Elite Dangerous: Railgun vs Imperial Hammer

Weapons

Introduction

Tests were done against Imperial Cutter shields and both weapons fired from Anaconda with best power coupling.

Railgun is one of the most used weapons in PvP because after initial delay while weapon is charging it will hit target instantaneously so it's easy to hit even smaller enemies.

Railgun and Imperial Hammer is kinetic and thermic weapon at the same time and that means it is effective against shields and hull.

If you want to know more about weapons, damage done over the distance or against different bulkheads check other my posts or videos but for now Railgun/Imperial Hammer deals 2-3 times less damage at 2-2,5km compared to 500m.

Test

	Railgun	Imperial Hammer
Clip Size	1	3 (1 shot)
Total Ammo	31	93 (31 shot)
Damage 500 m vs 2 km	21 % vs 12 % (-75 %)	23 % vs 13 % (-76 %)
Shots per capacitor	14	11
Time per 1 shot	2,08 Sec	2,14 Sec
Conclusion	+14 % Damage per energy	+9 % damage per shot

Both weapons are very similar and have exactly same amount of shots - 31 each. Railgun is more energy efficient (by 14 %) but Imperial hammer deals more damage per shot (by 9%) so if you want to do higher damage per full load of ammo then Imperial Hammer is better option, but if you want to have maximum amount of weapons that your WEP capacitor can handle then Railgun is a better option.

Video