Rapid Fire

Rapid Fire is the ability of a ship to shoot multiple times in one round.

By default, a ship or defense unit fires exactly once per round of combat, hitting one random enemy unit.

Each class of ship has „Rapid Fire“ against specific other classes of ship or defense, giving a chance to fire an additional shot against another random unit.¹⁾

Rapid Fire continues until the attacking ship either: fails one of these chance rolls OR fires upon a class that does not receive Rapid Fire from this attacker. (see table below)

Probability

The chance of an additional shot is given by: (Rapidfire-1)/Rapidfire

Rapid Fire	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	10	15	18	20	25	30	33	50	100	140	200	250	1250
Probability (%)	0.00	50.00	66.67	75.00	80.00	83.33	85.71	90.00	93.33	94.44	95.00	96.00	96.67	96.97	98.00	99.00	99.29	99.50	99.60	99.92

Example

The attacking Cruiser shoots at 1 of the 4 defending Light Fighters and deals 400 damage, of which 10 is absorbed by shields.
The struck Light Fighter is left with 10 hull points remaining and might be destroyed at the end of the round.²⁾
Because the Cruiser has 6 Rapid Fire against Light Fighters, an additional shot is fired with ( (6-1) / ( 6 ) * 100 ) = 83.33% probability.
The extra shot randomly hits the Light Cargo which is also left with 10 hull points remaining (same base Shield Power and Hull as the Light Fighter).
Because the Cruiser does not have Rapid Fire against Light Cargo, the Cruiser ceases firing for the remainder of the round.

Table

Defender	Solar Satellite Spy Probe		Light Fighter	Heavy Fighter	Cruiser	Battleship	Planet Bomber	Heavy Cruiser	Battle Cruiser	Star Fighter	Battle Fortress
Ship ↔ Ship	Attacker
Defender	Solar Satellite Spy Probe	Light Cargo, Storm Transporter, Heavy Cargo Recycler, Optimized Recycler, Colony Ship	Light Fighter	Heavy Fighter	Cruiser	Battleship	Planet Bomber	Heavy Cruiser	Battle Cruiser	Star Fighter	Battle Fortress
Solar Satellite		5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	1250
Spy Probe		5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	1250
Light Cargo				3				3	3		250
Storm Transporter								3	4		140
Heavy Cargo								2	3		250
Recycler											250
Optimized Recycler											100
Colony Ship											250
Light Fighter					6			9			200
Heavy Fighter								2	4		100
Cruiser								2	4		33
Battleship									7		30
Planet Bomber											25
Heavy Cruiser						2				2	18
Battle Cruiser										2	15
Star Fighter											5
Battle Fortress
Ship → Defense	Attacker
Defender	Solar Satellite Spy Probe	Light Cargo, Storm Transporter, Heavy Cargo Recycler, Optimized Recycler, Colony Ship	Light Fighter	Heavy Fighter	Cruiser	Battleship	Planet Bomber	Heavy Cruiser	Battle Cruiser	Star Fighter	Battle Fortress
Missile Launcher					10		20	15			200
Light Laser Turret							20			10	200
Heavy Laser Turret							10				100
Ion Cannon							10				100
Gauss Cannon							5				50
Plasma Cannon							3
Small Shield Dome
Large Shield Dome

See also:

¹⁾

Potentially even the same target as a previous shot.

²⁾

Even if it had 0 hull points, it could still be targeted additional times this round.