Inner Space Weapons
This is a comprehensive list of all weapons in the Inner Space Windows game. As you will see, there are a lot of different types of weapons of different destructive capacities, fuel usage, cost to buy and fun value. Determining which weapon(s) are best for you depends on your style of play, how much icon credit you have, what sort of opponents you face and what you find most fun in the game. 

Laser Guns

All Inner Space ships come equipped with laser guns.  Although they are taken for granted as basic equipment, in the hands of a good Inner Space pilot, they can be your best and most flexible weapon. Firing your gun sends out a high-speed laser blast in the direction your ship is pointed.  Because laser shots are so fast, as long as you aim correctly, it is fairly easy to hit your target. One non-obvious aspect of ship guns is that the power of the laser blast dissipates as the shot travels from the gun.  You can see this visually because the shot starts out bright yellow-white and fades through orange to red to black as the shot gets farther away from where it started.  What this means is that if you hit something with a laser shot that is far away, the shot won't do nearly as much damage as if the object was very close to you when you fired the shot. If you get very close and shoot point blank, your shots will have maximum power and will deliver maximum damage to what you hit. Watch out for Ricochet! Another thing to consider about gun shots is that they ricochet.  You can bank a shot off one object to hit another. It also means that if you fire directly at something, the shot may fly back to hit you, too, depending on the angle of your shot. Double Guns For more coverage, you can buy the double gun upgrade in the Inner Space ambulance. Double gun shots cover more area and deliver twice the damage if they hit something, but still converge at a single point in front of the ship, making them just as easy to aim as single shots. You should consider your ship laser gun as your essential weapon because you can count on it being there, it's the fastest weapon, and you can use it to soften up opponents for other attacks. If you are very skilled with flying your ship and firing your gun, you can defeat opponents with much more weaponry.

