The “Photoid Cannon” artifacts allow you to launch one extremely powerful attack after a waiting period, whilst temporarily lowering defense.
Each rarity of “Photoid Cannons” allow your attack to go at an even higher bonus speed, at the cost of more of the celestial bodies defense:
Common: +400% Speed / -50% Defense; Rare: +900% Speed / -60% Defense; Epic: +1400% Speed / -70% Defense; Legendary: +1900% Speed / -80% Defense; Mythic: +2400% Speed / -90% Defense.
Some important things to note, are that once you have activated a “Photoid Cannon”, you must wait a period of time before the photoid attack is made (4 hours in Official Rounds, but may only be minutes in things such as Lobbies or DFDAO’s Arena). During this setup phase, moves can be sent from the celestial body, but without the bonus Range and Speed. A second important thing, is that these artifacts are single use - once you make your attack after the setup, or if you deactivate the artifact, the artifact will disappear and can no longer be used. Also be aware, that all rarities of Photoid Cannons provide a standard +100% Range (a huge bonus, making even Common Photoid Cannons very powerful).
This planet has a “Photoid Cannon” on it. Be cautious of becoming the target of a very fast attack, with a lot of energy. Although the planet may be quite far from you, it could still strike at any moment!
In the Early game, “Photoid Cannons” are generally not very useful, though they can be saved for later. Setting up a photoid cannon within the first several hours will mostly be useless, as your natural expansion will likely outpace any increase in speed/range that the photoid cannon will provide on a low level planet.
In the Mid-Late game, “Photoid Cannons” become extremely powerful - arguably one of the strongest artifacts. Have a couple prepared on various planets across your empire can be a great defensive strategy, forcing your opponents to reconsider any attack against you due to the fear of swift retaliation. But, more often they will be used offensively. Being able to strike quickly, and with more energy landing (due to the nature of energy decay over long distances) means that if an opponent is unprepared, and has a large planet with low energy, you might just be able to conquer it before they can react. As was spoken about in the chapter on “Black Domains”, a Photoid Cannon attack can be paired with a Black Domain of the appropriate level to remove a key planet from an enemies empire, permanently.
The stats provided by a rare Photoid Cannon. A doubling boost to the range and a huge boost to the speed, but a large decrease in defense. And reading the description, it is for ONE attack only, after the waiting period.
As you can see, these artifacts give massive bonuses for a single shot. Since this one is rare, a massive bonus 900% extra speed will be given for the first attack after the waiting period is over. If you are using a photoid cannon, be sure there are no enemies nearby who might look to conquer your planet whilst its defenses are down.