Weapon Range Guide

A simple guide to tell you what range which weapons can hit.

Introduction

Welcome to my guide on weapon ranges in Halfway. The guide's pretty basic as I was making these graphs for my own use, but then thought that other people could use them too.

I have tried to keep this guide as spoiler-free as possible.

Shooting Mechanics and Weapon Ranges

Shooting Mechanics

The chance to hit a target in Halfway has several factors involved. It is calculated using the following formula.

Chance to hit = Character's Aim Modifier + Base Accuracy - Cover Bonus

There are a two things to note:

• A character's aim modifier is not always positive. If a character has aim less than 5, then they actually suffer a penalty to hit.
  
• Cover bonus includes a reduction in hit chance based on a character's agility. I am not sure if this still applies if a character is not in cover or flanked.

Base Accuracy Profiles

Different weapons have different ranges. Here we have a graph comparing the weapons. As you can see, short ranged weapons very quickly lose their accuracy, and sniper rifles never really get very good for being close.

Aiming

When using two AP to aim and shoot, all weapons gain accuracy, and often range. This replaces the base accuracy in the chance to hit formula. Most notably, sniper rifles gain a massive increase in accuracy at all ranges, whereas short range weapons don't gain much.

Medium Range

Medium range weapons are the standard weapons in Halfway. This range profile is used for the Carbine, S.L.A.R and Plasma Rifle, as well as several unique weapons hidden within the game.

This range profile is used for most enemy unit and turret weapons as well.



As you can see, shooting at maximum range is rather dicy, and it's worth closing in a few tiles inside your range for best effect. These weapons are also useful up close, and maintain extremely good accuracy out quite a few tiles. Using a second AP to aim and shoot is worthwhile within 13 tiles, but for very close ranges your best bet is usually to shoot twice.

Short Range

There are actually two different classes of short range weapons. It is hard to tell which weapon uses what in game, but you can usually make a good guess based around what the weapon stats page tells you its maximum range is.

Shotgun Types

Shotgun type weapons use the ShortRange01 accuracy profile. These guns include the Pacifier, the Devastator and the Flackgun. A unique weapon hidden in the game also uses this profile. No enemies use this range profile.



While using two action points does give you a substantial increase in accuracy, the difference in terms of squares is very little, so I would usually recommend spending your AP on simply walking closer and shooting, and then shooting twice next turn.

Pistol Types

Pistol type weapons use the ShortRange02 accuracy profile. The only regular guns that can be found that use this profile are the Laser Pistols, but several unique weapons also use the profile. No enemy weapons use this range profile.



Using an extra AP to aim with these weapons really helps. It increases their effective range by a fair number if tiles. I would recommend aiming if moving closer would get the character in a bad position, or you are low on ammunition.

Long Range

Long range weapons are pretty much only sniper rifles. This range profile is used by the Standard and Military sniper rifles, as well as the Railgun. Several unique weapons also use the profile. No enemy weapons use the profile.



Aiming makes a huge difference with long range weapon accuracy. It is almost always worth aiming with such weapons. This is especially true for railguns, which are very ammunition inefficient.

Enemy Weapons

The enemies in Halfway use a very limited set of weapon range profiles. I haven't drawn up graphs for them.

• Most enemies use the same medium range profile as your assault rifles.
  
• Melee enemies can only hit tiles that they are adjacent to. However, they have 100% accuracy! A melee attack never misses.
  
• Enemies with sniper rifles use a modified version of the long range curve above. They are much, much more accurate between 6 and 14 squares range, but actually lose accuracy when they are extremely close!

Closing Comments

Caveats

There are a few things I'm unsure about. Weapons seem to have an individual accuracy rating, but I've not found out how that is factored into the calculation for hit chance. It seems that higher tier weapons get more accuracy. This parameter can also be randomised, just as damage can.

Distance appears to be calculated with diagonals counting as a single tile, but I am not sure how line of sight works around corners. Corners and walls might mess up ranges a little bit, but it won't be by more than one tile.

Sources

• Weapon range data comes from the game's files. It is accurate as of the time of publishing (June 2015).
  
• The chance to hit calculation comes from the modding wiki.
  
• The guide's icon was modified from the ingame rampage icon.

Finale

If you like the guide, or feel there is anything that needs adding or changing, feel free to let me know. Especially if you just liked it!

[Zen Tractor]

Glad to hear! It's a fun little game, isn't it?!

[Flesh-Hack]

I just picked this game up for £2, love it. Smashing guide bro thank you/

[Zen Tractor]

It's been a hot minute since I played, but I think it's usually best to pick a variety of weapons on your characters before you head out.

[Tzuede]

Would it be a good idea to keep the shotgun as backup then? I didn't see it mentioned "exactly" but the charts say 'if the enemy gets closer then 7-6 tiles, it probably is worth spending the 2 AP to swap weapons.' Right?

[silversnake7]

Perfect example how graphs can actually be helpful.
Thank you very much.

[anothabrotha👍🏼]

nicely done - Thx for your effort

[exMachinaOz]

Good work mate, nice info to have!

[Lhetre]

Shows '0' in the pop-up menu, I should have taken a screenshot, but it was so common it seemed to be a feature before reading this guide.
I've improved all the members to have at least a aim of 5.
Anyway, a sniper weapon (18 squares range) seems to have very low accuracy (15-18%) against unprotected turrets from 8-10 squares. I really don't like counting numbers while I play, sorry for the vagueness.

[Zen Tractor]

Actually zero, or 'it feels like zero'?

The numbers are accurate when the guide was written, and i don't think anything has changed since then. Having aim of 6 on a dude should give a bonus to hit, albeit a small one.

[Lhetre]

Your graphics don't match in game number: medium and long range weapons have a zero chance to hit at six squares distance.
Does hitting chance improve over the game?
Is it linked with the 6 aiming points of my characters?