Flamethrower in Sir, We Have an Orc Problem: The Buff Turret

Last reviewed: 12 September 2026 · Newest game update reflected: 2026.08.18.12.05 (18 August 2026). The flamethrower does 0.6 damage per tick, which is the smallest number printed anywhere on this site's stat table. It is also the turret two of the game's constraint achievements are cleared with as a main weapon. Both of those facts are true at once, and reconciling them is what this page is for.

The numbers

From the player-measured sheet by the Steam user Mrlazy, self-dated 31 July 2026, as reproduced on the all turrets page. Note what is missing: the flamethrower is one of three turrets with no distance figure in the sheet's range column — the mortar and the grenade launcher are the other two — and it has no penetration value at all.

The two effects are the turret

Neither of the flamethrower's effects is quantified in any source this site has. The all turrets page credits it with a damage amp on affected orcs and a chance not to consume pierce, and the turret roles page explains why that second one matters so much: a shot that does not spend its pierce on a burning orc carries further into the column behind it.

That makes the flamethrower a multiplier on penetration rather than a source of damage, which changes who benefits. A turret with a deep pierce budget notices the effect less than one with a shallow budget — and the gunner's budget is 3. The turret roles page puts the same conclusion in placement terms: a flamethrower sits just in front of your main damage, not as damage itself.

Where players put it

Every documented flamethrower placement on this site is at a narrow point, and always at the front of a squad rather than behind it:

• On 4.2, Broseidon's per-choke loadout starts with one flamethrower at the entrance of each of the level's eight chokepoints, followed by a bouncing laser, a gunner, and a tesla coil at the exit.
• On 5.2, Sulphuric_Glue positioned flamethrowers opposite each other at the sideways lip so that two of them covered the entire passage and the burn bonus doubled up. At the second, wider lip he reports the flamethrowers could not reach fully across — and judges that it matters less there because orcs cluster to the sides anyway.
• The player John, quoted on the orc flow mechanic page, splits the two support turrets by position: mortars soften the herd at spawn points, flamethrowers do it at chokepoints.

Sulphuric_Glue's pair-facing arrangement is the most specific placement advice this site holds for any turret, and it is worth restating as a principle: because the range is short and the value is in coverage rather than in damage, two flamethrowers that overlap across a passage are doing something a single one cannot, regardless of upgrade level.

The achievements it carries

Three entries on the all achievements page involve this turret directly.

Elemental Carnage, at 18.5% global unlock, requires clearing a level using only the flamethrower, tesla coil and orbital cryo beam — no other turret types and no other abilities. itsuno's guide records it being done on level 4.1. The tesla coil page reads that trio as covering softening, damage-through-effect and chain cleanup, with the flamethrower supplying the first of the three.

Specialist, the one-turret-type, no-ability achievement at 22.5%, was done by itsuno on level 3.1 with high-level flamethrowers. And for One Is Enough on 1.1, he notes that a machine gunner or a flamethrower works in place of his laser if their upgrade levels are high enough.

Those three together are the answer to the 0.6-per-tick puzzle. A turret whose listed damage rounds to nothing clears levels alone when its upgrades are deep, which means either the burn scales hard with tiers or the damage amp is doing far more than the stat sheet implies. This site cannot distinguish between those two explanations from the material it has.

What the Supporter Pack has to do with it

One item in the $2.99 DLC, Blue Flames, recolours the flamethrower's fire effect (its shape is not confirmed anywhere on this site). The Supporter Pack page is clear that the pack is cosmetic and that the developers describe it as a tip rather than content — nothing in it changes burn duration, the damage amp, or anything else on the table above.

What we have not confirmed

The two effects that make this turret worth placing are both unquantified: we have no figure for how large the damage amp is, and no probability for the pierce-retention chance. We also do not know how either scales across upgrade tiers, which is the exact gap that would explain how a 0.6-per-tick turret clears 3.1 on its own — the upgrade grind page records that no verifiable source publishes tier data for anything. The sheet's "short" range is not a number, so we cannot compare it against the gunner's 300 or the laser's 550. Neither logged patch on the update history page mentions the flamethrower.

Sources on this site

Stats and both effects: all turrets. The support role and the in-front-of-damage rule: turret roles. Placements: 4.2, 5.2, orc flow mechanic. Achievements and the levels they were done on: all achievements and tesla coil. The cosmetic reskin: Supporter Pack. Definitions: glossary.