Best gun for bosses?

[fourskulls]

I'm at the end of the game, and want to build up something to take on the last boss (and the three nocturnal bosses I haven't fought yet). Just wondering what would be good, since most posts I see on best weapon is for post game.

[Lt.Col. Anon Xer0]

Bosses with bigger hitboxes can be taken down with the triple axel.
But for most things, the sniper rifle keeps a good distance.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3016209612

[RandomTurtle]

Personally if you have access to it; The "Death Rifle" or "Death Sniper Rifle" is the best bossing gun.

I personally prefer "Death Rifle" for it's ammo capacity, and also that the weapon box in the boss arena will contain an upgrade kit as the "Death Rifle" counts as the basic underwater rifle. So although less damage per bullet and less range than the "Death Sniper Rifle", I don't have to collect ammo pick ups as often.

That said if you're talking about the "last boss" as in the last boss in the main storyline, I'd actually recommend the "Steel Net Gun" for reasons I won't get into to avoid being spoiler-ish. The only reason I suggest this gun is purely as in the areas on the way to this boss, there is a hidden extra fish you can capture only in steel nets, therefore adding an extra sushi item to your menu. This fish is only available to spawn in the last story mission, will not appear after that, and does not track in the Marinca. This fish will explode automatically if hit with any other projectile.

[fourskulls]

I managed to beat the last boss (I guess?) of the main story. I'm in the epilogue now. I got the Sniper up to Death Sniper, but of course you use the drone during that fight. If I had known, I would have just went ahead and fought it instead of building up a gun. I've got the highest level of the Hush Pistol, and I'm trying to upgrade the net gun.

I still need to beat Klaus, and the other two bosses that come from the Old Lady.

[P4wn4g3]

Sniper rifle isn't the best, I don't know why people recommend it. Every matching level of the Axel does more damage. Plus the ammo on the sniper is ♥♥♥♥, so good luck managing that. At their top levels, the death sniper doesn't proc death on bosses and meanwhile the penta axel does fire it's 5 shots, plus the penta axel has 10 ammo, 5 shots each for up to 110 damage per shot while the death sniper has 92 damage per shot with a magazine of 5. Clearly the penta axel comes out ahead. Does sniper keep you further away from battle? Mostly sure, but you're fighting the boss longer giving him more opportunity to kill you. If you don't suck at avoiding hits that would otherwise kill you, the penta axel comes out on top for both DPS and magazine here. And the quicker you kill a boss, the more likely you are to survive. Not saying the sniper is bad, it's the second best option.

Other options for bosses specifically don't really compete with these two, the best is the death rifle with 80 damage per shot and 13 magazine, basically it has very similar range to the axel so there isn't any real incentive here to take it. Next is the grenade launcher III with 60 damage, 8 magazine. That's not great for an expensive top level weapon. Also we can entirely dismiss any elemental damage weapon since they don't apply to bosses. The mine launcher is just horrible, you have to line up the shot and wait for it to explode for rather disappointing damage. Net gun and Tranq are obviously not options on bosses.

For catching fish the obvious top tier choices are the Steel Net Launcher for small fish/mid fish/crabs/stargazers/not large fish, or the tranq gun for large fish/anything but crabs/stargazers. If you don't have access to these I think the best bet is going to be the Tranquilizer Rifle. The Tranquilizer Grenade launcher would be a better option, but it's rather late in the game and you can be putting those resources towards the steel net/tranq guns at that point.

If you're just looking to kill fish and not bosses, that opens the field a bit to other options. I found that the Blackhole Launcher sucks especially for its cost, but the upgraded ice gun is actually very good with built-in stun and high damage potential. It's more of a gimmick though, if you're hoping for something consistent the penta axel has no luck rolls involved, while the death guns and the ice gun do. I intend on trying the ice gun more just for fun.

I was thinking of doing a small builds guide of some sort to go over these things but there really isn't much to talk on, the only other discussion points are the harpoon and the trinkets. For the harpoon it's better to level up some (not much) at the very beginning of the game since it outpaces guns until the first upgrades are unlocked for them, then for the remainder you either want a tranq tip of high level for catching (preferably with a low level harpoon) or a fire tip of high level for max damage (poison probably has more DoT but DoT isn't of much help in this game). For the trinkets there are only 3 that I feel are worth mentioning which you should have equipped: 1) Octopus Bracelet, it gives you a free dash that doesn't get slowed down by any circumstance your normal dash would. When you are overloaded, stunned, whatever this is a great option to have. 2) Eco Waterproof Bag unlocked at the very end of the game gives you an extra 30 kg of carrying. 3) Eco Health Bracelet gives 10% damage reduction and is very helpful until you have ludicrous amounts of oxygen, at which point either of the two above or the dolphin bracelet will be better. Any other trinket really isn't worth mentioning because you'll have two of these for the majority of the game. The dolphin bracelet is fine, but only if you don't have something better.

