinball/StarTrekBally Star Trek]]'' pinball game has the ''USS Enterprise''(!) firing one from its front sensor dish. |
| 351 | [[/folder]] |
| 352 | |
| 353 | [[folder:Tabletop Games]] |
| 354 | * ''TabletopGame/{{Aberrant}}'': Although characters are generally played at a much lower level of power, akin to your average Creator/MarvelComics character, the game has Quantum powers at levels 4, 5, and 6 (which could only be acquired after a very long campaign if you play by the standard rules.) One of the level 6 powers is Quantum Inferno which allows the character to fire a Quantum Bolt capable of punching a hole, hundreds of kilometers wide, clean through the planet (which needless to say is the immediate predecessor to the planet's destruction.) |
| 355 | * ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'': |
| 356 | ** The seventh-level spell ''Prismatic Spray'' mixes this with BeamSpam: a rather trippy, multicolored blast that can do (randomly) anything from [[IncendiaryExponent setting foes ablaze]] to [[TakenForGranite instant petrification]]. Among fans, it's popularly called "Taste the Rainbow!" |
| 357 | ** 3rd Edition's ''Epic Level Handbook'' introduces the epic spell ''[[EyeBeams Vengeful Gaze of God]]''. It has a range of ''twelve thousand feet'' and is quite possibly the most powerful offensive spell in the entire game, dealing 305-1830 points of damage, enough to OneHitKill pretty much anything (including [[DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu gods]])...and also 200-1200 points of damage to the user. |
| 358 | * ''TabletopGame/{{Exalted}}'': |
| 359 | ** The Eye of Judgment weapon from Titan-class citadels is not terribly resource-efficient, as it requires a crew of 5000 and the Eye is focused by an orichalcum lens a mile across, but the look on an enemy's face as a Titan citadel begins charging its weapon is easily worth it. Yes, someone with a perfect defence will survive, but the surrounding five miles or so will not. |
| 360 | ** The Godspear of the [[CoolShip Five-Metal Shrike]] does, effectively, infinite damage at ground zero. If you have the right charms, though... [[NoSell you can block it]]. |
| 361 | * ''TabletopGame/GURPSUltratech'': At peak output, the Heavy Disintegrator Cannon can instantly vaporize 660 ''thousand'' metric tons of any substance per second. That's just the tank sized version, ''Spaceships'' has larger ones. |
| 362 | * ''TabletopGame/JovianChronicles'' has them in the form of the Valiant class patrol carriers. These ships, explicitly designed for groups of [=PCs=] in the vein of [[Anime/MobileSuitGundam White Base]] and [[Anime/SuperDimensionFortressMacross The Macross]], packs a high powered laser in a spinal mount easily capable of outright destroying the heaviest capital ships in one shot. |
| 363 | * ''TabletopGame/{{Mekton}} Zeta'': |
| 364 | ** You can build your own. Mega-Beam plus Charging Time plus Lots Of Kills Worth Of Damage...of course, it'll weigh about seven tons, take up all the space in both your arms, and/or cost a fortune in space efficiency, but just think what it'll do to whatever you point it at. |
| 365 | ** The ship construction rules have one already pre-designed -- the Core Cannon. This takes three full turns to charge and inflicts ''1000 Kills'' of damage. For comparison, a humanoid mecha built at middleweight scale can take maybe 60 kills of damage ''total'' (and a maximum of about 12K to any given component before said component becomes shrapnel) with another 60K in armour, meaning a shot from the Core Cannon could vaporise eight times over. Admittedly, with the size difference the Core Cannon is unlikely to ever hit a normal-scale mecha (that's what the Close-In Defence System is for). But it's still absolutely sodding huge and does huge amounts of damage, so it counts. |
| 366 | ** Thanks to the inclusion of ''Anime/DragonBallZ'' into the Fuzion system (which is directly derived from the Mekton edition of Interlock), Kills scale geometrically. 1,000 Kills is the structural integrity of a heavy striker type starship (about the size of the USS Enterprise NCC-1701, or a modern aircraft carrier). 3,200 Kills is the structural integrity of an Earth-type planet. 12,400 kills and you're one-shotting Jupiter. (reference: [[http://www.mecha.com/~conkle/fuzion/MFC/MFC.htm]]) |
| 367 | * ''TabletopGame/RocketAge'': The larger disintegrator rays; the Europans claim they either have enough of them in their fleet or a large enough cannon to wipe out the Earth. |
| 368 | * ''TabletopGame/SentinelsOfTheMultiverse'': |
| 369 | ** Bunker is a hero so named because of his PoweredArmor suit. One of his weapons is the [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Omni-Cannon]], which he can charge up by putting three of his cards under it every turn. When he fires it, he destroys all the cards under it, dealing 2 damage for each. It can be one of the most powerful attacks in the game. |
| 370 | ** Omnitron, the giant self-aware robotics factory has one in the form of Disintegration Ray. While not as big or flashy as Bunker's, it can deal quite a bit of damage. Fortunately,it can be broken if Omnitron takes 7 or more damage in a single round. |
| 371 | * ''TabletopGame/StarFleetBattles'': Maulers, ships built around a Wave Motion Gun and its associated power systems. Very effective in the hands of a skilled player with a grasp of the right tactics to employ them to their best, [[DifficultButAwesome less so otherwise]]. |
| 372 | * ''TabletopGame/TalesOfTheFloatingVagabond'' has rather simplistic gun rules, however the most powerful guns are labeled "Don't Point That At My Planet!" |
| 373 | * ''TabletopGame/{{Traveller}}'' features "spinal mount" weapons, so named as they form the spine of the capital ships they are mounted on. In other words, the ship is built around this weapon. They are the most powerful weapons in the game, able to shred smaller ships in one shot (if they can hit: there are penalties for attacking sufficiently small targets), and at least one version of Traveller has details for a non-canon "superlaser" version intended (with sufficient scaling up) to model a PlanetDestroyer. |
| 374 | * ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}}'': The College of Light's Luminarks of Hysh are a fantasy version of this. A Luminark is a giant contraption made out of a chariot bearing an array of large lenses through which the device's attendant wizard casts a light spell called Solheim's Bolt of Illumination, which the lenses focus into a powerful ray of light that carves its way through whatever unfortunate enemies happen to be in front of it, dealing increased damage against daemons and the undead because HolyBurnsEvil. |
| 375 | * ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'': |
| 376 | ** The Blackstone Fortresses' combined-shot star-killing trick, even the single ship version of their warp cannon. |
| 377 | ** Planetside, any gun that fits into the Destroyer weapon class. Typically mounted on Superheavy vehicles, most typically Titans, they are the biggest guns on the battlefield. They don't care if you're insanely tough, incredibly well armoured, or seeking shelter behind a conveniently placed building... Destroyer weapons will vaporize everybody they hit, unless they have a force field that holds up or happens to be immune to being vaporized. |
| 378 | ** The monstrous Hellfury Cannon mounted on the [[OurDwarvesAreAllTheSame Squat]] Cyclops super-heavy vehicle, from the second edition of the ''Epic'' [[GaidenGame gaming system]], fires a stream of phased particles that react with each other to create a beam of pure energy that can destroy any target it hits. Even [[DeflectorShields energy fields]] are little protection as the energy flux within the beam overloads them in swift succession. |
| 379 | [[/folder]] |
| 380 | |
| 381 | [[folder:Video Games]] |
| 382 | * In ''VideoGame/AquamanBattleForAtlantis'', Ocean Master's big plan is to destroy Atlantis's dome with his depth cannon gun. |
| 383 | * ''VideoGame/CapcomVs'': |
| 384 | ** Whenever he's featured in a Creator/{{Capcom}} fighter, ComicBook/IronMan has the Proton Cannon, a huge, shoulder-mounted weapon that shoots out a massive repulsor stream. ''VideoGame/MarvelVsCapcom3'' adds the possibility to fire the beam at an angle upwards. |
| 385 | *** In ''VideoGame/MarvelVsCapcom'', ComicBook/WarMachine got the Proton Cannon, but his Golden Armor and his ''VideoGame/MarvelVsCapcom2'' incarnation changed it to missiles. |
| 386 | ** [[VideoGame/MegaManClassic Mega Man]]'s "Hyper Mega Man" hyper combo transforms him into a behemoth of a robot whose buster cannon fires a devastating beam that is nearly as wide as the screen is tall. |
| 387 | ** [[VideoGame/{{Darkstalkers}} Morrigan]]'s "Soul Eraser" creates a massive ArmCannon that unleashes a powerful laser, accompanied by two AttackDrone[=s=] that also fire lasers. |
| 388 | ** In ''VideoGame/TatsunokoVsCapcom'', [[VideoGame/MegaManLegends MegaMan Volnutt]] has his Shining Laser as a hyper combo. |
| 389 | * A common staple of ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquer'' games: |
| 390 | ** GDI's [[KillSat Ion Cannon]] in the ''[[VideoGame/CommandAndConquerTiberianSeries Tiberium]]'' series, is an orbital satellite-mounted energy weapon. In first two games, it fired a focused blast upon a small section of the landscape, while in the third one the beam was followed up with a massive explosion enough to take out a modest-sized base. The Scrin also possess a more... low-flying version. It is just as much of a KillSat, but it slowly moves on the actual game map along with all other aircraft, rendering it vulnerable. But if it gets to your base, it can fire off the same massively destructive beams over and over. |
| 391 | ** Similar to the above ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerGenerals''' as USA's Particle Cannon. It does differ in its firing mechanics - it fires ''up'' from the ground and uses orbital mirrors to bounce the beam to wherever you want it to go. Additionally, rather than providing one short burst, it creates a contiguous beam that can scrape across the map in order to take out several buildings in one shot. Oh and you can build multiples of them at once if you really want to rake over the enemy's base. |
| 392 | ** ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerRedAlert2'', for the Allied Prism Tower and Prism Tank. The former can be charged up by other Prism Towers in range with tangible effect, while the latter's Prism Cannon has a flap on the rear which animates when the Cannon is shooting. |
| 393 | ** The Empire of the Rising Sun in ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerRedAlert3'' has an interesting version in the Wave-Force Artillery. Besides the usual full power blast, it can be turned down for MoreDakka. It's also their heavy tower, which likewise can be modulted to fire lower-damage bursts that recharge faster. |
| 394 | ** The Shogun Battleships, despite looking like a catamaran Yamato, don't use this (their special ability is to put on a burst of speed to ram enemies) but the Wave-Force Tricannons (used on their Floating Island Fortresses) do. |
| 395 | * ''VideoGame/{{Crysis}}'' provides a rather hilariously underwhelming example of this technology when [[spoiler:a huge alien space cruiser opens up on a US aircraft carrier, complete with proper "charging" GFX and ominous "buildup" sound. The effect? Several broken bridge windows and some debris on the flight deck. This is made even more ludicrous when the alien behemoth continues the barrage, resulting in no further damage to the ship. One wonders why the aliens didn't just ram the carrier (the cruiser is previously involved in a head-on collision with a destroyer escort, resulting in one sunk destroyer and no apparent damage to the alien vessel). The same alien craft also uses the said weapon on the final level of the Expansion Game where it blasts sections of an airfield before moving on to the carrier.]] |
| 396 | * The Savior boss's ultimate attack from ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry4'' is of this variety. |
| 397 | ** In the same game, Dante obtains a portable version in the form of the [=PF398=]: Revenge, one of the ([[InformedAttribute seven of]]) [[MarkOfTheBeast 666]] [[MorphWeapon forms]] [[BriefcaseBlaster Pandora]] can assume. Any non-boss enemy on the receiving end of this laser is all but assured to be reduced to ash. Beyond that, whipping it out on the aforementioned Savior is one of the easiest ways to instantly incapacitate it so that Dante can go in for the kill. Have fun. |
| 398 | * In ''Videogame/DevilMayCry5'', if Dante has both Kalina Ann (hidden in an early stage) and Kalina Ann II (given to him late-game), he's able to dual-wield them and can unlock a Gunslinger move in which he [[ComboRifle combines them]] to fire off a massive laser. |
| 399 | * It's standard for the ''Franchise/{{Disgaea}}'' series to provide any unit that uses a gun long enough with a weapon skill that turns their normally modest weapon into one, Dark Filament from ''VideoGame/{{Disgaea 4| A Promise Unforgotten}}'' probably being the best example (And a ShoutOut to the original wave motion gun). |
| 400 | * In ''VideoGame/EVEOnline'': |
| 401 | ** Titan motherships are equipped with doomsday devices, enormous missiles capable of destroying entire fleets of (player) opponents. Even though it's in the hand of a player, this is a last-resort weapon that can only be used once an hour, prevents the Titan from jumping (effectively escaping) for 10 minutes and a single shot is more expensive than some smaller combat vessels. It's also subject to friendly fire (which limits its use to defensive purposes). Before the ObviousRulePatch doomsdays could be fired remotely, and did not disable jump-drives, making them complete {{game breaker}}s. |
| 402 | ** In a more recent update, the Doomsday Device has been changed to a giant laser beam which is used to take out another, usually equally large, ship within a few seconds. |
| 403 | ** In addition, Jamyl Sarum of the Amarr Empire used a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKdTJjDnYzE#t=1m30s chaining Wave Motion Gun]] against a Minmatar Titan, destroying it together with it's support fleet. [[spoiler:The gun is LostTechnology, [[MacGyvering MacGyvered]] into a modern ship hull. Firing it requires some {{Unobtainium}} and it ''melts'' the ship from within, including the crew. Suffice to say, it's reserved for [[CutscenePowerToTheMax cutscene]]s]]. |
