Follow TV Tropes

Following

Homing Lasers

Go To

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/laser.png
Watch your back, Doomsday.
"HOOOMIIIIINNGU RREEEIIZAAAAAA!!!!!"
Noriko Takaya, Gunbuster.

As You Know, missiles are very effective anti-vehicular weapons because when fired, they track down and follow their target to ensure they hit. This also makes them very cool. But you know what would be cooler? If we had lasers that did the same thing! Who cares if they have no known or plausible way of steering and don't possess the correct attributes to identify a target?! They make for some amazing action sequences, and that's all that matters.

If a sci-fi work contains these, it's more than likely to be on the softer side of the sci-fi spectrum.

Often causes the one on the wrong end to have an Oh, Crap! moment, especially if they think the shooter has missed, and may be Lampshaded with "How Is That Even Possible?", depending on the hardness of the setting. Or at least, how hard they think it is.

Subtrope of Energy Weapon, and Sister Trope to Homing Projectile, which can also overlap with Impossibly Cool Weapon. May involve but is not strictly limited to Roboteching and often leads to a flashier version of the High-Speed Missile Dodge.

This is NOT simply Beam Spam, where so many beams are fired that the target will get hit solely because of the sheer number of beams (though there's no reason you can't spam homing lasers). It also excludes guns that auto-track to keep an otherwise normal, straight-flying beam on the target, as well as any remote reflection, refraction or beam-bending/splitting devices that can be made to aim at a target. Also does not count if the beams simply bend randomly in-flight; they must actively chase the target(s) in question.

This trope is not strictly limited to lasers per sé. Particle beams and beams of Pure Energy also count, as do beams or bolts made of any kind of in-universe phlebotinum. Hard Light projectiles also count, though only if they do not imitate the workings of conventional homing weapons. This is where it overlaps with Homing Projectile.


Examples:

    open/close all folders 

    Anime & Manga 

    Comic Books 
  • In the Marvel Universe, the beams produced by the Ultimate Nullifier are capable of homing in on an individual target in an entirely separate star system.
  • New Gods: Darkseid's Omega Beam can do this. Justified in that he is canonically a god.

    Film — Animated 
  • BoBoiBoy: The Movie: Gaga Naz, one of the members of the antagonistic Tengkotak gang, is equipped with blasters which shoot homing lasers, which he uses to deal what he believes to be the finishing blow on the heroes during the fight in the factory.

