Dwarf multicannon



The Dwarf multicannon (or simply cannon) is a unique Ranged weapon. Unlike other Ranged weapons, it is not equipped by a player; rather, it is assembled on the ground. To use a Dwarf multicannon, the Dwarf Cannon quest must be completed. The cannon consists of four pieces: the base, the stand, the furnace, and the barrels. After a player has loaded cannonballs into the cannon, the cannon rotates and fires automatically. A player may fight using another weapon while the cannon is firing; thus, cannons are often considered to be a supplement to a primary weapon or fighting method. A player may own multiple cannons, but only one may be assembled at any one time. It is cheapest to buy a cannon from the Grand Exchange. Cannons are worth significantly less than 750,000 coins on the Grand Exchange because many people buy a cannon from Nulodion after completing the quest, and then later decide they don't want it and resell it. On 9 November 2009 the model for the cannon’s Grand Exchange set when dropped on the floor was corrected.

After completion of the Dwarf cannon quest, players may buy the full cannon from the dwarf engineer Nulodion, south of Ice Mountain, for 750,000 coins. Alternatively, the individual parts may be purchased for 187,500 coins each. The "Talk" option on Nulodion must be used to obtain the full cannon, whereas the "Trade" option must be used to buy the parts.

After the 17 November 2009 update cannons no longer waste cannonballs on NPCs in the process of dying. There is also an auto-setup feature.

Assembly


The Dwarf multicannon is carried in four pieces in a players 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 and select "Fire."

There are many locations where the cannon cannot be set up, including:
 * Ancient Cavern
 * Ancient Guthix Temple
 * Bandos' throne room
 * Barbarian Assault
 * Castle Wars
 * Chaos Tunnels
 * Duel Arena
 * Dwarven Mine
 * Enchanted Valley
 * Fist of Guthix
 * Fremennik Slayer Dungeon
 * God Wars Dungeon
 * Killerwatt plane
 * Kuradal's Dungeon
 * Mahjarrat Ritual site cavern
 * Mort Myre Swamp (This does not include the graveyard, where Dessous is located)
 * Pest Control
 * Player Owned Houses
 * Shade Catacombs
 * Slayer Tower
 * Stealing Creation
 * Stronghold of Player Safety
 * TzHaar City, TzHaar Fight Cave and TzHaar Fight Pit
 * Warriors' Guild
 * Water Ravine Dungeon
 * Zogre burial grounds

If a player attempts to set down a cannon base in any of these areas, a message will appear that it cannot be done. One message is Dark forces are preventing the dwarven construction from working. Another message mentions that the ground is too damp.

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.
 * Clan Wars; cannons cannot be used to harm other players, although cannons may harm their Summoning familiars.
 * The Kalphite Queen, and the King Black Dragon will destroy a cannon if a player attempts to use it.

Revolutions
After the cannon has been set up, loaded, and fired, the barrel will rotate and fire at target within its line-of-sight and range. The cannon barrel rotates in discrete intervals; there are 8 directions the barrel may face, and the barrel makes a 45 degree turn every 0.6 seconds, completing a full revolution in 4.8 seconds. The cannon fires one cannonball while facing each direction, so it fires up to 8 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. However, the player will need to regularly come out of cover to reload the cannon. Alternatively, a player may just go hide and let the cannon do all the work.

In multi-combat areas, the cannon fires at every potential target within line-of-sight and range, even if the player is under attack.

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 visualized by a triangle emanating from the cannon barrel. Squares may be cut off from the target region by an obstacle. The target region never includes the square the cannon base is on, or any of the 8 squares around the base. The target region also, for some reason, includes a small number of squares in the opposite direction the barrel is pointing in.

At any one time, all monsters have a one-square actual location. This is also true for multi-square monsters, where the square that the drop appears (when the monster is killed) is the square that the game considers to the monster's location to be for the purpose of the cannon. Thus, for each rotation, the cannon fires a cannonball at a monster that is located in the squares of the cannon's target region for that direction. If there are multiple monsters in the target region for a direction, the cannon will only shoot at one of them.

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. Before August 2008, up to two cannonballs could be shot at one monster. This occurred only if the monster's location square was one square diagonal and one or two squares out from the cannon base, resulting in 16 double-shot locations. However, in August 2008, an update was made to the dwarf multicannon that expanded the target regions. Now, in some monster locations, the cannon fires up to 4 cannonballs per revolution at one monster, sometimes with one cannonball being shot when the barrel is facing in the opposite direction. The best monster locations still seem to be the old 16 double-shot locations, however, as these all result in triple or quadruple shots.

Damage
The cannon hits up to 300 life points with each shot. For each damage point done by a cannonball, 0.2 Ranged experience is gained. This is different from regular Ranged experience, where 0.4 Ranged experience and 0.133 Constitution experience is gained for each life point of damage.

It has been confirmed that equipment attack bonuses affect your cannons accuracy. The attack bonus that affects your cannon's accuracy will be whichever style of attack you're using; if you have 200 ranged bonus using range you'll hit very often, if you have 200 crush bonus but 0 ranged bonus while using a crushing weapon the range will play no effect in your accuracy and you'll hit just as often as if you had 200 ranged bonus using ranged.

