Orbital Railcannon Strike

The Orbital Railcannon Strike is a stratagem that calls in a single railcannon shot from the orbiting Super Destroyer. The ORS is an anti-heavy unit stratagem, and is designed to kill the largest enemy within its deployment area (or at least one of them). It is also able to target Automaton Fabricators, but be advised that when throwing the beacon near a Fabricator and any enemy unit, the strike will more often than not prioritize the Fabricator.

Stats[]

Call-in Time: 0 Seconds
Uses: Unlimited
Cooldown Time: 210 Seconds

Tactics[]

The ORS deploys quickly, having less than a second of delay before the shot is fired.
The Super Destroyer will target the heaviest armored target closest to the deployed beacon and the chosen target will be highlighted with a bright-red laser designation. This means that in a patrol of troopers, devastators, and a Hulk, the target will be the Hulk. If its initial target is destroyed before it can fire, it will quickly lock-onto the next biggest target nearby, if any are available.
The shot is very powerful and is a guaranteed hit regardless of environmental conditions, killing everything except Factory Striders, War Striders and Leviathans in a single shot. It is also capable of destroying enemy production structures.
- Because the railcannon typically targets center mass, it may fail to destroy a Factory Strider's top fusion cannon from oblique angles
The railcannon fires an inert solid slug projectile. While it does not have an explosive payload, its impact can still affect groups of small targets. Fortunately, this also means it can be deployed very close to teammates with a very low risk of friendly fire.
While it is not normally capable of friendly fire under most situations, in very weird and rare circumstances, if the railcannon's trajectory is through a fellow Helldiver, it will kill them instantly. Most ORS-related friendly fatalities are due to the target being killed before the ORS is fired, where it will then quickly switch to the next candidate that happens to be through a teammate. Thus, it is still recommended to put some distance between the marked target for their own safety. Reports of the ORS intentionally targeting Helldivers cannot be verified.
Performance in Mega Cities can be severely impacted by the need for a Super Destroyer to reposition, and less often by designated targets moving behind cover.
The targeting laser is not completely representative of the actual railcannon shot. Aerial targets will typically be marked at their ground position, while the shot is aimed at center mass.

Priority List[]

Here is a list to consider before throwing a Railcannon strike in an area with multiple heavy units, as this is how the Super Destroyer will determine what will be the designated target.

Automatons[]

It remains to be seen how War Striders and Barrager Tanks are prioritized.

Terminids[]

Illuminate[]

Interlopers are presumably targeted in between Leviathans and Harvesters.

Operational History[]

Through much of the Second Galactic War, the Orbital Railcannon Strike has seen little change since its initial deployment.

On August 2185, Helldivers were ordered to use ORS to kill 2.5 million Troopers, along with liberating three key planets. In response to sluggish progress, High Command authorized shorter duty cycles and additional uses of the ORS, greatly accelerating kill counts at some cost of increased maintenance. Still, the ORS system appears to be capable of sustaining much higher usage without catastrophic failure.