[P4wn4g3]

One other note I should make here is for top tier Fire weapons specifically since Fire damage does extra damage to the target. I don't know which bosses are susceptible to fire and which aren't, but here are some comparisons just from the wiki (some numbers are slightly off, for example the Penta Axel does 22 damage per shot instead of the wiki's listed 20):

Death Rifle
Damage per shot: 80
Shots per ammo: 1
Damage per ammo: 80
Magazine: 13

Explosive Rifle
Damage per shot: 42 +110% = 88-89 (depends if they round down here)
Shots per ammo: 1
Damage per ammo: 88-89
Magazine: 13

Death Sniper Rifle
Damage per shot: 92
Shots per ammo: 5
Damage per ammo: 92
Magazine: 5

Explosive Sniper Rifle
Damage per shot: 51 +100% = 102
Shots per ammo: 1
Damage per ammo: 102
Magazine: 5

Penta Axel
Damage per shot: 22
Shots per ammo: 5
Damage per ammo: 110
Magazine: 10

Explosive Axel
Damage per shot: 19 + 90% = 36
Shots per ammo: 3
Damage per ammo: 108
Magazine: 10

Grenade Launcher
What I listed above are your options, there's no fire based grenade launcher.

[RandomTurtle]

Origineel geplaatst door P4wn4g3:

Other options for bosses specifically don't really compete with these two, the best is the death rifle with 80 damage per shot and 13 magazine, basically it has very similar range to the axel so there isn't any real incentive here to take it.

I forgot about the Penta Axel, that is also a very good choice. That said the advantage of the Death Rifle over it would be that you can get front shots from a range. Normal with the Axels you have to hit the broad side of the creature to get maximum damage as all 5 bullets need to hit. That said the Penta Axel is still more powerful even if only 4 of the 5 bullets hit (without the upgrade kit). The bosses aren't that difficult to hit with all the bullets with all that said.

[Lt.Col. Anon Xer0]

Origineel geplaatst door P4wn4g3:

Sniper rifle isn't the best, I don't know why people recommend it.

Origineel geplaatst door RandomTurtle01:

I forgot about the Penta Axel, that is also a very good choice.

I did recommend both.
Anyway, the sniper rifle is usually good for people who like to keep their distance, and aren't as agile, or have low oxygen to begin with. The triple axel's a great weapon, but not everyone is particularly good at getting close to make the most of it, and tanking/dodging boss hits. It's all down to what works best for the person playing.

Case in point though, sniper rifle against theWolf Eelboss is better for most players than the triple axel. Not denying there are people who would make the triple axel work against it, just talking in general.

[P4wn4g3]

Yeah I agree the sniper has its uses, I just prefer the penta axel. The sniper pierces so it has the potential of more damage against any group of enemies. Coupling with the possibility of instant death its pretty nice. But I just don't see it against bosses, I never had issues with any boss in the game. Klaus was the closest, and I didn't understand what I needed to do at first against the Mantis Shrimp or the Truck Hermit Crab but I don't see any of those benefiting more from the sniper (the crab it just doesn't matter what weapons you bring since you don't use them).

I just got the upgrades up to the Explosive axel and the wiki is wrong so I updated that info above (I don't update wikis that require a membership to fix them), the Penta Axel is still better even assuming an enemy doesn't resist fire damage. So realistically Fire damage isn't implemented in such a way that it can compete with any weapon's top tier damage upgrade, there is an argument for the death rifle vs fire rifle but that damage difference is small and instant death is better in that case. Poison I'd just recommend avoiding because it sucks, lightning can do huge damage to swarms but is otherwise weak (great against Tuna), shock is useful in corner cases where you're trying to slow a creature but not better than more damage or tranqs, and the Ice tip for a spear is garbage, does very low damage and has a crappy proc rate.

Also I didn't point out that the tranq/net guns can be used to disable creatures and run away, particularly the net gun permanently halts them. Not really superior to killing them outright though especially since they will free up if you change areas.

[Lt.Col. Anon Xer0]

Origineel geplaatst door P4wn4g3:

I just got the upgrades up to the Explosive axel and the wiki is wrong so I updated that info above (I don't update wikis that require a membership to fix them)

Yeah, I had a hell of a time figuring out that some of the wiki info was incorrect.
Was a difficulty when checking what worked when I was making a GYAO! guide.

[P4wn4g3]

Yeah maybe those numbers have been adjusted over the course of a few updates, no idea.

[P4wn4g3]

Also I guess another note on harpoon tips, the shock harpoon tip does the second highest damage besides the fire tip, so I actually like it for dealing with sharks that I don't intend to catch. It slows them and makes them easy to kill or dodge. I assume the fire tip is the best for a boss though since I imagine more bosses are vulnerable to fire than shock.