The Rocket Launcher is the fifth base weapon of ULTRAKILL, first unlocked in 5-3: Ship of Fools with its blue variant, the Freezeframe. Its green variant, the S.R.S. Cannon, and its red variant, the Firestarter, can both be purchased in the shop for 75,000P.
It resembles a traditional rocket launcher but features an arm-mounted design instead of handles and numerous futuristic attachments, such as digital screens and holographic displays, with bright colors and stripes similar to those featured on industrial tools.
Mechanics
Its primary fire launches fast-moving rockets. When hitting a surface, it will create a harmless explosion that pushes things out. When hitting an enemy, it will create an explosion dealing 3.5 damage. When hitting an airborne grounded enemy, the rocket will detonate in a red explosion with a larger radius, dealing double damage. Rockets also explode normally if they come into contact with certain projectiles like coins or magnets. Rockets will not explode when hitting each other, though they can still collide and push one another.
Shockwaves from a rocket impacting a surface can push the player. However, each successive shockwave becomes less effective at moving the player, only being reset when touching the ground.
Rockets can be ridden on by the player when landing on them. While riding a rocket, its travel speed is significantly reduced, and it can be guided using movement keys, allowing for extended air travel. Rockets will gradually lose power the longer the player rides them, eventually starting to descend rapidly. Any rockets ridden on after the third lose their power more quickly, eventually unable to provide any extra vertical momentum, with this penalty resetting when the player hits the ground. Rockets do not lose power while underwater.
The magnets fired by the 
Attractor Nailgun, when stuck to an enemy, will cause rockets to be pulled toward the enemy. Hitting an enemy with a magnet on them with a rocket three times will cause the magnet to break, with airshots counting as two hits. Rockets fired before the magnet is launched from the Nailgun will not gain any homing.
Rockets can be struck and pulled by the 
Whiplash, following the hook until eventually hitting something. Rockets do not change their rotations when struck by the Whiplash, meaning they will travel on the same path they were fired in after being released. The Whiplash can hook up to five rockets before any following rocket is ignored. If a rocket is pulled back to the player, it will detonate in an explosion at their position, producing a red explosion instead if the player is airborne.
When shot with a hitscan weapon, rockets will detonate, creating an ordinary explosion. When hit by the 
Malicious Railcannon, it will produce both the regular explosion with a significantly increased radius and the Malicious Railcannon explosion.
Usage
Rockets provide excellent explosive mid-range damage, and the Rocket Launcher's high switch speed allows it to be quickly pulled out and fired in between other attacks. While its need for direct hits to deal damage makes accuracy more important when compared to the 
Shotgun's projectile boosts, it is much easier to fire in quick succession. Magnets stuck to an enemy will pull rockets in, making aiming from a distance much more manageable. However, it should be noted that rockets can prematurely destroy magnets attached to an enemy, preventing other projectiles like 
Nails and 
Saws from getting value out of the magnets.
Airshots deal massive amounts of damage and knockback, allowing each one to lead into another. Lighter enemies can be knocked upwards by various means, from the shockwave of the Rocket Launcher itself, punches and shockwaves from the 
Knuckleblaster, shockwaves generated by consuming 1 stamina when ground slamming, and even other explosive attacks. Some grounded enemies too heavy to knock into the air may jump upwards when performing some of their attacks, giving an opening to strike them.
While shockwaves from indirect hits do not deal damage by themselves, this is not necessarily a negative. Shockwaves can launch lighter grounded enemies into the air, stunning them and setting them up for either airshots or other combos. Its non-damaging nature also means that 
Soldiers will not block shockwaves and they won't kill 
Stalkers, allowing the player to send them upwards and disable them without issue. In addition, since shockwaves deal no damage to the player, they can be used to safely rocket jump, granting a quick boost in momentum by shooting the ground below the player's feet without dealing any damage.
Rocket riding allows for extended aerial maneuvering, allowing the player to stay out of reach of grounded enemies and navigate terrain much more quickly. In addition, the consistent speed and high degree of turning control allow the player to evade ranged attacks very easily. It is most useful in open areas, where players can freely navigate without major risk of hitting something. In The Cyber Grind, rocket riding also offers the benefit of allowing the player to recover after falling off the arena, with it being one of the best methods of recovery thanks to the amount of airtime and lack of damage.