    Film — Live-Action 

    Video Games 
  • Arc Angle: Your character's method of 'attack' uses a cone of light which converts enemy bullets into "Holy Bullets" that resemble orbs of light. Said Holy Bullets then home back in on sender.
  • The Area Flat series has homing lasers both used by the player and enemies.
  • Axelay had several examples of bending/homing lasers.
  • Crimzon Clover is what you'd get if RayForce was made by CAVE. The Type-1 ship fires lasers whereas Type-2 fires missiles.
  • Some of the Virtuaroids of Sega's Cyber Troopers Virtual-ON like Viper-II (and the later descendants) have an homing laser attack.
  • Dogyuun has the purple and red weapons. The purple laser curves into enemies, while the red laser homes in via 90-degree turns.
  • Earth Defense Force: Wing Diver/Pale Wing(in Japan), have several weapons that are homing lasers that lock onto and pursue enemies.
  • Einhänder:
    • Gecko, the third Mini-Boss attacks almost exclusively with laser attacks, one of which is a long yellow homing laser that will chase the player around.
    • The Final Boss of has two variants of this. Blue ones will constantly chase you for a period of time, red ones will slow to a crawl as they attempt to chase you before suddenly speeding up but losing most of their homing function. It becomes problematic when the boss decides to use both of them together.
  • Edelweiss' Ether Vapor has a fighter craft called the Ex-tio that uses a weapon that fires an endless (albeit fairly average in fire power) barrage of homing lasers, which like in the RAY series is needed to shoot stuff in the background.
  • The player's robots in the Ex Zeus series are armed with homing missiles that can pull off some crazy twists and turns as they home-in on their target, sometimes even spiral their way to them.
  • Genetos: The Starting Equipment of the Sub-Weapon slot, literally called "Homing Laser". Its description:
    Locks on enemies and shoots automatically-guided lasers. Required a short amount of time until fire.
  • In the Gradius series, particularly Gradius V, there are certain bosses that fire homing lasers in their attack patterns. These homing lasers tend to home in a lot faster in higher loops.
  • Halo:
    • Charged shots from a plasma pistol will curve off after the nearest target. They won't robotech, but the path of the bolt will bend by up to about fifteen degrees.
    • In Halo 5: Guardians, the Boltshot's and Suppressor's Hard Light shots will track foes, and the Scattershot's hard-light rounds will also do so if you first ricochet them off a surface (the "Didact's Signet" variant does this particularly well).
    • The larger scale Covenant plasma torpedoes (first seen briefly in the "escape from the Pillar of Autumn" cutscene in Halo: Combat Evolved, but elaborated upon by the expanded universe) are bolts of plasma contained in a magnetic field generated by the vessel that fired them projected over the intended target. As such, it merely appears as if the bolt is chasing the target, when in fact the weapon appears to be more of a continuous "beam" that simply alters its angle to keep on the target, as the plasma bolt is just made to follow the natural path of the field as it tracks.
  • In Jak 3: Wastelander, the final Blue Eco Mod for Jak's Morph Gun is the Needle Lazer. You don't even need to aim the gun at your enemies because the laser bullets will find them for you.
  • In Kolibri, one available weapon is a laser that curves around to hit enemies.
  • Terra's weapon from Mega Man V, Spark Chaser. Not only it homes on your enemies, but a single laser can hit multiple times.
  • Mechcommander calculates whether a shot will hit when it is fired. The graphical effect will then play appropriately regardless of what is happening around it. This can result in lasers and autocannon shells chasing a fast-moving mech across the map, including around corners and far out of what should be their effective range.
  • Mega Man ZX Advent: As the Model A Mega Man, Grey's aptly-titled Homing Shot fires up to eight purple homing lasers at locked-on targets, while his counterpart Ashe's version visually resembles Chain Lightning. As Mega Man Model W, Albert uses similar homing lasers, complete with targeting reticles.
  • Panzer Dragoon:
    • The signature Dragon fires these, if you hold the button and scroll your cursor over relevant targets. They're much more powerful than your rapid-fire gun, and are guaranteed to hit, but having to lock-on all the targets takes longer, and they don't lock on to projectiles that could otherwise be shot down. Other enemies like the Dragonmares have slow acidic attacks, making the final boss in Orta come as a rude surprise when it starts using homing laser attacks against you
    • In Saga, which is an RPG instead of a Rail Shooter, the downside is instead that they lock-on to targets automatically and indiscriminately, which can be a problem with large crowds if they target several weak Mooks when you wanted to hit a strong one.
    • Its Spiritual Successor, Crimson Dragon, have these too.
  • Phantom Brave: The skill "Ancient Mist" is a homing laser-style attack.
  • The Predator uses a Plasma Caster that shoots Plasma bolts. It follows the laser sight built into his helmet and in the Alien vs. Predator games, the bolt actually homes in on the target. Very useful against those fast-moving aliens!
