Loose Cannon

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This article is about the weapon. For the comic, see Loose Canon.
Ya call those bombs, ya wee little romance novel? I'll show you bombs!
The Demoman on old-fashioned bombs

The Loose Cannon is a community-created primary weapon for the Demoman. It resembles a pirate-style cannon with a stock and a sight near the front of the barrel.

The Loose Cannon fires explosive, glowing cannonballs that travel at approximately 1811 Hammer Units per second, 50% faster than the Grenade Launchers' projectiles. The cannonballs have a shorter, 1-second-long fuse, and will not explode on contact with an enemy, instead dealing less damage but inflicting potent knockback. The impact damage is considered explosive damage for the purposes of Damage Resistance.

Holding the fire button will prime the cannonball but not shoot it until the button is released, allowing control over the timing of the fuse. Cannonballs inflict 50% less damage once they have touched a surface, so priming them correctly is key to achieving maximum efficiency. It should be noted, however, that this damage penalty isn't applied to self-damage: cannonballs inflict full damage to the Demoman, even after touching a surface. If a cannonball is timed carefully so that it deals both impact and explosive damage to the same enemy within half a second, the explosive damage will be a mini-crit and a "double-donk" effect will play over their head with sound.

Holding a primed shot for too long will automatically fire the shot, which will immediately explode similar to the Beggar's Bazooka overloading, and deal damage to the user. Over-shortening the fuse can allow for a strong grenade jump known as a cannon jump.

The Loose Cannon was contributed to the Steam Workshop under the same name.

Damage and function times

See also: Damage
Damage and function times
Shot type Projectile
Damage type Explosive
Ranged or Melee damage? Ranged
Damage
Base damage 100% Direct: 57-77
Splash: 22-64
Bounce: 11-32
Critical Direct: 202
Splash: 101-192
Bounce: 50-96
Mini-crit Direct: 91-104
Splash: 29-91
Bounce: 23-43
Splash damage
Minimum splash 50% 3 ft
Damage reduction 1% / 2.88
Self-damage Splash: 56-104
Bounce: 56-104
Overload: 97-109
Function times
Attack interval 0.6 s
Reload (first) 1.24 s
Reload (consecutive) 0.6 s
Maximum charge time 1 s
Values are approximate and determined by community testing.

Note: Explosive damage varies depending on how it hits a player. The larger the classes' hit box and the closer to the explosion, the more damage delivered. The further away from the explosion, the less damage. Explosions do the most damage when they happen at the mid point of a player model. The explosion will cover more of the hit box, thus doing the most possible damage.

Demonstration

Crafting

See also: Crafting

Blueprint

Loch-n-Load Reclaimed Metal Loose Cannon
Item icon Loch-n-Load.pngx3 + Item icon Reclaimed Metal.png = Item icon Loose Cannon.png
Class Token - Demoman Slot Token - Primary Scrap Metal Possible Results
Item icon Class Token - Demoman.png + Item icon Slot Token - Primary.png + Item icon Scrap Metal.png =
Item icon Loch-n-Load.png Item icon Ali Baba's Wee Booties.png Item icon Bootlegger.png Item icon Loose Cannon.png
Item icon B.A.S.E. Jumper.png Item icon Iron Bomber.png

Related achievements

Leaderboard class demoman.png Demoman

Blind Fire
Blind Fire
Destroy an Engineer building that you can't see with a direct hit from your Grenade Launcher.


Bloody Merry
Bloody Merry
Provide an enemy player with a freeze cam of your smiling face.
Glasg0wned
Glasg0wned
Kill 25 Scouts and Pyros with the Grenade Launcher.

Backpack Full Head Of Steam.png Foundry achievements

Terminated, Too
Terminated, Too
Kill a player by pushing them into the cauldron fire.


Doomsday icon.png Astro-chievements

Lift-offed
Lift-offed
Push a player into the rocket's exhaust path at the end of the round.


Update history

December 20, 2012 Patch (Mecha Update)

  • The Loose Cannon was added to the game.

January 24, 2013 Patch

  • Fixed missing text in the recipe description for The Loose Cannon.

June 11, 2013 Patch

  • Fixed not hearing the Loose Cannon impact sound when playing on dedicated servers.

July 10, 2013 Patch

  • Changed attributes:
    • Range no longer affects direct cannonball impact damage.
    • Reduced charge time to 1 second.
    • Added Double-Donk (directly impacting an enemy within half a second before the bomb explosion) sound and particle effects.
    • Double-Donk damage now mini-crits.
    • [Undocumented] Removed hidden +50% damage bonus.

July 12, 2013 Patch

  • Updated the Loose Cannon description to match the updated gameplay.

August 27, 2013 Patch

  • [Undocumented] Added Strange quality.

November 12, 2013 Patch

April 1, 2014 Patch

  • [Undocumented] Fixed crit boosted glow not showing.

June 19, 2014 Patch

  • [Undocumented] The Loose Cannon's cannon ball explosions now use a deeper sound.

Bugs

  • Reflected cannonballs do not deal mini-crit damage.
  • If the player taps the attack button and switches weapons before the weapon starts priming, the priming sound will still play.
    • This also happens when the players die as they are priming the weapon.
  • Since the cannonball impact is considered to be explosive damage, it will gib players on kill.
  • The reloading animation uses the same as the Grenade launcher. Resulting in it reloading downwards instead of in the barrel.

Trivia

  • A "loose cannon" was a cannon on a ship which broke loose from its mounts and thus became a danger to the ship and crew; in modern idiom, it is a person who has little to no self-control.

Gallery

See also