Advanced Techniques
Whiplash Quickmount
Using the Whiplash to grab a rocket fired under the player's feet can be a consistent and easy way to mount a rocket in midair. It does not work if there is not enough ground beneath the player and has the risk of blowing the player up if the rocket goes above the player's feet.
Rocket Slide Jump
Performing a rocket jump and a slide jump simultaneously can catapult the player forward at great speeds, equivalent to a slam storage slide jump. This can allow the player to close gaps or dodge incoming attacks easily.
Rocket Snipe
Rockets can be shot manually by hitscan to detonate them, though this will only generate a normal explosion. While manually detonating a rocket with a hitscan does not provide much benefit, shooting one with the Malicious Railcannon can boost its effective radius. While useful, it is usually outperformed by core snipes as it does not produce any red explosions, nor does the boosted radius by the Malicious Railcannon equal that of a core nuke.
Rocket Stacking
When the Whiplash hooks a rocket, the spear won't stop and will keep traveling forward and connecting other objects, including other rockets. By launching rockets in a line and attaching them to the Whiplash hook before pulling them back and rethrowing the hook to push them back again, rockets can be stacked up to five times to create a dense explosion on impact.
Rocket Bootstrap
Pulling a rocket with the Whiplash up directly under a rocket the player is riding on will cause the collision between the two rockets to prevent the rocket from being pulled from touching the player and detonating, resulting in it being infinitely pulled up by the Whiplash and constantly lifting the rocket the player is riding on by the reeling force of the Whiplash. It is very unstable and somewhat hard to control. One of the most reliable methods to execute this is by slamming downwards while high up in the air before firing one rocket, then firing another and pulling both rockets up with the Whiplash. The first rocket will become rideable as the Whiplash hook strikes it and immediately gets mounted by the player, while the second rocket will pull itself up to below the other rocket.
Media
Details
- To the side of the Rocket Launcher is a small screen with red displays that normally can't be seen when holding the weapon. The displays will turn grey when using the custom colors or color presets that aren't the default.
- The Rocket Launcher will produce a ticking sound with each 25% of the alternate fire recharged while holding out. This occurs with both the Freezeframe and the S.R.S. Cannon.
Color Customization
Each unlockable preset is reproducible one-to-one with custom colors; their corresponding color codes are also in the table below.
| Name
|
Soul Orbs
|
Color Code
|
STANDARD
|
0
|
N/A
|
RUSTIC
|
10
|
R: 0.50
G: 0.25
B: 0.25
R: 1.00
G: 0.85
B: 0.60
R: 0.65
G: 0.65
B: 0.65
|
LIPSTICK
|
25
|
R: 0.66
G: 0.66
B: 0.66
R: 1.00
G: 0.00
B: 0.42
R: 0.44
G: 0.44
B: 0.44
|
EGGPLANT
|
50
|
R: 0.70
G: 1.00
B: 0.00
R: 0.60
G: 0.00
B: 0.40
R: 0.64
G: 0.00
B: 0.48
|
NIGHT AMETHYST
|
100
|
R: 0.00
G: 0.00
B: 0.00
R: 0.32
G: 0.20
B: 0.60
R: 0.00
G: 0.00
B: 0.00
|
The Freezeframe Rocket Launcher is the blue variant of the Rocket Launcher, first obtained in 5-3: Ship of Fools. Its alternate fire temporarily freezes all rockets fired by the player in midair.
Mechanics
The alternate fire can freeze all rockets in the air for up to 5 seconds, requiring 10 seconds to recharge fully. Rockets can be unfrozen at any time by reusing the alternate fire. It will automatically disable if all rockets are destroyed while the Freezeframe effect is active.
Frozen rockets have an increased blast radius on detonation. This stacks with the boost provided when shot with the Malicious Railcannon, causing the boosted radius to be almost as large as a core nuke.
While frozen, rockets have their positions locked, though they can still be rotated. An exception to this is the Whiplash, with its interactions with rockets being completely unaffected by rockets being frozen.
Rockets can be ridden on by the player when landing above them while the Freezeframe freezes them. While riding a rocket, its travel speed is significantly reduced, and it can be guided with inverted controls, allowing for extended air travel. Rockets will gradually lose power the longer the player rides them, eventually starting to descend rapidly. Any rockets ridden on after the third lose their power more quickly, eventually unable to provide any extra vertical momentum, with this penalty resetting when the player hits the ground. Rockets do not lose power while underwater.
