Damage types and what they do

[Duress]

The game is vague when describing the 4 damage types and their roles in combat

[Sand]

Kinetic - Shorter range, high stagger weapons, medium velocity rounds, large damage boost once ACS stagger is achieved. Weaker if unable to stagger enemies.
Energy - Higher range, low stagger weapons, higher velocity, minor damage boost on ACS stagger. Strong upfront damage without a need to stagger.
Explosive - High damage, high stagger, low velocity rounds, damage falloff based on distance from explosion epicenter, mixed damage boost on acs stagger generally on the low end.
Coral - Bypasses defense offering consistent performance

[Wutever]

Coral weapons also do not scale with Energy Firearm stats found on generators while regular energy weapons do. This an be good or bad depending on your build.

[ImHelping]

As a heads up the NG++ finale. The second phase of that fight, the boss is cartoonishly resistant to explosive (all?) damage. Their first phase eats ♥♥♥♥ like everything else in the game, but second phase even the earshot grenade (the biggest, 12 second reload, zipcode sized explosion grenade launcher) only does about as much damaged to him staggered as KICKING HIM.

Coral rifle you might discount it due to the lower basic shot damage than the huge laser rifle, but it has a mile long effective range so is one of the only guns in the game that does not bounce, ever. So it was real good for a time crunch "Break stuff before it escapes" mission, even though i had access to stronger weapons.