What are the meta weapons currently?

[Ender Zayne]

Idk how some people are getting such high damage. I must not be using the right weapons near the end.

[brokenswing]

Brick

[Pawk]

Spore Argus and radioactive gauntlet?
Strike Wing with crit x bonus gemini + Armed Caster?(Spiritual blessing)

Wild hunt with magazine capacity gemini?

Not too sure about others, but these are what I use on occasion.

[Oobaneko]

Really depends on combos. I've once somehow made no reloading no ammo consuming wild hunt with bonus to stability and accuracy for Prince that allowed me overdamaged the Mastiff.

[Sédrio]

Pretty much every weapon can carry your run, some more than others and some just suck completely but 95% of them can get you there. Here's a few builds that I think are insane and simple to execute.

Dog explosion/skill damage build with the Shrieker or Scorching Rounds.

Cat combustion/elemental damage build with a Fire weapon.

Tiger CritX on CritX with double Strike Wing.

Bunny rate-of-fire/lucky shot build preferably with infinite (Bloody Ammo, Against the Flow, and/or Strive to Survive) Demonlore but Angelic Aura and Scalpel works too.

[Rugged Lemmings]

If all you're concerned about are big Total Damage numbers by the end of the run then you're probably not dealing with weapons, more likely abilities. Li's fireball build, for example, gives you an absurd amount of overkill damage to inflate your damage numbers.

There's no real "best combo" in terms of weapons as it depends on which character is using them and what the inscriptions are.

[Auspice]

Aforementioned Strike Wing sniper combo builds also deal big overkill damage, thus inflating numbers.

On the other hand stuff like huge magazine Wild Hunt or any bunny build generally produces smaller damage totals, since you overkill a lot less.

It does depend on the specific difficulty, but if you're doing tens of millions of damage total in R8 you're probably fine.

That being said, argus + radglove (spores) is probably the most meta weapon pairing

[Eudicots]

Argus + Radioactive Gauntlet with plant spore gemini the easiest combo in game to deal significant total damage. Use the radioactive gauntlet to attack and only upgrade the argus.

[nul]

Originally posted by Dixie Flatline:

Originally posted by Eudicots:

Argus + Radioactive Gauntlet with plant spore gemini the easiest combo in game to deal significant total damage. Use the radioactive gauntlet to attack and only upgrade the argus.

Can you explain how this works ? What's the benefit of upgrading the Argus if it's not your primary ? IIUC it's only there for projectile count, in which case wouldn't porcupine be a better choice ?

Nope, the damage of the weapon also matters. And you get more damage per upgrade if you spend them on the argus rather than the fast firing weapon.

[Dudely]

You'd have to be more specific about what you mean by "meta weapon" and what characters you are referring to. Illusion can be meta for Birb but death for Liger.

[Eudicots]

Originally posted by Dixie Flatline:

Can you explain how this works ? What's the benefit of upgrading the Argus if it's not your primary ? IIUC it's only there for projectile count, in which case wouldn't porcupine be a better choice ?

I did the math before for these two. I'll copy and paste it here

You want to upgrade your shotgun since it will give you a larger boost in dmg.
Plant spore dmg = (Base DMG of Weapon 1 + Base DMG of Weapon 2)/projectiles of both weapons * 20.

Let's say you have a Rainbow and an Argus

Plant spore dmg = (30 + 82x13)/14*20 = 1565.7 base spore damage

Each upgrade to the craftsman adds 15% base weapon damage.

Rainbow upgrade once = 1572.1 base spore dmg which is about 0.41% increase spore dmg per upgrade

If you upgrade the Argus once = 1794.1 spore base dmg which is about 14.6% increase to spore dmg per level.

Looking at these numbers it is quite clear the each upgrade to the Argus gives a far more significant boost to strength than the rainbow.

More damage is better than the most pellets. Argus is the best because it has the highest damage. If you use the porcupine, most projectiles, it will be the worst option.

Porcupine base weapon has 504 total dmg with 21 projectiles. Sure you will trigger spores 60% more often than the Argus, but since spore dmg math is divided by projectiles too much of this will lead to drastically declining improvements. I'll keep the rainbow combo above to avoid doing more math.

A rainbow + porcupine combo will only give you 485.5 base spore dmg compared to the Argus with 1565.7 base spore damage. In one second the porcupine combo can trigger up to 11 times for a total of 5340.5 spore dmg. The Argus combo will trigger up to 7 times in a second for a total of 10959.9 spore dmg. The increase frequency of triggers will not off set this difference in damage.

[Eudicots]

Originally posted by Dixie Flatline:

OK thanks, that's interesting. But....where did you get this extra info, such as the secondary weapon contributing to the extra damage ?

The inscription says:

"Plant spores on hit. The amount of spores is equivalent to on-hit Projectiles and Projectiles of the other weapon. When the amount reaches 30, deals additional Weapon DMG to the target"

My interpretation of the inscription is: every hit from your primary weapon plants spores, the amount of spores planted is equivalent to the projectiles on your secondary weapon. When spores stack >30, it procs and deals some arbitrary extra weapon damage. Doesn't say how it's calculated or from which weapon that damage is coming from. I assumed it was extra damage from your primary - the one that is actually hitting the mob.

