The Huo-Long Heater

The Huo-Long Heater (火龍, literally ‘flaming dragon’) is an antique wooden machine gun with a traditional Chinese dragon’s head is mounted on the muzzle of the gun. While deployed, a flashing ring of flame and smoke surrounds the user, lighting enemy players on fire and inflicts afterburn damage. Maintaining this ring of fire costs the weapon six ammunition units per second while spun up, even if not firing. In addition, the Ring of Fire will not take effect if the weapon is out of ammunition.

• The Huo Long Heater was introduced during the Sleeping Dogs update. As a new heavy weapon, I was tempted to craft one because of its unique attributes. Unfortunately, the drop system did not provide me with one, nor did it provide me with the three Family Businesses required to craft it. I eventually traded a for one from a fellow who was interested in acquiring a Beggar’s Bazooka and had a spare Heater on hand.

• The Heater is an incredibly amusing weapon to wield, setting fire to that which is still alive, but chews through ammunition very rapidly. A heavy wielding a Heater can nonetheless use this weapon to great effect on smaller maps if they kill groups of enemies and picking up their weapons.

The Huo-Long Heater deals the same amount of damage as the Minigun and offers some protection from most spies (skilled spies may jump over the ring of fire to perform a Backstab without being ignited). Because the weapon consumes ammunition while spun up, it is advisable to pay attention to nearby resupply kits or stay near an engineer’s dispenser. I typically carry a shotgun or Family Business as a secondary weapon to engage enemies rapidly, switching to the Heater when in close proximity with a group of enemies. The ring of fire provides additional firepower at close range and deters spies from closing the distance for a backstab. Given that the Heater runs out of ammunition extremely quickly, it is suited as a defensive weapon at close quarters close to a dispenser, or for payload, where the constant resupply offered by the cart makes it viable to use this weapon almost non-stop.