Mortars and artillery: range from two coordinates
Take your gun’s X and Y off the map, take the target’s, and the distance is plain geometry. No announcement, store page or official video gives a range, damage figure or sight scale for either gun, so every limit below names who measured it.
Hover the map for coordinates, or use Mark Coordinates to post them to chat.
Enter both pairs to get the range.
The maths is simple. One map coordinate unit is 100 m, so subtract the two X values and the two Y values, multiply each by 100, and the range is the square root of the two squared differences added together. SC Haulers works it that way in his tutorial, SwoleBenji does the same in the video below, and wardogshub states the 100 m unit outright. The answer assumes flat ground: a target 100 m above you shortens what the tube can reach, and a calculator with terrain data is the fix for that.
How far each gun reaches
| L81 mortar | SPH-2 artillery tank | |
|---|---|---|
| Closest it can hit | About 50 m (wardogs.zone; wardogshub says 52 m) | About 745 m (wardogshub and wardogs.zone) |
| Furthest | 685 m per wardogshub, 700 m per IGN and wardogs.zone | 2,660 m per wardogshub, about 2.7 km per StratzFPS in the beta |
| Arcs | High arc only, on both calculators | Low and high; which one reaches close targets is where the two calculators contradict each other |
| Reload | 6.5 s on both calculators | 27 s on both calculators. StratzFPS, in the beta, describes a key sequence that resets the timer if you get it wrong |
wardogshub credits its firing tables to the open-source project behind wardogs-artillery.com, and wardogs.zone does not say where its numbers come from, so when the calculators agree that is not proof of two separate measurements. Where they disagree, as they do over the maximum range and the artillery tank’s close-in arc, treat the limit as a range rather than a line.
Building the L81
The mortar needs the Large Hammer, and the hammer is the part with official numbers: it unlocks at Support level 8 for $75,000 and costs $2,400 each time you buy it. A Forward Operating Base is $7,500 at the vendor. Prices from Steam announcement — Pre-Load Live & Season 1 Changelog Build guides written in the beta still quote Support 7 and the old $1,600 hammer.
IGN says it has to go down within range of a FOB, and PCGamesN pitches it as something you build once you have a secure one. IGN and SC Haulers both put it on the third page of the hammer’s build menu, and both say hitting the yellow crosses on the frame builds it faster. IGN alone gives a cost, 91 building supplies, and PCGamesN says those can come from your backpack or the FOB. The shells arrive the same way: PCGamesN and SC Haulers both have ammo supplies carried in or delivered to the FOB. How a FOB gets supplied at all is on the FOB page.
Firing, and correcting
- Point it. Middle-click the target to ping it, then traverse until the white marker is under the sight. WASD makes the big moves and the mouse the fine ones.
- Read the sight. Aim down it for the readout. The left side is range in metres, and three sources agree on that. The right side is where they part: SC Haulers reads it as mils, IGN as how far the shell will travel.
- Dial between the marks. The labelled range ticks are coarse. SwoleBenji needed 412 m with only 385 and 430 printed, so you set it between them.
- Fire, skip, reload. The camera follows the shell; C leaves it. The tube holds three shells and R reloads while one is still in the air, which is how RadioGLHF and SwoleBenji both fire their barrages.
- Correct from the impact. IGN, PCGamesN and wardogshub all treat the first shell as a ranging shot. Find where it landed, adjust, fire again.
The artillery tank
It unlocks at Career level 90 for $500,000, up from level 55 and $400,000 before Season 1. Both in Steam announcement — Pre-Load Live & Season 1 Changelog The studio has not said what Career is; the progression page sets out the evidence that it is your overall level. Everything else about the tank is community reporting. StratzFPS, recording in the beta, calls it the SPH-2 with a 155 mm gun, a driver, a gunner and a machine-gun position, and says to stop the engine and stabilise it from the scroll menu before firing. He recommends parking it 1,600 to 2,000 m from your own spawn, and with a minimum range of about 745 m it cannot hit anything close to it anyway.
Calculators with firing tables
The tool above gives distance and bearing. For the sight setting itself, three community calculators go further. wardogshub dates its data to Season 1 but labels the numbers reported rather than confirmed, and neither of the others says what build it was checked against.
- wardogshub: corrects for terrain height, handles several guns and targets at once, and labels its own numbers as reported rather than confirmed.
- wardogs.zone: accepts the chat line from Mark Coordinates directly and shares a live board with your squad.
- wardogs-artillery.com: open source, and the project wardogshub credits for its firing tables.
What to build around a mortar pit is on the FOB page, what Support levels you need to get there is on the levelling page, and the towers whose codes pull the Hot Zone are on the towers page.