| 404 | ** The 11th patch/expansion, ''Dominion'', will modified doomsday weapons to be, in the words of Eve blogger/podcaster Winterblink, "Macross cannons": In exchange for losing the AOE damage, they do massive damage to a single target via either a large energy beam (Amarr Avatar charges fires a literal [[MemeticMutation Lazer]], Gallente Erebus fires an antimatter beam) or a [[MacrossMissilemassacre death blossom of enormous missiles]] (Minmatar Ragnarok, Caldari Leviathan). CCP has also hinted that more doomsday weapons are on the way... |
| 405 | ** ...which have arrived, as of the ''Citadel'' expansion. These include a conical area blast and a station-mounted chaining beam. |
| 406 | * ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'' uses this trope from time to time: |
| 407 | ** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyV'''s Soul Cannon and GBA bonus boss Guardian. |
| 408 | ** The ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI'' and ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'' incarnations of [[HumongousMecha Alexander]] fire a laser from their mask; it's relatively thin, but it blows up the entire battlefield. |
| 409 | *** The Air Force boss and a handful of mechanical mooks have an attack called Wave Cannon that deals heavy lightning damage to all of its enemies. The Air Force uses it after its countdown completes. |
| 410 | ** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'' features a Mako Cannon, named "Sister Ray", built by the [[MegaCorp Shinra Electric Power Company]] for the sake of taking out the [[DeflectorShields impenetrable barrier]] around [[BigBad Sephiroth]]. It is fired only once; Diamond Weapon stands in its way and is cut through, but returns fire, destroying a fair chunk of Shinra headquarters and apparently killing the president. Despite the interference, the weapon succeeds in destroying said barrier. |
| 411 | *** The player can acquire a summon that calls a being known as Bahamut ZERO, a gigantic flying dragon that bombards its targets from space with a giant beam of destruction. |
| 412 | *** The prequel ''VideoGame/CrisisCore'' brings us Bahamut Fury, which destroys (or at least melts) a good portion of the MOON to fire a giant laser at enemies. |
| 413 | ** The Guardian Force Eden in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIII'' has an attack in which Eden uses the enemy as ''ammunition'' for a beam that is fired into ''another galaxy'', which then ''explodes''. It's also powerful enough to break the 9999 HP Damage Cap, which applies to nearly every other attack in the game. |
| 414 | ** On the subject of Final Fantasy, Sin itself (from ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyX'') should count, given the damage its Tera Gravitation attack causes to the planet when it is fired. Also, the machina that the Al Bhed [[spoiler:and later the party]] use to attack Sin. |
| 415 | ** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyX2'''s Vegnagun, which [[spoiler:Shuyin]] tries to use to destroy Spira. It was originally designed to [[spoiler:help in the war between Bevelle and Zanarkand, but it was sealed beneath Bevelle when it failed to distinguish friend from foe.]] |
| 416 | ** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXII'' brings us the Mist Cannon, which is deployed at the end of the game against [[spoiler:the Rebel fleet, to devastating effect, as it is capable of destroying A SMALL FLEET IN ONE SHOT.]] [[LargeHam Doctor Cid]] also designed scaled-down ones so that he could personally fill rooms with laser-y death. To emphasize how powerful it is, the {{Superboss}} Omega can use their Wave Cannon attack, which usually takes many turns to power up, ''without charging''. |
| 417 | ** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'' has a few. Many Magitek enemies have Magitek Ray; the Cloud of Darkness retains her Particle Beam attack; and Omega uses Delta Attack to incapacitate [[spoiler:Shinryu]], and later uses it against the players as well. Several important dragon characters have an ability called Akh Morn, which is a cross between this and a BreathWeapon. |
| 418 | * In the space flight simulation ''VideoGame/FreeSpace2'' most capital ships are equipped with up to a dozen very powerful beam weapons. They have a both visual and audible buildup of 3 seconds and fire beams that can blast straight through other ships. Their diameter is large enough to completely engulf smaller fighters, which are instantly vaporized if they happen to be in the beams path at the moment. This can lead to some irritating deaths where your fighter ''just happens'' to be in the path of one of those beams: the capital ship beams do not target fighters, but heaven help you if you decide to fight in between two opposing capital ships, because they hit instantaneously and are therefore ''undodgeable''. |
| 419 | * In ''VideoGame/FugaMelodiesOfSteel'', the Taranis' ultimate weapon is the Soul Cannon, a massive energy cannon capable of wiping out any enemy in a single blast. There is a catch to using it, however: first off, it can only be called upon [[DesperationAttack when the Taranis' HP is low]]. Second off, is requires that one of your crew of ChildSoldiers consents to [[PoweredByAForsakenChild be used as the power source]], ''[[DeathOfAChild dying in the process]]''. |
| 420 | * The original ''Anime/GalaxyAngel'' games (see ''VideoGame/GalaxyAngel'' gameverse) have the Chrono Break Cannon. It's so powerful that the Elsior originally had it removed, but the events of the first game have Moon Goddess Shatoyan decide that it'll be necessary to defeat Eonia, and it's used in the climax to destroy Eonia's flagship and later the Black Moon. In Moonlit Lovers, it's equipped on Unit #7 (piloted by Tact and his chosen Angel) along with a Chrono Field Canceller to disable the shield on Nefuria's ship, allowing them to fire it at point-blank range. In Eternal Lovers, Unit #7 is hijacked by [[spoiler:Wein]], who uses the Chrono Break Cannon to damage the Elsior, and later to try and destroy planet Juno (though in this case it's blocked by the Angels' wings of light). |
| 421 | ** In ''VideoGame/GalaxyAngelII'', the Luxiole receives the ''Dual'' Chrono Break cannon, which as its name implies is twice as powerful as its predecessor. About two thirds into the final game, it's revealed that its two parts can be fired independently from each other by each one of the separate sections of the Luxiole, which is crucial to defeat Sorbet by firing at his vessel from two different angles to break through the shields. |
| 422 | * ''Franchise/{{Halo}}'': |
| 423 | ** The Scarab is equipped with a Wave Motion Gun, which can be found by the player in plasma-rifle-size form as a ''VideoGame/Halo2'' EasterEgg, and is mounted on the "Beammaster" variant of the Grunt Goblin in Warzone Firefight. Notable in that the Scarab's gun was originally conceived for heavy excavation, until somebody in the Covenant realized that the huge stream of plasma meant to melt through and vaporize rock & ore could just as easily do the same to enemy vehicles and fortifications. |
| 424 | ** The Spartan Laser, an anti-materiel weapon that is used to destroy tanks...and aircraft...and turrets...and high-health enemies... |
| 425 | ** The Prophet of Regret's insta-death beam. The Hunters in ''VideoGame/Halo2'' and ''VideoGame/Halo3'' are equipped with a similar beam. |
| 426 | ** 343 Guilty Spark's [[spoiler:death laser]]. |
| 427 | ** The Forerunner particle cannons found from ''VideoGame/Halo4'' onward. In one instance the beam is wider than several Pelican gunships flying in formation. It should be noted that it ''was'' used against three Pelicans flying in formation; of the three, one was brought down, and the other two were ''outright vaporized.'' Said cannons are also seen later one easily pulverizing UNSC ships. |
| 428 | ** From the same game, the Composer, which looks impressive, but doesn't actually do any landscape damage, instead [[spoiler:painfully converts the biomass of any organism in its path into digital information, which is then forcefully embedded in a hardlight frame to produce a combat-ready AI.]] |
| 429 | ** Most Covenant capital ships mount at least one in the form of a plasma projector, capable of melting unshielded UNSC ships with ease. Said projectors can also be mounted on space stations, one of which heavily damaged the UNSC Infinity. |
| 430 | * To defeat Adam, the final boss of ''Headhunter'', you first need to steal his 'Judgment Cannon', a massive hand-held Wave Motion Gun, charge it up by SuckingInLines, and blast it in his chest, hoping that he doesn't stomp up and hit you while you're vulnerable. |
| 431 | * In ''VideoGame/{{Heavy Weapon}}'', you have the Megalaser, which [[OneHitKill destroys everything on the screen]]. You can collect up to four parts by destroying several enemies on the screen. It comes with a kick-ass wave-motion laser with an amazing sound and the guy screaming "MEGALASER!!!" once you collected all four parts. |
| 432 | * ''VideoGame/{{Homeworld}}'': |
| 433 | ** The Siege Cannon from ''VideoGame/HomeworldCataclysm'', which take several real-time minutes to charge, and even when the fire button is hit, the shot takes an extra few seconds to charge up. |
| 434 | ** Another weapon seen in ''Cataclysm'', the Repulsor Cannon, can be fitted to Archangel Dreadnoughts [[spoiler:and forms the primary weapon of the Nomad Moon in the final single-player mission]] might be considered one of these, for all that it's actually not all that useful. |
| 435 | ** Also, the Phased Cannon Array of the Dreadnought and [[spoiler:Sajuuk]] from ''VideoGame/Homeworld2''. |
| 436 | ** Or just the good ol' Ion Cannons. |
| 437 | * ''VideoGame/{{Iji}}'' gives us the Phantom Hammer, a ship-mounted energy cannon that, used in numbers, can either render a planet uninhabitable, or destroy it completely. A shot from one of these can pierce through several kilometres of solid rock. The final boss carries a more compact version; [[OneHitKill it's no less powerful]]. |
| 438 | ** If Iji cracks together the two most powerful pieces of Tasen and Komato nanoweaponry, she gets the Velocithor, a hand-held Wave Motion Gun capable of blasting through enemies and walls alike, and is instrumental in a very specific bit of DungeonBypass. |
| 439 | * Possibly Dan Smith's Collateral Shot from ''VideoGame/Killer7''. It's the only thing that can kill the Heaven Smile hives and it uses all the bullets in his gun and three vials of blood. |
| 440 | * In ''VideoGame/TheLastRemnant'', David's remnant is called the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68NzbHSVJNk Gae Bolg]]. It Gaes hard, it Bolgs hard, and it's shaped like a giant penis! |
| 441 | * ''Franchise/MassEffect'': |
| 442 | ** ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'' has the Collector ship's main weapon, fully capable of blowing the original ''Normandy'' in half with a glancing hit. Later in the game, you can get the Thanix Cannon, a recent Turian creation, which takes two shots to vaporize the Collector ship in kind. Both these weapons are watered-down versions of a standard [[EldritchAbomination Reaper]] weapon; the beam is actually a constant stream of liquid metal fired at C-fractional velocity. If that description doesn't scare you, look up C-fractional velocity, we'll wait. According to the codex, the Reaper version hits with around the force of 450 kilotons of TNT. To put that into perspective: the Hiroshima bomb had a yield of 13 kilotons of TNT. Not only that, but this cannon can be fired every five seconds and never runs out of ammo. |
| 443 | ** ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'' has a weapon that combines the effects of two ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'' [[{{BFG}} Heavy Weapons]] (the [[UnrealisticBlackHole Blackstorm Projector]], and [[TooAwesomeToUse the]] [[EverythingMakesaMushroom Cain]]): The one-shot [[http://masseffect.wikia.com/wiki/Reaper_Blackstar Reaper Blackstar]]; it is guaranteed to OneHitKill any enemy within it's enormous radius, and according to it's codex entry, it is [[HandWave thought]] to cause both a [[NukeEm fission and fusion reaction]]. |
| 444 | * One of the final weapons projects that a faction can research in ''VideoGame/MasterOfOrion II'' is the Stellar Converter. It's a massive ground based cannon capable annihilating even Titan class military vessels. If the player also researches [[KillSat Doom Stars]], a Stellar Converter can be mounted inside. This grants a new option once the Doom Star has destroyed any fleets defending an enemy colony: [[EarthShatteringKaboom destroying the planet entirely]], leaving an asteroid belt in its place. |
| 445 | * {{Franchise/Metroid}}: |
| 446 | ** The Hyper Beam from ''VideoGame/SuperMetroid'', which is actually an attack taken from [[spoiler:Mother Brain]] by the [[spoiler:now-adult-sized Metroid that you saved on SR 388 in ''Return of Samus'', who, after realizing you are its mother, gives it to you after draining Mother Brain of (most of) her energy]]. It is only used for a short time during the final boss fight and brings the once-powerful creature to its Yugo-sized knees. |
| 447 | ** The Hyper Beam returns in ''VideoGame/MetroidDread'' when Samus fully taps into her Metroid powers, and it annihilates everything in its path. Just as before, Samus uses it to destroy the last form of the final boss and whatever gets in her way during the escape sequence. |
| 448 | * In Koei's ''[[VideoGame/NavalOps Warship Gunner]]'' series, basically ''VideoGame/DynastyWarriors'' with battleships, the most powerful weapons in the game are "Wave Guns," which come in several sizes but all of which fire lasers larger than the player's ship (which cause the player's ship to rocket backward thanks to laser recoil) and can sink fleets of enemy ships, yet will do fairly little against the game's island-sized bosses, who can have multiple wave guns and giant, hull mounted instant death buzz-saws. |
| 449 | * The #3 ranked assassin Speed Buster in ''VideoGame/NoMoreHeroes'' wields a shopping cart... which ''transforms'' into an all-annihilating Wave Motion Gun. |
| 450 | * Bungie's ''VideoGame/{{Oni}}'' also features the Wave Motion Cannon, an absurdly BFG that was originally a part of a combat vehicle. It can either shoot a long, laser-like energy beam or launch grenades (and yes, each firing of the energy beam requires a few moments of SuckingInLines) The Cannon was previously DummiedOut of another Bungie game, ''VideoGame/{{Marathon}}''. All that survived in the data files was its name, leading to [[FunWithAcronyms Wave Motion Gun]] {{WMG}}. |
