Type-33 Light Anti-Armor Weapon

Looking for the closely related Covenant vehicle weapon, Fuel Rod Cannon or for the Assault Cannon used by Hunters?

The Type-33 Light Anti-Armor Weapon, also known as the Fuel Rod Gun, is a Covenant indirect-fire mortar with ground and air applications that appears in all three games of the Halo Trilogy, although with minor changes in appearance. It is occasionally wielded by higher-ranking Grunts, and often wielded by higher-ranking Elites and Brutes. It is known that some versions are equipped with a "dead man's switch" similar to that of the Energy Sword, most notably in Halo: Combat Evolved.

Introduction
In Halo: PC multiplayer, it had no fail-safes, allowing the player to pick up the weapon. All of the incarnations of this weapon fire bolts of deadly radioactive incendiary gel that detonate on impact with targets or surfaces, and some variants are equipped with homing rounds. Not unlike many Covenant weapons, most incarnations of the Fuel Rod Gun has an battery charge. Up to 28 additional Fuel Rods can be fired with 100 battery units. The weapon's projectiles arc due to gravity and it functions like a mortar, unlike the human Rocket Launcher, so one must aim above the target to effectively use the weapon in long range firing.

In Halo 2 and Halo 3 it had a clip of 5 fuel rods instead of a battery. The projectiles had a much lesser arch and the projectiles traveled considerably slower and the weapon couldn't overheat.

Appearances
In Halo: Combat Evolved, the Fuel Rod Gun is purple with a gray muzzle. It sports a green energy/ammunition meter on its side as well as a purplish core temperature meter. It is used solely by Grunts in the campaign, however, only Special Operations Grunts and Major Grunts are seen with the deadly weapons (minor grunts may occasionally wield it). It was impossible to pick up discarded Fuel Rod Guns from enemy corpses in the Halo: Combat Evolved campaign, as there were fail-safes that made the weapons self-destruct with the force, appearance, and effects of fired bolts. These fail-safes were stripped away in Halo PC multiplayer.

In Halo 2, the Fuel Rod Gun had been given a major appearance change, with the body now a shade of yellow and the battery replaced by clips of 5. This powerful weapon is mostly found on the level The Arbiter, where the Heretic Grunts make extensive use of the weapon. Outside of this level, it is very hard to find, although higher ranked Elites and Grunts will use this weapon against you to great effect. The Fuel Rod Gun is not available in Halo 2 Multiplayer due to frame-rate issues.

In Halo 3, the Fuel Rod Gun underwent drastic changes. The blasts are weakened to 65% of their previous strength, to compensate for the cannon's large number of rounds per clip, fast rate of fire, and the noticeably lessened distance that the rounds fall en route to the target. Also, when fired, projectiles are affected by gravity at a much higher degree and now need time to ignite after being fired from the cannon and failure to give the rounds proper distance to accomplish this will result in a ricochet if a non-enemy surface is struck at an angle. In Halo 3 it has a slight homing feature on vehicles and is devastating when used against slow moving tanks. In campaign, if given to an AI controlled ally they will also get the bonus of the weapon's rounds homing in on enemy foot soldiers. Shots from an enemy's Fuel Rod Gun will home on you and your allies to a degree. It becomes increasingly difficult to dodge in higher difficulties. It can still get you if you only try to step to the side. It was wielded by Grunts, War Chieftains and Brute Captains (Majors and Ultras only) in Campaign.

It is also worth noting that the weapon does not appear by default in any multiplayer maps nor in Matchmaking, and thus is only seen if placed on a custom map by using Forge.

In Halo Wars, the Fuel Rod Gun makes almost no appearance. It is, however, available as an upgrade to replace the Prophet of Regret's plasma cannons to increase his damage. Two can also be added to Covenant Turrets as an anti-vehicle add on.

