Hello everyone. My name is Genesis. Some know me from my older names Zeusjr14 and Apelesauce, but you can call me Gen. Anways, for the past few months my interest has been in a plane that is either hated or frowned upon by most people. This plane is the heavy cannon biplane. It is mainly not liked because few people can play it effectively or make it seem to have a reasonable role. Even though I have not been playing hc very long, I have accumulated over 22,000 kills with it in almost 2 months. I have waited for a guide to come up with just a guide for this type of biplane, but even the guide by Beagle about the reverse heavy cannon setup did not tell much on the heavy cannon and focused more on how to use it with reverse. Finally, someone just told me to go ahead and make my own guide. So let's go more into depth with this.

Why should I play heavy cannon instead of dogfighter or recoilless?

Well, if you are a bomb runner, I suggest heavy cannon over the others. Why? For one reason heavy cannon has the most firepower and it's primary weapon does the most damage out of dogfighter or recoilless. This allows the bomb runner to make a quick snipe on some smoking planes as it heads in for a push or is just getting some bars while waiting for back-up to make a stronger hit on the enemy's base.

The heavy cannon setup is also good for those who have played trickster or time anchor randa. What I mean is, heavy cannon is a good sniping plane. Lets learn the perks and setups of the heavy cannon so that you will know which setup fits you best.

Also, please realize that you will sometimes be highly criticized because biplane in general in considered "useless" in more high quality team play such as leagues. So make sure that you at least have some back-up plane setups in case you cannot handle it in a real match. I actually find it useful, as its piercing is great for a 1 shot 2 kill combo (and it feels great getting it) esp. in a large clustered group of planes. Heavy cannon is also one of the best 1v1 planes. It is great for getting in there for a quick kill and then going back to help your team. I mean, bars never hurt anyone. I did a test with some friends late one night, and we found that 2 shots with 3 gold bars on an HC biplane can kill a bomber with repair and flexi (and blacksmoke it badly iwth heavy armor with about 1% health left). It can take out a loopy in a single shot with flexi and repair, and also the same for a randa. Whales generally take about 2 hits and a little bit of your machine gun. Again this is without ace instincts and 3 gold bars. Imagine if you used ace with it?*

*I am not responsible for wh****.

These are the more recent biplane buff stats:

Biplane (All Forms) reduced afterburner energy usage by 5%
Biplane (Dogfighter) secondary weapon increased range from 80 to 90, added piercing (second hit deals 80%, third 50%), increased damage from 27 to 28
Biplane (Recoilless) secondary weapon increased range from 80 to 90, added piercing (second hit deals 70%, third 40%)
Biplane (Heavy Cannon) primary weapon piercing second hit damage increased from 67% to 75%, added piercing third hit (45%) (previously: 80% / 50%)
Biplane (Heavy Cannon) secondary weapon energy usage reduced by 10% (unchanged)

Red Perks:

(Please know that biplanes secondary weapon never change, except for the damage output.)

Dogfighter:

The only reason I am including dogfighter and recoiless perks, is to tell you which secondary perk is greater from the 3. The dogfighter perk's secondary is the strongest of all the three biplane red perks.

Recoilless:

The recoiless biplane's secondary has the 2nd strongest secondary firepower of the 3 red perks. And in addition to that, the name recoiless, is that for a reason. This biplane's secondary produces 0% recoill to the biplane.

Heavy Cannon:

Now, the heavy cannon perk is the strongest primary weapon of all the 3 red perks of the biplane by far. Although, the secondary weapon of this perk is the weakest of the 3. So this perk is best used for sniping and mid-to-long range combat. The heavy cannon can also peirce through planes, which makes for some sick double and even sometimes triple kills on some smoking planes. Basically, you could peirce through a full health explodet and kill a smoking loopy on the other side. But remember, as you peirce through more and more planes, the weaker the peircing power becomes. The heavy cannon also has a bit of recoill of its own as well as its secondary, which the secondary can come in handy when in a stall on the ground. Just point the nose of the plane on the ground and activate the secondary and whoosh! Your off!

