Rifles: SR M1903 is a LOT better than Stingray due to exclusive, right?

[kris.aalst]

In every guide I've seen, people say Stingray is a lot better than the SR M1903. Well, it is, unless you take exclusive upgrades into account. SR M1903 gets x2 attack power whereas Stingray gets x2 rate of fire. That means a fully upgraded SR M1903 has 10.60 attack power and the Stingray caps at 4.90.

So I really don't understand why everyone claims that Stingray is the better rifle of the two. Am I missing something?

[Malecite]

Stingray is more versatile, bolt action is your boss killer. They both are useful, but the sting ray has far more utility with the exception of boss fights which you can save your magnum for.

I went stingray just because it's less annoying to use for the rest of the content.

[Das Trojanische Pferd]

why does nobody talk about the assault rifle if you have the ammo for it it schredds bosses faster then the magnun

[Shrinkshooter]

If you're approaching it strictly from a damage viewpoint, yes, it's better. The Stingray can handle multiple targets more easily, which is pretty important for some sections. Using the 1903 to deal with Regenerator weakpoints is a PITA and I say that as someone who completed a HC run as my first playthrough using only the 1903. Manageable, but a hassle.

And you need to ask yourself at what point is more damage pointless? Against bosses and enemies with tons of health, it's great. Everything else, the Stingray will accomplish the same thing, but faster. Long distance shots, instant headshot kills, wooden shield penetration, killing plagas...the point is that all that extra damage is going to waste the majority of the time.

I'm still going to keep the 1903 in my current Pro run, because I like bolt actions, but I can still admit that it's a bit lacking in versatility and by god make sure you don't miss your shots. Even with fully upgraded firerate, which is only a difference of a tenth of a second from unupgraded, missed shots can get you hit very often.

[Shrinkshooter]

Originally posted by Troja:

why does nobody talk about the assault rifle

Because:

if you have the ammo for it

You answered your own question. It's the weakest "sniper" rifle in the game, its per shot damage is very low, and it eats ammo to compensate. With the frequency of rifle ammo, it's better to use each shot at max efficiency, which means NOT using that rifle. I wouldn't touch that garbage with a ten foot pole on Professional mode.

[thefollowingcharacters]

The reason is its rate of fire. Its just a bit too slow, especially when you factor in enemies like regenerators.

[Akutare]

Originally posted by thefollowingcharacters:

The reason is its rate of fire. Its just a bit too slow, especially when you factor in enemies like regenerators.

I don't think I ever had an issue killing them with my Bolt Action, outside of just missing a headshot on the Iron Maiden variants.

[BananaBadman]

M1903 is better on hardcore and above imo, EXCEPT for Regeneradors unless your aim is good enough to never miss those weakspots. The first few Regeneradors will die after shooting a single weakspot with a maxed out M1903, but the rest require all of the weakspots to be destroyed.
Against groups of enemies, I would still take M1903 purely because the raw damage makes headshots far less important. It's much easier to line up those multi-body piercing shots when it doesn't matter where you hit them.