I honestly don't remember since this was from 2022. I think it was on the official discord, but I might be wrong. Either way this is the formula everyone uses to calculate from guides, youtube videos, to the wiki.

[frank2351]

Depends on your scrolls and character. There is like 2 or 3 weapons in the game that aren't viable or i haven't figured them out yet but the majority can be made to work with the right scrolls and right character.

Then again you gotta piece something together from what the game throws at you. If the game wants to give you an explosive build then don't be like "but i want a crit build".

[Intra]

Rainbow + Argus with Gemini Spore is the braindead option that works on all characters

Otherwise, it's class dependent and build dependent. If you're spamming grenades as Crown Prince, you probably want an SMG or Injector so you can refill secondary ammo with your gunfire. If you're running secondary on almost any character that can't self-sustain you probably want an SMG or Injector for it.

I can just list the weapons that no character should probably use minus specific inscriptions on specific builds instead (or as a Gemini fodder):

Every Rifle unless you're going for Lightning Ball on crit with Tiger with Bolt from the Blue. You can use a Lightning Blast for Crown Prince if you need Shock activation in a pinch (or Miasma), otherwise the entire category is not something you aim for.

Concealed Ammo, Dual Fang, and Star Devourer. Concealed Ammo with double exclusives on Dog can be decent with scrolls, but it's incredibly rare to not only get both the inscriptions you need on it but most people don't play Dog. Star Devourer is garbage minus using it for Miasma. Dual Fang is extremely low DPS and people are way too obsessed with having "all three elements" when it's completely replaceable to go Fire+Corrosion or Shock+Corrosion.

Most of the pistols serve well for the endgame but half of them are pretty trash without specific builds with specific inscriptions:
Glimmering, Icy Spear, Prism, Scorching Rounds, Sunder, Talisman, Thunder Storm
Unless you're getting Lightning Ball on Crit for Tiger or going for Miasma none of the above are good at a final dps build

Shotguns are mostly solid. Argus isn't exactly good as a primary, Porcupine is the worst Shotgun in the game, and Wild Hunt needs specific builds or setups and it can be the highest DPS weapon in the game but without those builds it's very awkward and slow.

Snipers have a couple standouts that usually aren't end-game worthy with certain exceptions:
Double Caliber- the bullet spiral is too wide to keep 100% uptime on the magazine, otherwise could have been the best sniper in the game. With the awkward hitbox, it's significantly worse for it.
Goshawk- great on Monkey, poor on everyone else without increased charge speed
Lightning Ksana- Lightning Element is a terrible element for a sniper; compared to a Strike Wing, which isn't even an ideal pick for most Sniper builds, it is not worth. Even worse in multiplayer or if you're playing Red Panda because you can shield allies/the robots. Decent target for Elemental Gemini secondary though (for Miasma)
Piercing Flame- Despite Fire Element being the best element, Piercing Flames DPS is SO MUCH WORSE that is probably the worst Sniper in the entire game. Again a decent Elemental Gemini secondary when you can't get Fire Tower
Sting- same issue as Lightning Ksana but even worse DPS. With only a 25% proc rate on Decay, not a good target for Elemental Share as secondary either.

Launchers are mostly decent. Avoid Frenzied Shark (the worst or near worst weapon in the game) and Justice. Justice is decent with the lava field inscription, otherwise avoid.

Injectors are pretty useless without Spore Gemini. Thunderclap Gloves and Radioactive Gauntlet can be useful on Cat for Miasma, or just using elemental share for other characters doing solo Miasma. Laser Gloves and Fire Dragon have almost no purpose for most builds other than early game placeholders. Rainbow without Spore is completely useless.

Melee weapons- None of them are particularly bad. Fire Tower stands out for being the most useful. Poisonous Ghost is slightly worse but has inscriptions that can actually make it better (usually you'd pair it with elemental share). Flowing Light isn't terrible, but it suffers from being Lightning Element. Makes for a decent Elemental Gemini for Miasma though.

Best weapons regardless of scrolls/character/gemini:
Illusion / Angelic Aura

[Mr Mage]

Originally posted by Sédri:

Bunny rate-of-fire/lucky shot build preferably with infinite (Bloody Ammo, Against the Flow, and/or Strive to Survive) Demonlore but Angelic Aura and Scalpel works too.

don't forget about big hippo, it deals a lot of damage and it's high magazine capacity and max RoF will charge her primary skill up quick too

[Intra]

Originally posted by Mr Mage:

Originally posted by Sédri:

Bunny rate-of-fire/lucky shot build preferably with infinite (Bloody Ammo, Against the Flow, and/or Strive to Survive) Demonlore but Angelic Aura and Scalpel works too.

don't forget about big hippo, it deals a lot of damage and it's high magazine capacity and max RoF will charge her primary skill up quick too

Don't use Big Hippo outside of magazine share. -10% movespeed for its DPS level is pathetic. It has a long reload speed, movespeed penalty, takes time for the fire rate to ramp up, and starts with a medium spread before it tightens up. If they removed the movespeed penalty and the ramp up it would still be mid compared to other rifles.

You have access to Crimson Firescale and Hexagon when it compares to other rifles, and nearly every SMG that isn't Concealed Ammo and Star Devourer is better. Every Injector even has a use case with Bloom.