Type-33 Light Anti-Armor Weapon

Were you looking for the closely related Fuel Rod Gun of Halo?

"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."

- Anonymous serviceman

The Type-33 Light Anti-Armor Weapon or Fuel Rod Cannon is a Covenant direct-fire energy weapon with anti-vehicle and anti-air applications. It is featured in Halo 2 and in Halo 3.

It is not to be confused with the Fuel Rod Gun, which is a Halo: Combat Evolved multiplayer exclusive weapon.

Description
The Fuel Rod Cannon is a Covenant heavy weapon. The Fuel Rod Cannon has no fail-safes (unlike the prior game's Fuel Rod Guns), allowing the player to pick up the weapon. It fires bolts of deadly radioactive incendiary gel that explode on impact with targets or surfaces. It is often wielded by Heretic Grunts. Unlike many Covenant weapons, the Fuel Rod Cannon fires ammunition in magazines of 5. Up to 25 additional Fuel Rods can be carried for a total of 30 shots.

Although the existence of the “dead man’s switch” — a mechanism that sabotages the weapon if it is dropped without first engaging a safety — has only been theorized, it would be difficult to believe that every single Unggoy and Sangheili that was killed while using one fired the weapon right at their feet the moment they died. The dead-man's switch was confirmed in one of the Halo novels.

Advantages
The Fuel Rod Cannon fires fairly quickly, and reloads at around the same rate as the rocket launcher while holding much more ammunition. The Fuel Rod Cannon 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 Cannon makes it a force to be reckoned with.

In Campaign mode giving your allies (Elites especially) the Fuel Rod Cannon gives you a massive advantage over your enemies. On levels like Arbiter and Uprising an Elite with a Fuel Rod Cannon can fire the 5 bolts in quick succession with surprising accuracy. This can easily rip apart a group of foes even on Legendary difficulty. The fact that allies have unlimited ammo makes this valuable as well. This is opposite for giving Grunt allies the Fuel Rod Cannon, however, due to their lack of shields. The splash damage will kill them very quickly.

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 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.

Disadvantages
The Fuel Rod Cannon's energy projectiles are much slower than the rocket launcher's rockets. It also takes from two to four shots to kill a strong adversary. It is still capable of killing a user at short range, but ammo will run dry quickly in Legendary. The large size of the cannon will also obscure your vision, making it harder to navigate and respond to hostiles. Outside of the level The Arbiter, where the Heretic Grunts make extensive use of the weapon, it is very hard to find, and the weapon is not available in Halo 2 multiplayer due to frame-rate issues.

Differences in Halo 3
In Halo 3, the Fuel Rod Cannon's projectile underwent drastic changes. The blasts are weakened to 65% of their previous strength, to compensate for the cannon's large magazine size, 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 a 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 Cannon 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 is also worth noting that the weapon does not appear by default in any maps nor in Matchmaking, and thus is only seen if placed on a custom map using Forge.

UNSC Remarks
“Those things are scary as hell. Ya hear that weird “whump” sound and even if ya see it comin’ yer 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 kind’a 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 req any more ammo for the damn thing—but you can lay down a whole lot’a hurt in a very short amount of time I’ll tell you what.”

“[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.”

Hunters' Assault Cannon
Hunters also brandish a variant of the Fuel Rod Cannon, known as an Assault Cannon. In Halo 2 & 3, these shoot out long beams of energy; the Hunters immense strength nullifies the beams' recoil, allowing for accurate and devastating attacks. In Halo: Combat Evolved, their cannons fire explosive bolts like the troop-carried model. In Halo: The Flood, it is revealed that, like all other plasma weapons, the Assault Cannon can overheat. There is no way to take the Hunter's version of the weapon outside of a mod. In Halo: Contact Harvest, it is revealed that the cannons fire incendiary gel, either in bolts or beams, as seen in all the games

Trivia

 * In Halo 3, it takes about 8 shots to take down a Phantom on Normal difficulty.


 * In the Halo 2 booklet, the Fuel Rod Cannon is mistakenly labeled Fuel Rod Gun, which was a very similar weapon from Halo: Combat Evolved. Alternately, the weapon was renamed later in development.


 * When you give a Fuel Rod Cannon 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 the Rocket Launcher.


 * In Halo 2 during Campaign mode (most likely on Legendary), 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.


 * Sometimes in Halo 3 Forge, when you put the Fuel Rod Cannon on a map, (Mostly High Ground) the weapon will not appear in game. It is unknown why.


 * In Halo 3 if the shot hits the ground shortly after leaving the gun it will bounce like the Brute Shot from Halo 2.


 * In Halo 3's Forge mode, the Fuel Rod Cannon is mistaken as the Fuel Rod Gun when you spawn it.


 * Most likely due to the Cowbell Skull, a Phantom only takes four shots to kill with a Fuel Rod Cannon, even on Legendary.

Character Compatibility

 * Elites
 * Spartans
 * Marines
 * Flood Combat Form (Human) (have animation but not used)
 * Flood Combat Form (Elite)
 * Grunt
 * Hunters (Assault Cannon)
 * Brutes