Green Perks:

Rubberized Hull:

This perk is mainly used for beginners and when you first start trying out biplane for the first time. Discard of this perk if you are a more serious and more experienced player, as you will need far more useful perks than this to help you get the job done better.

Heavy Armor:

This perk can be really helpful to biplane as it has more health than a loopy and randa, but less than a bomber. So this should help keep you out longer in battle for more kills and helping control the area. I personally do not use this perk because the turning seems slow and makes it harder for me to get a fast shot on someone on a turn. But if you have played bomber and whale and are used to those planes, then you should have no problem with this.

Repair Drone:

This perk is very useful if you plan to stay in battle longer. If you are one of those people who are not that quick to see some stray health packs or find yourself bomb running with almost no health in the middle of the field while waiting for backup, then this perk is perfect for you. As I said earlier, the biplane's health is precious as with any other plane. One thermo from an explodet or some spam from a bomber with this and your staring the grim reaper in the face. And let me tell ya, he is one ugly dude. Anyways, this perk should help you regain your health back from a spam or thermo while you circle behind a barrier for a few seconds instead of going all the way back to the base for health and then running back out.

Flexible Wings:

This is a biplane's best friend. It increases biplanes turning rate to almost the turning rate of a loopy. You can zip around tight corners and get some quick snipes too while turing a corner, circle back, and then do it again. This is also a good perk for bomb running next to heavy armor. You will be able to recover quicker out of a stall if you have just been hit with an EMP, thermo, or even some close bomber spam. I personally have no problem with going back to the base for health with this. It seems quicker and easier to pick up health packs too while you are out sniping some people and getting in to close combat.

Blue Perks:

Turbo:

This seems to be the more favored blue perk of the biplane. What this perk does is recharge your energy faster than normal. It can be useful for making a few quick shots and then going in with a full charge of your secondary weapon. With turbo charger, you can fire up to 2 heavy cannon shots and then wait for your energy to charge again in just a little over 1 second.

Ultracapacitor:

What this perk does is increase the amount of energy that your plane would normally hold, but takes a bit longer to recharge all of that energy. I personally like this perk because there are more shots in the barrel so-to-speak. The biplane can now shoot up to 3 heavy cannon shots in a row with this or 2 shots with almost a full spam of your secondary. This is good for going up against much heavier planes such as bombers and even explodets.

Reverse Thrust:

This perk allows your plane to fly backwards. With the recent buff, you can reverse without using almost any energy. Even so, your biplane can only reverse and then shoot about 1 heavy cannon shot before you have to recharge again. That is, if you holding down the reverse button. If you are just cruising in reverse without holding it, you can shoot about 2 shots, recharge, and then continue reversing. Beagle is a very well known person for using his "sniplane" (heavy cannon+reverse) setup. I suggest if you are going to use this perk with heavy cannon, that you seek more information in his guide to the Sniplane.

Ace Instincts:

This perk increases your turning, firepower, and almost everything else on your plane as you obtain more veteran bars. This perk is not recommened because it takes some time to gain many bars in order to do some serious damage. But when it is acheived, 3 gold bars can take down a whale in 2 shots and a tiny press on your secondary weapon. This shows the true strength of the heavy cannon. If you are going to use this perk, I recommend that you get more experience with heavy cannon and work on getting the important kills while still maintaining bars.

Vs. Loopy

Tracker:

Tracker loopys can be very annoying as they have both EMP and their missles track more than other loopy in the game. This can be a problem combined with EMP. Just try not to stay close and snipe him from a distance. Try not to panic if you get EMP'ed and just try to take some quick turns to get away from it.

