Limpet Gun

Limpet Guns are a series of personal weapons in Earth Defense Force 2025 and Earth Defense Force 4.1: The Shadow of New Despair. They are used exclusively by the Air Raider class.

Description
These bulky, blocky guns are one of only two major types of personal weapon the Air Raider can actually use. They fire flashing canisters with a slight arc which will adhere to anything they hit, be it level geometry, buildings, enemies, NPCs, vehicles or other player characters.

To a first-time player the Limpet Guns are confusing since they appear to do nothing but put flashing lights on things; this is because reloading the weapon deletes all currently placed projectiles, intended as a safeguard if one is attached to something the player does not want to destroy. Actually detonating them requires a press of the alt-fire button; this is why the Limpet Gun is not automatically reloaded when it is empty. Detonation occurs in a rapid sequence in the order the projectiles were initially placed.

Strategy
The Limpet Guns form a diverse series with many applications, and specific descriptions are presented in the "variants" section. However, they are all united by one thing: they can damage the Air Raider himself, either with splash damage or bouncing flechettes, and therefore are poorly suited to close-range combat. This is particularly true in 2025.

It is worth noting that if a Limpet projectile destroys whatever it is attached to, the game engine tends to delete all other projectiles attached to that thing which it switches from the normal model to the destroyed model. To maximise the firepower of these weapons, it is best to aim them at the ground or make sure to place shots on multiple targets.

Limpet Gun
The basic Limpet Gun fires a flashing red explosive canister which detonates with a small blast radius when the alt-fire button is pressed, effectively being a remote sticky grenade launcher. Basic models have respectable damage, moderate splash damage, low fire rates and a fairly long reload time. They are poorly suited to close range combat due to their splash; if the Air Raider takes one, it is a good idea to also bring Impulse mines or ZE-Guns in case the bugs get close.

The "heavy" variants, Limpet Launcher and Limpet Heavy Gun, have a decreased projectile count but fire powerful projectiles that deal enormous damage with increased splash; in 2025, the Heavy Gun is basically the Air Raider's rocket launcher, though it is burdened with a ridiculous 10-second reload time.

The Limpet Chain Guns are fast-firing fully automatic variants with a generous magazine capacity and no increase in reload time, but weaker individual projectiles with a smaller splash radius. They excel at destroying buildings and softening up approaching swarms, but their blast is still large enough to make them dangerous at very close range.

Finally, the Limpet Shot is the Air Raider's shotgun, firing a spread of six canisters per round. Obviously due to the blast radius, it must be used at far longer range than any other class' shotgun-like weapons.

In 4.1 Limpet Guns are re-tuned due to complaints that they would tend to result in suicide-by-splash in any close battle and made it very hard for an Air Raider to free themselves from a Crimson Ant without killing themselves in the process. The normal Limpet Guns are now more like bomb-firing battle rifles, with decreased per-shot damage but a much better rate of fire and reload speed. The result is comparable to the Ranger's AF ST-series rifles, but with additional splash damage.

For the Chain Guns the decreased reload time is a particular boon, since with the old ones it was very easy to misplace rounds if, say, an NPC soldier walked in front of the Air Raider while they were firing, forcing a choice between taking damage from the misplaced bomb or being swarmed during the 4-second reload.

Limpet Guns have no stated maximum range. Since the Limpet Launcher only fires one shot, its maximum rate of fire is the same as its reload speed. Numbers in (brackets) are EDF 4.1 changes.

Limpet Splendor
These launchers have no explosive effect; instead, each glowing blue canister releases a randomized hemispherical spread of antipersonnel flechettes when detonated. It is important to note that Splendor canisters fire their hemispherical burst in the direction the top of the canister is pointing rather than exploding with blast radius; a Splendor canister placed on an enemy will barely harm it, and the best damage comes from detonating them underneath enemies or in confined spaces. The flechettes bounce off walls and stay around for a short time before disappearing, making Splendor weapons very valuable in underground missions.

The basic Splendor fires more canisters than the basic Limpet Guns, with a higher fire rate. Each individual flechette does puny damage, but all of them together are devastating and the per-magazine firepower of a Splendor is very high.