Rockets that have been unfrozen have a much tighter lock-on to enemies with magnets embedded in them, allowing them to track enemies more effectively.
Rockets that have been frozen longer than one second will produce a red explosion when hitting a target. The rocket entering this mode is signified by the orange lines on the side of the rocket turning blue.
Usage
The Freezeframe ability is simple at a glance, but offers many utilities unrelated directly to damage. Freezing them can reduce the required timings for some tech related to them.
The increased blast radius on frozen rockets may seem useless but can be rewarding if the player can line up frozen rockets for enemies to hit, allowing for even greater crowd control than that provided by most of the Shotgun's explosive capabilities.
Freezing rockets allows the player to mount a rocket easily by simply jumping on it. In addition, a rocket can also be paused in the middle of a rocket ride, allowing the player to stop midair in a pinch and fire at enemies more easily.
Frozen rockets can be used as traps for enemies to either walk or fall into, even 
Streetcleaners, as their parries cannot shove rockets out of the way, eventually resulting in the rocket colliding with their back and sending them into the air. While only lasting for 5 seconds, the rate of fire means that you'll still be able to fire up to five rockets before it expires reasonably. Firing a rocket into the air and pausing it before slamming the enemies up into it can be an excellent way to execute airshots.
Rockets can be stacked into a single barrage by halting them, allowing all of them to home into one enemy with a magnet attached and making rockets breaking magnets mostly a non-issue, allowing more rockets to hit than if each one were to be fired individually. This is especially helpful if the enemy has a short airborne window, allowing up to three to four airshots simultaneously.
Allowing rockets to gain their blue stripes, or freeze-charge, can be an excellent way to clear a room of enemies due to their guaranteed red explosion. It's also an effective way to perform this action if one's Railcannon is currently charging, as without the Malicious variant active, one cannot Core Nuke. It should be noted that this requires some set-up, as a rocket is only freeze-charged after a full second spent being frozen, meaning this is not as fast as the aforementioned Core Nuke strategy.
Advanced Techniques
Freezeframe Quickmount
While mid-air, by freezing, firing a rocket at a slightly downwards angle right before dashing forward and unpausing the rocket, the player can reset their momentum and allow the rocket to fly right under their feet, allowing the player to mount a rocket from midair and ride it. While costing a stamina bar and being considerably more difficult to execute, it has no potential to backfire on the player and is very quick to perform.
Rocket Ladder
A rocket the player is riding on can be pushed by other rockets. While this is not useful in most situations as it does not speed up the rocket the player is riding on and only slows the other rockets, it can be used to give the player infinite propulsion when rocket riding directly upwards, as rockets not being rode on will never run out of power. One rocket is enough to extend the player's total airtime with one rocket before it stalls in one place, while two rockets will allow for unlimited upwards flight before the rockets despawn.
God Rocket
Freezing rockets can be used to hold up to five rockets in one spot to create a dense shockwave, blasting the player great distances as each shockwave's pushing power stacks with one another. However, rockets have collision with one another and will push the others out of its way, preventing the shockwave from stacking. This can be avoided with the Whiplash, which will pull every rocket into the spear until they strike a surface.
Details
- The ticking sounds played when the Freezeframe effect will begin to diminish in volume and pitch the longer the alternate fire effect remains active, eventually becoming silent, though this will not occur normally in gameplay without cheats as it only happens long after the 5 second duration of the Freezeframe runs out.
Media
The S.R.S. Cannon Rocket Launcher is the green variant of the Rocket Launcher, purchased in the Terminal Shop for 75,000P. Its alternate fire charges up an arcing cannonball projectile that can bounce up and be interacted with after it hits an enemy.
Mechanics
The alternate fire, when held, begins to charge a cannonball shot, with projectile speed and damage scaling with charge. Damage starts at 2 at 0% charge, and reaches its maximum of 5 at 25% charge. After launching a cannonball, the alternate fire will begin to recharge over the span of 8 seconds. Killing an enemy with a cannonball's impact will net you the + CANNONBALLED style bonus.
Cannonballs will not break on impact with an enemy, and will instead bounce upwards, being able to crush enemies with enough airtime at the cost of breaking it. When hitting a surface, cannonballs will break and produce a harmless flat shockwave that instantly launches any enemies in its radius upwards at the same height, with the radius and force scaling to charge.
