The gun is...terrible.

[cybermastah]

It has low damage and you have to reload too. I took it on a run and got to a room in the first biome where I encountered a (miniboss?) room with a floating crystal with a large, armored pool of health which kept summoning friends to link beams with. The gun was dealing horrendously low amounts of damage, and even the AoE special wasn't being too helpful as those minions were armored as well. I spent both death defies trying to take the stupid thing down.

The bow is easily the superior ranged weapon; I really hate that this weapon sometimes hogs the +20% darkness buff. I'm not a fan of the spear or the fists, but both are still far more viable than the gun.

[Angry By Default]

i can agree that the gun has low dmg early but let me tell u, i did a crit build with gun rocket and i was doing 6k dmg, i 3 shot final boss

[chris.ferrantegerard]

I usually ran the Adamant Rail around the special rather than the normal attack. It's basically a grenade launcher lol, I found it tons of fun once I got the special's timing down. A couple of hammers can really buff it up as well. Rocket Bomb is fantastic and when combined with stuff like Triple Bomb and Cluster Bomb its hilariously good. Great with high crit builds. Default attack good for picking off weakened foes.

[Quyzbuk]

Your opinion will change quite rapidly once you find a boon combo you like. The rail can have some of the craziest DPS you've seen yet.

[daenoth]

I have had fun with the gun with Dionysus' hangover effects. The gun fires rapidly, so it can put 5 stacks on an enemy and keep them there easily.

[Nibbie]

Until more recent patches, 20 of the top 22 speedrun times were with the gun. Even after patches, where it was nerfed several times, it still takes 2 of the top 10 speedrun times. It's DPS is still very good, but admittedly it can be quite unwieldly, and needs to be upgraded to truly shine. A good tip to make it better is rebinding the reload button to be easier to access.

For some specifics, I would also recommend Hestia for the aspect, you don't have to do anything special to make good use of it (but you can reload constantly to get a lot of benefit), and just popping enemies on the first shot feels pretty good. Would also recommend the Zeus attack boon, even the basic version doubles the damage of your Attack and makes it AOE.

[GxTxR]

Yeah I agree with you

[Fiesta]

Exagryph wasn't my favorite either, but there is this hammer upgrade that makes the grenade shots happen three times in a row, and another that makes the radius of the explosion of each grenade shot bigger, and also deal tons more damage, with the cost of the explosions hurt you, but use Artemis special boon, along with the extra crit rate boon of hers, you'll be doing tons of damage, and is how I beat Hades my two times in a row, with a level one Zagreus aspect Exagryph.

[Glaringsoul]

The big problem with rail is the friggin reload key. (especially on controller which i'd say is the preferred way to play the game)

Swap Reload to the LB button and Put Codex on R3 Instead (swap their keybinds). Much smoother gameplay, and now you can actually play the rail without having that awkward button presses.

Concerning Upgrades Normal Exagryph is "Fine" but completely boring, you have potentially the highest damage per reload, but your DPS is Eh at best. You can kill most enemies with 1 full mag but thats about it.

Eris is the most Slept on Imo. 60% Extra damage when absorbing your own blast is actually nutty and works wonders when coupled with athenas dash, and is downright broken with Tripple Bomb (or Cluster) for Perma Uptime, or Spread Fire for Insane Shotgun Damage. With a Dionyses or Aphrodite Special (Or Demeter) and Artemis Duo you just Status Mark enemies with your special, dash in to get close and melt everything.

Hestia is the strongest in early game but drops off later on. Getting a Damage Stim for 1 Shot on reload is Really good, Especially (again) when used with Spread Fire, but i feel like it should have gotten a hammer upgrade with - Magazine & 1 or 2 extra shots with the Damage amp to feel "Really Good". Solid Choice nontheless.

The Hidden Weapon i'm conflicted about. You can Cheese Bosses really easily with it, The damage feels a little bit Lackluster for the "Final Secret Upgrade" but its really fun to play with nontheless...

[Winchester]

Originally posted by cybermastah:

It has low damage and you have to reload too. I took it on a run and got to a room in the first biome where I encountered a (miniboss?) room with a floating crystal with a large, armored pool of health which kept summoning friends to link beams with. The gun was dealing horrendously low amounts of damage, and even the AoE special wasn't being too helpful as those minions were armored as well. I spent both death defies trying to take the stupid thing down.

The bow is easily the superior ranged weapon; I really hate that this weapon sometimes hogs the +20% darkness buff. I'm not a fan of the spear or the fists, but both are still far more viable than the gun.

I doubt it's worse than the shield, I wonder how you're even supposed to use it

[TSP]

Both bow (Hera aspect) and gun aspects (Eris) have been competing for #1 and top 5's across the board in speedruns for more than a year, varying from 0 heat to 50 heat. I think based on statistics that these are quite competitive.

Though yeah, we're talking aspects.

[MoonBich]

Originally posted by cybermastah:

It has low damage and you have to reload too. I took it on a run and got to a room in the first biome where I encountered a (miniboss?) room with a floating crystal with a large, armored pool of health which kept summoning friends to link beams with. The gun was dealing horrendously low amounts of damage, and even the AoE special wasn't being too helpful as those minions were armored as well. I spent both death defies trying to take the stupid thing down.

The bow is easily the superior ranged weapon; I really hate that this weapon sometimes hogs the +20% darkness buff. I'm not a fan of the spear or the fists, but both are still far more viable than the gun.

The gun is awesome. You just don't like it and suck with it. That is ok but it doesn't mean that the gun is the problem. it is just your brain :). That boss isn't that bad .

[harken23]

Originally posted by Winchester:

I doubt it's worse than the shield, I wonder how you're even supposed to use it

Block with it? 🤷‍♂️😉😀

[Winchester]

Originally posted by Nibbie:

Until more recent patches, 20 of the top 22 speedrun times were with the gun. Even after patches, where it was nerfed several times, it still takes 2 of the top 10 speedrun times. It's DPS is still very good, but admittedly it can be quite unwieldly, and needs to be upgraded to truly shine. A good tip to make it better is rebinding the reload button to be easier to access.

For some specifics, I would also recommend Hestia for the aspect, you don't have to do anything special to make good use of it (but you can reload constantly to get a lot of benefit), and just popping enemies on the first shot feels pretty good. Would also recommend the Zeus attack boon, even the basic version doubles the damage of your Attack and makes it AOE.

I just watched how people do speedruns in hades and they pick a specific seed using mods outside the speed run in order to get the perfect boons that ENABLES the gun to be OP , then memorize the seed because mods aren't allowed and perform with it. I doubt on average normal playthrough with mediocre boons it will perform the best, HOWEVER, outside speedruns still it can be powerful if played right I think. The weapon I find lacking mostly is the shield + spear, very low damage output for very little gain, I honestly don't know how they're supposed to be used.

[Pook and Pie]

I got the gun with Poseidon boons on special and bonus damage for pushing foes into walls, and then I got the rocket and cluster bomb upgrades from Daedalus hammers and I don't think I've ever had an easier time playing Hades.

That was by far my fastest clear- Poseidon special, Zeus attack, rocket or triple bomb with the cluster bomb upgrades makes it insane.

Every single time I don't get rocket or cluster bomb, however, the railgun sucks for me. lol

[Hydrasent]

Get zeus on attack and its pretty good. Also a lot of the hammer upgrades cover its weaknesses