Dwarf multicannon

The Dwarf multicannon (or simply Cannon) is a Ranged weapon. To use it, the Dwarf Cannon quest must be completed. Unlike other Ranged weapons, it is not equipped by a player; rather, it is assembled on the ground. Cannons are often considered to be a supplement to a primary weapon or fighting method. The cannon consists of four pieces: the base, the stand, the furnace, and the barrels. After a player has loaded cannonballs or granite cannonballs into the cannon, the cannon rotates and fires automatically. It seems to be the case that the accuracy of the cannon is dependent on the accuracy of the player's current used attack style stats/bonus (be it Magic, Melee, or Ranged). Damage with the cannon yields half experience for Ranged (2 experience per damage rather than 4), but does not yield any Hitpoints experience.

After completion of the Dwarf Cannon quest, players may buy the cannon parts from the dwarf engineer, Nulodion, south of Ice Mountain, for 200,625 coins each. Nulodion will also sell the full cannon set for 750,000 coins through his dialogue. This includes all four parts, an ammo mould, and the cannon's instruction manual. If a cannon decays or the mould is dropped, Nulodion will provide a free replacement.

A player may own multiple cannons, but may only have one assembled at a time.

Parts
Note that the cannon parts are rather heavy, and carrying them will make your weight extremely high. If you do run with them, it is highly recommended to bring a few Super energy or Stamina potions to compensate for the more rapid energy loss.

Assembly
The Dwarf multicannon is carried in four pieces in a player's inventory. To begin setting it up, the player must place the cannon base on a vacant square surrounded by eight more vacant squares. The rest of the cannon will automatically be set up from there. Finally, the player must use up to 30 cannonballs on the cannon or load it by selecting "Fire." If players have both regular and granite cannonballs in their inventory, granite cannonballs will be inserted first.

There are many locations where the cannon cannot be taken into or cannot be set up, including (but not limited to) the following list. If a player attempts to set down a cannon base in any of these areas, a message will often appear in the player's chatbox explaining why it cannot be done.


 * Abyssal Nexus: "That horrible slime on the ground makes this area unsuitable for a cannon."
 * Ancient Cavern
 * Al Kharid Palace
 * Barbarian Assault
 * Black Knights' Fortress (in and around): "It is not permitted to set up a cannon this close to the Dwarf Black Guard."
 * Catacombs of Kourend
 * Castle Wars
 * Duel Arena (it can be set up in duels; however, will not fire on players and may be lost if not picked up)
 * Dwarven Mine
 * Enchanted Valley
 * Entrana
 * Fremennik Slayer Dungeon: "The humid air in these tunnels won't do your cannon any good!"
 * Feldip Hills: Red chinchompa hunting grounds
 * Grand Exchange: "The Grand Exchange staff prefer not to have heavy artillery operated around their premises."
 * Hespori: "It's far too damp down here to set up a cannon."
 * Ice Mountain (except on the western tiles of the mountain)
 * Karuulm Slayer Dungeon (wyrm and Alchemical Hydra areas)
 * Killerwatt Plane
 * Lair of Tarn Razorlor: "This temple is ancient and would probably collapse if you started firing a cannon."
 * Lizardman Caves - "The ground is too marshy here."
 * Lizardman Temple - "This ancient structure is too unstable to handle the idea of a cannon firing at its walls."
 * Mort Myre Swamp (does not include the graveyard, where Dessous is located)
 * Nightmare Zone
 * Ourania Cave (bank area)
 * Pest Control
 * Player-owned houses
 * Revenant Caves (revenant area)
 * Shades of Mort'ton (you can however set up a cannon in the Shade catacombs, but beware of the fact that the shades heal themselves to full health if they are not in combat anymore)
 * Slayer Tower
 * Mor Ul Rek, TzHaar Fight Cave and TzHaar Fight Pit
 * Warriors' Guild
 * Waterbirth Dungeon
 * Wyvern Cave
 * Zogre Burial Grounds

In other locations, the cannon may be set up but may be destroyed by an NPC almost instantly, or is almost useless due to limitations:


 * Certain quest bosses: For example, the Giant Roc will destroy a cannon if the player sets it up within its attack range.
 * The Kalphite Queen, any of the monsters in the God Wars Dungeon, and the King Black Dragon will destroy a cannon if a player attempts to use it.
 * Thermonuclear smoke devil
 * Demonic gorillas, immune to cannon damage.