| 451 | * ''VideoGame/RadiantSilvergun'': Many bosses, starting from the second one have at least one attack that involves firing a long-lasting wide laser that in some cases covers a lot of the screen. |
| 452 | * In the RTS ''VideoGame/RiseOfLegends'', the Cuotl race have practically built their entire society off of Wave Motion Guns. Oh, and machines made of stone. But really the [[EnergyWeapon Frickin' Laser Beams]]. |
| 453 | * In ''VideoGame/RogueGalaxy'', the ''Dorgenark'' carries a double-barreled Wave Motion Gun on the front--called, simply, 'The Big Guns'. According to an NPC, they can take out a small planet, and the one time they're used in-game, they live up to the hype, taking out an endgame-sized enemy ''in a single hit.'' It should be noted that, humorously, the guns are fired by pressing the helm of the ship like honking a car horn. |
| 454 | * ''VideoGame/RType'': |
| 455 | ** Just about every fighter in the series has one, complete with charge up! It's even [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin CALLED]] a [[TitleDrop Wave Cannon]]! |
| 456 | ** The giant warship in stage 3 of ''R-Type Final'' has a giant version of this, capable of [[EarthShatteringKaboom destroying entire planets]]. |
| 457 | ** Super-powerful Wave Cannons a common phenomenon in the R-Type universe (the boss of stage 1 in Delta, Moritz-G, has one, the 'boss' of stage 3 in Delta has two even larger ones, the boss of stage 1 in Final also has one... and so on). A few that're worth noting would be the Utgarda Loki in Tactics, and the Giga Wave Cannon in Final, that can be charged for 7 loops, and instantly destroys any enemy that can die in any difficulty, ''and'' it goes through physical obstacles like, say, meteors. In fact, the 'Final' Wave Cannon used to destroy the Bydo Core in stage F-A basically looks and acts like a fully charged Giga Wave Cannon. |
| 458 | ** Final states that the "planet buster wave cannon" is the same as the fighter mounted wave cannons, but 100 million times more powerful. Given the amount of energy needed to destroy a planet, that means that the fighter-mounted wave cannons have a maximum output somewhere in the region of 100 ''teratons''. NoKillLikeOverkill indeed. |
| 459 | * ''VideoGame/SinsOfASolarEmpire'': |
| 460 | ** The TEC's Novalith Cannon. The best way to describe it is that it does to planets what nuclear bombs do to cities. A single hit will depopulate all the but the most heavily populated planets. For those, you need two missiles. Oh, and there's fallout. |
| 461 | ** Also, one of the Advent capital ships has one of these as its "capstone" ability, Cleansing Brilliance. |
| 462 | ** Likewise, the Vasari Kotsura Cannon applies. |
| 463 | ** Possibly the Advent's Deliverance Engine, which essentially fires weaponized love. Kinda. |
| 464 | * The Egg Carrier in ''VideoGame/SonicAdventure ''has one of these. |
| 465 | ** The Eclipse Cannon that first appeared in ''VideoGame/SonicAdventure2''. Also, the Power Laser for Tails' and Eggman's mechs (battle mode and second enemy boss battle only). The former of which is advertised as being powerful enough to destroy planets when fully charged, and delivers as promised in ''VideoGame/ShadowTheHedgehog''. |
| 466 | ** ''VideoGame/SonicBattle'': The Death Egg's Final Egg Blaster destroys ''[[spoiler:A FLOCK OF STARS]] in a single blow''. And unlike the Eclipse Cannon, ''it doesn't need even a single Chaos Emerald''. Its sheer ''demonstration'' [[spoiler:causes Emerl to [[WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity go berserk]], absorb it, and [[OhCrap threaten to fire it at Earth.]]]] |
| 467 | ** ''VideoGame/SonicHeroes'': The Final Fortress features several of these. They are arranged in sets of three, and are ColorCodedForYourConvenience. |
| 468 | ** Smaller versions are also featured in ''[[VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog2 Sonic 2]]'' and ''VideoGame/Sonic3AndKnuckles'', aboard the Wing Fortress, Flying Battery and Death Egg. |
| 469 | * In ''VideoGame/SpaceEmpires V'', and its predecessors, a weapon available for ships is a literal Wave Motion Gun, which is a powerful, long-range beam weapon. |
| 470 | * Terran capital ships aka battlecruisers in the ''Franchise/StarCraft'' universe are equipped with a Yamato Gun (naturally, named after ''Anime/SpaceBattleshipYamato''), which fires a massive bolt of energy with massive damage in exchange for a large chunk of the unit's [[ManaMeter energy meter]]. This is easily acceptable, though, given the fact that the Yamato Gun is the only use for said energy. In story, it's referred to as a terrifyingly powerful weapon "capable of devastating entire cities" and taking out practically anything in just a few hits. |
| 471 | ** The battlecruisers actually fire a directed nuclear blast, basically Casaba Howitzers (see Real Life). The Yamato cannon creates a containment field, detonates a "small nuclear bomb", focuses the detonation, and uses it to propel a jet of plasma. |
| 472 | ** Protoss capital ships like the Carrier supposedly have this ability, though we never see it in-game until the sequel. |
| 473 | ** ''VideoGame/StarCraftII'' brings back the Yamato Gun (renamed to Yamato Cannon, and which now fires plasma instead of a nuke), and also has the Drakken Laser Drill (only seen in the campaign mission ''The Dig'', though usable in the Co-Op missions as Rory Swann), a beam brought to break into [[{{Precursors}} Xel'Naga]] temple, which is so absurdly tough that it takes many minutes to melt through it when in comparison the Drill takes out a Protoss Archon, which has 300 shield points and great defense, in under three seconds - it takes longer to actually lock on a target and swing the massive drill around than to kill that target. On the Protoss side we have the Void Ray, which should qualify as its initially decent attack becomes much stronger over time, and the Planet Cracker, a cut ability for the Mothership, and the in-game Purifer Beam, which basically does what sounds like. |
| 474 | ** Interestingly, the Yamato Gun seen in the game and in one cutscene (Emperor Arcturus I's acceptance speech) have different visuals. The version in the game is, basically, a big yellow-and-black pulsing blast that travels to the target. The cutscene version is a bright-red energy beam. |
| 475 | * ''VideoGame/Squad51VsTheFlyingSaucers'' have you facing the aliens' mobile hover-turrets, who attacks by firing a thick blast that covers a big chunk of the screen. If there's two or three turrets appearing onscreen, expect them to attempt crossing their beams together to take you down. |
| 476 | * In ''VideoGame/StarFox2'', Andross's battleships have weapons called "Planet Cannons". If they manage to reach Corneria and fire off a shot, the cannon will inflict a whopping 50% damage on Corneria, potentially destroying it in two shots and [[NonstandardGameOver ending the game]]. |
| 477 | * ''VideoGame/StarFox64'': |
| 478 | ** Gorgon (the "Area 6" boss) with its giant rainbow laser (though it's simply red in the 3DS version). |
| 479 | ** And the Saucerer, with its Katina-base-destroying laser that takes a full minute to charge up. |
| 480 | * You do battle against a Wave Motion Gun in ''VideoGame/SuperMarioRPG'', controlled by the evil ''Franchise/PowerRangers''-spoofing Axem Rangers on top of their blade-shaped CoolShip (if you can call it that) called Blade. It takes 3 turns to charge it up but it has the potential to annihilate your entire party in one turn. Unfortunately, a boss later on in the game has the potential to use this attack every turn. |
| 481 | * ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWars'': |
| 482 | ** In ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWarsOriginalGeneration'', the capital ship "Hagane" wields a massive, energy-guzzling [[{{Unobtainium}} Tronium]] Cannon. However, it can be fired with no real recharge time for the ship, and is in fact used often with the 'gravity brake' off so the ship can use the massive inertia in a fancy escape maneuver. The "Hiryuu Custom"'s Gravity Cannon and the SRX's Hyper [[strike:Titanic Blasting]] Tronium Buster Cannon also count. Its full name, [[CallingYourAttacks according to]] [[AscendedFanboy Ryuusei]], is the Tenjou Tenga Ichigeki Hissatsu hou or Heaven and Earth One-Hit Sure-Kill Cannon. |
| 483 | ** ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWarsW'' adds the ''Valstork's'' Double Proton Cannon, which can even link with the Valhawk to utilize it's ChestBlaster for even more power. The Dimension Breaker, the Chest Blaster of the Valzacard, by comparison, is its ''least'' powerful attack, which, by comparison again, is apparently the Valstork's Double Proton Cannon redirected. |
| 484 | ** In ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWarsZ'', [[TheWoobie Setsuko Ohara's]] final upgrade, the Balgora Glory, has the Gunnery Carver, [[spoiler:which is [[PsychoactivePowers powered by]] BreakTheCutie. And is it ever.]] It comes in straight-line MAP attack form, [[strike:damaging]] destroying every enemy in its path, made even more effective by the squad system the game employs, or it can use a [[LimitBreak Full Burst]] ''The Glory Star'', complete with PreAssKickingOneLiner, to fire one of the most impressive [[EnergyWeapon beam attacks]] ever to grace the franchise, [[DisappearsIntoLight reducing the enemy to stardust]] with a [[MadeOfExplodium spectacle]] [[StuffBlowingUp of]] [[ExplosionsInSpace explosions]]. |
| 485 | ** ''VideoGame/ShinSuperRobotWars'' has the Hermodr's laser cannon, which destroyed a group of space colonies and acts the primary obstacle in the final scenario of the Space Route. It also appears in the ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWarsAlpha'' series. |
| 486 | * ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros'': |
| 487 | ** Samus Aran's Zero Beam, her [[LimitBreak Final Smash]], consists of an all-consuming, screen-filling beam that will (very likely) [[ATwinkleInTheSky instantly KO]] anyone standing in its path. Unfortunately, it's so powerful it [[ExplosiveOverclocking breaks apart her Power Suit]]. |
| 488 | *** She uses this Final Smash in the [[VideoGame/SuperSmashBros sequel]] as well, minus Samus losing her suit. |
| 489 | *** In ''Ultimate'', Dark Samus has their own version of Samus's Final Smash, the Phazon Laser. |
| 490 | ** In the story mode for ''Brawl'', the Subspace army manages to pull what amounts to a huge gun with mounted turrets on its side out of subspace. Its about 10x the size of the Halberd, the annoying ship you chase for most of the game, and that ship is already ''hundreds of feet long''. This floating gun fires a huge energy blast that pushes the ''entire world into another dimension!''. Shortly thereafter destroyed by Kirby, riding a tiny Air Ride Machine. Miniature airplane trumps world crushing battleship. Who'da thunk it. |
| 491 | *** Well, considering how [[ArmorPiercingAttack powerful the Dragoon is in-game...]] |
| 492 | ** Smash Bros has ''a lot'' of [=WMGs=]. [[KamehameHadouken Lucario's Aura Storm, Mario's Mario Finale]], Ho-oh's Sacred Fire, Deoxys's Hyper Beam, Pokémon Trainer's Triple Finish, Mii Gunner's Full Blast... |
| 493 | ** The 3DS and Wii U iterations of the game add the Daybreak from ''VideoGame/KidIcarusUprising''. It requires one player to gather all three of its components at once, but its power is almost equal to Samus's Zero Laser. |
| 494 | ** ''Ultimate'' introduces [[VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountry King K. Rool]], whose Final Smash is him firing his Blast-O-Matic from ''VideoGame/DonkeyKong64'' to destroy Kong Island. |
| 495 | * ''VideoGame/SupremeCommander'': |
| 496 | ** The Aeon "Galactic Collossus" and Cybran "Monkeylord" are [[SuperPrototype experimental tier]] units that are expensive and slow, but can vaporize everything in front of them with, respectively, a giant phason beam and microwave laser. Cybran [=ACU=] itself can wield the main weapon of the "Monkeylord" too, while invisible to boot. |
| 497 | ** Oblivion Cannons fire white energy blasts with devastating damage and decent splash area, at the price of a slow rate of fire. Aeon arm their Tier 2 destroyers with one, Tier 3 battleships have a trio of them on their deck and the "Tempest" battleship experimental carries a single supercharged Oblivion Cannon with improved range and damage. The Tier 2 Point Defense is simply named "Oblivion" because it's [[ShapedLikeItself just a platform for the Oblivion Cannon]]). |
| 498 | ** In the ''Forged Alliance'' expansion, the UEF got a KillSat with one of these. Its main strength lies in being unkillable due to being located in the orbital layer, out of range of all weapons - it can only be brought down by destroying its control center. |
| 499 | * Heavy Beam-class weapons in ''VideoGame/SwordOfTheStars'', ranging from the Heavy Combat Laser to the (anti-matter) Cutter Beam. Firing one on a planet leaves a large canyon, and Dreadnaughts can carry up to ''fourteen'' of them. |
| 500 | * ''VideoGame/SystemShock'': The mining laser. One shot is enough to turn all of Central Florida to glass. |
| 501 | * ''[[VideoGame/ThunderCross Space Manbow and Thundercross II]]'' have a boss that fires this throughout its level, and eventually uses it as one of its attacks when the player challenges it. |
| 502 | * ''Franchise/TouhouProject'': |
| 503 | ** Marisa Kirisame's Master Spark and Final Spark spellcards certainly count, whether she's using them as your [[http://i41.tinypic.com/n154ox.png ally]] or your [[http://i39.tinypic.com/10gn1c3.jpg enemy.]] It also appears in the fangame ''VideoGame/GensouSkydrift'' as Marisa's [[LimitBreak Last Word]], where it has the rather odd effect of clipping through the level geometry, allowing her to hit opponents from a completely different section of the track if she uses it in the right spot. |
| 504 | ** Yuuka Kazami is actually the ''creator'' of Master Spark, which Marisa copied and modified. Aside from the regular Master Spark, Yuuka is also able to clone herself and fire two, albeit slightly smaller Sparks, an attack commonly referred to as the Dual Spark. Fanon occasionally also gives Yuuka a better version of the Master Spark, nicknamed [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IvTl-P7vNiI&t=2m46s Ultimate Spark.]] |
| 505 | ** Mima has the fangame exclusive [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKFXhxVvysE&t=8m10s Twilight Spark]]. |
| 506 | ** Utsuho Reiuji, whose incredibly powerful ArmCannon is [[NuclearWeaponsTaboo nuclear powered]]. |