The Splendor A30 and Splendor Chain Gun are the equivalent of the Limpet Chain Guns; rapid-fire weapons with decreased damage but an increased projectile count, with the Splendor Chain Gun able to place up to 40 canisters at a time.

Splendor Shot weapons are the equivalent of the Limpet Shot, firing multiple projectiles per round each of which is a Splendor canister which can be detonated to release its own flechettes. While they have a very low magazine size, it is still unlikely that the game's framerate will be stable while they are detonating.

The Limpet Detectors are an oddity in that they are the only Limpet Gun which does not allow manual detonation of the projectiles. Instead, their shots are proximity mines, functioning somewhat like the Impulse mine. Their fuze is different, however; rather than detonating when an enemy approaches, they will only go off if an enemy stands over the middle of the canister; as a result, it is rare for an approaching group to set all of them off.

Finally, the Limpet Buster is a one-off weapon equivalent to the Limpet Heavy Gun in that it fires a small number of very powerful projectiles. In this case, each canister spawns 40 flechettes, making it ideal for saturating an entire room with a dense cloud of bouncing flechettes in underground missions.

In 4.1 most Splendor guns are hugely nerfed, with much lower damage and a decreased count of flechettes, though the latter can be excused as 2025's versions did tend to utterly tank the framerate while they were spawning ridiculous numbers of bouncing projectiles. On the plus side, individual flechettes now last longer and move faster, meaning it is more likely they will actually hit something before disappearing.

They are still useful weapons even with the decreased damage; while not as powerful, they can still perform their old role in tunnel missions, and are now less likely to kill the Air Raider or their allies with rebounds. The increased flechette speed and duration means they can now also be set on the ground to hit flying enemies. Rather than being tiny landmine-throwers, the basic versions and A30 / Chain Gun are now more like submachine guns.

The detection range of Detector canisters seems to be extended in 4.1; while they still require an enemy to be directly above them, they are now more likely to be set off by aerial enemies. This comes at a cost of having their reload time doubled in the first case and almost doubled in the second, however.

As noted above, these weapons have no stated maximum range. For an explanation of something x something: the first number is damage, the second is number of flechettes. The shotgun-style guns have three numbers, these are damage x number of canisters fired per shot x number of flechettes per canister. Numbers in (brackets) are EDF 4.1 changes.

Limpet Sniper
This railgun-like launcher fires a small number of high-velocity, high-damage projectiles with high splash (though not as high as the low shot-count Limpet Guns), designed for precision shooting rather than area saturation.

Unfortunately, because the alt-fire button is already reserved for detonating placed charges, the Limpet Sniper has no zoom mode, meaning the only accuracy advantage it has over a normal Limpet Gun is the higher muzzle velocity.

Unlike other Limpet weapons, the Snipers form a linear series with no special variants.

In 4.1 they are the only Limpet weapon to not have their damage reduced: in fact, it is doubled. However, their blast radius is enormously reduced, and because it is now less than 3.0, Limpet Snipers can no longer destroy buildings. The splash is so small that the Air Raider basically has to stand on top of a canister to take damage, which on the plus side renders it the safest Limpet Gun for close-range combat (if the magazine size and reload time are disregarded), but on the minus side means it is unlikely a Limpet Sniper will damage any target the projectile is not physically attached to. Since the Limpet Sniper ZD now deals more damage than the Limpet Heavy Gun, it takes over duty as the Air Raider's rocket launcher, though the tiny splash makes it more like one of the Ranger's heavy sniper rifles.

As above, these weapons have no stated maximum range. Numbers in (brackets) are EDF 4.1 changes.

Trivia

 * The Limpet Gun model is also used for the DLC-only Pure Decoy Launcher, which can be acquired for both the Air Raider and the Ranger.
 * In 4.1 another modified Limpet Gun is used to fire markers to call in gunfire strikes from Whale.
 * Prior to balance patch 1.03 for 2025, the Limpet Gun MT's reload speed was 7.0, the Limpet Buster's was 6.0, and the Splendor Chain Gun's was 4.0. The Limpet Detector ME only fired one canister at a time, its damage was 180 x 10.