EDIT: Several corrections to ship descriptions and ammo added, courtesy of TrainTrack and NotSoLoneWolf.

Before we get into which type of ammo to use against each each ship, you need to understand what each ammo type does.

I would also highly recommend checking out my Ship Identification guide beforehand, because you need to know how to identify a ship with no radar contact label before you start firing at it - you may be using the wrong ammo:
Newbie Guide - Identifying ships with no radar contact label



AP - Armor Piercing. This ammo is used on armored hulls, and reaching internals you can't otherwise hit with other ammo.
If it penetrates, it does split damage between the components it travels through, or full damage to a single component if it hits and doesn't overpenetrate it.
If the round overpenetrates, it deals reduced damage across all components it travels through from entry to exit point.

HE - High Explosive. This ammo is used to deal damage to multiple components across the surface of an unarmored target.
This detonates in a sphere, splitting its damage to all components caught in the sphere, if the round penetrates.
HE travels a set distance inside a ship before it detonates.
Higher caliber HE shells can overpenetrate small hulls.
If the round overpenetrates, it deals reduced damage across all components it travels through from entry to exit point.

HE-RPF - High Explosive Fragmentation. This shell type is specific to ANS (Alliance), and it deals significant damage to the internals of an unarmored target. It is also used to identify ships based on splashes across their hull.
It has a magnetic fuse, which detonates in close proximity to physical objects - ship or asteroid.

HE-HC - High Explosive. Exclusive to Protectorate (OSP), and visually identical to HE. It has less armor penetration, but deals more damage than HE. It is used immediately after Plasma strikes.

Plasma - Shell exclusive to OSP. It does no damage, but it strips all armor wherever it hits on a ship. Ideal against the Axford Heavy Cruiser and Solomon Battleship.

Bomb - 600mm shell exclusive to OSP's Monitor hull. In function, the explosive works the same way as HE-RPF, shattering in a huge sphere of shrapnel upon detonation.
This shell has a timed fuse, which is set based on the distance from target at the moment of fire. When manually fired, it will detonate at the exact point specified, allowing you to hit targets behind cover.
This shell cannot be fired at jam strobes or elint signatures, because there is no distance to set from target.

Flak - 100mm shell with orange tracer, exclusive to OSP. Can be fired from the 100mm cannon instead of AP / HE / HE-HC. Used as point defense.

Grape - 100mm shotgun-type shell, exclusive to OSP. Used to quickly disable the internals of ANS cappers.

Rails - A shell exclusive to ANS. Upon hitting a ship, splits its damage to all components it hits in its path. The shell deals full damage regardless of whether it overpenetrates or not.
The first component hit takes half the round's damage, the next component takes half of the remaining half and so on.
Each component takes a guaranteed debuff.

Mass driver - A fracturing block exclusive to OSP, which does not travel through targets and works like an HE-impact Missile warhead. Upon contact it throws out rays of 33 damage, impacting the first component it hits.
Overpen for this shell is visual.

HE-SH - 600mm shell exclusive to OSP's Monitor hull. This shell works like the Mass Driver fracturing block, only it throws out 60 damage in a narrower cone, dealing more concentrated damage upon impact.

Before we cover what ammo you should fire against each ship, you need to understand how armor penetration works.

The armor value for each hull is uniform across the entire ship, however, armor angling is a thing, and shells will shatter if they are unable to penetrate the angled surface.
There are no weakspots in the armor, however, the position of some internals can be considered a weakspot.


Visual representation of how different ammo types damage a ship

The damage model is not uniform for each flat surface of a ship's hull. If there is a large round hole on a ship's surface, and a smaller caliber shell hits it, it will penetrate and do damage. If it hits the intact armor next to the hole on the same ship surface, it will not penetrate.

Example of areas stripped of armor (black texture), and areas where rounds hit and partially stripped armor, but did not penetrate. All black spots on this ship are vulnerable to small caliber weapons.

If a ship is unlucky enough to be close to a reactor bloom, its armor is partially, or fully stripped, depending on how close it was to the explosion. If you see a ship that is fully charred from a bloom, or plasma, you should fire HE of any caliber across its surface to do full damage.

Sometimes you may find yourself shooting at a large stationary target - a disabled Marauder, Axford, Monitor, etc.
You can order your ships to fire at a specific point in space to target key components on these ships, such as weapons and reactors.
The distance of the firing point should be approximately the same as that of the ship you are shooting at, so all shells from your formation converge on the exact same spot.
Keep in mind, if the target starts moving, you will have to return to automatic fire or continuously switch the aim point multiple times.

WHEN PLAYING ANS

If playing Sprinters
- You should fire 120mm HE-RPF at enemy Ferrimen and Dragur Tugs if they are at a medium / long range. You should switch to 120mm HE if fighting at close range. Do not use AP against enemy cappers as you will almost always overpenetrate.You can use AP on a Tug from the front to hit its reactor and engines, however, it is not reliable - the shell often shatters at the back of the ship.
- You cannot damage Monitors and Ocellos with Sprinters. If you have specifically build an Axford Heavy Cruiser, which can punch holes into the Monitor / Ocello, you may use 120mm AP to bleed out their internals.
If you're lucky, the 120mm AP will land where the 450mm holes are and they will travel through the ship until they hit a component.
- If you are facing liners, you should use HE on their sides, and AP on their front / back. Liners always show you their broadside, so you almost never need AP for them.

If playing Keystone
Beme... Beme is all you need.
You can equip some 120mm guns to deter Ferrymen with HE / HE-RPF at close range, but for everything else - Beme...