| 507 | * In ''VideoGame/TreasureOfTheRudra'', the Wave Motion Gun was used to kill the existing races on Earth. |
| 508 | * ''VideoGame/WingCommander'': |
| 509 | ** ''VideoGame/WingCommanderTheKilrathiSaga'': |
| 510 | *** The Sivar dreadnaught from the ''Wing Commander'' add-on ''The Secret Missions'' mounts a gun that creates a gravity anomaly that increases gravitational pull 137 times, which is used to destroy the Goddard colony. The focus of the add-on is hunting down and destroying the Sivar. |
| 511 | *** The ''Concordia'' in ''Wing Commander II'' has the Phase Transit Cannon, a modified version of the Sivar cannon that is less powerful than the Kilrathi weapon from which it was derived but can be used to target warships, and is still powerful enough to destroy just about any ship with one shot. It has a tendency to not be available when most useful, however, and was removed from service shortly after the events of ''Wing Commander II''. |
| 512 | *** The Behemoth from ''Wing Commander III'' is, like the Sivar cannon, a planet-killer, though using a [[EnergyWeapon Frickin' Laser Beam]] instead of gravity manipulation to do the job. The functionality of the gun beyond its initial test firing in the Loki IV system is unknown, however, as it's destroyed before it can be put to use against Kilrah. |
| 513 | ** In ''Wing Commander: Prophecy'' the Nephilim has the Kraken, whose plasma cannon can destroy an entire fleet in one shot. Later, it was equipped on the TCS ''Midway'' after being reverse engineered from a captured example, though the human version needed extra help to kill an entire fleet. |
| 514 | * When you pilot the Super Dimensional Gear for a single battle in ''VideoGame/{{Xenogears}}'', you can opt to fire the Yggdrasil cannon for 9999 damage. The only drawback is that it costs 9000 of your 9990 fuel. |
| 515 | * ''VideoGame/{{Xenosaga}}'' has several. There's the Phase Transfer Cannon KOS-MOS uses, for starters. Then the Dammerung has a huge version called the Rhine Maiden designed to be fired [[ConvergingStreamWeapon in conjuction with three other ships]]. Note that this is huge in comparison to the Dammerung itself. Also note that the Dammerung is ''huge'', with dimensions measured in ''kilometers''. |
| 516 | ** Don't forget the Durandal, which has beam weaponry capable of [[spoiler:wiping out an entire fleet of Gnosis within seconds]]. And then there is [[RobotGirl KOS-MOS]] [[PersonOfMassDestruction herself]], who's pretty much a walking Wave Motion Gun. Her most powerful attack, the [[BeamSpam X-Buster]], was one of the only few that got an in-battle video sequence in Episode I. |
| 517 | * The Jehuty gets one in ''VideoGame/ZoneOfTheEnders: The Second Runner'', called the Vector Cannon. The player's mecha is frozen in place for half a minute while charging it up, but rest assured that whatever's on the receiving end of it will die. |
| 518 | -->'''ADA:''' "Shift to VECTOR CANNON Mode. All energy lines connected. Landing gear and climbing irons locked. Inner chamber pressure rising normally. Life-ring has started revolving. ...Ready to fire." |
| 519 | * The Mana Cannon from ''VideoGame/TalesOfPhantasia'' and its prequel, ''VideoGame/TalesOfSymphonia''. Notable in that it is only used in cutscenes, rather than by the player, and also notable in being a horrible idea that almost always fails horribly. Turns out that a cannon shooting vast quantities of raw mana is a horrible idea when the source of mana only generates a finite amount and can be overstressed. The cannon is used four times over a roughly eight thousand year period. |
| 520 | ** The first use, in the backstory of ''Symphonia'', goes apocalyptically badly, leading to a WorldSundering and thousands of years of tyranny. |
| 521 | ** The second use, in ''Symphonia'' proper, breaks even, neither dooming nor solving anything. |
| 522 | ** The third use, between ''Symphonia'' and ''Phantasia'' once again goes apocalyptically badly, destroying advanced civilization and leaving the survivors to be knocked back to the dark ages by a meteor. |
| 523 | ** The fourth use, in ''Phantasia'' proper goes moderately badly, crippling the hero's side and setting back the sympathetic bit of the villain's plans. Why people keep thinking that reinventing and using it is a good idea is a bit of a mystery. |
| 524 | * The Cetus Imera [[LimitBreak Photon Blast]] from ''VideoGame/PhantasyStarOnline2'' turns the player's MAG into a biomechanical fish that fires a massive laser beam. [[ArtificialStupidity Too bad]] [[ImperialStormtrooperMarksmanshipAcademy it's aim is so god-awful]]... |
| 525 | ** In the Emergency Quest "Mining Base: Despair", players can operate a MiniMecha that comes equipped with one. A miniaturized version of said mecha's WMG can be used by players with Launcher weapons as a Photon Art called "Sphere Eraser". |
| 526 | * The Capitol Ships from ''VideoGame/EmpireEarth'' space age epoch has the [=DBoD=] or [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Devastating Beam of Death]]. It uses the game's ManaMeter so takes a long period of time to recharge. [[AwesomeButImpractical Longer than the duration of most space battles in fact]]. The prototype of the Capitol Ship was named, appropriately enough, the [[Anime/SpaceBattleshipYamato Yamato]]. |
| 527 | * ''VideoGame/SpacePiratesAndZombies'' has the Titan Beam, a true WMG with all the characteristics: It's useful, it's a [[EnergyWeapon laser]], and it's required to advance. |
| 528 | * ''VideoGame/MasterOfOrion II'': |
| 529 | ** The Stellar Converter, which can only be mounted on ships of Titan class or larger[[note]]With enough miniaturization, one can fit a Stellar Converter on a Battleship. However, by that point in the game, one would be forgiven for asking "why bother". If the player has survived to that stage in the game, using SC-armed battleships is just demonstrating VideoGameCrueltyPotential.[[/note]], is the most powerful beam weapon in the game, and can indeed be used to [[EarthShatteringKaboom destroy entire planets]]. It can also be built on planets as a defensive weapon. |
| 530 | ** The most powerful beam weapon in the first ''VideoGame/MasterOfOrion'', by a factor of ten, is the DeathRay. Obtaining it mid-game is very feasible (unless Orion is on the far side of the galaxy, or you're in the middle of a hot war and can't spare the battleships), and at mid-game tech levels the weapon is so large and has such high power requirements that one instance of it may or may not fit into an otherwise empty cruiser hull. It is also powerful enough to take out an enemy cruiser in one shot, almost regardless of shields or armour (extra-heavy neutronium will ''sometimes'' withstand it), and is the only beam weapon guaranteed to be effective against planetary defenses all the way through the game. Note that the Stellar Converter from the second game shares only the name and enveloping damage with the first game's Stellar Converter. In the original ''VideoGame/MasterOfOrion'', the Stellar Converter is merely longer-ranged weapon, with no EarthShatteringKaboom effect on planets. |
| 531 | * You don't get to use one in ''VideoGame/{{Gradius}}'' except maybe for the E-laser in ''Gradius V'', but they certainly get used against you. The idea generally isn't to dodge them (which is fairly easy) but to keep from getting forced into a very bad place by the beams (which isn't). |
| 532 | * ''VideoGame/{{Fraxy}}'' gives you the Laser in 3 different sizes and the Sonic Wave, which ''pushes people away''. |
| 533 | * ''VideoGame/EmpireAtWar'' and ''Forces of Corruption'' expansion: First and foremost: Both Death Stars. Then, there's the plasma cannons of the Zann Consortium space stations, Aggressor-Class battleships, and MZ-8 tanks. Captain Piett's Star Destroyer (the Accusor) also gets a Proton Beam weapon in both games. |
| 534 | ** The last mission of the expansion campaign features the ''[[MeaningfulName Eclipse]]'' Super Star Destroyer, fitted with a weaker version of the Death Star's planet-busting beam. It can OneHitKill ''any'' ship and is very useful, since you have to fight both TheEmpire and the [[LaResistance Rebel]] fleets. Conveniently, the beam stops working just as another SSD jumps into the fray, so you have to destroy it by conventional means. The Franchise/StarWarsExpandedUniverse novels indicate that the ''Eclipse'' could easily take on a large New Republic fleet on its own and win. |
| 535 | * Another ''Franchise/StarWars'' example. The Mass Shadow Generator in ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic''. Turned Malachor V into a mass grave, killed most of the Mandalorians and all but one of the Jedi in proximity (and said Jedi had to go Force-deaf to survive it), and was so destructive that even the ''Mandalorians'' were horrified by it. |
| 536 | * ''VideoGame/AceCombat'': |
| 537 | ** Not a laser, but ''VideoGame/AceCombat6FiresOfLiberation'' has the giant railgun Chandelier as its FinalBoss. It normally takes a long time for it to fire one of its shots (about a minute and a half between "Stauros Preparing for launch" and the giant flash of the cannon firing), but when the crew realizes all is lost, failing to take it out then and there leads to the cannon firing 10 shots (and failing your mission) in a row before it collapses. |
| 538 | ** And then there's the Excalibur in ''VideoGame/AceCombatZeroTheBelkanWar'', which is a laser, the Arkbird's laser cannon in ''VideoGame/AceCombat5TheUnsungWar'', and the Stonehenge railgun array in ''VideoGame/AceCombat04ShatteredSkies''. |
| 539 | ** ''Ace Combat 5'' and ''Ace Combat Zero'' also have unlockable planes with laser cannons as special weapons, the ADF-10A/F Falken in both, along with the ADFX-01/02 Morgan in Zero |
| 540 | ** ''VideoGame/AceCombat3Electrosphere'' has Rena's X-49 Night Raven, with a laser that can destroy an island in one shot. [[CutScenePowerToTheMax The playable version]] is toned down though. |
| 541 | ** ''VideoGame/AceCombatXSkiesOfDeception'' has both a wave motion gun (the Shock Cannon of the Gleipnir airborne fortress) and wave motion missiles (the same fortress' Shock Wave Ballistic Missiles). |
| 542 | * ''VideoGame/AirForceDelta Strike'' features the Leupold Battery of guns so large, you have to fly down the barrel to destroy it. There are three of them. |
| 543 | * ''VideoGame/ArmoredCore'': |
| 544 | ** ''Armored Core 4'' has the Kojima cannons, massive [[AppliedPhlebotinum Phlebotinum shooting]] beam weapons charged by SuckingInLines, that if they actually hit are an instant kill. Unfortunately, outside of two missions in for Answer,they're [[AwesomeButImpractical useless]]. |
| 545 | ** And in ''For Answer'' there's the Assault Cannon, [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Lethaldose]], a Kojima Cannon of immense power that instead of having the traditional charge time of a Kojima Cannon, it uses your [[DeflectorShields Primal Armor]] instead, which then takes a long time to recharge. |
| 546 | ** The series' signiature weapon, the KARASAWA (renamed CANOPUS) laser rifle, is one of these, generally the single most powerful energy weapon in its given game. In Armored Core 4, a middleweight craft wielding two of these can S-Rank the [[ThatOneLevel infa]][[ThatOneBoss mous]] March Au Supplice mission with ease, provided the player is experienced enough. Of course, in every game, they are severely hampered by their weight and the amount of energy they consume with each shot. |
| 547 | * ''[[VideoGame/{{Darius}} G-Darius]]'' has the Alpha (player-fired) and Beta (boss-fired) beams. The scary part is that they can ''absorb each other'', and by doing so become ''larger, more powerful, and longer lasting''. Enemies must be captured and consumed in order to fire your Alpha beam, and certain powerful enemies will make your Alpha beam more powerful. |
| 548 | * The above is actually a call back to a previous Creator/{{Taito}} game, ''VideoGame/MetalBlack'', which has a wave motion gun that can be charged by collection small power ups called newalones. |
| 549 | * In ''VideoGame/{{Spore}}'', a player who has made certain choices progressing to the space stage will gain the racial ability to unleash the Gravitation Wave, which will destroy all structures on a planet. Anyone can research a planet-killing laser though. The use of either of these weapons is pretty much the only thing which is outlawed on a galactic scale and ''will'' piss off any neighbors close enough to detect it. |
| 550 | * This is in ''VideoGame/SpaceChannel5'', of all series. Everyone you saved helps you charge up a super huge laser to take out Blank/Purge depending on which game you're playing. However, you have to hit all three "chus" that the villain gives you, or it's the bad ending for you! |
| 551 | * In the ''VideoGame/ThunderForce'' series of games, the Rynex-class starfighter can be upgraded with the Thunder Sword that requires several seconds for the spherical CLAW drones to charge up to full capacity and fires a huge beam with a comparative short range that will annihilate standard enemies in its path and can inflict heavy damage on Boss encounters. |
| 552 | * In several ''Franchise/{{Kirby}}'' games, Kirby gains the power Crash. This power will destroy anything on screen, provided it is not a boss or a miniboss. Fortunately, this power can only be used once, preventing it from becoming a GameBreaker. |
| 553 | * ''[[VideoGame/{{X}} X2: The Threat]]'' and ''[[VideoGame/{{X}} X3: Reunion]]'' have the Phased Shockwave Generator, which is a GameBreaker. Instead of firing a single energy bullet like most weapons in the game, it fires an expanding wavefront that is actually more deadly against capital ships, since it can hit them multiple times with a single shot. In ''X2'' a single fighter with three Beta [=PSGs=] could destroy almost any ship or station ''en masse''. And then there's the Paranid Zeus, which can mount ''eighteen'' of the things... (It ''is'' a heavy capital ship.) |
| 554 | ** The PSG was thankfully reduced to capital ship only in ''X3: Terran Conflict''. Now the best contender for Wave Motion Gun is if you fit a Boron Thresher frigate with {{fixed forward facing|Weapon}} Photon Pulse Cannons, which lets a player-piloted Thresher snipe capital ships quite effectively. A Thresher so equipped is a GlassCannon however: in addition to the class having below-average shielding, you can get off maybe two or three blasts from your main guns before you've completely depleted your energy reserves. |
