Mortar

Lore & Background

In the world of the Tribes, where warring factions battle for control of resource-rich territories, the Mortar has long been the preferred tool of players who value territory over duels. Where a Rifle or SMG wins a one-on-one, the Mortar wins the room. A single well-placed shell can turn a narrow corridor into a no-go zone or scatter a group that overcommitted on a push, making it a psychological weapon as much as a physical one.

The weapon's slow projectile is both its greatest strength and its most punishing flaw. A shell in flight gives every opponent ample time to react, sidestep, or simply not be where it lands. This has made the Mortar a weapon of reputation: the player who lands a clean hit on a group is remembered, while the player who sprays shells into empty ground is mocked. In the competitive scene, Mortar players are often the ones holding a flank, quietly lobbing shells into the enemy's expected path rather than engaging head-on.

Across the Tribes titles, the Mortar has remained conceptually consistent—a slow, heavy, splash-damage weapon that trades accuracy and speed for raw area impact. Its place in the loadout has shifted with balance adjustments, but its identity as the 'I will not miss the area, only the individual' weapon has endured.

In Their Own Story

The shell left the barrel with a deep, muffled thud and hung in the air for what felt like an eternity. Kael watched it trace its lazy arc over the ridge, past the two runners who had already ducked behind a rock, and toward the cluster of three players still pushing through the narrow pass. He didn't need to hit any of them. He just needed to be close.

The detonation rolled across the valley floor. A body tumbled off a ledge. Another dropped to a knee, health bar flickering. The third was gone, simply gone, and the pass was empty. Kael shouldered the Mortar back and waited, listening for footsteps that would now come from a different direction. The shell was slow. The decision to fire was not.

Reader's Guide

The Mortar solves one problem: groups. If three or four enemies are pushing a lane, stacking a chokepoint, or regrouping after a fight, the Mortar turns their concentration into their liability. You are not trying to out-aim them. You are trying to make the space they occupy dangerous.

Key things to know: the projectile is slow and arcs, so you are always shooting where the target will be, not where they are. The splash radius is generous enough to catch players standing near your intended target, but you will miss a runner who is actively moving. It is a heavy weapon, so you are committed to a slow firing cadence and cannot quickly switch to a fast weapon if the fight turns into a duel.

In practice, the Mortar shines in holding positions, covering flanks, and punishing overaggressive pushes. It struggles against isolated, mobile targets and in close-quarters scrambles where the slow projectile simply cannot track. Positioning matters more than aim: pick a vantage where the arc naturally drops into the lane you want to deny, and let the shell do the work.

Balance across the Tribes titles has generally kept the Mortar in a niche: powerful enough to matter in objective play, but slow and hard to land enough that it rarely dominates a loadout. Treat it as a support weapon for your team's positioning rather than a primary dueling tool.

Did You Know?

• The Mortar's projectile is notably slower than the Rocket's, giving opponents more time to react but making the splash radius the primary source of damage rather than a direct hit.
• Because of its arcing trajectory, the Mortar can hit players sheltered behind low cover that a straight-line weapon like a Rifle or SMG simply cannot reach.
• The Mortar is a heavy-slot weapon in the Tribes titles, meaning it competes with other slow-firing options and is not a quick-swap sidearm.
• In team-based play, the Mortar is most effective not at the moment of the fight but in the seconds before it, by making a particular area of the map too risky to enter.