Double Fire:

This perk is more widely used instead of the Tracker red perk for a loopy because it still has its tracking ability and does more damage in a shot than Tracker. At a cost, though, the double fire missles do not track as much as Tracker. This loopy will probably be one of the most annoying planes that you fight. These loopys love to spam so its best not to fight them in open areas. If you have flexi on try to get them in tight spaces (i.e. 2 bomb spawns in Mayhem2 and through the spaces in the underpart of Locomotion), as you can turn around just as quick as them and go into close combat with them.

Acid Bomb:

This is the strongest loopy out of the 3, but it is not played as much. I am not sure why as the acid bomb that you can fire raises the damage that is done to the enemy plane during the time that the acid is active. Watch out for this planes acid as it uses it to control important choke points. Try to come from either behind it or go low and climb a short way up for a surprise attack.

8/10 Difficulty

Vs. Bomber

Suppressor:

Bombers are one of the more difficult planes to fight with heavy cannon, as they can spam with their bombs and then spam while running away with their buttgun. Its best to just face this plane head on ONLY in tight corners that way its spam will be harder to aim and their suppressor cannon will be useless. If you are out in the open, it is best to either come from above or below (if you come from below and begin to stall in the open, i like to press my D button and it shoots me back down superfast for a quick getaway). If you have to come from the front in the open, either try to dodge their grenades or if they fire all at once, ir you can try to fire from under the arch.

Bombs:

Otherwise known as "dumb bombs" these really live up to their name. This is like a slow hippo and you are the quick lion. Fight this plane either from behind or from the top. Do NOT come from below as their dumb bombs will put some serious damage and might even kill you if enough of them hit. if they try to go high after chasing them from a corner and drop a line of dumb bombs, don't panic. Just put your plane on the opposite side of the bomber's spam and take him out with about 3 heavy cannon shots.

Flak Tail-Gun:

This is one of the more played bombers and it is for a reason. The tail-gun that this shoots looks like a heavy cannon shot, and can be just as deadly. Try to keep your distance from its tail gun as your heavy cannon can go farther than it. As always try not to face it from the front because of its grenades.

6/10 Difficulty

Vs. Biplane

Dogfighter:

These planes will like to get in close as their secondary weapon is more powerful than yours is. Try to sneak up on him to get the advantage and stay back out of range of his secondary.

Recoilless:

Since this planes secondary has no recoill to the plane and is almost as strong as the dogfighter, its still stronger than your secondary. So you have to use your heavy cannon as the advantage. Take a spot far enough from his secondary and try to let him get close. Stay far from him and snipe away!

Heavy Cannon:

This is like facing up against your twin. It's mainly a battle of who hits who first. If they manage to get you first, they will most likely come in close to finish the job and get a better hit chance, so be expecting it. Try not to get in close tight spaces for him to get an easy snipe. Turn some corners and then make a quick u-turn for a battle of the ages.

7/10 Difficulty

Vs. Explodet

Director:

This is one of the less used perks for an explodet. When you get hit from a missle from this type of plane, your plane will be boosted in the opposite direction that the missle hit you. Its mines will stop you dead in your tracks no matter how fast you are going and explode quicker than a thermo mine. Try to stay back from this plane and snipe it from a distance. If you do get in close, close it in towards a wall. That way, if it tries to shoot you with a short enough thermo or mine, it will get a taste of its own medicine and get boosted into the wall.

Thermo:

This perk is the more common perk for explodet players. When you are hit from a missle with this, it will turn your plane around in every direction you can think of. If you see a thermo missle heading towards you, your initial thought is to fly as fast as you can to escape right? Well, sometimes thats right. If you are too close to a wall or anything like that, slow down a bit, but not to a crawl, so that if you do hit the wall you will not take as much damage. Its mines will move in a tornado-like manner so try to stay away from these. Since they do not detonate quick enough sometimes while you fly near them, you can sometimes fly fast enough through a feild of them without getting any of them detonated.