If playing Raines / Vauxhall
- Same strategy against enemy cappers and tugs - use RPF. Since these two hulls can use 250mm, the best way to take care of Ferrymen and Tugs is to disable their engines with HE-RPF, and then finish them off with HE.
250mm HE will overpen Ferrymen from the top, bottom, and sides. Use it only they have their nose or engines towards you.
- Against Monitors and Ocellos use 250mm AP, unless they are charred from a reactor bloom or are riddled with holes. 120mm AP is only effective if there are areas with stripped armor to hit. You can use 250mm HE on their broadsides, however, you need to have a flat surface to shoot at to ensure penetration. If angled, the shell will shatter on both of these hulls.
- Against liners, carriers, or container launcher (CLN), use HE.

If playing Axford / Solomon
- Don't bother shooting 450mm HE at Ferrymen - the 450 shell is very slow and will always miss a fast-moving Ferryman in the distance. Fire only if the Ferriman is at close range and you have nothing else to shoot at.
- Use 450 HE on tugs from all angles.
- For Monitors, you can use 450 AP to wreck their internals behind the spinal cannon, or 450 HE to destroy the spinal cannon quickly along with most of their nose components. If you have their broadside, use 450 HE only.
- For Ocellos, use 450 AP from the front, and 450 HE on their sides / top / back. You may use 450HE as an opener to soften the nose components and then switch to AP.
- For Liners, Carriers and CLN - use 450 HE.

WHEN PLAYING OSP

If playing Ferryman
- Use 100mm grape to quickly wreck the Sprinter's internals, and 100mm HE to finish them. 100mm HE-HC does not have enough armor pen to damage a Sprinter.
- Against Raines / Keystone use 100mm HE. Ideally you do not want to be facing either of these hulls. If you are, you best have rockets.
- Stay as far away from Gun Vauxhalls as you can. They will destroy you in less than a minute with HE-RPF. Engage only if you intend to rocket-blast them at point-blank range.
- Against Axfords and Solomons, the Ferryman can only be effective if it shoots rockets in the exact same spot from point blank range. If they are shooting 450 HE at you, angle your ship in such a way that you are facing them with the belly of your ship - almost all 450s will overpenetrate.

If playing Draugr
- Same as the ferryman, use grape to soften Sprinters and HE to finish them. If you are playing this hull, you are likely carrying better weapons, such as missiles, better suited to eliminate them.
- Against Raines, use 100mm HE and 250mm HE if carrying a spinal 250. You generally don't want to fight Raines 1 on 1 as it has more turret slots and can outgun you.
- Against Keystones... well... Good luck. Shotgun them with missiles or rocket them, otherwise you die.
- Stay away from Vauxhalls as they can destroy you with HE and HE-RPF. You can only fight them if armed with pojnt-blank range S2 or S3 missiles / rockets.
- Same thing with Axfords and Solomons. Stay away from them unless you plan to ambush them with missiles.

If playing Monitor
- Use 100mm grape spam and 600mm Bomb shell on Sprinters, followed by 100mm HE.
- Use 100mm HE and 600mm HESH / Bomb shell on Raines
- Against Vauxhall use 250mm HE spinal / 450mm HE spinal / 600mm HESH, or plasma + 100mm HE-HC.
- Against Keystones - Fire all the HE or Plasma + HE-HC you can muster before they start beaming you.
- Against Axfords / Solomons use Plasma + 100mm HE-HC / 250mm HE spinal / 450mm HE spinal / 600mm HESH. You can use 250mm AP spinal or 450mm AP spinal, however, OSP's main strength is stripping armor and dealing HE damage to the stripped areas, as it is way more effective.

If playing Ocello
- Same as ANS Axford, don't fire 450mm HE at Sprinters unless you have nothing else to shoot at.
- Use 450 HE on Raines and Vauxhall
- Stay 6k+ away from Keystones and shoot any HE at them.
- Against Axford, it is somewhat viable to use 450HE - the Axford has a bulky hitbox and hitting its sides can cause damage to multiple internals midship. Still best to use 450 AP from the front and 450 HE on the sides / top / bottom / back.
- Against Solomon, use 450 AP from the front, 450 HE on the sides.

If playing Liner
- Same as all other ships, use 100mm Grape or 100mm HE on Sprinters.
- For all other hulls, you are likely already equipped with a posion of choice - Plasma + 100mm HE-HC / Plasma + 250mm HE / Plasma+ 450mm HE.

You may notice some damage indicators on a ship if they are within visual range.



White sparks and fire jet (yellow) means there is a component, or multiple components on fire behind the jet.

White smoke (red) means a component behind the leak is debuffed - atmosphere is leaking and the functionality of the module is reduced. You will see this type of leak most from rail and grape impacts.

Black smoke coming out of a PD turret or a Weapon (green) means the turret / weapon is disabled ( Red or Grey)

Deck lights flash to black and turn orange - the ship has lost all power.

Engines / Thrusters flare up and then black out - the ship's drives have been disabled.

Engines / Thrusters emit black smoke, or trail a choppy wake, means they are damaged / disabled.

Radar panel / antena / EWAR component is emitting blue sparks - the radar panel on that particular side of the ship, or its modules are disabled (Red or Grey).

Violent blasting fire jet - Magazine / Reactor / Drive fire. Stay away if you see this because the ship may bloom within a minute.

Trailing stringy texture all around the ship (pink) - it means the ship is destroyed and it should be marked as dead.

If you see a radar contact with no visual on the ship model, and slow radar contacts emerging from it with white puffs of smoke, it means the ship is dead and is ejecting escape pods. Mark it as dead.

Purple explosions all over a ship's hull - magazine detonation. Stay clear because a reactor bloom may follow.

If you have a visual on an enemy ship, and you are not certain if it is dead yet, zoom in until you are very close to, or inside the hull. If you hear an evacuation alarm, you can mark it as dead. This alarm is briefly active immediately after a ship is killed and stops eventually.