| 555 | * ''[[VideoGame/GanbareGoemon Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon]]'', on the N64. A surreal fantasy-action-adventure set in semi-mythological semi-feudal Japan, like a simplified Ocarina of Time but with a seriously twisted sense of humour. Some of the bosses are giant alien war mecha that you fight from the cockpit of a giant war mecha of your own called Impact, which looks like a giant grinning robotic Goemon. Impact can charge up a huge energy cannon by causing damage to a boss with conventional attacks; firing this cuts to a cool exterior shot of the beam slamming into the boss and knocking it backwards. Three or four shots of the Impact Cannon are usually sufficient to do away with even the end-game boss, which is effectively a Death Star in the shape of a giant peach and has a wave motion gun of its own... |
| 556 | * ''VideoGame/FrontMission3'' has the Heavy P-Gun, a prototype beam weapon that exists on two bosses [[spoiler:and can also be acquired by the player through a subquest]]. It's capable of destroying most wanzer body parts in one shot, often resulting in a one-hit KO against a target, but the action point cost to fire it is so high it often can only be fired once every other turn. |
| 557 | * In ''VideoGame/AstroBoyOmegaFactor'', you have the Arm Cannon (mentioned above in regards to the Astro Boy anime & manga series), which, when fully upgraded, has an area that takes up around half the screen. The game even identifies this in the introductory stage as Astro's strongest weapon. |
| 558 | * ''Franchise/KingdomHearts'': |
| 559 | ** ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsII'': |
| 560 | *** The Surveillance Robot Heartless can be turned into one with the appropriate reaction command, spinning around and essentially vaporizing any enemy its beam hits. |
| 561 | *** The Storm Rider boss Heartless has an ''electric'' and stationary version of this as its ultimate attack. |
| 562 | *** Xaldin's strongest attack during his boss fight involves blasting the arena with a stream of wind resembling one of these. |
| 563 | *** Xemnas's ship form ''literally'' has an attack called Wave Cannon, a powerful wave of darkness. |
| 564 | ** ''Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix +'': The Lingering Will can morph his keyblade into a giant cannon to shoot explosive bursts of magic at you. |
| 565 | ** ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsBirthBySleep'': |
| 566 | *** The aforementioned "morph keyblade into giant cannon" attack is Terra's final Shotlock. |
| 567 | *** Vanitas has his own personal Shotlock called Dark Cannon, which fires a large beam of dark energy from his Keyblade. |
| 568 | ** ''VideoGame/KingdomHearts3DDreamDropDistance'': For the Brawlamari Dream Eater's fight against Riku, it gains access to a huge laser beam, which Riku has to avoid by hiding behind a rock. |
| 569 | ** ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsIII'': Donald Duck unveils the Zettaflare spell, used only in a cutscene. It's a massive laser that outright obliterates [[TheJuggernaut Terra-Xehanort]] in one shot. |
| 570 | * The Liberty cruisers of ''VideoGame/{{Freelancer}}'' are ''built'' around wave motion guns. |
| 571 | * ''VideoGame/PlanescapeTorment'' has the Mechanus Cannon spell, which opens a [[CoolGate portal]] to a [[{{BFG}} giant frikkin energy cannon]] and blasts your target enemy with it. |
| 572 | * ''VideoGame/{{Warblade}}'' has a long string of different weapon upgrades Then, halfway through, they become fairly close to this. You have the standard single, double, triple weapons that appear all the time in other space-invader-style shmups, then ''quadruple fire''. Then there is an upgraded triple fire, then plasma, which shoots a blue ball of energy, followed by fireballs (a wave motion gun in itself), then a laser, and finally upgraded plasma which is like normal plasma but has a wider spread and melts absolutely everything. And that's WITHOUT Super Autofire, which pretty much quadruples firing rate. It's probably safe to say that if you pick up a triple shot powerup if you have something really awesome, you are totally screwed. |
| 573 | * The UIMS' Cannon Seed from ''VideoGame/{{Galaxian}}^3'' Also Gourb from the Platform/PlayStation version |
| 574 | * ''VideoGame/RangerX'' features the Solar Mining Cannon, which covers 2/3rds of the screen and blows the camera forward instead of sending the eponymous Ranger backwards as might be expected. |
| 575 | * The Spur, the [[InfinityPlusOneSword Infinity Plus One Gun]] from ''VideoGame/CaveStory''. At lower power settings it fires [[EnergyWeapon Frickin' Laser Beams]], but its fully-charged blast is squarely in Wave Motion territory. |
| 576 | * In ''VideoGame/DungeonFighterOnline'', the Launcher subclass actually gets ''two''. One is his/her bread-and-butter Laser Rifle, which can be charged into not only a larger laser, but causes the rifle to ''[[{{BFG}} expand]]''. The other is a technique that starts off as 4 separate rotating beams, then merges into a more powerful one. [[KillSat Fired by a Kill Sat.]] Female Launchers, on the other hand, create a gigantic beam cannon that works as a more direct version of the above attack, while male Launchers later get a slightly smaller but even more powerful handheld beam cannon that they either rapidly sweep the room with before firing a blast that causes the ground to explode or quickly sweep once to gather all enemies in the same spot before firing an even more concentrated beam that errupts into a pillar of energy. |
| 577 | * The so-called "Turbo Attack" from ''VideoGame/{{Gauntlet}}: Legends'' and ''Gauntlet: Dark Legacy''. Although the Turbo Attack is actually a magic spell and not a technological device, it fits the trope in every other way. |
| 578 | * The Particle Beam SmartBomb weapon in ''VideoGame/LightningFighters''. |
| 579 | * The Fusion (and maybe Omega) Cannon in ''VideoGame/{{Descent}}''. |
| 580 | * The makers of ''VideoGame/InfiniteSpace'' sure love their [=WMGs=]. You've got both Krebs, the ZR, the ZR 2, Project Stetalumo, and that's even before you get onto the ones that you can actually use, namely the High-Stream Blaster (which is apparently an antimatter cannon) on the Corsair, Mayr and Evstafi, the Surface Blast on any number of ships (the Zanetti is the one that comes to mind) and the Meteor Plasma on the Freedom. Unfortunately, the ones you can use are [[AwesomeButImpractical a bit rubbish]], and once you get to the later stages of the game, even one volley from your fleet is way more powerful, if much less awesome. |
| 581 | * Raiden, the BigGuy[=/=][[TheBrute Brute]] in the ''VideoGame/VirtualOn'' series, has this as its signature weapon. |
| 582 | ** [[spoiler:Final boss]] Z-Gradt has the largest one of all, in which a giant cannon extends from its body and tracks the player. After a moment, it fires a giant beam that can severely damage any mech, and is particularly devastating to the more lightly-armored ones. As its health gets low, it can even fire this beam while still moving, and tends to back itself away into a corner to try and prevent the player from simply walking around it to dodge. Unfortunately (for Z-Gradt), it is extremely vulnerable to all attacks during this phase. |
| 583 | ** In the same game, hidden boss VR-Jaguarandi has a variation of Raiden's cannon, unforgiving on players that get caught in it. |
| 584 | * The first {{Reactor Boss}} in ''VideoGame/PN03'' is guarded by a pair of these, and getting hit results in [[OneHitKill instant death]]. The [[GiantMook Seerose]], Gardenie, and some of the Pilz are also equipped with a WMG-type charge-up attack. The FinalBoss's [[OneWingedAngel second phase]] {{beam spam}}s you with a dozen wave motion guns after it TurnsRed. |
| 585 | * The Leviathan from ''VideoGame/Conduit2'' is a gigantic sea serpent who shoots a massive laser beam from its mouth. |
| 586 | * The Shock Beam cannon in ''VideoGame/BattleshipsForever'' adds a damage multiplier to the base damage when fully charged, causing it to deal +150% damage while making the beam much larger. |
| 587 | * ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfDragoon'' has 2, the first one being the Black-Burst dragon's shadow cannon, and the second one being the infamous divine dragon cannon. |
| 588 | * ''VideoGame/TheTaleOfAlltynex'' series uses this in all three games in various shapes and forms. A special note goes to the [=ZODIACs=], whose laser blast sometimes cover the entire screen. |
| 589 | * ''VideoGame/{{Hellsinker}}'': |
| 590 | ** Stage 6 features a huge beam coming from the bottom of the screen as a setpiece. While the player isn't in control of the beam, enemies also take damage from being hit with it, and it can be used to break through walls or even [[DevelopersForesight kill the midboss]]. |
| 591 | ** Kagura's "Xanthez" discharge has the shortest duration of any discharge in the game but is also the most powerful. |
| 592 | * Three major versions exist in ''VideoGame/EscapeVelocity Nova''. There's the Vell-os psionic weapons, including the "turreted" [[ThemeNaming Autumn Petal]] and the even-deadlier [[FixedForwardFacingWeapon fixed]] Winter Tempest. The [[ProudWarriorRace Aurorans]] get in on the action by importing Vell-os tech, applying their standard [[TimTaylorTechnology Tim Taylor-meets-Worf]] design scheme to it, and create the ''[[ShockAndAwe Thunderforge]]'' dreadnought and its "Triphammer" main guns (also qualifies as an example of MoreDakka). Meanwhile, the [[SufficientlyAdvancedAliens Polaris]] [[OrganicTechnology Capacitor Pulse Lasers]] were just as deadly as either and ''vastly'' more common, being mounted on all their capital ships save the Dragon (frigate analog). |
| 593 | * ''[[VideoGame/{{Elite}} Frontier: Elite II]]'', ''Frontier: First Encounters'', and ''VideoGame/EliteDangerous'' have the Plasma Accelerator, a Wave Motion Gun that comes in two sizes, [[{{BFG}} Small]] and Large. |
| 594 | * The Brahmastra from ''VideoGame/AsurasWrath'' [[spoiler:It and the Karma fortress it resides in are powered by human souls.]] It ends up being fired twice: Once at the intended target, Gohma Vlitra, a continent-sized monster that the Guardian Generals/Seven Deities have been fighting for eternity. [[spoiler:All it does is piss Vlitra off.]] Later, it gets fired at [[spoiler:Berserker Asura, who by this point is singlehandedly destroying the Deities' entire fleet]]. It manages to [[spoiler:damage Berserker Asura's extra arms and force him into the less overly destructive but still horribly powerful Wrath form.]] |
| 595 | * The ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' games have some, the most known of which is probably Hyper Beam and its variations. [[AwesomeButImpractical Due to its nature]], most are more likely to use the more practical wave motion guns available to them such as Flash Cannon, Dragon Pulse, and Solar Beam (in the sunlight), etc. Needless to say, the franchise has built up a Wave Motion ''Arsenal''. |
| 596 | ** There are also a few Pokémon themselves with bodies that function or look like powerful beam cannons: Clawitzer has a gigantic claw, bigger than the main body, that shoots [[KamehameHadoken energy projectiles]]; Vikavolt and Alolan Golem have protrusions on their bodies (mandibles for Vikavolt, shoulder mounts for Alolan Golem) that resemble and function like electric [[MagneticWeapons Railguns]]; and Regidrago's battle stance has to going up into the air and positioning its arms to look simultaneously like a dragon's head and a large beam cannon, with a SignatureMove, Dragon Energy, in the form of a huge laser beam. Mega Blastoise is a borderline case, with one huge cannon coming out of its back rather than the three iconic cannons in its shell, and while it can fire energy projectiles too, Mega Blastoise is more closely associated with [[MakingAsplash large amounts of pressurized water]] than the usual application of this trope. |
| 597 | * In ''VideoGame/TalesOfEternia'', Fog/Max's Elemental Master arte turns his gun into one by firing a laser that covers the length of the entire battlefield and almost reaches the top of the screen. |
| 598 | * ''VideoGame/TalesOfTheAbyss'' has two: Anise's X-Buster and Luke's Lost Fon Drive. |
| 599 | * In ''VideoGame/ManaKhemiaAlchemistsOfAlRevis'' this is one of many features built into Flay's [[SwissArmyWeapon mechsword]]. |
| 600 | * In ''VideoGame/SkiesOfArcadia'', when you fight [[MeaningfulName DeLoco]] for the second time, his ship has a Moonstone Cannon prototype that unleashes a giant yellow beam of death. Once you get your own ship, it comes with the finished version. |
| 601 | ** The [[spoiler:Galcian Battlestation: Hydra]] comes with an improved version of the Moonstone Cannon. |
| 602 | ** [[spoiler:Silver Gigas: Zelos]] comes with 2, a small one at the beginning of the fight and a much larger one after it transforms. |
| 603 | * Various monsters in ''VideoGame/MonsterHunter'' are capable of using deadly beam attacks that are often unblockable without the Guard Boost armor skill. Common elements for these beams include [[PlayingWithFire Fire]], [[AnIcePerson Ice]], and [[MakingASplash Water]]. |
| 604 | * In ''VideoGame/{{Kongai}}'', [[RobotGirl Angelan Series D]]'s long-range attack is a Wave Motion ''Fist.'' [[SubvertedTrope But it's not that big.]] |
| 605 | * The alien ship's death ray in ''VideoGame/Fallout3: Mothership Zeta''. At one point, the aliens fire it on Earth. In the quest's final battle, you use it against another alien ship. The Tesla Cannon in ''Broken Steel'' is one of [[{{BFG}} the smaller man-portable type]]. |
| 606 | * The [[HumongousMecha Sectopods]] in ''VideoGame/{{XCOM Enemy Unknown}}'' are equipped with no less than ''two''. They are smaller than most examples, but since they're only being used on modern humans and their technology, that's perfectly fine. They are one of the most powerful weapons in the game (second only to the claws of a Berserker), and what makes the WMG's really bad is the Sectopod's ability to fire ''twice'' in one turn at separate targets AND set up Overwatch to shoot any of your soldiers if they move. Combined with their health (highest in the game) and high defense that makes it hard for your troops to hit, and you have [[DemonicSpiders the strongest, most feared enemy in game.]] |
| 607 | * The "Hellball" spell in ''VideoGame/NeverwinterNights 1'' probably qualifies for this trope because it's the most powerful Area Of Effect spell in the game and although it acts as a Guided Missile, it takes time to reach the enemy giving them time to kill you first, and also if you don't back off immediately after casting, you'll be caught in the blast and suffer its effects as well. |
