GW: Wing Gundam BR 3 Shot Maximum

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Iruga
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GW: Wing Gundam BR 3 Shot Maximum

There is a held belief that the Buster Rifle of the Wing Gundam has a 3 shot max output before requiring a reload. I don't really dispute this, but I'm wondering if it makes sense. Due to the rifle being able to adjust it's output, would I be right in saying that the BR can also fire 6 half power shots or 12 quarter powered shots etc etc?
Mafty
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Re: GW: Wing Gundam BR 3 Shot Maximum

According to the some information from the Model Kit translations, the gun is only capable of firing three rounds, however it can easily reload with more cartridges. It is also possible to change the beam output range of the gun, but it doesn't say if it can use different ammunition.
Iruga
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Re: GW: Wing Gundam BR 3 Shot Maximum

I'm not talking about different ammunition. We know that the BR has 3 energy packs that are used as the ammunitions for the BR. We also know that 1 full powered shot, should use up 1 energy pack right? What I'm asking is, if you fire a half powered shot does that only use half of the energy stored in the energy pack. It makes sense to me that this should be the case, even if it's not explicitly stated in any literature. An example of what I'm talking about can be seen in episode 1 and episode 5. There is a clear difference between shot that can take out 2 Aries that are fairly far apart and being able to shoot over the shoulder of Deathscythe and take the head off a Leo. I don't understand how both these shots could use the same amount of energy in the energy pack.
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Seto Kaiba
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Re: GW: Wing Gundam BR 3 Shot Maximum

Iruga wrote: Sat Sep 17, 2022 4:48 am There is a held belief that the Buster Rifle of the Wing Gundam has a 3 shot max output before requiring a reload.
That's not a "belief" so much as it is an explicitly stated fact in official publications for the series.

The Buster Rifle carried by the Wing Gundam is described as having three e-caps (the cylinders near the grip) that allow it to fire a maximum of three times before needing to be manually reloaded. (Stated in New Mobile Report Gundam W MS Encyclopedia, Mobile Suit Bible 80, etc.)

You could think of it as being vaguely analogous to the RX-0's beam magnum in Gundam UC, which expends an entire e-pac every time it fires... except the Buster Rifle doesn't have a detachable magazine so each e-cap needs to be removed and replaced individually. (The Ver.Ka type has the Wing Gundam carrying additional e-caps.)

Iruga wrote: Sat Sep 17, 2022 4:48 am I don't really dispute this, but I'm wondering if it makes sense. Due to the rifle being able to adjust it's output, would I be right in saying that the BR can also fire 6 half power shots or 12 quarter powered shots etc etc?
I can't seem to find any remark stating that the Wing Gundam's Buster Rifle can vary its output.

I believe fans may be conflating the Wing Gundam's Buster Rifle, which is powered internally by three e-caps, with the externally-powered Twin Buster Rifle used by the Wing Gundam Zero. The Wing Gundam's Buster Rifle is only ever said to be capable of firing "a maximum of three shots", where the Twin Buster Rifle of the Wing Gundam Zero is directly implied to have variable output in remarks about it being able to destroy a space colony in one shot at its maximum output. Presumably the variable output of the Twin Buster Rifle is a product of it being externally-powered using the Gundam's reactor.

(Of course, this doesn't touch on the fact that it is literally impossible for the Wing Gundam Zero to generate more than the tiniest fraction of the energy output even the regular Buster Rifle supposedly produces... making the whole thing an ill-considered arse pull that would realistically require months or years of charging at an impossible 100% energy storage and transmission efficiency to fire a single shot.)
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E08
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The 1/144 HGAC Wing Gundam model kit manual (in the manual's MS profile text, not the Buster Rifle text) did note that it is possible to adjust the Buster Rifle's output to vary the attack area, but it did not say if doing so affect the number of shots.
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Seto Kaiba
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E08 wrote: Sat Sep 17, 2022 11:30 pm The 1/144 HGAC Wing Gundam model kit manual (in the manual's MS profile text, not the Buster Rifle text) did note that it is possible to adjust the Buster Rifle's output to vary the attack area, but it did not say if doing so affect the number of shots.
To vary the attack area? That sounds like it's not the output of the Buster Rifle that's being adjusted, but the focus of the beam... so one shot would still consume one e-cap, but the area of effect might change.