Cannonballs can be shot at any time after they are fired, creating a lingering explosion with a slightly larger radius that deals 5 damage. Shooting the ball with the Malicious Railcannon does not provide any special effects and only causes the two explosions to overlap.
Cannonballs can be punched by the 
Feedbacker, boosting them in the direction that the player is facing at high speeds and increasing cannonball damage and shockwave to their maximum power if charge is less than 25%. Boosted cannonballs do not lose their momentum, though cannot bounce off enemies and will instantly break once they hit their pierce limit of two or strike an enemy with enough health to survive the hit.
If cannonballs are boosted after they strike and bounce off of an enemy, they will instead deal 7 damage and have unlimited pierce, only being stopped when they either hit a surface or an enemy able to survive the cannonball.
Cannonballs are able to be grappled at any point by the Whiplash, causing them to follow the trajectory of the spear. Reeling the cannonballs in will reset their momentum once they touch the player, while releasing the hook mid-throw will retain their momentum from the pull.
When hitting a 
Sisyphean Insurrectionist with a cannonball, they will be knocked down and temporarily stunned, cancelling any attack that they are performing. Shooting them while they are in the air will not stun them and only cancel their jump, making them fall back down. However, hitting them with a cannonball as they are about to land from the air will cause the stun to be extended. Further cannonball hits during the Insurrectionist's stun animation will not extend nor reset the stun.
Usage
The S.R.S. Cannon's cannonballs have good burst damage and can be used relatively often. The cannonball also offers a use for creating a big shockwave to launch enemies upwards evenly, allowing for easy follow-up rocket airshots. While the base impact from a charged cannonball is enough to kill a 
Schism in a single hit, remove half of a 
Cerberus' health, and stun an Insurrectionist, getting the most value out of each shot in terms of damage requires taking advantage of its post-impact interactions.
Shooting a cannonball after it hits an enemy can both inflict heavy damage on the target and kill lighter enemies in a radius around them, while being simple to perform thanks to the cannonball's momentum being reset on impact. The lingering trait of the explosion means that it has a higher chance to clip enemies that walk into its radius, and makes it one of the easiest ways to perform the 
Mindflayer instant-kill.
While boosting a cannonball on its own does not offer much other than skipping the required charge and unlimited range, it is a good way to immediately expend the charge without having to charge a shot or line-up interactions, giving it some utility against bosses that are hard to track.
Parrying a cannonball after its impact deals 7 damage and grants the cannonball infinite pierce against enemy who cannot survive the impact, making it excel in both single target damage and crowd control. Combined with the base cannonball's maximum of 5, striking an enemy with a cannonball then punching it at them again can deal 12 damage in total, enough for a single cannonball to kill a 
Sentry, 
Virtue, or, with its 200% damage multiplier against them, Cerberus.
Hooking a cannonball with the Whiplash, while not offering much benefit beyond recovering a missed cannonball before it impacts an enemy, it can be useful after the impact. After the impact, grabbing a cannonball allows the player to bring it back to interact with from a distance, without having to be in close distance of the impact point. It can also allow a cannonball to be juggled by sending it upwards, then attaching it to the hook to reel it in before rethrowing the hook to push the cannonball upwards again before it reaches the ground.
Cannonballs can be parried at any time, even right after they impact an enemy, making an easy method for parrying them back after an impact into the same enemy being to shoot them at close-range before immediately punching with the Feedbacker.
Insurrectionist stuns can be useful for temporarily disabling them, though the stun animation may cause their body to clip into walls and terrain, making it hard or even impossible to properly hit them. Striking an Insurrectionist midfall can be difficult and risky, but rewarding, providing an extended stun. However, even when missing the stun window on initial impact, a cannonball may still be able to bounce and land on the Insurrectionist again once it touches the ground, stunning it. It is recommended to set the Insurrectionist on fire first with a rocket from the primary fire before launching a cannonball to increase its damage.
Advanced Techniques
Whiplash Parry
After striking an enemy with a cannonball, pulling the cannonball with the Whiplash as it bounces away from the enemy hitbox towards the player before parrying it with the Feedbacker allows a cannonball parry to be executed at almost any range, making it easy to line up punches. Hard to perform against enemies with large and/or inconsistent hitboxes, and may sometimes pull the cannonball back into the same enemy and break it if the enemy walks through the cannonball and makes it fall behind them.