Mechanics
These are the mechanical aspects of the cannon. This section includes the rotation, targets, and decay of the cannon's parts.

Revolutions
After the cannon has been set up, loaded, and fired, the barrel will rotate and fire at targets within its line-of-sight and range. The cannon barrel rotates in discrete intervals; there are eight directions the barrel may face, and the barrel makes a 45-degree turn every 0.6 seconds (one game tick), completing a full revolution in 4.8 seconds. The cannon fires up to one cannonball while facing each direction, so it fires up to eight cannonballs per revolution.

In a single-combat zone, the cannon fires at the monster the player is being attacked by. If the player is not being attacked by any monster – not being hit by any monsters – the cannon fires at multiple monsters. This means that a player can range, mage, or halberd from a "safe spot" in a single-combat zone and have the cannon shoot at multiple monsters, as long as the player is never attacked by a monster, in which case that monster will be the only target the cannon attacks. However, the player will need to regularly come out of cover to reload the cannon.

Targets
For each direction the cannon faces during its rotation, there is a specific set of squares relative to the cannon's location that a cannonball may be shot into at that time. This target region can be visualised by a triangle emanating from the cannon barrel. Squares may be cut off from the target region by an obstacle.

Target regions for different directions overlap slightly. This may result in shooting multiple cannonballs at one monster in one cannon revolution, even one that is standing still. Up to two cannonballs may be shot at a monster that takes up a single square per rotation. If it is not in the proper location however, only one, or even zero cannonballs may be shot per rotation.

A cannon set up on (0,0) does not shoot tiles (0,1), (1,0), (0, -1), (-1, 0). Also, targets on 16 tiles around the cannon will be shot twice. These tiles are (1,2), (1,3), (2,1) and (3,1) and respectively mirror images of these tiles on other three sides of the cannon.

For monsters larger than 1x1, only the southwestern tile is shot. That being said against 1x1 - 2x2 targets, the worst possible spot to stand is in the middle of the cannon or any corner under the cannon. The best way to slay those is to lure them into a multi-hit spot, or stand far from the cannon. For 3x3 monsters (e.g. Black demons), one should stand under the cannon in the north-east tile (1,1).

Players cannot control what target is chosen, thus it may fire at anything around it. However, if a player is already engaged in single combat, the cannon will only fire at the current opponent and targets between player's cannon and target may prevent the cannon from shooting your target.

Damage
The cannon has a max hit of 30 with cannonballs and 35 with Granite cannonballs, regardless of the player's Ranged level.

Accuracy
Cannon's accuracy is affected by the player's accuracy roll, note magic only weapons (tridents, see below).


 * Tridents, which are not melee nor ranged weapons but a pure magic weapon (Can't melee like with wands - As of now only magic weapons that aren't melee weapons as well).
 * Cannon uses player's accuracy roll with the highest range or melee attack bonus
 * For melee weapons cannon takes player's accuracy roll which is calculated with weapon's style's type and that style's attack type (stab, slash, crush) bonus. This includes all magic weapons except for tridents, regardless of whether your attack style is set to melee or autocast.
 * For ranged weapons cannon takes player's ranged accuracy roll (same formula but with range attack bonus)

Cannon's accuracy (= derived from player's accuracy) will always roll against target's range defence roll.

''Note, primary and secondary attack types. Ex. godsword's primary attack type is slash and by choosing the 2ndary type, crush might change or might not change cannon's accuracy to be based on crush attack bonus.''

''Note, autocasting weapons have only one attack type, crush. Meaning cannon's accuracy is affected by crush attack bonus and attack boosting prayers. Piety will increase cannon¨s accuracy.''

Breaking/Decay
Cannons disappear after a certain period of time being continuously set up. 25 minutes after the cannon has been set up, a message appears that the cannon has broken. You can then click on the cannon to repair it and it will start working again. If not repaired then roughly 10 minutes after the message that the cannon has broken the cannon will decay.

The decay effect is not based on the number of cannonballs shot but based on the decay timer as stated above.

The cannon's decay is a one-time event, not a continuous degrading associated with declining performance.

Loss
Cannons that do decay are not lost forever but rather may be re-obtained for free from Nulodion (it does not matter if you bought it from another player or from Nulodion himself). The fastest way to get to Nulodion is to cast Lassar Teleport (an Ancient Magicks teleport). Alternatively, players may teleport to the monastery using a charged combat bracelet and run to Nulodion, or they can choose to run from Edgeville or Falador. Finally, one can use a Skull sceptre to teleport to Barbarian Village and run north-west to Nulodion.