Forward-Deployed Missiles

To deliver destructive force to a hazard or enemy, a wide range of missiles are available with different costs, seeking methods, and destructive capabilities. As a general rules, even if a missile misses it's target, the explosion when it detonates will damage any objects nearby. The closer you are to a shock blast, the more damage you will sustain. Do not use missiles on objects at close range because the shock blast can damage you, too. Dumb Missiles These are the simplest form of missiles.  They look just like conventional air-air missiles and deliver a powerful explosive charge to a target in front of your ship.  They travel in a straight line from the point they are fired from, similar to laser shots.  Since Dumb Missiles travel in a straight line, they are relatively easy to dodge with quick ship maneuvering.  Heatseeker Missiles These missiles look like Dumb Missiles and deliver a similar explosive charge, but have a heat-seeking sensor system that makes them easier to use.  It travels in a straight line from the point they are fired from for half a second and then the heat-seeking sensor guides it to the hottest object nearby. If there is nothing hot enough to attract the missile, it will continue to fly in a straight line. Ships are not the only hot objects in the game world.  Rocks, hazards, viruses and even your ship can attract heat-seeking missiles. Many objects can be heated (such as rocks) so they are more attractive to heatseeker missiles. For example, a ship which is not thrusting is not as hot as one that is active thrusting. The heat-seeking mechanism makes it easier to hit a moving object that may be evading the missile. However, the missiles is only so fast and maneuverable. It is possible to evade a heat-seeker with quick speed and turning. The missile will seek a target until it hits it or until it runs out of fuel and detonates its charge. Be careful not to fly into the path of your own heatseeker missile or it may start seeking you as it's target! Targeting Missiles These missiles look like Dumb Missiles and deliver a similar explosive charge, but have a sophisticated seeking sensor system that makes them easier to use.  They travel in a straight line from the point they are fired from for half a second and then the missile's computer sensor guides it to the target you specify. The only problem with targeting missiles is that you must first specify the target you wish to hit. Inner Space includes a targeting system to keep track of a specified ship or hazard. There is always something targeted at any given time (see online help and printed text for targeting keys.) For example, hitting 'R' will select a different ship in the wave as the current target. Therefore, before firing a targeting missile to hit an enemy ship, make sure the enemy ship is your current target before firing the weapon.   Otherwise, the missile will go after whatever the current target was, which may be an icon or even worse, a teammate or friendly ship! Once you have the target correctly set, it will stay the same, so firing subsequent missiles is easier. The trouble of setting the current target before firing is offset by the power of this weapon.  If the right target is set, the missile will pursue it's target relentlessly until it hits or runs out of fuel.  Targeting missiles aren't distracted by other hot objects, cannot come back on the ship that fired it and will even fly around other objects to get to it's target.  It's a powerful weapon, but also expensive and a little tricky to deploy. It is difficult to avoid a targeting missile fired at you. You can either shoot it with your guns or try to outrun it if you're very fast. Batteries Just like real batteries, these missiles store an electric charge that can be discharged on a target.  Batteries also have a heat-seeking sensor system to guide it to a target and they deliver an explosive charge if they hit something. The total effect is a very destructive weapon, but also one that is difficult to control. It travels in a straight line from the point they are fired from for half a second and then the heat-seeking sensor guides it to the hottest object nearby. If there is nothing hot enough to attract the missile, it will continue to fly in a straight line. Once it locks onto a target, it will discharge lightning bolts upon the target until it hits and explodes.   One well-placed Battery can cripple a healthy ship with the combination of lightning bolts and an explosive shock blast, but it's also easy to get hit and even crippled by your own battery. Use extreme caution when deploying batteries and make sure a viable target is in the missile's flight path. Beer Bottles Beer bottles are simple projectiles that are relatively inexpensive and deliver a shock blast upon impact with anything.  Similar to dumb missiles, Beer travels in a straight line and smash when colliding with an object.  If your aim is good, beer makes a good weapon that's simple and safe to deploy. Since it travels in a straight line, there is no chance of it coming back to hit the ship that sends it out. When Beer Bottles are smashed, the potential energy bound in the beer atoms is converted into a destructive (and funny) shock blast.  If you've never tried this weapon, you should give it a go because it's really a safe and harmless stress relief to smash things with beer bottles. Spud Missiles Spud Missiles are flying potato projectiles that are relatively inexpensive and deliver a shock blast upon impact with anything.  Similar to dumb missiles, potatoes travel in a straight line and smash when colliding with an object.  Spud Missiles are very heavy and destructive if they collide with the desired target. If your aim is good, Spud Missiles makes a good weapon that's simple and safe to deploy. Since it travels in a straight line, there is no chance of it coming back to hit the ship that sends it out. This is yet another of the weapons which is useful and destructive, but also funny. Sure, anyone can destroy things with missiles that look like missiles, but trashing icons and enemy ships with flying potatoes is adding insult to injury! Boomerangs Boomerangs are a safe and uniquely easy to use weapon that's also fun to just play around with.  Similar to dumb missiles, they fly in a straight line and deliver an explosive blast upon impact with an object.  However, unlike any other missile, boomerangs are reusable if they don't hit anything.  If the boomerang reaches it's maximum distance from the sender, it flies right back to the sender for reuse. Unlike real boomerangs, Inner Space boomerangs come back to the sender no matter where they are, as opposed to where they were thrown from.  That means that you can throw a boomerang while you're in motion and if the boomerang doesn't hit anything, it will seek you out and return to you no matter where you go.  However, boomerangs can only fly for a limited period of time.  If thy don't hit anything or get back to you, they will eventually blow up. This weapon is fun to just throw around even when you're not trying to hit something.      Fire Demons Fire Demons are rotating missiles with a heat-seeking sensor system to guide it to a target. As Fire Demons travel through space, they shoot fireballs in all directions, covering a broad area with disorienting light damage and delivering heavy damage if they make contact with an object. This weapon is good for distracting an opponent or several opponents who are grouped in front of your ship. It's a terrific weapon for distracting opponents while you run away or regroup for another attack but you must be careful not to fly into the path of your own Fire Demon, since you can get hit by it just as easily as an opponent. Use caution with this weapon. Throwing Stars Throwing Stars are safe and very fast weapons of destruction and distraction. Similar to dumb missiles, they fly in a straight line. Unlike dumb missiles, they are very fast and deliver a small but potent explosive blast upon impact. Throwing Stars are relatively inexpensive and light weapons which are good for hitting moving objects at a distance. They are safe to deploy because they cannot come back to hit you and make a cool whizzing sound as they fly through space. This weapon can be fun to just throw around even when you're not trying to hit something.