| 608 | * A few enemies in ''VideoGame/TheBindingOfIsaac'' have wide beam attacks, particularly Gluttony, who rips open his chest and apparently fires a massive beam of ''[[OverdrawnAtTheBloodBank his own blood]]''. The player can get this attack for themselves with the Brimstone power-up, and it is quite deadly in exchange for charge time. Combine it with Polyphemus, and you get a beam of destruction that takes a painfully long time to charge, but [[OneHitKill One-Hit Kills]] all but the toughest bosses (and the fact that you can charge a Brimstone laser before you enter the next room usually eliminates the charge time problem as well.) You can also find a power-up called [[MemeticMutation Shoop Da Whoop]], which does exactly what you'd expect. |
| 609 | * ''VideoGame/OmegaBoost'': Lester uses one of these in the [[CutscenePowerToTheMax opening cinematic]], but you don't actually [[GameplayAndStorySegregation get one in-game]]. |
| 610 | * ''VideoGame/StarTrekOnline'': The Galaxy Dreadnought Cruiser, a copy of the three-nacelle ''Enterprise''-D that appeared in Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration: [[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS7E24AllGoodThings "All Good Things..."]], features a spinal phaser lance that can do incredibly high amounts of damage ... if it hits. In practice it's decidedly AwesomeButImpractical: Its firing arc is narrow[[labelnote:*]]wouldn't be a problem except the turn rate of the ''Galaxy''-X is terrible for any FixedForwardFacingWeapon[[/labelnote]], its accuracy is horrible, it causes massive weapons power drain, it has an absurdly long {{cooldown}}, and it basically locks you into using phasers for your primary weapons if you want to max out its damage.[[labelnote:*]]Damage booster consoles that affect a particular energy type (e.g. phaser, disruptor, antiproton) are more effective than ones that affect a weapon type (beams, cannons, torpedoes, or mines).[[/labelnote]] Not to mention [[MinMaxing min-maxers]] have duplicated its high damage with the much more usable Beam Overload bridge officer skill.\ |
| 611 | \ |
| 612 | To add insult to injury, the Nausicaan Guramba Siege Destroyer has a similar disruptor javelin which is almost as damaging but has a third of the {{cooldown}} and no accuracy limitation, making it much more usable. |
| 613 | * ''VideoGame/StarTrekKlingonAcademy'': The largest Federation and Klingon dreadnoughts are equipped with the ''"Assault Phaser"''. A forward mounted heavy beam cannon that can punch through shields or punch through hulls where shields are not available. The Federation dreadnought, the appropriately named ''Yamato''-class, is equipped with two. Starbases also have multiple weaker versions of this weapon. |
| 614 | ** There's also the AMFP (Antimatter Field Projector), which takes the form of one of these. |
| 615 | * The Artillery Beam from ''VideoGame/FTLFasterThanLight'' takes up an entire room separate from your other weapon systems. The thing pierces shields, and takes up the slot where your cloaking device ought to be on a similarly-sized craft (before the expansion). It takes nearly a full minute to charge up, and fires automatically. |
| 616 | ** On the conventional weapon side, the Glaive Beam is one of the few weapons to take four power bars to activate, and is the slowest weapon in the game barring artillery systems at 25 seconds base. While it doesn't pierce shields, if you get the enemy ship unprotected before firing it deals three damages per room hit, which, if properly aimed, will probably OneHitKill the other ship. |
| 617 | * The Fusion Beam from ''VideoGame/SpacePiratesAndZombies'' can drain your ship's capacitor very quickly, and fires continuously for a lot of damage. In fact, it needs to be augmented by a Leech Beam, lest it leave you defenseless. The Leech Beam actually compensates very well for the fusion beam's massive power drain; as two can keep you going with every other slot filled by a fusion beam. |
| 618 | * In ''VideoGame/BorderlandsThePreSequel'', the center of the Helios station (a giant satellite) houses a laser, also known as the Eye of Helios. It's later revealed that it's powered by [[spoiler:the eye of the Destroyer, the EldritchAbomination that served as the FinalBoss of the original ''Videogame/{{Borderlands}}'', prompting Moxxi, Roland and Lilith to sabotage it]]. |
| 619 | * Several bosses and heavy enemies in ''VideoGame/{{Vanquish}}'' have these, usually [[OneHitKill lethal in one hit]]. The Romanov's ChestBlaster variant can pass through cover objects. |
| 620 | * ''VideoGame/MechWarrior'' generally relies on relatively "normal" sized lasers (well, normal for HumongousMecha), but the Heavy Large Lasers in ''Mechwarrior Living Legends'' are scalpels of death; they scythe through even the toughest armor with alarming speed, use a long-duration continuous {{hitscan}} beam laser, emit a deep rumble, and pump out enough [[OverHeating heat to melt the vehicle they're mounted on]] with careless use. The Morrigu, [[TankGoodness an 80 ton siege tank]], can mount ''three'' Heavy Large Lasers, which can gib a light mech in a single salvo. It's highly recommended to AlphaStrike when only ''completely submerged'' in water, as air doesn't dissipate the weapon's heat fast enough to prevent overheating damage. |
| 621 | * ''VideoGame/HalfLife1'' has two of them: |
| 622 | ** The Tau Cannon fires somewhat slowly, but does a lot of damage. This gets magnified if you use the charged shot. Just before obtaining it, you can overhear a scientist and a security guard getting reduced to LudicrousGibs due to the latter's callous handling of this. Incidentally, it returns mounted on the scout car in ''VideoGame/HalfLife2''. |
| 623 | ** There's also the Gluon Gun, essentially a backpack-sized nuclear reactor that is quite capable of chewing through enemies fast and its ammo supply (shared with the Tau Cannon) faster. |
| 624 | * The final part of the game before the FinalBoss in ''VideoGame/FreedomPlanet'' has the player travel up the inside of a Wave Motion Gun on Brevon's ship and having to hide in safe spots while it fires (taking the full blast is easily a OneHitKill.) |
| 625 | * ''VideoGame/{{Steredenn}}'' has bosses, regular enemies, and even the ''player'' using these, in the form of huge, charged laser beams. |
| 626 | * The [[CyberCyclops Assaultrons]] in ''VideoGame/Fallout4'' have Wave Motion EyeBeams that [[OneHitKill can kill the player in one shot]]. |
| 627 | * These are employed by the final boss of the Genocide Route in ''VideoGame/{{Undertale}}'', in which they are known as [[spoiler:Gaster Blasters]]. |
| 628 | * The Particle Lance and its upgrade, the [[GameBreaker feared]] Tachyon Lance of ''VideoGame/{{Stellaris}}''. The capstone of the beam weapon tree, the Lances can only be mounted on the largest hardpoints of the greatest capital ships and devour an obscene amount of reactor power. They also tear through armor, have enough range and accuracy to be fired from ''across entire solar systems'', and deliver simply grotesque amounts of raw damage with every blow. |
| 629 | ** The Titan Laser. Employed exclusively by [[VestigialEmpire Fallen Empires]], they'll vaporize virtually any player-made ship in one shot. |
| 630 | ** The planet-cracking Colossi could be said to have these, though they're remarkably short-ranged for such an endeavor. But if you're willing to use mods, the ''Gigastructural Engineering'' mod offers perhaps the ultimate example of a wave-motion gun in the Nicoll-Dyson Beam: An entire young ''star'' turned into a giant beam cannon capable of destroying planets from many, many star systems away. |
| 631 | ** ''Gigastructural Engineering'' later one-upped itself with the Quasi-Stellar Obliterator, which can only be built around the supermassive black hole at the core of the galaxy. It is capable to annihilate not only planets, but also stars, and even entire star clusters (a star and all adjacent systems) at full power. |
| 632 | * In ''VideoGame/{{Overwatch}}'', Hanzo's ultimate ability, Dragonstrike, is a beam of two huge intertwining dragons (or wolves, with the right skin) that go through walls, do continuous damage to any character in contact with them, and keep going until they hit the boundary of the map. (Although most of the time they'll have gone off into the sky or into the ground by then and no longer pose a serious threat.) Being caught in a Dragonstrike will reliably kill most characters including tanks unless they can get out of the way ''immediately'' after they start taking damage, have a temporary invulnerability ability like Reaper or Mei, or are protected by Zarya's barriers or the massive amount of healing from Zenyatta's ultimate. |
| 633 | * The ''Lancer'' class of ''VideoGame/DistantStarRevenantFleet'' carries no weapons, but has, as it's special ability, a powerful laser cannon. It's intended to be used as a sniper. |
| 634 | * ''VisualNovel/{{Sunrider}}'': |
| 635 | ** The titular ship has the Vanguard Cannon, a beam so powerful that it can obliterate almost any enemy caught in its path and can destroy multiple targets in a single shot. A special cutscene plays whenever you give the order to fire it. |
| 636 | ** BigBad Veniczar Arcadius's flagship ''Legion'' has an even bigger one that he uses to nuke cities from orbit. When fought as a boss, its beam is a OneHitKill to any of your units that don't get out of the way before it fires. |
| 637 | * In ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild'', any Divine Beasts you have liberated will fire ''utterly massive'' lasers at Hyrule Castle, taking out 1/8 of Ganon's health bar per beast (for a total of half if you freed them all) in a burst of glorious light. The lasers are each as large as one of the castle's towers. |
| 638 | * In ''VideoGame/{{Subnautica}}'' the game's story is kicked off by your ship being shot down by one of these, and further driven by your efforts to turn it off so you can leave without being shot a second time. |
| 639 | ** You actually get to see what this weapon can do if you're standing on the beach by the [[spoiler:Quarantine Enforcement Platform]] when the [[spoiler:Sunbeam attempts to come in for a rescue.]] Seeing your first hope of rescue be taken out like that is... Hard. |
| 640 | * In ''VideoGame/{{Octogeddon}}'', both the Stomp-A-Tron X and [[spoiler:TheWhiteHouse]] use one to attack Octogeddon. |
| 641 | * ''VideoGame/CallOfDutyInfiniteWarfare'': [=F-SpAr=] (Focused Spectral Array) cannon installed on the ''Olympus Mons'', it can one-shot most other ships. [[spoiler:In one of the final missions, the player controls it.]] |
| 642 | * ''VideoGame/TerraTech'' has the Hawkeye company's [=AKIRA=] railgun. Although it fires in short bursts, the railgun deals more damage per shot than any other energy weapon in the game. |
| 643 | * ''VideoGame/NexusTheJupiterIncident'' has the siege laser, a FixedForwardFacingWeapon mounted first on Gorg battleships and then, after the ceasefire, on Noah battleships as well. It's an extremely powerful weapon that can punch through any shield, including the massive fort shield, and deal heavy damage directly to the hull. It also has incredible range. However, in order to fire the weapon, the battleship must use its entire power supply, plus that of two other ships. When the siege laser is charging or firing, the three ships are locked in place with their shields dropped and can't do anything else, including maneuver, so if the target manages to get out of the way, the three ships have to maneuver while maintaining their formation. |
| 644 | * In ''VideoGame/ShiningForce'', the party encounters an ancient superweapon called the Laser Eye. It takes several turns to charge, and after the countdown is complete, it fires a wide beam of light that causes great damage to ''all'' units in its path, including your enemies. |
| 645 | ** This scenario is repeated in ''[[VideoGame/ShiningForceGaidenGames Shining Force Gaiden II: The Sword of Hajya]]'' with the Statue of Iom. Instead of navigating a narrow rock bridge as in ''SF I'', you have to navigate a narrow canyon and use the few hiding spots you can find to dodge its beam when the crystal turns red. |
| 646 | * ''VideoGame/{{Warframe}}'': |
| 647 | ** Grineer Balor Fomorians, which are capital ships, carry huge laser cannons with a charge cycle and a low rate of fire that can blow up capital ships and space stations in one shot. Several Tenno Relays met their unfortunate end at a Balor's hands. |
| 648 | ** Tenno Railjacks -- smaller, four-man spaceships -- have a FixedForwardFacingWeapon, the Tunguska Cannon, that can vaporise other ships of similar size, overkill single-person attack craft, and even destroy capital ships if it hits weakpoints. Fittingly, as you charge it [[ConvergingStreamWeapon fires six lasers into a single point before firing off the unified blast.]] |
| 649 | * Viy fires off a bunch of these in ''VideoGame/LaMulana'', though their main effect is to disintegrate the platforms, making his eye harder to hit. Later on, Tiamat fires off ''seven at a time'', and if Lemeza even so much as clips the edge of one, he might not be [[OneHitKill killed in one hit]], but he'll be hurting. |
| 650 | * ''[[VideoGame/ArmoredHunterGunhound Armored Hunter GUNHOUND EX]]'': Players can unlock one in the form of the Anti-Ship Energy Cannon, which can be unlocked by scoring a total of 30,000,000pts. |
| 651 | * ''VideoGame/DoomEternal'' has the BFG-10000, an orbital defense cannon stationed on Phobos powerful enough to ''[[spoiler:shoot a hole into Mars]]'' and uses the BFG-9000 (which is more of a LightningGun than a WMG) as a power source. There's also a smaller Ion Cannon nearby, which the Doom Slayer uses to HumanCannonball himself into [[spoiler:the freshly-created hole in Mars]]. |
| 652 | * ''[[VideoGame/{{Performai}} O.N.G.E.K.I.]]'' which is part RhythmGame and part BulletHell, features laser blasts as enemy attacks in a few songs. "conflict" is well known for [[https://youtu.be/PEzBK2Hbj90?t=121 a section]] where multiple lasers come down followed by a massive beam down the central lanes as the second refrain kicks in, in reference to [[https://youtu.be/e8HRTlkGD4Q?t=105 the original music video]]. |
| 653 | * ''VideoGame/StarWarsSquadrons'' has the Composite-Beam Cannon, a weapon for bomber-type starfighters that converges two beams together to fire a powerful green laser that can make short work of smaller capital ships while also wreaking havoc on the subsystems of larger ships. |
