Unlocking weapons

[ragen311]

The last time I played, it was advantageous to only unlock the best weapons and/or weapons you preferred (unlocking the base weapon through tainted essence, not higher tier versions of an existing weapon). The idea was to not dilute the pool of options for what your heros start with and what the shop has available. It's been a while so I'm not sure how relevant this is anymore.

Has there been enough time since 1.0 for a weapon tier list to be updated on any respectable guides? I have read multiple times that they did a great job balancing the game/weapons with only a couple nerf guns left to avoid.

A related note: I never enjoyed avoiding (not delaying) unlocking something in a roguelite. The idea to me is that roguelite unlocks should enhance the meta aspect of the game by making you more powerful or at the very least the game more enjoyable. Unless you just needed variety, why would anyone unlock an axe or 2 handed cross bow (at least during the last version I played, which was a while ago). It became something to unlock for completionist that would knowingly weaken their meta progression, or people that were dominating and looking for a change of pace/new challenge.

So, if none of this is correct; my knowledge may be from a version much further back than i thought; or maybe the bad weapons needed to be unlocked to progress to certain meta advantages.

*If they did manage to balance all those weapons as well as I am reading...I tip my cap to you. An all around shining example of early access done right here imo.

Thanks to anyone that has answers, comments, incoherent ravings they'd like to reply with.

[Bumc]

Weapons aren't really balanced, but everything is sorta playable.

2H crossbow, 2h sword, rifle and some others are still on the weak side.
However, now with unlocking more weapons you also get more options in the shop, so its not that bad to not sit on unlocks.
Also all weapons are passable as starters now, so you don't just lose for free on night 1 for unlocking garbage.

[Caelestus]

Originally posted by Bumc:

Weapons aren't really balanced, but everything is sorta playable.

2H crossbow, 2h sword, rifle and some others are still on the weak side.
However, now with unlocking more weapons you also get more options in the shop, so its not that bad to not sit on unlocks.
Also all weapons are passable as starters now, so you don't just lose for free on night 1 for unlocking garbage.

I found momentum 1h Sword + 2h Sword to be quite powerful with single-targeting.

[Halko]

Honestly all of the weapons are in a good spot for the most part as long as you play to their strengths. You can min max all you want but at the end of the day if you only want to play with 3 weapons you are just ruining part of the game for yourself. Half of what makes a run interesting is dealing with what weapons were handed to you along the way and trying to decide if you should force something like a poison or propagation build instead of just snatching a damage upgrade. If i played the game with only 4 weapons it would get boring pretty fast.

[Morphic]

Also, didn't they add unlocks that remove the "Rusty"/"bad" versions of weapon types as well? Like once you unlock, say, Daggers and its variations; you no longer will get Rusty Daggers. So you basically get a straight upgrade regardless... unless you do not like Daggers.

IMO, I think the weapon type unlocks only really matter in higher Apocalypse difficulties. Even then, I'd say all the types are playable but some take a lot more work to be "good" compared to others.

[Nordil(Hun)]

Originally posted by Morphic:

Also, didn't they add unlocks that remove the "Rusty"/"bad" versions of weapon types as well? Like once you unlock, say, Daggers and its variations; you no longer will get Rusty Daggers. So you basically get a straight upgrade regardless... unless you do not like Daggers.

IMO, I think the weapon type unlocks only really matter in higher Apocalypse difficulties. Even then, I'd say all the types are playable but some take a lot more work to be "good" compared to others.

Not sure, as it might be tied to the Hero's starting equipment which you also unlock.
From Freude's side you can get your heroes have better starting gear, better traits, more traits...etc.

[D#]

my strat is to just unlock and max each weapon type before unlocking another similar weapon. It worked for the first 3 maps, but wow the rifle is rough after the longbow. So far ive maxed the tome, shortbow, and longbow and Im currently working on the last little bit of the 1hd hammer and wand as well as the initial tier of the dagger and rifle. The rifle dmg seems lacking especially for the AP cost , and the dagger is meh as well.

[Samseng Yik]

Since I am a true rogue-ish genre embracer.
Everything key items must unlock as soon as possible.
So I can play the "full game" intended feature.

Also, I don't think there are "weak items" now.
I may slightly dislike Long Bow or 1H sword. But I fine with it.