Loading the right round is half the job in IRON NEST: Heavy Turret Simulator. The dieselpunk artillery sim gives you 21 turret shells you can buy with requisition points, and each one is built for a specific target, from bunker-cracking armor-piercing rounds to non-lethal smoke and gas clouds. Pick wrong and you waste requisition, miss the objective, or catch friendly units in the blast.
Quick answer: Use AP or APHE for armored and fortified targets, HCHE or HE for grouped infantry and vehicles, CYAN, PHGN, or WP against troops in the open, and cheap utility rounds like SMK, STAR, and DRIL for screening, scouting, or practice. Every shell shares the same base speed (0.7), max powder charge (6), default charge (3), and single projectile, so cost, damage, and impact radius are what set them apart.
All 21 shells, stats and use case
The table below lists every shell you can request at the requisition station. Damage, impact radius, and requisition cost are the numbers that change; base speed (0.7), max powder charge (6), default charge (3), and projectile count (1) are identical across the whole lineup.
| Shell | Dmg | Radius | Cost | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AP | 2 | 0.15 | 10 | Armor and bunkers, minimal blast |
| APHE | 2 | 0.25 | 15 | Armor with a larger burst than AP |
| ATMC | 2 | 3 | 666 | Fissile core, one use per operation |
| CLMN | 1 | 0.5 | 17 | Scatters into six bombs; vehicles and infantry |
| CYAN | 1 | 0.75 | 28 | Cyanogen gas; troops in the open |
| DRIL | 1 | 0.07 | 3 | Concrete practice round, tiny radius |
| EQKE | 2 | 0.55 | 26 | Delayed subterranean burst, large radius |
| FLCH | 1 | 0.62 | 20 | Flechettes; unsheltered infantry |
| HCHE | 1 | 0.55 | 18 | High-capacity HE, large blast |
| HE | 1 | 0.25 | 10 | Medium-capacity area damage |
| INCN | 1 | 0.25 | 12 | Incendiary, can spread on impact |
| LE | 1 | 0.15 | 10 | Low-grade explosive, cheap small blast |
| PCLM | 1 | 0.15 | 15 | Parachute cluster, six bombs 10s apart |
| PHGN | 1 | 0.62 | 10 | Phosgene gas; drives units out, kills trapped |
| PRPG | 1 | 0.5 | 7 | Propaganda leaflets, induces desertion |
| SMK | 1 | 1 | 2 | Non-lethal smoke cover for your troops |
| STAR | 1 | 0.5 | 2 | Parachute illumination for scouting |
| TEAR | 0 | 0.75 | 8 | CN gas; suppresses and reveals hidden units |
| THRM | 1 | 0.35 | 22 | Incendiary with wider radius than INCN |
| WP | 0 | 0.75 | 10 | White phosphorus clouds; troops flee or die |
That is 20 of the 21. The final round, the LE Shell, sits alongside the rest as a budget explosive. Separate from all of these is the EMPTY Shell, which cannot be bought with requisition points at all.
Armor-piercing and penetration rounds
These are your answer to armor, bunkers, and dug-in emplacements. They carry the highest listed damage value of 2 and keep their blast tight so the energy goes into the target rather than the surroundings.
- AP Shell — Armor-piercing with a minimal blast radius (0.15) and bursting charge. Cheap at 10 requisition and the baseline hole-puncher.
- APHE Shell — An upgraded AP round with a wider 0.25 burst for 15 requisition. Take this when you want penetration plus a bit of extra effect.
- EQKE Shell — Armor-piercing round that creates a delayed underground burst across a large 0.55 radius. Good for buried or reinforced positions.
High-explosive and cluster rounds
For soft targets, grouped units, and general area damage, reach for the explosive family. Blast radius is the deciding factor here, so match the round to how spread out the target is and how close your own units are.
- HCHE Shell — High-capacity high-explosive with a large 0.55 blast for burst damage across a wide area.
- HE Shell — A medium-capacity version of the HCHE with a 0.25 radius, cheaper at 10 requisition.
- LE Shell — Low-grade explosive with a small 0.15 blast, a budget option at 10 requisition.
- CLMN Shell — Splits into six high-explosive bombs on impact, strong against vehicles and infantry.
- PCLM Shell — Parachute-delayed cluster that drops six bombs impacting 10 seconds apart, useful for staggered coverage.
- FLCH Shell — Flechette round with a broad 0.62 area, highly effective against exposed infantry.
Incendiary rounds
Fire rounds ignite on impact and can spread beyond the point of contact. The two options differ mainly in reach and price.
- INCN Shell — Incendiary with medium range and a chance to spread, at 12 requisition.
- THRM Shell — Similar to INCN but with a wider 0.35 radius for 22 requisition.
Chemical and gas rounds
Gas shells kill or scatter personnel while leaving structures standing. They are strongest against troops out in the open and largely wasted on fortified positions.
- CYAN Shell — A cyanogen gas bomb, lethal to exposed troops and useless against fortified units.
- PHGN Shell — Spreads phosgene gas that drives units out of the impact area, but kills anyone caught inside.
- WP Shell — White phosphorus clouds that can ignite fires; troops flee or die if trapped. Listed damage is 0, so the effect comes from the cloud itself.
- TEAR Shell — Chloroacetophenone (CN) gas that suppresses units in its radius and exposes hidden ones. Deals 0 damage, making it a control tool rather than a kill round.
Utility and non-lethal rounds
Some of the cheapest shells never deal meaningful damage. They screen movements, light up terrain, or push enemies to desert, and they cost almost nothing in requisition.
- SMK Shell — Deploys non-lethal smoke over a wide 1.0 radius to cover your troops, and it is one of the cheapest rounds at 2 requisition.
- STAR Shell — Parachute illumination round that lights an area for scouting, also 2 requisition.
- PRPG Shell — Drops propaganda leaflets that induce desertion among enemy troops, a psychological tool at 7 requisition.
- DRIL Shell — A concrete-filled practice round with a tiny 0.07 radius, the cheapest shell at 3 requisition.
Special cases: ATMC and the EMPTY Shell
Two rounds sit outside normal rotation. The ATMC Shell is an experimental round with a fissile core that can trigger chain reactions across a huge 3.0 radius. It costs 666 requisition and can only be fired once per operation, so it is reserved for a single decisive strike.
The EMPTY Shell is the outlier you cannot request at all. It is not available for purchase with requisition points, so it never appears in your normal supply loadout.
Tip: Before firing an expensive round, use the map table’s iris tool to preview each shell’s blast radius. Comparing the coverage against clustered enemies, or against nearby friendly forces, is the fastest way to avoid wasting a high-cost shell like ATMC or catching your own units in the blast.
Requisition points do not carry over between sessions, so spend on the round that matches the objective rather than stockpiling. Armor gets AP-family rounds, grouped soft targets get HE or cluster rounds, exposed personnel get gas or flechettes, and the cheap utility shells handle everything that does not need to explode.
