Game:

Earth Defense Force 5 (2017)

Duration: 37:42

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30

{timecodes and summary table below} After killing a silver King with a Rapier and a Phalanx in subsequent runs, I realized that the Phalanx didn't seem to kill the King faster. In contrast to the Rapier, the Phalanx had to reload to kill the King. After some quick calculations my suspicions were confirmed: Phalanx ZAT would have more than twice the dps of the Rapier Super Nova IF it did not have to reload.
Well, just calculating dps is kinda boring. So I decided to measure weapon performance kinda indirectly: How long does it take to destroy a War Barga?
All weapons/equipment used for this test are upgraded to the maximum rating. Time is measured from the frame the ammo number starts dropping till the frame Barga's health reaches 0. So the wind up time of the Gatling and Hell Flame Revolver (HFR) is not included. These times would be impossible to measure exactly in a video anyway. The Phalanx's initial charge also doesn't count. If I'd include that time, I'd have to include the reload of every weapon after Barga's destruction, too. I also tested several vehicles for which I came up with additional rules:
Only the main weapon(s) are allowed to be used. That's normally the one with more ammo and damage potential.
Vehicles that can't destroy Barga with their main weapon(s) are obviously excluded from the test.
If a vehicle has several gunner seats for its main weapons (Brute, Proteus), one is used at a time.
As the AR can buff his vehicles, there is a second test run for each of them with Power Post ZM installed.
Here are the timecodes:
00:00 Introduction
00:27 Fracture
01:47 Type-Z Free Bike
03:14 Blazer
04:33 Magma Cannon
06:47 Magma Cannon toe-shot
07:41 HU04 Brute SA9
09:01 Buster Shot
09:51 2x Jackhammer MBF
11:00 Jack & Dexter
11:58 2x Blast Twin Spears M5
12:44 2x Vulcan Hammer ZD
14:42 2x FGZF Hand Gatling
15:36 2x Hell Flame Revolver
16:41 2x Hell Flame Revolver toe-shot
17:34 2x Maximum Disruptor
18:27 Rapier Super Nova
19:06 Phalanx ZAT
19:46 Phalanx ZAT & Big Bang Core
20:27 Ghost Chaser DA & Big Bang Core
22:26 BMX10 Proteus Gamma
24:30 BMX10 Proteus Gamma & Power Post ZM
26:00 N9 Eros Σ
27:30 N9 Eros Σ & Power Post ZM
28:38 Nix Assault
29:42 Nix Assault & Power Post ZM
30:40 Nix Saber
31:38 Nix Saber & Power Post ZM
32:22 EMCX gets bounced around
34:07 EMCX actual test

results (minutes;seconds;frames)
00;10;47 Phalanx ZAT & Big Bang Core
00;11;46 Rapier Super Nova
00;12;38 Phalanx ZAT
00;16;13 Nix Saber & Power Post ZM
00;18;26 2x Blast Twin Spears M5
00;21;24 Buster Shot
00;23;03 Nix Assault & Power Post ZM
00;24;40 Nix Saber
00;26;25 Jack & Dexter
00;28;03 2x Maximum Disruptor
00;28;39 2x Hell Flame Revolver
00;28;47 2x Hell Flame Revolver toe-shot
00;31;00 2x FGZF Hand Gatling
00;35;06 Nix Assault
00;41;08 N9 Eros Σ & Power Post ZM
00;41;45 2x Jackhammer MBF
00;42;34 Fracture
00;48;23 HU04 Brute SA9
00;51;59 BMX10 Proteus Gamma & Power Post ZM
00;52;35 Blazer
01;02;39 N9 Eros Σ
01;03;12 Type-Z Free Bike
01;16;08 Ghost Chaser DA & Big Bang Core
01;22;42 2x Vulcan Hammer ZD
01;30;54 BMX10 Proteus Gamma
01;39;37 Magma Cannon
01;40;11 EMCX
11;08;02 Magma Cannon toe-shot

As expected, the Phalanx was slower than the Rapier. But that changed with the Big Bang Core, shortening the reload time. In theory, Phalanx should be able to kill Barga in 1 charge (203.8x10x321=654198). But it only did 441085 damage. Power attenuation is extreme with Phalanx, but I was shooting Barga at point-blank range. In the second test with Big Bang Core, Phalanx did 440412 damage with the first charge. Phalanx' damage calculation is flawed. Or the in-game datasheet is wrong.
The Buster Shot is way faster than the Blazer. Which is no surprise, as its calculated dps are 2.6 times as high. Fun fact: The Buster Shot deals 20% of its damage on impact, the remaining 80% are added by the explosions.
The Magma Cannon's damage depends on how many of the flame clouds make contact with the target and how long the contact is. So its performance went way down when just hitting Barga's toe.
This mechanism is not present in the HFR or any Nix-mounted flame thrower. The small difference of 8 frames between the two HFR-tests gives us an idea how big the margin of error for this measuring method is.
The Power Post works as expected, lowering destruction time by ~35%. The saving for the Proteus was bigger (~43%), as I didn't have to switch seats with the buff on.

Other Statistics