    • Even though it's not a laser, but a plasma bolt, almost every mod for the games removes the homing capability because the PLASMA CASTER DOESN'T WORK THAT WAY!
  • The eponymous Silverguns of Radiant Silvergun have a combination of weapons that activates the ship's lock-on homing lasers.
  • Raiden II has the purple Plasma Laser. When fully charged, it will lock onto any available target and coil all over the screen.
  • In Rapid Reload, the player weapon "H" is a homing laser that fires in serpentine bursts.
  • One of the earliest examples of homing lasers in video games is Taito's RAY Series starting with RayForce. You (and a partner) take control of a Space Fighter capable of firing multiple homing lasers at once. Some enemies and bosses can shoot homing lasers as well.
  • In Rez, this is your only weapon. Its successor, Child of Eden, added a rapid fire beam, but kept the homing laser as your primary method of attack.
  • R-Type's Green powerups fire a laser that bends to hit enemies.
  • G.rev's hybrid of Shoot 'Em Up-meets-Fighting Game series Senko no Ronde features some mechs known as Rounders with homing laser weaponry (e.g. Changpo's Citronette or Lili's Brinstä), even more so with certain B.O.S.S. Shells and in-game bosses.
  • Lasers in Sid Meier's Starships certainly act like regular lasers, requiring a direct line of sight and reducing in effectiveness if there's something in the way. However, the animation shows them weaving around and braiding themselves on the way to the target. The plasma cannons, on the other hand, are short-range, direct fire, and don't deviate once fired.
  • Solatorobo: The Titano-Machinas' lasers bend at right angles before going to the target.
  • E-102 Gamma in Sonic Adventure, as well as Tails and Eggman from Sonic Adventure 2, are equipped with homing lasers that behave extremely similarly to Panzer Dragoon's. However, they are platformers with mostly static targets, and not rail shooters where the targets would inevitably go out of range of their own volition. To counter this, the targeting laser eventually dies out, losing your lock on every target, requiring players to lock onto all targets within a short timeframe if they want to fire anything.
  • Ranged energy weapons in StarCraft noticeably curve off after moving targets, even pursuing them beyond their normal attack range.
  • Blaster bolts in Star Wars: The Old Republic tend to change their trajectories and home in on their targets. This might not be noticeable to a force user who casually deflects bolts with their lightsaber, but use a More Dakka class like the Trooper, and it will become evident. The total reverse of Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy.
  • Super Robot Wars Z Saisei Hen features a new Anti-Gurren Lagann, which fires pink/ purple beams from the ports all over its body that home in on their target, even those fired from the back of the mecha.
  • SITER SKAIN's The Tale of ALLTYNEX series of doujin shoot 'em ups loves this trope as much the RAY series.
    • In ALLTYNEX Second, a remake of the little-known FM Towns game ALLTYNEX by the same creator, you take of a fighter that transform into a semi-mecha that can use homing laser along with a vulcan cannon, beam swords, and a Wave-Motion Gun. The same goes for the original FM Towns game.
    • In RefleX, which is also a remaking of a PC game called Reflection (that's also freeware), your ship can reflect them.
    • Kamui has bosses like the ALLTYNEX OS that uses them, too. If you use your Lightning Blade, you can reflect them back at enemies.
  • The doujin mecha game series Windom XP features Gundam-esque mechs based after Windows and Linux operating systems that can spam homing lasers from one of their sub-weapons.
  • Xevious 3D/G has a homing-beam weapon, which can be fired by both attack buttons.
  • The Orbital Frames of Zone of the Enders are known for mixing this with Beam Spam, particularly Jehuty and Anubis.

     Web Original 

    Western Animation 

    Real Life 
  • To a degree (a very, very, VERY SMALL one), this is technically Truth in Television, as this video's first example shows, meaning that all lasers (which are made of light) are indeed drawn toward ANYTHING with energy and momentum. Just nowhere near enough to be noticeable or count for anything.
  • While it's not an actual laser, some military directed energy weapon researchers have theorized that magnetically contained plasma could act in the spirit of this trope by manipulating the magnetic field.
  • A plasma sheath shaped using electromagnetic fields has been proposed as a method to steer projectiles or aircraft without needing flaps or fins.
  • Diffraction. With suitable initial conditions, a laser beam, defined as the zone of space where the intensity is above a certain level, can be shaped using diffraction gratings so that it takes an oscillating or spiraling path. More recently (2012), this was extended to potentially arbitrary trajectories.


Alternative Title(s): Homing Laser

Top

Darkseid’s Super Move

And he doesn’t even bother yelling.

How well does it match the trope?

5 (3 votes)

Example of:

Main / BadassBack

Media sources:

Report