Machine Gun

 

"The Machine Gun turret sprays bullets at the enemy, rapidly dealing damage to massed infantry at close to medium range."

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Level 1	Level 2	Level 3	Level 4
Level 5	Level 6-7	Level 8	Level 9-10
Level 11-14	Level 15-20	Level 21	Level 22

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Summary

• The Machine Gun is the third defense to unlock in the game.
• Machine Guns have moderate range and a fast rate of fire, but they deal low damage and have poor accuracy. Their accuracy generally increases as the distance from the target decreases.
• The Machine Gun is very effective against large groups of Riflemen, Warriors, and Zookas, as they can hit more than one target at once.
• The Machine Gun has a small blind spot where it cannot fire upon. Reaching the blind spot is very dangerous as the Machine Gun can do great damage against units that are very close to its blind spot.

Offensive Strategy

• Deploying Heavies in front of Riflemen or Zookas is a very effective way of protecting them from Machine Guns. However, although having a single Heavy can protect Zookas, one Heavy will not protect Riflemen. This is due to the Machine Gun's inaccuracy, as bullets tend to miss the meat shield and harm the supporting troops.
• The closer your troops are to the Machine Gun, the more accurately it fires. If possible, try to destroy it from a distance.
• Grenadiers can outrange Machine Guns completely, while Tanks and Zookas have a long enough range to render the Machine Gun less effective. However, the Machine Gun should not be ignored in the latter case, since a few shots can still easily take down Zookas.
• Warriors can be chewed up if near a Machine Gun, but they can easily heal through the occasional bullet if they are attacking something else at the edge of the Machine Gun's range.
• Critters and Warriors can easily take down a lone Machine Gun due to its blind spot rendering it unable to attack back.

Defensive Strategy

• Machine Guns are very effective front-line defenses, as they stop weak troops like the Rifleman or Zooka from advancing into your base.
• Placing Machine Guns near Boom Cannons or Rocket Launchers can help prevent other players from trying to target them with weak troops.
• They are a good alternative to Flamethrowers when defending against Warriors. Because of its accuracy at fairly short range, they can destroy Warriors attacking a nearby building fairly quickly. Due to their blind spot, however, they should not be placed right next to important buildings, but at a distance such that they are just about able to cover all sides of the building.

Upgrade Differences

• Initially, the Machine Gun is a green gun mounted on a silver stand, and there are two silver handles on the back. 
• At level 2, the Machine Gun gains a small magazine on the back, and the front of the barrel becomes smaller and ridged. 
• At level 3, the Machine Gun gains sandbags around one half of it, and the magazine on top is removed and replaced with two magazines, one on each side.
• At level 4, the Machine Gun gains a small frontal shield.
• At level 5, the Machine Gun gets slightly bigger, it gains a larger frontal shield, and its handles are reinforced. The whole barrel becomes thinner.
• At level 6, the magazines are removed and a pan magazine is added at the back of the Machine Gun, behind the shield. The sandbags are extended to the entire perimeter of the Machine Gun and the shield grows slightly in size.
• At level 8, the stand is reinforced. The barrel loses its ridged pattern and now has holes in it. A green dot is added on top of the pan magazine. The back handles are moved away from each other.
• At level 9, the Machine Gun loses all its sandbags. It gains a stone base, a modified handle system, and a bigger and more reinforced frontal shield which covers the entire gun and is more angular. The pan magazine is removed and replaced by two ammunition belts converging together in the back.
• At level 11, the Machine Gun gains a back shield and loses its handles, becoming hexagonal. The ammunition belts are removed. A box can be seen on the side, possibly replacing the belts. A small green hatch is added on the top.
• At level 15, the base turns green and becomes steel. The body becomes a square and turns green as well. Another barrel is added, and both resemble the level 6 Machine Gun barrel.
• At level 21, the Machine Gun turns massive and gains a new color scheme of dark green, light green, and grey. A large metal cockpit with a thin, rectangular viewport now sits upon a small, steel baseplate, with a light green hatch on top. The two barrels once again resemble the level 8 barrels. They are held up by two large dark green arms with silver piping on top. Two large, dark green ammo boxes sit on the back of the structure.
• At level 22, the barrels now turn into a set of five, and resemble miniguns. An ammo belt is seen attached to each.

