Suck Cannon

"Coming soon to a Gadgetron vendor near you, the Suck Cannon is a prototype weapon that uses new quantum technology to suck up small enemies and convert them into explosive projectiles."

- Gadgetron description of Suck Cannon found on the instruction manual.

The Suck Cannon is a weapon invented by the blarg and later manufactured by Gadgetron, featured in Ratchet & Clank, Up Your Arsenal and Size Matters. Functioning as a deadly vacuum cleaner, it pulls smaller enemies in and uses them as ammunition.

The Suck Cannon can be upgraded to the Gold Suck Cannon in Ratchet & Clank. In Up Your Arsenal, it can be upgraded to the Vortex Cannon, then to the Mega, Giga and Ultra Vortex Cannons. In Size Matters, it can be upgraded to the Titan Suck Cannon.

In the high-definition re-release of Ratchet & Clank available standalone and as part of the Ratchet & Clank Collection, the player earns the bronze trophy Very Sucky by obtaining the Suck Cannon.

Ratchet & Clank
During the events of the first game, the Suck Cannon could not be purchased from a Gadgetron vendor, and was still a prototype. As such, the Suck Cannon could be found when Ratchet acquired it on Eudora, but was not available for purchase. Upon completion of the game, the player could purchase the Gold Suck Cannon for 10,000 bolts and 4 gold bolts.

Up Your Arsenal
When Ratchet and Clank returned to Solana in Up Your Arsenal, the Suck Cannon had been commercialized by Gadgetron and sold in their vendors once the player reached the Starship Phoenix, but also had a different appearance and could be upgraded to the Vortex Cannon. Additional changes included the ability to suck up crates.

Size Matters
The Suck Cannon could be purchased from Dreamtime onwards. It functioned identically to its Up Your Arsenal appearance.

Characteristics
The Suck Cannon's appearance in Ratchet & Clank is an ovoid shape with a vacuum muzzle at the end, held with a bar at its back and a tube leading to the main gun. In Up Your Arsenal and Size Matters, the commercialized Suck Cannon is much shorter, with a shorter ovoid shape filled with rotating blades, and a thicker muzzle. When upgraded to the Vortex Cannon, several green pads are placed around the ovoid shape, with the handle bar being bright green.

Combat
The Suck Cannon will suck in smaller enemies, and when the player stops sucking in enemies with the cannon with some pulled in, the next time the weapon is fired, it will shoot its ammunition out. Ammunition fired out is single-target and will only hit a single enemy. When upgraded to the Vortex Cannon in Up Your Arsenal and Size Matters, the enemies pulled in become flaming comets, have a greater rate of fire, and can pull in crates. Upgrading the Suck Cannon, and the Vortex Cannon, would increase its ammunition capacity and damage.

The Suck Cannon is a very niche weapon, and its use is situational. However, there are many scenarios in which the player can take advantage of the Suck Cannon. An example in Ratchet & Clank is on Pokitaru, in which the player can suck in Puffer Fishes to then fire at the larger Psytopuses. In Up Your Arsenal, the Suck Cannon is also useful when fighting Tyhrranoids, being able to pull in the one-eyed tyhrranoids to fire at the three-eyed tyhrranoids or mecha tyhrranoids. In situations such as these, the Suck Cannon fills its niche very effectively, but when enemies that are too large to be sucked in are fought, the Suck Cannon cannot be used. When fighting only smaller enemies with no larger ones in sight, the Suck Cannon is often ineffective, as it could potentially not suck in enough enemies to fill its capacity, and will force the player to fire its ammunition at other smaller enemies, a much less efficient use.

The Gold Suck Cannon and Vortex Cannon both have an increased rate of fire, ammo space, and damage.

Behind the scenes
The Suck Cannon was one of the first weapons showcased to Sony, alongside the Pyrocitor, used in an early version of Metropolis on what would be Kerwan.