Usage
The Fuel Rod Gun is the Covenant counterpart of the M19 SSM Rocket Launcher. It is mainly used as an anti-vehicle weapon, but is sometimes used as an anti-personnel weapon. It fires glowing green bolts of radioactive incendiary gel that travel to the target in a parabolic arc. This indirect line of fire makes the Fuel Rod Gun often a difficult weapon to wield, yet can be useful if your target is hiding behind a wall or other object. The bolt is also ponderously slow compared to the Spartan Laser shot and even to the Rocket, making it rather difficult to wield effectively in comparison to more readily available power weapons.

In the PC version the Fuel Rod Gun is rarely used. It runs as another battery operated weapon and overheats for a while after five quick shots. Indirect hits will barely be effective, and direct hits are nearly impossible. But it has the ability to partially stun a hit target, so a bombardment can take out one, but leave the wielder vulnerable for too long to live. Also a variant, the Fuel Rod Cannon is used as a secondary weapon on Banshees, that are commonly called Banshee Bombs. The Fuel Rod Cannon is also used in the AA rounds on an Anti-Air Wraith. In Halo 2 and Halo 3, the Fuel Rod Gun was widely changed. The weapon is gold in color, and can be reloaded. The overheat feature has also been removed. The Fuel Rod Gun's projectiles now arc less, and track slightly over long ranges, but are also significantly slower in speed.



Advantages
The Fuel Rod Gun fires faster, and reloads at a slightly faster rate than the Rocket Launcher but does less damage per hit while holding much more ammunition. The Fuel Rod Gun has a limited lock-on ability; its projectile follows targets in the air. While easy to avoid at long range, the 2x scope of the cannon can allow for an accurate original blast and increased chance to catch the victim in the explosive radius.

The high ammo capacity, rate of fire, and damage of the Fuel Rod Gun makes it a force to be reckoned with, and it's better than the Rocket Launcher in personnel fights, having barely any splash damage and more ammo (2.5x more). In campaign mode giving your allies (Elites especially) the Fuel Rod Gun gives you a massive advantage over your enemies. On levels like the Arbiter and Uprising an Elite with a Fuel Rod Gun can fire the 5 bolts in quick succession with surprising accuracy. This can easily eliminate a group of foes even on Legendary difficulty. The fact that allies have unlimited ammo makes this valuable as well. The opposite holds true for giving Grunt allies the Fuel Rod Gun, however, due to their lack of shields. Grunts holding the Fuel Rod Gun tend to fire rods slightly more often and "wilder" than Elites.

Other advantages include a ricochet effect at wide angles, while firing parallel to a wall the shots can "skip" off. To obtain an effect the angle has to be obtuse and the person firing must be near parallel to the targeted wall, this however does not cause the shell to explode but instead sends it off in a new predictable trajectory. You will not be affected by it ricocheting off the ground because its arc will extremely diminish the effect. The ricochet effect will only work before the fuel rod has "ignited".

It can be fired from behind cover, so it is very possible to kill enemies without them being able to hit you.

Maps recommended in: Construct, Epitaph, Guardian, (maybe) High Ground, and Narrows.

Disadvantages
The Halo: Combat Evolved Fuel Rod Gun doesn't have a tracking device. The bolts are fast but they arch greatly over big distances. At long range you will have to aim high and it takes 2-3 bolts to kill a hostile with splash damage, or a single bolt if it hits directly. The overheating of the Fuel Rod Gun is not conducive to streams of radioactive fire. At short range, however, a single direct or almost-direct hit can take down someone's shield, killing an enemy with two hits.

The Fuel Rod Cannon is less powerful than the Rocket Launcher, as it takes two strikes to kill a Hunter on the normal difficulty while the Rocket Launcher can take it out in one shot.

Furthermore, the large size will often obscure one's vision, making it harder to see who's there to kill the wielder of this ungainly weapon.

Additionally, when used at close to medium range the user should take caution (just like the Brute Shot or the Rocket Launcher), careless players have a good chance of taking damage from their own fire.

The Fuel Rod Gun has a very dark purple colour, making you hard to spot by snipers if you are carrying one. You cannot hide it in Halo 3, since in Halo 3 your secondary weapon is seen on your hip/back.