Trivia

• Machine Guns were invented in the mid-19th century and have been used in war to this day.
• The Machine Gun is the third fastest-firing Defensive Building in the game. In first and second place are the Shock Blaster and MMG 9000 respectively.
• The Machine Gun has the lowest hitpoints of any maximum-level defensive building.
• Despite visibly having magazines attached to it, the Machine Gun has no need to reload while firing.
• The level 1 Machine Gun bears a moderate resemblance to the real-life Maxim machine gun, as well as a much smaller resemblance to the real-life Browning M1917, which had a similar looking water jacket.
• A Machine Gun could fire up to 2,400 bullets in a single battle.
• If a level 22 Machine Gun is Shock Bombed while it is firing, the barrels will continue spinning while it is shocked.
• Although the level 15 upgrade adds a permanent secondary barrel to the machine gun, the fire rate does not increase. This is most notable at level 22 when the barrels appear to spin faster than the fire rate suggests.

Statistics

HQ Level	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	25
Number Available	0	0	0	1	1	2	2	2	2	3	3	3	4	4	4	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5

Building Size	Range	Attack Speed	Damage Type	Splash Radius	Random Radius
3x3	2.5-9	0.1 Second	Splash	0.6 Tiles	0.8 Tiles

Input total Statue bonuses to modify the statistics in the table below accordingly

Building Health+%	ApplyReset
Defensive Building Damage+%

Level	Hitpoints	Typical Damage Per Second^	Maximum Damage Per Second	Damage Per Shot	Upgrade Cost			Upgrade Time	Instant	Headquarters Level Required	XP Gain
					Wood	Stone	Iron
1	1,600	12	87	8.7	3,300	N/A	N/A	1h	37	4	10
2	1,740	14	99	9.9	4,600	N/A	N/A	1h 15m	45	4	11
3	1,890	15	111	11.1	8,800	N/A	N/A	1h 45m	64	5	13
4	2,060	18	126	12.6	10,000	N/A	N/A	2h	71	5	14
5	2,240	20	142	14.2	13,200	2,320	N/A	2h 15m	92	6	15
6	2,440	22	160	16.0	14,900	2,610	N/A	2h 30m	99	6	15
7	2,700	25	180	18.0	22,500	4,500	N/A	3h	126	7	17
8	2,900	29	203	20.3	38,000	8,400	N/A	4h	175	8	20
9	3,100	32	229	22.9	60,000	14,400	3,800	5h	247	9	22
10	3,400	36	258	25.8	97,000	24,300	7,800	6h	334	10	26
11	3,700	41	291	29.1	134,000	49,000	14,000	7h	434	11	28
12	4,000	47	329	32.9	205,000	96,000	25,200	8h	588	12	31
13	4,400	53	371	37.1	295,000	177,000	50,000	10h	790	13	34
14	4,800	59	418	41.8	420,000	360,000	100,000	12h	1,106	14	42
15	5,200	67	471	47.1	730,000	550,000	201,000	14h	1,529	15	48
16	5,700	76	532	53.2	1,040,000	930,000	410,000	16h	2,098	16	59
17	6,200	85	599	59.9	1,510,000	1,240,000	790,000	18h	2,756	17	62
18	6,700	96	676	67.6	1,880,000	1,710,000	1,120,000	20h	3,354	18	63
19	7,300	108	762	76.2	2,150,000	2,090,000	1,640,000	22h	3,936	19	67
20	7,900	122	859	85.9	2,430,000	2,430,000	2,420,000	1d	4,574	20	69
21	8,600	138	969	96.9	2,760,000	2,540,000	2,980,000	1d 2h	5,021	21	71
22	9,460	156	1,093	109.3	3,150,000	2,900,000	3,400,000	1d 4h	5,514	22	74

^ All shots may not hit, so the game's stated damage per second is approximate. Accuracy improves as targets move closer.