Official artbooks describe the Buster Rifle's discharge as having two distinct components: a narrow, high velocity particle beam with overwhelmingly high penetrating power and a much wider (150m diameter) wash of lower-velocity particles that provides AOE damage. Presumably the adjustment mentioned there is how much power is being diverted to the lower-velocity wide area component of the beam, which wouldn't affect the total energy expended.
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E08
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Re: GW: Wing Gundam BR 3 Shot Maximum

Here's the japanese text if anyone is interested. "さらに出力の調整によって, 攻撃範囲の変更が可能となっている".
Iruga
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Re: GW: Wing Gundam BR 3 Shot Maximum

So what do we do if the show doesn't support the theory of 100% e-cap usage per shot? There is plenty of footage of the BR being shown using a narrower shot, but not the increased range that would come with such a shot.
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Seto Kaiba
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Re: GW: Wing Gundam BR 3 Shot Maximum

Iruga wrote: Sun Sep 18, 2022 3:32 am So what do we do if the show doesn't support the theory of 100% e-cap usage per shot? There is plenty of footage of the BR being shown using a narrower shot, but not the increased range that would come with such a shot.
How would you even tell? The range of a normal shot is said to be tens of kilometers... and this show was hand-drawn. That they don't show greater range is not an argument against the official material, because they never show the full extent of the beam ever.
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Iruga
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Re: GW: Wing Gundam BR 3 Shot Maximum

You can't tell and that's definitely a technological limitation of the time. Yes! You are right, the absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence. But does that not apply to the number of shots the BR can fire?
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Seto Kaiba
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Re: GW: Wing Gundam BR 3 Shot Maximum

Iruga wrote: Mon Sep 19, 2022 4:22 am But does that not apply to the number of shots the BR can fire?
Well, no... because we have clear and entirely unambiguous statements in multiple official publications spanning decades of real world time that the Wing Gundam's buster rifle can fire a maximum of three times before needing to be reloaded.

"Then shalt thou count to three, no more, no less. Three shall be the number thou shalt count, and the number of the counting shall be three. Four shalt thou not count, neither count thou two, excepting that thou then proceed to three."
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Underrated GM Custom
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Re: GW: Wing Gundam BR 3 Shot Maximum

If I understood OP's question correctly, they are asking if Wing's Buster Rifle is capable of firing at a lower output and if so can it fire multiple times on a single e-cap. For example, if the high power setting uses an entire e-cap, then it can only be fired three times on the high power setting; now if there is a lower power setting that say only uses 1/2 the energy in the e-cap it could fire six times.

I don't think there's any information out there regarding a low power mode, but we do see something that could be described as it during the show. Specifically in the Sanc Kingdom arc we see the Buster Rifle fire a very precise, very thin beam which strikes the falling object so it wouldn't impact the limouise driving Dorothy and Relena. Compared to Wing's usual Buster Rifle shot it is remarkably less destructive in scale.

From the above posts it looks there isn't anything published that describes getting more shots at a lower power setting. The best we've got is as E08 mentions, being able to vary the output. If you wanted to though you could rewatch portions of the show and make a tally to see if it fires more than 3 times without any cuts where it could presumably manually reload off screen. But keep in mind, Wing is prone to more than a few animation errors.
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Seto Kaiba
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Re: GW: Wing Gundam BR 3 Shot Maximum

Underrated GM Custom wrote: Mon Sep 19, 2022 2:41 pm If I understood OP's question correctly, they are asking if Wing's Buster Rifle is capable of firing at a lower output and if so can it fire multiple times on a single e-cap. For example, if the high power setting uses an entire e-cap, then it can only be fired three times on the high power setting; now if there is a lower power setting that say only uses 1/2 the energy in the e-cap it could fire six times.

I don't think there's any information out there regarding a low power mode, [...]
As noted above, the official print materials both from the time the series was airing and subsequent publications are very consistent on the subject of the Wing Gundam's Buster Rifle being able to fire no more than three times before needing to be reloaded. (See MS Bible 80, Gundam Perfect File 148, Encyclopedia of Gundam Wing, New Mobile Report Gundam W MS Encyclopedia, the 1/100 HG, 1/144, and Sunrise's official website for the series, etc. etc.)

Underrated GM Custom wrote: Mon Sep 19, 2022 2:41 pm [...] but we do see something that could be described as it during the show. Specifically in the Sanc Kingdom arc we see the Buster Rifle fire a very precise, very thin beam which strikes the falling object so it wouldn't impact the limouise driving Dorothy and Relena. Compared to Wing's usual Buster Rifle shot it is remarkably less destructive in scale.
Tightening the focus on the beam doesn't require changing the amount of energy in the beam.

A 1 watt laser with a beam diameter of a meter communicates exactly the same amount of energy as a 1 watt laser with a beam diameter of a millimeter.

As noted above, the Buster Rifle's beam has two main components... a narrow, tight-focus, high velocity beam with high penetration and around that is a low-velocity wide-focus beam that spreads out over a wide area (150m in diameter) that inflicts the massive area damage. Concentrating the beam diameter down to just the narrow-focus high-penetrating beam wouldn't necessarily change the total amount of power coming out of the gun.
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MythSearcher
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Re: GW: Wing Gundam BR 3 Shot Maximum

I recall seeing somewhere that the gun or the Twin Buster Rifle on WZ will have to increase output when fired in air because air scatters the beam and thus making it overheat and can also only be used in limited capacity.
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