Additionally, if you hit a target at close range before the mid air blast, their shields will be completely depleted, whereas the Rocket Launcher will usually get a one hit kill.

Finally, you will have to take gravity into account when using it. Unlike the Human counterpart, the Rocket Launcher, it obeys the laws of Gravity (because it has a relatively low velocity) and will curve.

Assault Cannon
Hunters also brandish a variant of the Fuel Rod Gun. These work differently than other versions of the Fuel Rod Gun because it can fire in multiple modes, rather than just firing single bolts. In Halo 2 and Halo 3, these shoot out streams of gel. A Hunter's immense strength nullifies the weight of the weapon. In Halo: Combat Evolved, their cannons fire explosive bolts, like the troop-carried model. In Halo: Contact Harvest, it was explained that the gel can be fired in both single globules and a stream. The Fuel Rod variant is integrated into a Hunter's armor, so the weapon cannot be obtained.

Multiplayer Tactics
The Fuel Rod Gun is able to be used by the player only in Halo PC multiplayer, not in Halo: Combat Evolved Campaign nor multiplayer, and neither Halo PC campaign. Being an effective suppression weapon, one tactic in multiplayer Capture the Flag is to bombard the enemy base from afar with a Fuel Rod Gun. Furthermore, the gunner can fire from a position obscured from enemy view, owing to the indirect-fire properties of the Fuel Rod Gun. Since the view of the targeted area is mutually obscured from the gunner's position (due to having to compensate for the arc and having to aim high), such is unlikely to kill a player, but it is intended to at least deal cover fire for an assault on the flag, and most likely to inflict damage on the flag carrier. Note that the Fuel Rod Gun's splash damage is similar to the ones of a Rocket Launcher. If fired at very close range, the projectile will most likely to harm the player slightly.

A more common tactic is to simply use it an anti-infantry weapon, as it is easier to kill hostile infantry at closer range.

An easy way to dodge the blast is simply to sidestep, where as when the user overheats the gun, the opponent will most likely take the opportunity to fight back.

The high ammo capacity, rate of fire, and damage of the Fuel Rod Gun makes it a force to be reckoned with.

One useful tactic is to fire in a star or fan effect making it harder to dodge. Also in at a high point it is also useful to fire in a straight line towards an enemy vehicle, like bombs from a jet.

UNSC Remarks

 * “Those things are scary as hell. Ya hear that weird “whump” sound and even if ya see it comin' you're transfixed—these big green blobs flying at you throwin’ off sparks!”
 * “It’s so weird. I don’t know who first called it a Fuel Rod Gun, but it’s kinda funny. I suppose the projectile is reminiscent of how you might expect to see a nuclear fuel rod depicted in a gee eh cartoon—all glowing green and throwing off sparks.”
 * “They’re pretty tricky to handle—first off you gotta get over the fact that there is this glowing, green explosive whatever right next to your head; and it’s not like you can requisition any more ammo for the damn thing—but you can lay down a whole lotta hurt in a very short amount of time I’ll tell you that.”
 * “The Type-33s have more in common with the ballistic weapon on the Banshee than it does with the weapon that the Hunters carry around—well, not carry around, but you know what I mean.”
 * “I catch a glimpse of green out of the corner of my eye and then there’s this huge “whoomf” and the ‘Hog goes end over end burning with Gaz still at the wheel. I was riding shotty with the em forty-one so I just unlatched and pushed off when we started going up into the air and there went the ‘Hog and Gaz and all our gear cart-wheeling into the ravine.”
 * “No sooner had I put the Grunt down than Fisk has got a hold of that bad boy and dumps the whole clip into the column—stickies and everything just cooking off—secondaries like mad! Fisk was a crazy bastard he was—wish he was still with us.”