Effects Weapons

The following weapons deliver destructive force and/or allow you to control objects and are not missiles.   These weapons are therefore very light. Some of them are very powerful and expensive.. Lightning This weapon allows you to send an electrical charge from your ship to a nearby object in front of your ship. It's an incredibly useful and powerful weapon, but also expensive, fuel-consuming to use and rather dangerous. An electrical blast can cause massive damage and immediately stuns a hit object. Similar to real electricity, charge must be built up in a ship before it can be discharged on a hazard or enemy. As long as you have the Lightning weapon selected, charge will build up. The more charge you have, the more power in your Lightning blasts. Unlike real electricity, Inner Space charge has no positive/negative polarity, which makes it easier to deal with. Once an object has been hit with Lightning, it sustains damage but also retains some of the charge. That electrical charge can then be discharged on a passing object or even the ship which originally sent out the lightning bolt. For charge to flow from one object to another, the originating object must have more charge than the target.  Therefore, if your ship has Lightning and you build up a charge, you can hit an uncharged rock or ship passing nearby.  However, once you hit the object, it now has more charge and you have less.  Therefore, unless you build up more charge or the object you just hit loses the charge it just received, you can't hit that same object again. This is important to keep in mind when using Lightning.   For example, say you hit a rock with Lightning, but not enough to smash the rock.   The rock will then be charged and you will be discharged.  If that rock gets close to you, it can discharge back on you, causing damage.  If the charged rock gets close to an uncharged rock or any other object, a lightning bolt might jump to the uncharged object. Because the charge has been transferred, the lightning can jump back again if the objects are still close to eachother and sometimes you can see lightning jump back and forth many times until both objects blow up. Handcuffs Handcuffs connect two objects by a forcefield link, which appears and works similar to a bungee rope.  Handcuffs can be used to grab an object and tow it behind you. To deploy a handcuff, launch it at an object directly in front of your ship and it should latch on.  It takes fuel every time you launch a handcuff and naturally, it takes additional fuel to fly while dragging an object behind you. For example, the Enforcers use the handcuffs to get a hold of offenders and drag them out of the wave to deal with them in the Hall of Justice. If you drag an object, you can cause great damage to it by dragging it into hazards and can even get it out of the wave by dragging it to the wave exit gate. The forcefield link between two objects can be stretched somewhat by either object pulling away but can only be stretched so far. At the maximum stretch point, the link acts like a tightened rope, but will break if a great amount of force is exerted by either object away from the other. A similar but more destructive weapon is the grappling hook described below. Grappling Hook A Grappling Hook can connect two objects by a forcefield link, which appears and works similar to a bungee rope. Unlike Handcuffs, Grappling Hooks are very destructive and strategically powerful. To deploy a grappling hook, launch it at an object directly in front of your ship and it should latch on.  It takes fuel every time you launch a grappling hook. The forcefield link between two objects can be stretched somewhat by either object pulling away but can only be stretched so far.  At the maximum stretch point, the link acts like a tightened rope, but will break if a great amount of force is exerted by either object away from the other. One use of grappling hooks is to make it easier to capture useful objects. If an icon or fuel tank is nearby, you can deploy the grappling hook to reach out and pull the object in for capture without actually flying right over the object.  This makes capturing objects much easier, especially in cases where you are in a fight or race and don't want to slow down to carefully capture fuel. A second powerful use of grappling hooks is as a way to swing hazards or enemies around your ship.  For example, if you hook onto a rock, you can swing it around and then throw it at an enemy or hazard, causing terrific damage.  Another way to use it would be to hook a rock and fly near opponents with the rock swinging around you.   The rock will form an active shield of sorts and cause terrific damage to anything that gets too close to you.  A third destructive way to use this weapon is to hook an enemy ship.  As expected, it will swing quickly around your ship and if you then fly close to rocks or hazards, the enemy ship will be hammered by very hard blows from each object you make it hit.  The downside to this weapon is that it's not that easy to get the right object hooked and you can get damaged yourself from nearby explosions.  If you hook a rock, you must be very careful not to let it hit other rocks or they will explode and send fragments and a shock blast into you.  As is the general rule, the more powerful the weapon, the more careful you must be in using it. Fireballs Fireballs are a relatively safe and easy weapon to deploy that causes a fair bit of damage to anything in front of your ship.  This weapon turns fuel from your ship's fuel tank into a fiery blast that will heat up and cause damage to anything in it's way.   Since Fireballs cover a reasonably wide area in front of you, they are easy to use and your use is only limited by how much fuel you have. It's a particularly fun weapon to use on icons you don't like since it will make the icon catch fire and burn up into a sizzling nothingness. Snowballs Similar to fireballs, snowballs are a relatively safe and easy weapon to deploy that causes damage to anything in front of your ship.  This weapon turns fuel from your ship's fuel tank into a supercooled snowball  that will cause damage to anything in it's way. As expected, snowballs also cool down any object they hit.  If you hit a heated rock with a snowball, it will become cooler again. Since snowballs cover a reasonably wide area in front of you, they are easy to use and your use is only limited by how much fuel you have. Unlike fireballs, snowballs are more solid than gaseous, so they will break into small snowballs upon hitting an object. If you hit an icon with a snowballs, it will become frozen. The ice covering the icon makes it impossible to capture the icon, although you can hit a frozen icon with fire to thaw it out. Wildcard Defense This is a really powerful defensive weapon that can protect you from almost any attack.  When activated, the Wildcard Defense turns any threatening nearby object into random harmless fruit.  For example, if there are missiles flying toward you and you activate this weapon, the missiles might turn into an apple and some bananas that will not damage anything if they collide.  This defense will not help against effects weapons like guns, of course but is pretty comprehensive protection against missiles. Ring of Death The Ring of Death produces a circle of fiery explosions from ship fuel surrounding the ship that deploys it. The explosions will cause severe damage to nearby objects in any direction but no damage to the ship that deploys it. It is a very useful of damaging offensive or defensive weapon against hazards or enemies at close range and is a very safe weapon to use.  It's fuel usage is very high, so you must carefully time when you deploy it for maximum effect.