Remote:

Again, this is one of the fewer perks that are played by explodets. With this perk, the user is only able to deploy one mine at a time, but they can detonate it anytime they want. Even if they die and the mine has been layed, it can still be manually detonated so stay as far away from these type of explodets as possible, and snipe them from a distance.

5/10 difficulty

Vs. Miranda

Trickster:

The miranda is like a cheetah, which can sometimes make you feel like you are as slow as syrup. Do not let its speed get to you. It has the lowest health in the game and only takes 2 heavy cannon shots to take it down. It is best to stay close to walls as these planes can only warp to speed up, so keep it in tight spaces, but at a distance to not get hurt if it does get the chance to warp. If you do go into a tight space, try juke them out since its trickster shot can bounce.

Laser:

I find this perk really annoying since a good laser player can keep the laser on you for the whole charge, and then warp in for a quick kill. Try not to stay in open areas with this. Take sharp turns to avoide its laser and stay in closed areas.

Time Anchor:

These are actually one of the easier randas to kill, as most of the time anchor randas are predictable. What I mean is, they might as well tape their finger to their D key. Try to notice when a randa is going to time anchor. If you see them suddenly slow down, you know that they are probably going to wait for you to get close, time anchor back, and before you can turn around your dead. If you can try to learn how far back a mirandas time anchor is, then that is the best way to defeat these planes. By knowing how far it can time anchor back, you can stay just about a plane length more away to get some easy close shots in.

4/10 Difficulty

Bomb Running:

The biplane is a great bomb runner. With its good amount of health and flexible turning, this plane can survive almost anything while making a bomb run. The heavy cannon also helps with bomb running as you can take out some smoking planes that your team might have missed when pushing. BG1 was a great biplane bomb runner with heavy armor. Heavy Armor and Flexible Wings are recommened when bomb running because it is important to have more health and better turning to make sure you can get the hit on the base. Biplane is also has a good climbing rate in case you were forced to go low on a bomb run and need to make a quick climb before you get jumped by the whole enemy team.

Ball Carrying:

Heavy cannon is an average ball carrier. It is not the fastest, but it can make some pretty quick passes. It's better off if you stick to the better role of a ball heavy cannon: sniping. Stay back behind your team and focus more on killing. Try not to go for the ball too much. For more information on a ball heavy cannon biplane go to elixer's guide to playing an effective ball biplane.

Attacking:

The heavy cannon biplane can be a good pusher for a bomb run if used right. It is best to stay behind the bomb runner and shoot into a group of enemies that have bunched up in front of their base. And it can also be good if your bomb runner dies and the biplane makes it easier to pick up the bomb and finish the job. When trying to control the middle, the biplane works best one-on-one. Take down each plane individually and leave the more grouped planes to the heavier planes. Here is a Beagle approved heavy cannon killing chart!

Defending:

The heavy cannon biplane is a ninja. You are a stealth master. On places like asteroids, if someone comes in with the bomb from the other team, then their bomb runner is most likely going to be the last person to go. What I like to do is hide where the front 2 bottom turrets are on the asteroids floor, and then snipe 2 shots into their bomb runner right before he passes. So when the enemy team is making a push, it is best to stay hidden, but not out of the action.

Anger Them!

If you can make someone rage by making a good snipe on them with heavy cannon, then you just did the right thing. Heavy cannon is one of the most aggravating perks to die from. What's even better is if you pierce through someone and kill someone else that was on the other side. This makes them only want to come after you more, which makes it easier to kill them because their anger is keeping them from focusing more on where the bomb is at.

When you play heavy cannon, always remember, you are the hunter and everyone else is the huntee. You hold one of the most powerful perks in the game, so use it to your advantage. So get sniping and have fun with it!

Special Thanks to: Everyone who made me interested in heavy cannon such as Hurripilot, Aya, and others. And special thanks to Distraction for the video.

TheGenesis HC Promo Video (Video best played in HD fullscreen.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Q9af8RLAco