Character Compatibility

 * Elites
 * Spartans
 * Marines
 * Brutes (Halo 3 only)
 * Grunts
 * Hunters (Assault Cannon)

Trivia

 * The Halo: Combat Evolved Fuel Rod Gun had rods on the top, but used a battery. The battery overheated after 5 consecutive shots, like giving a sort-of "reload" time before it could fire again. Note the 5 shots before the "reload," like a normal fuel rod gun.
 * The Fuel Rod Gun is the only weapon in the trilogy which has a separate animation and timer when throwing a grenade, there is approxmitely a 0.5 second longer delay before you throw the grenade.
 * When using the Bump Possession cheat in Halo: Combat Evolved to control a Hunter, holding left click down and repeatedly right clicking allows the controlled Hunter to rapidly fire its Fuel Rod Gun without overheating. Whether this accelerated manner of attack is actually utilized at all in AI controlled opponents' behavioral patterns is unknown.
 * Elites cannot spawn these weapons by default, except in Halo 2 in the level Gravemind, where one of the three Ultra Elites in the Mausoleum of the Arbiter will use one on the Brutes.
 * There is a discrepancy about how much the weapon actually weighs. In Halo: First Strike, Corporal Locklear had difficulty lifting the gun when he attempted to shoulder it. However, Grunts seem to have no problem hefting the gun around in Halo: Combat Evolved, so whether the situation is between the gun's weight or a comparison of Grunts' and Marines' strengths is unknown. It is strongly believed however, that Grunts are in fact stronger than their size lets on. Also, the model of the Fuel Rod Gun used in Halo: CE and First Strike might have been heavier than the most recent variants. Or Locklear never expected the thing to be so heavy.
 * When you give a Fuel Rod Gun to a Marine, their animation is the same as if they were holding a Rocket Launcher. If you look closely, their left hand is at an angle, just like holding a Rocket Launcher.
 * In the Halo 2 campaign mode (most likely on Legendary difficulty), the bolts have a slight homing ability. Only enemies have this ability. If you strafe as the wielder fires upon you, it will turn very slowly into your direction. In Halo 3, it also has a slight tracking ability, but this time it is allies only who get this ability.
 * In any Halo 2 level that you play as the Arbiter, if you give a Grunt ally a Fuel Rod Gun, the Grunt will perform a little dance, or will start laughing crazily. Also if you watch their arm the Grunt will do a strange cocking motion during which his arm will go through the weapon and extend by about a foot.
 * The Fuel Rods fired by this weapon resemble the ammunition of the Covenant Carbine, only of a larger fraction in size and damage. The Carbine ammunition is also notably faster, probably in exchange for power.
 * Grace-093 was almost killed by the weapon's fail-safe system in Halo: First Strike
 * In Halo: CE PC Multiplayer, the weapon's barrel will retract into the weapon when fired. Whether this is the firing mechanism or a recoil compensator is unknown, but the weapon has very little recoil on the hands of the Spartan, supporting the latter.
 * In Halo 3, the "bounce" feature of the Fuel Rod Gun can be utilized to an expert player's advantage. It is possible to bounce the shot around corners without coming out of hiding, and can even be used to kill enemies such as snipers without putting yourself in their line of fire. Note that these tactics require extreme precision, thought, and taking into account angling and game physics. However, with much practice, this tactic could save you from a few deaths in your next match.
 * This gun, like the Needler and Beam Rifle, has many aesthetic markings on it that are not Forerunner symbols, yet seem to be important in Covenant culture.
 * The ricochet effect may have its roots in an attempt to prevent soldiers from blowing themselves up with rounds fired too close. Conversely, it is very easy to kill oneself with a Rocket Launcher. A similar in flight arming system is used in the real-life M79 Grenade Launcher.
 * Fuel Rods appear purple in multiplayer maps with the Juicy FX on.
 * In Halo 3 it takes about 8 shots to take down a Phantom with a Fuel Rod Gun and only 4 shots aimed at the Phantom's side engines, even on Legendary difficulty.
 * The Fuel Rod Gun is the most widely used explosive in the Covenant arsenal, being found on Banshees, AA Wraiths, Hunter cannons, and as an infantry weapon.

Related Pages

 * Fuel Rod Cannon
 * Hunters
 * Covenant Weapons
 * Assault Cannon