Rear-Deployed Weapons

Mines Simple rear-deployed mines are a very effective defense that are inexpensive, easy to use, and can also be used as an offense if you maneuver correctly.  The mines come out the back of your ship, so they are very useful for stunning an attacker chasing you. Use them to  stun an attacker before you turn to attack them or to distract them while you make an escape.  If you make a direct hit with a mine, they cause a fair bit of damage, too, but it can be difficult to aim them while you're being chased. If you fly towards a hazard and turn around quickly, you can even use these as an offense, although this will take some practice. Pellets Defensive Pellets are primarily useful to distract opponents who are hot on your tail and for missile interception.  These tiny missiles fly very quickly from your ship towards a nearby threatening object.  The Pellet launcher has some intelligence to determine a likely threatening object in the vicinity and sends the pellet quickly in the direction of the threat.  Pellets are so fast that they can often intercept missiles coming at you.  It is often the case that you cannot evade a missile seeking you, but it is simple to send out a pellet to destroy the threat before it gets too close. Death Heads Death Heads are rear-deployed mines which also have a heat-seeking sensor that will guide it to the nearest hot object.  The heat-seeking capability makes these potent offensive and defensive weapons. They are particularly useful to deploy while running from an attacker or a missile.  While the Death Head is seeking the nearest hot object, it also rotates and fires laser blasts in all directions, stunning and damaging anything in the general area. If it does make contact with an object, it explodes, causing even further damage from the shock blast. Doughnuts Doughnuts are the least understood weapon. They can be a lot of fun and even useful.  As a weapon, doughnuts are rear-deployed and will travel in a straight line for a length of time and then explode unless another ship eats them.  These are special doughnuts with narcotic properties, so if another ship captures a doughnut, they experience a loss of control and spin wildly for a few seconds.  Doughnuts are even more potent when dealing with Enforcers.  Sooner or later, when playing the game, you will break the laws of Inner Space and an Enforcer will come to arrest you.  If you deploy a doughnut anywhere near an Enforcer, they will feel an irresistible urge to forget about arresting you and go get the doughnut.  Therefore, having some doughnuts is very helpful for dealing with Enforcers.  Of course, the effect is temporary. If you stick around, the Enforcer will remember that he should arrest you and will do so.

The Noble Weapons

What Are the Noble Weapons? The Noble Weapons are the most powerful and useful weapons in Inner Space. Since you can only get Noble Weapons from your Inner Demon, they are somewhat ethereal powers, but can be very potent when used in the game. Unlike normal weapons, Noble weapons cannot be bought or sold, they take up no volume or weight in your ship and they allow you to directly control Inner Space itself. Only by obtaining the Noble Weapons can you truly master the world of Inner Space and you can only get Noble Weapons by facing your Inner Demon.  Many users are confused about the whole Inner Demon part of the game because we don't tell you what to do or how to get the Noble weapons. This was intended to be part of the challenge of the thing...figuring out what to do, not just going and doing it.   However, it is complicated, so if you'd like an explanation of the Inner Demon, how to get Noble Forces and how to win the game, visit the Inner Space Secrets Page where we describe these things in great depth. Enlightenment - This weapon looks like a firework and moves like a heatseeking missile. It is a very good weapon for stunning a ship and inflicting some damage at the same time. This weapons uses a great deal of fuel, but is a potent stunning & destroying weapon. Uncertainty - This weapon disrupts the fabric of Inner Space itself with probabilistic quantum fluctuations that stun everything but the ship that deploys it. It also can be used defensively. If a missile is on its way to hit you, uncertainty can neutralize it, although the exact way it does so is random. Attractive Force - This Force allows you to pull everything in space towards you. It is useful if a ship is running away or to pull icons or fuel cans, although it will also pull rocks and other harmful objects if they are around. Repulsive Force - This Force will repel laser shots from ships or turrets. The focus of the force is on the front of the ship, so it will not protect the rear or sides. To use effectively, aim directly at a laser shot and it will not hit you. Inner Force - This is a combination of Attractive and Repulsive Forces. Once you have both forces, you can unify them in the ambulance. It allows you to pull useful things toward you while simultaneously repelling enemy shots.