If you log out while your cannon is set up, you can retrieve it back free of charge.

Cannons will not disappear right away if they are set up and then the player switches worlds and switches back in time to maintain it.

If a player dies while a cannon is set up, the cannon stays set up at the location. After it decays, it may be re-obtained for free from Nulodion. It is a common belief that cannons are lost upon death, but in this case, the cannon may easily be re-obtained for free.  WARNING:  You cannot re-obtain a cannon that was in your inventory if you are killed in the Wilderness.

 WARNING:  If a player dies while a cannon, cannon parts, or cannonballs are in the inventory, these items are lost unless the player is able to run back to where they died. If you are under attack by a strong enemy that may kill you, immediately set up your cannon. If you do die, you won't lose your cannon.

If the cannon itself is destroyed in combat, the player can re-obtain a new dwarf multicannon from Nulodion, free of charge. Monsters that destroy the dwarf multicannon are bosses. (Example: King Black Dragon, Kalphite Queen, and many more.) However, a cannon can be used to kill the Chaos Elemental.

Nulodion will not hand out a replacement cannon if the cannon or cannon parts are banked, set up, sold, or dropped. Replaced cannons come loaded with cannonballs equal to the amount loaded in the cannon when the cannon was lost.

Common cannon spots

 * Generally, players prefer to use their cannons in multicombat areas, due to the mechanics of the cannon. If the player can safespot the monsters they are attacking, they can treat single combat areas as multicombat areas for the cannon, but if the player is actively attacking or being attacked in a single combat area the cannon will only fire at the NPC the player is currently fighting.
 * Green dragons in the Wilderness and Revenant Caves are common cannon areas, as they yield significant profit. Once the cannon is placed, the only risks are losing the Cannonballs the player has brought, as the cannon can be recovered from Nulodion without further risk.
 * The Combat Training Camp is the most common low risk spot for cannoning, but is significantly busier than other common spots. Players set their cannon up facing the caged Ogres, and are free to do other tasks like Fletching as they cannot be damaged. These spots are extremely hard to get at peak hours, as players generally will stay at these spots for hours to train ranged and other skills simultaneously.
 * Hill Giants in the Edgeville Dungeon are a less common target, due to the lack of rare drops other than the Giant key. They can be easily safespotted, and have a large amount of health, allowing the cannon to hit hard enough per cannonball to justify training here. Moss giants are also common cannon targets.
 * Rock Crabs are a very common cannon target, due to their low attack and the multicombat areas they inhabit. These spots are also extremely busy at peak hours, with it not being uncommon to see multiple cannons within the same area. Sand Crabs cannot be targeted by cannons and as such are not suitable for cannon training.

Usage
Cannons are commonly used by players training Slayer to speed up tasks. With the average price of cannonballs, the use of a cannon is often considered to be quite expensive. However, the cost is often considered to be justified by the bonuses of using a cannon. A player doing a Slayer task can melee almost the entire time getting nearly as much Melee experience as they would without using a cannon. The cannon will also attack several targets even in a single-way combat area as long as the player is not under attack (e.g. in a safe spot).

In crowded areas, such as the dagannoths under the Lighthouse, the cannon may produce a level of mayhem usually only achieved with Ancient Magicks spells. However, in highly populated areas, the player will need to remain almost constantly by the cannon in order to reload it because large numbers of cannonballs will be needed. Also, the use of a dwarf multicannon in areas that are already occupied by other players training can be considered poor etiquette.

Outside of Slayer, using the cannon can speed up kills on lizardman shamans and Wilderness bosses. Ironman mode accounts may also find it useful when taking on Corporeal Beast, as the dark energy core will not return for the rest of the kill if the cannon kills it while it is midair. Players may also use a cannon to obtain champion's scrolls faster, which a player must get to earn the Music cape.

Trivia

 * The only ammunition for cannons that players can use is cannonballs made from steel and granite. However, Dondakan from the quest Between a Rock... fires adamantite, runite, and gold cannonballs from his cannon.
 * If the cannon is fired in a single-combat area the chat will say, "I'm currently under attack" along with an occasional, "Someone else is fighting that" depending on the combat status of the player-character.
 * If a player drops the components of the cannon set, they will discover that the items are 1x1 size, despite the cannon being 3x3.
 * The cannon may sometimes shoot through walls.