World of Nukes How to Launch Missiles

Missile combat is the core fantasy of World of Nukes: pick a warhead, place it on your island infrastructure, aim at a rival, and fire. This guide covers the full loop, the light-versus-heavy tradeoff at every HQ tier, MIRV behavior, utility payloads, and the pre-launch checklist that keeps Iron Dome and Guided Missile Launchers from eating your budget. Pair it with Island Defense so you understand what the other side is stacking, and with the tier list when you choose what to unlock next.

If you are still in the first hour, skim Getting Started first. Missiles without income and AA turn into expensive fireworks that paint a target on your HQ.

Place, aim, fire

1. Place — Buy or select a missile from the Missiles shop, then place it on a valid pad or launcher footprint. Rotate if the silhouette blocks other buildings. Cancel cleanly if you mis-tap; do not leave half-placed assets in the blast radius of your own income.
2. Aim — Enter targeting, pick the enemy island, and place the aim point on the building or HQ edge you care about. Blast damage is distance-based from the impact center to the nearest edge of the target.
3. Fire — Confirm the launch. Watch flight time, intercept attempts, and the blast rings. Rebuild immediately if return fire is inbound.

Jets and warships are separate combat modes (fly jets; command warships). This page focuses on ballistic and special missiles. On seven-player servers, assume someone is watching your silo activity.

Video guide

Blast damage math

Anything inside roughly 40% of the blast radius takes full damage. Damage then falls in a straight line to about 25% at the rim. Centered hits on HQ matter more than splash that only kisses a corner. When you read missile cards, treat listed damage as the full-core number, not what a grazing shot delivers.

Light missiles are faster with smaller blasts. Heavy missiles deal about 1.8× damage with wider radii and usually slower flight or longer reloads. Same HQ tier unlocks both; choose based on whether you need speed and volume or raw punch.

Tier unlock table (same HQ for light and heavy)

Tier	Light	Dmg / Cost	Heavy	Dmg / Cost
T1	Basic Missile	120 / $200	Flea	220 / $600
T2	Viper	330 / $2,200	Phantom	590 / $7,800
T3	Wasp	970 / $8,300	Hydra	1,700 / $29K
T4	Venom	2,800 / $29K	Raptor	5,000 / $100K
T5	Hammer	8,000 / $110K	Thunder	14K / $380K
T6	Atlas	23K / $400K	Titan (MIRV3)	41K / $1.4M
T7	Stormbreaker	67K / $1.4M	Longbow	120K / $5M
T8	Sunburst	190K / $5.2M	Trident (MIRV4)	340K / $18M
T9	Arrow (hypersonic)	530K / $54M	Leviathan	950K / $200M
T10	Armageddon (MIRV6)	1.5M / $300M	Neutron	2.7M / $1.1B

Rebirth missiles: Hypersonic Glide (rebirth 3, $6B) and Orbital Strike (rebirth 9, $2T). Orbital Strike cannot be stopped by Iron Dome. Details and wonder synergy live in Rebirth and Doomsday.

MIRV behavior

MIRV missiles split into multiple warheads. Titan is MIRV3, Trident MIRV4, Armageddon MIRV6. Only large targets reliably catch more than the center warhead; outer warheads land in a ring around the aim point. Against a compact building you may effectively pay for splash you do not need. Against a wide HQ footprint or clustered defenses, MIRVs shine. Aim for the geometric center of the cluster you want deleted.

Utility payloads

Utilities unlock by tier and change how volleys behave:

• Decoy (T3) — Spoofs or pulls interceptors so follow-up warheads live longer.
• Cluster (T4) — Spreads submunitions for area pressure on buildings and pads.
• EMP (T5) — Disrupts systems; time it before a heavy nuke so defenses are compromised.
• Bunker Buster (T6) — Deals light-tier-style baseline hit with ×3 damage versus HQ and defenses, small blast (~utility precision tool, not a city-wipe).

Use utilities as enablers, not vanity. A Decoy into a Neutron beats three Neutrons into a hot Iron Dome if your cash is finite.

Pre-launch checklist

Run this every time before a serious spend:

1. Income buffer — Can you replace this missile’s cost in a reasonable window? See Economy Buildings.
2. Target intel — Count Guided Missile Launchers and Iron Dome. GML is among the best anti-missile tools (~78% vs light). Dome covers almost everything except Orbital Strike.
3. Path and type — Prefer light/hypersonic when you need speed; heavy/MIRV when you need structure deletion.
4. Utility plan — Decoy or EMP first if the island is layered; Bunker Buster for HQ/defense focus.
5. Retaliation plan — AA online, shield awareness, rebuild cash reserved. Read Island Defense.
6. Server politics — Seven players. Stacking three attackers can trigger siege damage reduction on the victim; do not assume infinite multi-team pile-ons always scale linearly.

Early, mid, and late launch habits

Early: Basic Missile and Flea teach aim. Probe soft islands. Do not ego-challenge HQ 7+ domes.

Mid: Wasp through Thunder. Mix Venom/Raptor pressure with Cluster or EMP once unlocked. Keep rebuilding income after trades.

Late: Atlas through Neutron, then rebirth tools. Arrow’s hypersonic profile stresses slower intercept windows. Armageddon’s six warheads punish sprawling bases. Save Orbital Strike for islands that live behind Iron Dome.

Common mistakes

• Aiming at the rim and wondering why damage felt like 25%.
• Buying Titan/Trident/Armageddon for a single shack-sized target.
• Ignoring Decoy/EMP and feeding free intercepts to GML and Dome.
• Launching your treasury with empty income slots behind you.
• Forgetting Bunker Buster’s ×3 when the goal is HQ or turret deletion.

Practice drills

1. Fire one Basic Missile at an abandoned pad and watch the full-damage core versus rim.
2. Compare a light and heavy of the same tier on similar targets and note flight time plus rebuild cost.
3. On a MIRV unlock, aim center HQ once, then aim a building cluster once, and compare effective damage.
4. After HQ 7, intentionally test whether a cheap light dies to Dome/GML before committing a Neutron.

Master the checklist and your missiles stop being lottery tickets. For rankings by role — early value, mid pressure, endgame, utility — open the Tier List Hub. For event timing that can give free launches or doubled cash, see Events and Bosses.