| 654 | * ''VideoGame/{{Nox}}'' The fully empowered [[ArtifactOfDoom Staff Of Oblivion.]] It does about 300 damage per second and [[AlwaysAccurateAttack always hits as long as you are facing in towards the target(s)]]. Right after you get it Hecubah shows up with a veritable army of {{Mooks}} which you can still wipe out singlehandedly. The only downside to the staff is it can run out of mana, and the area helpfully has a bunch of mana crystals. Against Hecubah in the FinalBoss fight, it's not quite the "I win" weapon it is against mooks, but is still the best thing to use on her (unloading it on her when it's fully charged does around 250 damage. |
| 655 | * Beam weapons in ''VideoGame/NextJumpSHMUPTactics'' require four units of energy to fire, and cost 8 units of [[PracticalCurrency scrap]] to boot. For context, that's all the energy a ship can hold without an Extra Battery accessory. They are appropriately flashy and powerful, firing a 4-space long laser beam. They come in Hull and EMP variants. |
| 656 | * In ''VideoGame/BloonsTowerDefense'' 5 and 6, The Ray [[DoomyDoomsOfDoom of Doom]] is the final upgrade of the top path of the Dartling Gunner. It fires a powerful beam that pierces a lot of bloons and deals a large, constant amount of damage to anything it touches, typically destroying most of the less powerful bloons in seconds. |
| 657 | * In each of the ''VideoGame/DestroyAllHumans'' games, the most powerful weapon on Crypto's FlyingSaucer is the Quantum Deconstructor, which fires a mammoth energy blast capable of annihilating an entire city block in one shot. |
| 658 | * The Acceleration Blast from the ''VideoGame/BlasterMaster'' series often shows up as this. It is the epitome of AwesomeButImpractical in terms of gameplay - with completely full weapon energy, you have to sit completely still as you charge it up, and being hit by an enemy will interrupt the charge, but once it fires, you can safely kiss every mook and most bosses in front of you goodbye. [[spoiler:The Invem Sophia knows how powerful this weapon is and, unless it's firing its own, it will dodge the attack by literally flying out of the arena. Every Skeleton Boss incarnation, and every boss that makes use of the Gaia System, will go down in one hit from any variant of this weapon, but the latter group must exhaust their energy reserves before that can happen.]] |
| 659 | [[/folder]] |
| 660 | |
| 661 | [[folder:Webcomics]] |
| 662 | * ''Webcomic/{{Cloudscratcher}}'': Agathoth creates a weapon that, just from a test fire, turns an entire mountain into a smoldering wasteland. It's so powerful, it uses an energy source previously thought to be infinite, and completely drains it. |
| 663 | * ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}'': Eridan's laser rifle, Ahab's Crosshairs, fires very powerful, very large energy beams capable of killing anything they strike. |
| 664 | * ''Webcomic/StolenGeneration'': The Phase Transition Guns. One the size of a pistol can easily shoot down a futuristic fighter jet going at mach 10. |
| 665 | %%** not to mention [[http://stolengen.smackjeeves.com/comics/214159/page-3/ vaporize an entire city]]%%Fix grammar, describe what's doing the vaporizing. |
| 666 | * ''Webcomic/{{Suppression}}'': [[http://suppressioncomic.com/?p=162 The Doomsday Crush Cannon]] fires a destructive red beam wider than a person is tall. |
| 667 | * ''Webcomic/BobAndGeorge'': Dr. Light has a Wave Motion ''[[http://www.bobandgeorge.com/archives/index.php?date=051008 BB Gun.]]'' It requires three hours of charging and half the power of a city, but it can accelerate a BB to ''relativistic speeds''. It's the perfect thing to use on gnomes. When George asked why he never used it before, Dr. Light had only this to say: |
| 668 | -->'''Dr. Light''': Jesus, George, it's just a harmless BB Gun! |
| 669 | * ''Webcomic/Angels2200'': Ship to ship combat seems to consist of capital ships firing their particle beams, powerful laser cannons that can ''[[http://www.janahoffmann.com/angels/2007/10/12/part-6-comic-72/ blow right through]]'' another ship, at one another, then letting the fighters duke it out while they wait for the beams to recharge. |
| 670 | %%* ''[[http://indavo.comicgenesis.com/d/20100215.html Indavo]]'': The Beva-Gladlax. |
| 671 | * ''Webcomic/SchlockMercenary'': |
| 672 | ** King LOTA's favorite toy can shoot you from the other side of the galaxy, through a wormhole, as long as LOTA has targeting information. Shields won't help, either, but not because it'll punch right through (though it certainly could), but rather because it bypasses them ''entirely''. |
| 673 | ---> '''Kevyn:''' This is where I defecate in sympathetic reflex for every defense planner in the galaxy. |
| 674 | ** Additionally, the other end of the wormhole can be opened up inside solid objects, meaning the Long-gunner of the Apocalypse (LOTA), can destroy them from the inside out. |
| 675 | ---> '''Narrator:''' A fusion hot lance of anti-protons is a good tool for burning holes through hundreds of meters of hull. But firing on a point inside the armor and letting the beam find its way out? That's where it gets magical. |
| 676 | ** The Toughs acquire their own miniature version of LOTA's cannon from the Neoafa. It's mounted on a corvette-sized ship and can fire through (or rather, ''past'') any known form of defense. However, it also uses up the ship's entire fuel supply in one shot,[[note]]Half to "spin up" and fire, half to "spin down" ''safely''. They got away with two shots '''once'''. It took disabling "a lot of safeties"... and abandoning ship immediately.[[/note]] permanently irradiates the compartment it is mounted in, requires very precise targeting data and is also likely to attract far too much of entirely the wrong kind of attention. |
| 677 | ** These guns later become sort-of mass-produced, now referred to as Long Guns in 'honor' of King LOTA. Since they are so powerful there is literally no defense against them, the only thing holding the galaxy together afterwards is a mixture of ignorance and MutuallyAssuredDestruction between LOTA and the Neoafa. [[DeusEstMachina Petey]] is entirely unhappy about this, because the failure state is not something he likes [[ApocalypseHow at all]], and there's ''always'' someone that doesn't care if they die and take the universe with them if it means their enemies die too. |
| 678 | ** Someone who doesn't care for reasons closer to immunity/formlessness eventually gets a hold of the technology, and builds the single biggest of them all. The [[spoiler:[[EldritchAbomination Pa'anuri]]]] Hypercannon quickly becomes the longest-ranged, and biggest, weapon in 12 million light years around, capable of destroying anything there is so long as they have targeting data, and its wielders are sociopathic enough to simply keep taking potshots as they get closer to their real targets. This, of course, requires such absurd amounts of energy that [[spoiler:when targeting data is hacked and it shoots itself in the back, the ensuing explosion could be mistaken for a particularly large Supernova]]. |
| 679 | ** One of Tagon's ships gets a more "conventional" wave motion gun that simply fires [[https://www.schlockmercenary.com/2017-01-16 gravity-braided plasma,]] at close range it tears straight through shields. |
| 680 | %%* ''Webcomic/TheDreadful'': The eponymous pistol is actually this. |
| 681 | * ''Webcomic/WaywardSons'': With a minor modification and application of his power, Airez has turned his sidearm into one of these. |
| 682 | %%* ''Webcomic/TwentyFirstCenturyFox'': Parodied by the [[http://techfox.comicgenesis.com/d/20020211.html Wave ''Water'' Gun]]. |
| 683 | %%* ''Webcomic/CommanderKitty'': [[SpaceStation Zenith Central]] [[http://www.commanderkitty.com/2011/05/01/out-of-the-frying-pan/ is equipped with one]]. Luckily for our heroes, this is the only time it fires.%%With what? |
| 684 | * ''Webcomic/GirlGenius'' |
| 685 | ** The DeathRay Agatha built while in the Castle blew a hole through the fortress wall, the roof of one of the towers and the ''mountain'' [[https://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20090306 a mile or so away.]] |
| 686 | ** As can be seen in [[http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20130902 this page,]] someone saw fit to equip a swan-shaped party sleigh with one of these, complete with it looking like the swan's BreathWeapon. |
| 687 | --->'''Ishtvan:''' Is that-?\ |
| 688 | '''Tweedle:''' My grandmother's old party sleigh, yes.\ |
| 689 | '''Ishtvan:''' Could it always do that?\ |
| 690 | '''Tweedle:''' How should I know? [[NoodleIncident Knowing my grandmother's parties]], ''probably''. |
| 691 | * ''Webcomic/WapsiSquare'': Castela can [[http://wapsisquare.com/comic/all-balls-in-the-corner-pocket vaporize a huge boulder]] without even trying to be flashy. |
| 692 | * ''Webcomic/SaturdayMorningBreakfastCereal'': {{Subverted}} in [[http://smbc-comics.com/comic/laser "Laser,"]] where the aliens' ultra-laser turns out to be just a huge laser pointer. The Earthlings wonder how this is supposed to destroy them, until they see the giant space-cat. |
| 693 | [[/folder]] |
| 694 | |
| 695 | [[folder:Web Original]] |
| 696 | * ''WebAnimation/SuperMarioBrosZ:'' The Omega Doomship is equipped with one, called the Doom Cannon. |
| 697 | * ''Ankh Robot Gunchest'', naturally, [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin has a pair of guns on his chest]]. Oh, but they're no ordinary guns, they fire pretty big beams. When he finally makes use of them, it's pretty sweet. |
| 698 | * ''WebAnimation/TheLazerCollection'' is a comedy based around people and things suddenly and unexpectedly firing massive laser beams in random situations It's based on another internet meme known as [[http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/shoop-da-whoop-im-a-firin-mah-lazer Shoop Da Whoop]]. |
| 699 | * ''Roleplay/TouhouAGlimmerOfAnOutsideWorld'': The already ridiculous lasers featured in [[VideoGame/{{Touhou}} canon]] are overshadowed by Twilight Spark and Ultimate Spark. The latter is four already-massive magical lasers in one. |
| 700 | * Mother of Invention in ''WebAnimation/RedVsBlue'' Season 9 has the standard frigate MAC cannon, but it was animated such that it appears to be one of these. On screen, it's killed three Longswords and one skyscraper. ''Lengthwise.'' |
| 701 | * ''Roleplay/VoidOfTheStars'': It's what you get when you don't activate the bow particle tractor on the Warp Drive. Also the Antiproton Streamer, which fires a ''solid stream of antiprotons'' at the target vessel. |
| 702 | * ''Website/OrionsArm'': The Archai have a large number of stupendously destructive weapon technologies available to them, but one that exists only as a rumor is the Thunderbolt... a singularity that propagates at the speed of light (so by the time you've seen it, it is too late to actually do anything about it) and effectively ''destroys spacetime''. No-one really wants to think about what sort of opponents would be so terrifying that a weapon that appears to worry even the archai was needed to defeat them. |
| 703 | ** As befits is quite hard sci-fi nature, the Thunderbolt was based on real-world theoretical physics, see below. |
| 704 | * One of the weapon Hilda gives to WebAnimation/XRayAndVav in the first episode of their eponymous series is a teacup whose true functions are unknown. After being kicked lightly, it fires a ray of energy so large that viewing it from space is necessary to see it entirely. It's a wonder the city was the only place that got damaged, and that it could be fixed by the next episode. |
| 705 | * ''Literature/{{Worm}}'' contains two examples: |
| 706 | ** Phir Sē has the ability to create [[TimeMaster time portals]]. In an attempt to [[spoiler:kill Behemoth]], he combines a flashlight with these portals to create a ''gigantic'' laser, which had enough power to destroy ''India'' if it hadn't been contained. |
| 707 | ** Scion's main power allows him to cancel out any wavelength he wants. This usually takes the form of a beam or blast that deactivates molecular bonds, and he can expand this effect [[spoiler:across an entire country]]. |
| 708 | * Discussed in ''Blog/WhatIf'' [[http://what-if.xkcd.com/141 #141]]; the "Sunbeam" extracts all of the Sun's visible light and bundles it up into a laser-like beam with a diameter of 1 meter hitting Earth, reducing it into a charred husk. |
| 709 | * ''Roleplay/BattleActionHaremHighschoolSideCharacterQuest'''s main viewpoint character, Anna Sanchez, has one. Or more accurately, she's using her [[RealityWarper Impeller field manipulation]] to simulate one via a process that involves poking a hole in the fabric of reality and focusing the catastrophic effects of doing so into a blast of energy. [[DangerousForbiddenTechnique this leaves her with her shields down and missing an arm every time she does it]]. This whole process is called Wave Force Manipulation. The UN's attempt to recreate Wave Force involves a gigantic cannon on the moon. |
| 710 | * ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'': |
| 711 | ** In the Black Trailer, Blake and Adam carry out a train heist. Their cargo is guarded by a SpiderTank that possess cannons. When it merges its cannons, the resulting blast is powerful enough to send the pair flying. |
| 712 | ** Penny Polendina's weapon, Floating Array, is eight separate swords that can either shoot minor blasts as pairs, or one major blast with all 8. She rarely needs to use it on its full power, but when it does, it's quite spectacular, whether it's cuting an airship in half, wiping out a character's Aura in [[OneHitKO one hit]], halting a [[EliteMook Megoliath in its tracks]], and [[spoiler:when she adds her Maiden powers to it, taking down [[TheHeavy Cinder]] in one lightning-powered blast]]. |
| 713 | * ''Literature/TheLastAngel'': ''[[CoolStarship Nemesis's]]'' main cannon, known as the Displacement Engine, is a shock point projector that creates a small, highly unstable breach in physicality right in the heart of, or at least in close proximity to, a hostile warship. The resultant gravitic shear and radiation flare can tear apart anything too close and reshape what's left into AlienGeometries. |
| 714 | [[/folder]] |
| 715 | |
| 716 | [[folder:Western Animation]] |
| 717 | * The {{BFG}} (Binary Fusion Generator in the show, but we all know what it really means) on the Watchtower in ''[[WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague Justice League Unlimited]]''. |