Railball
Due to the 
Electric Railcannon's pierce, it is able to both detonate and penetrate the cannonball, allowing it to hit enemies behind it. By first landing the cannonball's initial impact on an enemy, then lining up an Electric Railcannon shot to both hit the ball and the enemy, it can deal up to 18 damage in total to the target and create an explosion. This can also be combined with other Electric Railcannon tech to further increase damage.
Cannonball Stacking
Like rockets, hooking a cannonball with the Whiplash does not stop the spear from hooking more projectiles. Juggling cannonballs long enough for another one to recharge allows the player to hold multiple cannonballs at once, to either impact enemies, detonate all at once with the Electric Railcannon, or both if none of the balls have made impact or been boosted. This, like other Whiplash juggles, can be used in conjunction with one another. However, a Whiplash hook is only able to hold up to five cannonballs or rockets, capping the possible damage.
Details
- Rebounding cannonballs will produce the same shockwave and deal the same damage as a minimum charge cannonball, though damage slowly increases back to 5 based on airtime. Damage is instantly set to maximum charge if rebounding cannonball is reeled in by the Whiplash.
- Boosted cannonballs will shatter upon first hit regardless of them not having enough health to survive the impact and the cannonball having impacted an enemy if the cannonball is being hooked by the Whiplash.
- Hitting some parts of certain enemies may instantly shatter a cannonball even during its first impact.
- The S.R.S. Cannon is the only weapon in the player's arsenal that is able to produce lingering explosions.
Media
| FIRESTARTER ROCKET LAUNCHER
|
|
|
| Primary Fire
|
| Damage
|
3.5
|
| Cooldown
|
1s
|
| Alternate Fire
|
| Damage
|
1 (On Ground)
(Per Gasoline Tick)
|
| Cooldown
|
3s
(Dispense)
8s
(Recharge)
|
| Damage Modifiers
|
 Rockets
|
| Cerberus: 150%
Streetcleaner:50%
 Malicious Face:0%
 V. Cancerous Rodent: 150%
 "Tundra": 175%
|
 Fire
|
| Schism: 50%
Insurrectionist:200%
|
| Terminal Info
|
Hold Alt Fire to spray gasoline, making non-flammable enemies flammable.
Can also be sprayed on the environment to create walls of fire.
|
| Obtained in
|
Terminal Shop
(75,000P)
|
The Firestarter Rocket Launcher is the red variant of the Rocket Launcher, purchased in the Terminal Shop for 75,000P. Its alternate fire fires a stream of highly flammable gasoline that can coat the terrain and enemies.
Mechanics
Firestarter:
- Altfire takes 3 seconds to get from full to empty
- Altfire takes 8 seconds to get from empty to full (2 seconds to become useable again)
- Gasoline is shot at a rate of 30 drops per second (33.34ms between drops)
- This means that a full charge is equal to 13.5 Fuel
Gasoline:
- Gasoline lit on the ground burns for 6 seconds and starts disappearing for 2 seconds (total of 8s)
- While disappearing, it can still deal damage to the player for 1 second (7 seconds total in which it can damage the player) and can damage enemies for 1.7s (7.7s total in which it can damage enemies)
- These puddles deal 10 damage to the player and 1 damage to enemies, each enemy has its own 0.5s cooldown on getting damaged by this. The player also has their own cooldown of 0.5s
- When an enemy is covered is gasoline, it bypasses **everything** and can be set ablaze at any time, regardless if it's a nonflammable enemy, that its wet or even while it's underwater.
- An enemy that is covered in gasoline receives 0.5 damage every burn tick, making it stronger than normal fire's 0.2 damage per tick.
- All enemies have their own "Fuel" meter
- Every drop of gasoline from the Firestarter is equivalent to 0.15 Fuel
- The maximum of Fuel an enemy can have is 5
- Each burn tick, the enemy will consume 0.175 Fuel
- Coated enemies do not consume any fire ticks, see above
- When an enemy's Fuel reaches 0, it will resume consuming fire ticks starting from the next burn tick
Usage
WIP
Advanced Techniques
Title
WIP
Details
Media
Rockets
Cannonballs: Impact | Explosion
Fire