Decay and replacement
Cannons disappear after a certain period of time being continuously set up. 20 minutes after the cannon has been set up, a message appears that the cannon has almost decayed. 25 minutes after the cannon has been set up, or 5 minutes after the warning message, the cannon will decay (disappear). However, the decay timer can easily be restarted by picking up the cannon and re-assembling it again.

After an update on 3 December 2009, after the warning message, cannons' animations would change as to indicate that they were going to 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, such as in crystal equipment (Crystal bow and Crystal shield). The cannon is equally effective at all times.

Cannons that do decay are not lost forever, but rather may be re-obtained for free from Nulodion. 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.

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.

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 re-obtain them from the gravestone.

Nulodion will not hand out a replacement cannon if the cannon or cannon parts are banked, set up, sold, or dropped.

Usage
Cannons are commonly used by players training Slayer to speed up tasks, in addition to obtaining Ranged experience. Cannons are less commonly used to train Ranged by itself, as Red chinchompas are faster Ranged experience. At about 400 coins per cannonball, 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 fast melee experience as they would without using a cannon, but also get Ranged experience on top. The cannon will also attack several targets even in a single-way combat area as long as the player is not under attack, (eg. in a safe spot)

Many players choose to bring their dwarf multicannons to the Green Dragons east of Clan Wars because the Green Dragons drop dragon bones and green dragonhide, which sell for a lot. Other players often find cannons here rather annoying.

The dwarf multicannon can also be used in the Barrows Minigame, enabling low levelled players to stand in a safe spot whilst the cannon kills the barrows brother.

In a crowded multi-combat area, 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 multi-combat 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, they will probably get negative feedback from other people fighting Dagannoths.

Parts

 * {|class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"

!Image !Parts !Store price !Exchange Price
 * Cannon set.PNG‎
 * Dwarf cannon set
 * 750,000 coins
 * Cannonbarrels.gif‎
 * Cannon barrels
 * 187,500 coins
 * Cannonbase.gif
 * Cannon base
 * 187,500 coins
 * Cannonfurnace.gif‎‎
 * Cannon furnace
 * 187,500 coins
 * Cannon stand.PnG
 * Cannon stand
 * 187,500 coins
 * Cannonfurnace.gif‎‎
 * Cannon furnace
 * 187,500 coins
 * Cannon stand.PnG
 * Cannon stand
 * 187,500 coins
 * Cannon stand.PnG
 * Cannon stand
 * 187,500 coins


 * ‎ Cannonballs.png
 * Cannonballs
 * Not sold
 * }
 * }
 * }

Note: Buying all four parts from Nulodion works out at 750,000 coins, the same as buying the set.

Trivia

 * The Dwarf multicannon, along with the Fixed device, the Cannon from Mobilising Armies, the Hand cannon, and the crossbow, are the closest things to guns in RuneScape.
 * The only ammunition for cannons that players can use is cannonballs made from steel. However, Dondakan from the quest Between a Rock... fires Adamantite, Runite, and gold cannonballs from his cannon. In addition to that, in Quick Chat, it is possible to say, "I am smithing: [bronze/iron/steel/mithril/blurite/adamantite/runite] cannonballs."
 * Players may smelt cannonballs while a cannon is set up and not moving. However, if the cannon is rotating or firing, cannonballs cannot be smelted.
 * Cannons may shoot twice at the same target in certain conditions
 * Cannons cannot be used to fire at other players in any situation, even on PvP worlds.
 * Cannons may be used to fire at revenants, although the Wilderness level restrictions still apply.
 * If a player gets a random event while the cannon is firing, players may still hear the sound effects of the cannon at work.
 * The cannon will not fire if a player is talking to an NPC via the enchanted gem. The cannon rotates, but does not fire any cannonballs.
 * Cannonballs will swerve to hit a target if the target is moving.
 * After the store update price of the cannon parts went to 187,500 each.
 * A glitch has been seen where a cannon's shadow remains ever after the cannon itself has degraded and disappeared. This produces a strange looking ground.
 * A glitch has been seen where the cannon will float in the air when it is close to higher ground.
 * The max hit of the cannon is 300 with steel cannon balls. So if a player has level 5 Ranged, which is the requirement to use any steel ranged ammunition, the cannon balls would have a ranged strength of about 1116, way more than any other ammunition.
 * When a cannon is near-decaying, it fires slightly different than normal.
 * Using a ranging potion will make your cannon hit more accurately, but will not increase the maximum hit of 300. The cannon has an extremely high Ranged attack bonus, but not high enough to overcome the extremely high Ranged defence bonus of the Giant Rock Crabs in the Waterbirth Island dungeon, which it can hit only about 5% of the time no matter how high the Ranged bonus of the player using it.
 * Due to the way that Custom Cursors work, a glitch left the 'Fire' option on the cannon with the crafting cursor, due to the option to 'Fire' pottery.