| 718 | * ''WesternAnimation/InvaderZim'': |
| 719 | ** The flagship of the Irken fleet, The Massive, has one of these as its main weapon. Also seems to be present on their HumongousMecha. |
| 720 | ** Both on the Megadoomer Stealth Assault Mech and the Maimbot. Also worth mentioning is the "Death Wave Cannon" mentioned by the Tallest in the beginning of episode Hobo 13. Although never shown in action, this cannon seems to be a Wave Motion Gun of its own. |
| 721 | ** In ''WesternAnimation/InvaderZimEnterTheFlorpus'', as it turns out, Professor Membrane had one of these all along, tucked away in [[spoiler:his ArtificialLimbs. When unleashed in a proper KamehameHadoken move, he destroys a massive chunk of a robot army and carves a massive groove in the city]]. |
| 722 | ** In the final episode the giant robot Dib pilots has 2 cannons one in its chest the other in its hair. |
| 723 | * ''WesternAnimation/MegasXLR'' pulls out [[TropeNamer the Wave Motion Gun]], ''[[Anime/SpaceBattleshipYamato Yamato]]'' and all, in the first episode of the show. Later, it pulls out the ''Anime/{{Macross}}'' gun, too. |
| 724 | * The ''Malevolence'', General Grievous' flagship from ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheCloneWars'', is equipped with a pair of gigantic ion cannons that each produce a blast so huge that they can hit an ''entire starfleet''. It's a bit different from the standard Wave Motion Gun, though, in that it only disables enemy ships, rather than destroying them; the ship then actually finishes them off with its [[BeamSpam immense array of turbolaser turrets]]. |
| 725 | * The eponymous [[WesternAnimation/TheIronGiant Iron Giant]] has one in its chest. It missed, but by all indications the blast would have been powerful enough to destroy a battleship in one shot. |
| 726 | * The secret organization in ''WesternAnimation/SymBionicTitan'' has such a weapon. It's even called a Wave Motion ''Cannon''. |
| 727 | * The last actual episode of ''WesternAnimation/SWATKats'' to be aired featured a gun developed at the weapons lab with the power to stop earthquakes from space, and then look what's coming along assimilating all the technology it can... |
| 728 | * In ''WesternAnimation/{{Amphibia}}'', [[spoiler:when King Andrias uses the Calamity Box to transform his palace into an OminousFloatingCastle, he reveals that the spire at the top of it can turn into a laser cannon, which he uses to destroy North Toad Tower with a single blast]]. |
| 729 | * In Season 4 of ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'', Varrick accidentally replicates one when he puts too much power into a spirit vine he's experimenting on (the beam is powerful enough to punch through a train and a nearby hill). He decides to immediately shut down the project, [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness concerned more for the destructive capabilities than the potential profits]], but unfortunately [[BigBad Kuvira]] forces him to continue working. [[spoiler:The end result is a [[{{BFG}} railway cannon]] capable of blasting a molten hole straight through a small ''mountain'' that is equipped to the arm of a HumongousMecha.]] |
| 730 | * Rose Quartz's laser light cannons from ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'', which are shaped like giant roses and fire a beam of light shaped like a beautiful dancing women, but which are incredibly destructive, nonetheless. [[spoiler:Unfortunately, it turns out that the enemies' more advanced Gem ships can shrug them off no problem, and that said ship has an even ''more'' powerful Wave Motion Gun of its own.]] |
| 731 | [[/folder]] |
| 732 | |
| 733 | [[folder:Real Life]] |
| 734 | %%* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_YAL-1 Boeing YAL-1 Airborne Laser]]. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Airbornelaserturret.jpg Look at the size of the friggin turret]]! |
| 735 | * Hypothetical real-life Wave Motion Guns would [[http://www.projectrho.com/rocket/rocket3x1.html#shapedcharge utilize nuclear]] [[http://arxiv.org/PS_cache/physics/pdf/0510/0510071v5.pdf weapons]] as ammunition. There are several proposed variants of the concept: |
| 736 | ** The most famous is the Casaba Howitzer, also called a nuclear shaped charge. Basically, instead of wasting almost all of of a nuclear weapon's output in an omnidirectional explosion that would mostly miss the target, a bit of engineering ensures that a good 1 to 50% (depending on design and yield) of the energy is radiated into a cone, by using the nuke's energy to propel a solid mass. Most of the details have never been declassified, but as spin-off of Project Orion would be using technology decades old now. The original nuclear shaped charge concept called for a tungsten jet to be converted to a jet of plasma and propelled at tens of kilometers per second with a very wide cone angle of ~22.5 degrees. It was to be used as propulsion, and could supposedly focus 80-85% of a nuke's yield. |
| 737 | ** Also part of Project Orion was specific attempts to weaponize the concept, instead of just using it for propulsion. It was found that they could decrease the beam angle (theoretically) to a minimum of 5.73 degrees, and increase the velocity of the plasma jet to 280 km/s, by using a material with lower Z than tungsten. Up to 50% of the energy would be converted. Though this would only support a yield of a few kilotons and would still only be useful at a very close range. The Third Generation Nuclear Weapons Study out of Princeton also speculated that we could theoretically create a 'plasma howitzer' Casaba that propelled the jet to 1,000 kilometers per second with a cone angle of 0.57 degrees. Such a weapon could maintain 10% efficiency up to about one megaton of yield, after which efficiency rapidly degrades due to bare physical laws and the concept ceases to be practical. |
| 738 | ** There is only one known variant of the Casaba Howitzer concept to actually be tested: the Chamita test of 1985, part of Project Prometheus. Instead of utilizing a 'plasma howitzer' with a wide cone angle, the Chamita test attempted to focus its energy down a shaft to power a particle beam. The study stated that a small nuclear bomb could have up to 5% of its energy converted to kinetic energy in the form of propelled particles launched at about 100 km/s (at 50 kilotons of yield, this decreases to 1%, and it gets worse from there, so like the plasma howitzer the concept doesn't scale up particularly well). It was partially successful - the yield of the device detonated is unknown, but it managed to accelerate a 1 kilogram mass of tungsten to a velocity of 70 kilometers per second, for a total of 0.58 tons of kinetic energy. More importantly, the beam had a very small cone angle of 0.057 degrees, meaning it could be used at a ''much'' longer range than either the original concept or the plasma howitzer (against a non-maneuvering target, anyway), though the concept accommodated lower yields and even lower efficiencies for said yields. |
| 739 | ** [[http://www.projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/spacegunconvent.php#bomb-pumpedlasers Bomb-pumped lasers]] would instead use the nuke to power a single-shot bomb-pumped gamma-ray laser using hundreds of laser rods. This weapon was extensively studied, but suffered from CripplingOverspecialization: less than 0.00001% of the bomb's yield could be converted into a laser (in other words, using a 100 kiloton bomb would get less than one percent of a single ton), and the range would be limited to <100 kilometers. So why would you use such a weapon instead of just detonating the bomb? Well, as it turns out, it'd be pretty useful as a one-shot point-defense system for shooting down thin-skinned [=ICBMs=]... at least in theory. |
| 740 | ** It appears that directed nuclear weapons in general are AwesomeButImpractical, at least compared to what future-obsessed nerds think them capable of. The Princeton studies explain why: |
| 741 | -->'''Third Generation Nuclear Weapons Study''': ''"There is also a fundamental problem with both the Casaba and Prometheus concepts that becomes relevant at higher yields. Despite the alleged success in directing 5 percent of the energy of a small nuclear explosion into flying debris, a good portion of the remaining energy inevitably becomes blackbody radiation, which would quickly overtake the pellets. Even at 1 kiloton with optimistic assumptions, this poses the risk that most of the particles will be vaporized or even ionized, rendering them ineffective. The NKEW concept is thus one that may require subkiloton explosives to be feasible. If its feasibility also depends on employing shaped thermonuclear explosives to help direct the pellets or dust more efficiently, then the concept is further burdened by the difficulty of designing thermonuclear devices with yields less than 1 kiloton. Whatever the case may be, it is clear that demonstrating a rush of hypervelocity pellets from a nuclear blast, while perhaps impressive, in no way guarantees that a useful weapon will ever be derived from this concept."'' |
| 742 | -->'''Fourth Generation Nuclear Weapons Study''': ''"However, as most of the energy absorbed by the projectile will contribute to heating rather than accelerating it, the projectile may not go very far before disintegrating — unless only the rear part of the projectile is heated, and therefore acts as a working fluid pushing the front part ahead by rocket-effect. Thus, as can be seen from this example, the practical design of thermonuclear-driven devices is most likely to be very complicated, so that the discussion presented in the following subsection has to be understood as a description of idealized concepts."'' |
| 743 | * Combine Wave Motion Gun with BeamSpam with RecursiveAmmo and you get [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Excalibur Project Excalibur,]] a theoretical X-ray laser KillSat powered by a [[NukeEm nuke going off]] that Edward Teller thought up for ballistic missile defense. Eventually folded into SDI, but never left the drawing board after disappointing preliminary tests with X-ray lasers. It is quite possible to combine multiple shaped charges or explosively formed penetrators, as well as bundles of xraser rods, in one nuclear package. NoKillLikeOverkill, indeed. |
| 744 | * Some space objects (dying supergiants or neutron stars colliding) can produce what is called a Gamma Ray Burst, basically two ''humongous'' lasers shooting out from opposite sides. |
| 745 | ** At least one star capable of producing a GRB is pointed at the Solar System, is extremely old, and may fire it off in the next 200,000 years.[[note]]Said star, [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WR_104 WR 104,]] may have ''already'' fired it off-- since gamma rays travel at the speed of light, the first we'd know is actually being hit by the thing. Fear not, however, as (a) it seems the thing may not actually be pointed at us and (b) it's unclear if that particular star could pull that off. Now, there ''are'' some [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WR_102 other]] [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WR_142 stars]] that are more likely to go GRB, may or may not be pointed at us, and are expected to die in a few thousand years. Sleep well.[[/note]] Talk about massive [[EnergyWeapon Energy Bursts]]. Some scientists think that a gamma ray burst is what killed off the trilobites and their cousins and made way for the fish to dominate the seas. |
| 746 | ** Excellent real-life example of what an unusually powerful GRB is capable of: [[http://www.fourmilab.ch/documents/OhMyGodParticle the Oh-My-God particle.]] This is a proton with 300 [=EeV=] kinetic energy and speed 99.99999999999999999999951% of lightspeed (to quote Website/TheOtherWiki: "in a year-long race between light and the cosmic ray, the ray would fall behind only 46 nanometres") which in particle physics is simply unholy - energy equivalent to a baseball flying at 95 KPH. ''In a single subatomic particle''. "Oh-My-God" indeed. |
| 747 | ** To date, the most distant GRB ever detected was 13.14 ''billion light-years away'', making it not only the most distant GRB ever spotted, but also one of the most distant objects ''in the entire universe''. Now that's what you call a Wave Motion Gun. |
| 748 | ** [=GRB=]s cannot hold a candle to black hole-powered active galactic nuclei as quasars, blazars, and others alike that can pull out the energy equivalent to the combined luminosity of up to ''hundreds of galaxies'' for a much longer time that them, at the same time that they usually project two collimated [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astrophysical_jet#Relativistic_jet jets]] of subatomic particles moving at relativistic speeds along the rotation axis of the black hole, which may either interact with neighboring gas clouds producing [[https://arxiv.org/abs/1701.00024 extensive star formation,]] or hit [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3C_321 close galaxies]] presumably ruining the day of hypothetical aliens present on them. Like the former, they are among the farthest objects known. |
| 749 | * While we're at it, the Soviets were also one step from launching a [[KillSat megawatt orbital laser]], the 17F19D Skif. The initial launch, on the untested Energiya booster, carried a disarmed platform strapped from off-the-shelf parts in little more than a month; it was carried upside down,[[labelnote:explanation]]It used the Functional Cargo Block section of the TKS ship - not unlike many Soviet space station moules - designed to fly atop the Proton boosters and not on the side of the much larger Energiya, so this was the easiest way to handle the loads[[/labelnote]] and it botched the flip-over maneuver preceding the orbital insertion burn, deorbiting itself instead. |
| 750 | * The so-called [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_gun "Sun gun"]] was a theoretical weapon first proposed in 1929, consisting of a satellite in low Earth orbit that would use an array of mirrors to reflect sunlight down to the surface of the planet, burning cities and boiling seas. Later, during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, ThoseWackyNazis intended to build one, but it would have taken years the regime simply didn't have. |
| 751 | [[/folder]] |
| 752 | ---- |
| 753 | [[TheStinger How do you like that, Obama?!]] [[WebVideo/RealTimeFandub I pissed on]] [[ChewingTheScenery THE MOON,]] '''''[[NoIndoorVoice YOU IDIOT!]]''''' |
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