shotguns

[Riftwalker]

i feel like whenever i'm not using shotguns it takes significantly more actions to kill most enemies, i haven't played a ton yet, so i've only unlocked tunnel rat, which gives bonuses to shotguns, but whenever i try to diversify my experience it feels like I have to take many more chances.

like i can just go around in full sprint an usually hit and kill things in a few shots or at least get them to pain threshold, but when I use other weapons i miss a lot when running(makes sense) and so take more damage usually even when slowing down to shoot at farther away enemies. like the shotgun can regularly kill 2-3 people sometimes if people are lined up.

with how plentiful shotgun ammo is, it seems really easy to consistently use shotguns. do I need more classes before i can really have fun with different types of weapons or are shotguns just the safest option overall?

[Diakoptes]

theyre really good at close quarters, which is where a lot of the game is
easiest way to fight bosses I found was just full auto shotgun burst on them a few times and they just die
and tunnel rat does make them even more amazing

[Red Bat]

Shotguns indeed feel unusually powerful. Around 90% of combat takes place within 3-5 tiles distance and shotguns tend to cause pain shock fairly often, which is devastating in this game. Tunnel Rat can make them do 50% more damage which is at most a 2 shot kill vs almost anything in the game. Then there's the fact you can get an automatic shotgun that does 3 shot bursts right at the start of the game from the Church of Revelation which will pretty much kill anything in one action point.

Helps that shotgun ammo is the second most common lootable ammo type and nearly every faction has shotguns with ammo you can keep looting. Even the alternative shotgun ammo types aren't particularly rare to loot.

By comparison, other BS stuff like abusing the wheel of pain isn't as reliable simply by virtue of having less reliable ammunition and no way to further boost it using class skills.

[Terminal]

The big deal with shotguns is that they are powerful from the start of the game, and are good for clearing out rooms, while also being ammo-efficient and durable. By comparison, energy weapons have to deal with being frail, inaccuracy, and relatively scarce ammunition, with the same being true of assault rifles.

Once you get into the midgame and no longer have to worry about weapon durability and ammo as much as you do in the early game, viable weaponry options open up. Shotguns are great for clearing out rooms of trash mobs, but have a bit of difficulty with the chonkier Quasimorphs. A Volcano energy weapon can unmake most Quasimorphs in a single burst even on higher Quasimorphosis levels, whereas an automatic shotgun will require three or more. Assault rifles become a middle-ground between the two, since they deal with inaccuracy via volume of fire with per-shot damage that outclasses shotguns.

I usually run a build with a shotgun in primary and an energy weapon in secondary. Use the shotgun to clear rooms of trash/Human enemies, then switch to to the energy weapon when dealing with Quasimorphs.

[the]

yeah shotguns are a bit OP, but honestly, they deserve it and it makes perfect sense. this game is full of ship-boarding, and thus CQB encounters, where shotguns shine, especially so with accuracy/range oriented characters/classes. also, the shotguns just deserve it, they often get turned into confetti cannons outside of mid-range and i'm just glad to see shotguns that are actually true to how they really work.

[Red Bat]

They might end up feeling a bit more balanced latter on if classes specializing in other weapon types end up being added. As it stands, other than the energy weapons that usually oneshot you, the Serpent's Mouth, flamethrowers, and maybe sometimes the sawblade launcher, nothing really compares to shotguns used by the Tunnel Rat. Of all those things, shotguns tend to be the easiest to get ammo for (50 stack compared to 40 stack battery or 20 stack Q ammo or sawblades, and what is functionally a 4 stack for flamethrower ammo). The spread sometimes even works in your favor as it can put multiple enemies in pain shock, which you otherwise need stun grenades for. Some of the rifles can be pretty good with the AP ammo, but that's hard to stack because you rarely find it and need 120 powder to make a full stack of it.

[zverozvero]

Once enemy armor catches up (8-10) shotguns stop being one answer to everything. Still very good with rats damage bonus but even there everpresent buckshot is far less effective so juggling slugs, flechettes and dragons is necessary.

[pgames-food]

hi you can also use some of the higher tier Sniper guns like bishop or archbishop, to pierce through 3 enemies with 1 accurate shot, (it happened to me a few times using white sniper ammo - i havent tried the green AP? ammo yet though, but i think i managed to find a few bullets of it so far)

[Riftwalker]

this is kinda lame in terms of playability. i accidentally did a very good build and now everything else feels very painful to use in relation.

[Red Bat]

Originally posted by Riftwalker:

this is kinda lame in terms of playability. i accidentally did a very good build and now everything else feels very painful to use in relation.

Well this isn't really a game with "builds" right now. Feels a bit reductive to say "I'll use the class that boosts shotguns and use shotguns" is a build choice.

If you want to try something else, you can take the character who boosts pistol accuracy, make them a Spaceborne Ghosts class, and give them two pistols that use different ammo types. You can effectively sprint in every fight and still hit with almost 100% accuracy.

[Vic]

On top of the additional flat damage that always applies to shotguns, you can use fletchette rounds as well, for tunnel rats. The fact you can also proc cautious for 7 turns or so to get a guaranteed critical hit on them is just kind of insanity, the only other weaponry that comes close is plasma weaponry.

Unfortunately, you can still miss with them or not kill in one turn and die in one hit because the game's balanced is super scuffed like that. I basically always run tunnel rats and I can go through 10 missions in a row, do one Tezctclan mission, either miss or low roll someone using a cold gun and that's it I am ♥♥♥♥♥♥ in one turn.

Theoretically that can happen with buzzsaw cutter as well but humans tend to die more consistently than these hell clowns.

[zverozvero]

Guranteed crit makes every weapon busted. When rifles and energy catch up Rat can run wild with those too. Snipers deal 110-150. Even early game Needler will dish out 48 poison damage. Rat makes shotguns better but dont sleep on other weapons. Its great with all of them.

[Vic]

Yeah but shotguns are already snipers on tunnel rat, even partial hits melt ♥♥♥♥ at ranges where the Jeffhammer variants should theoretically be missing and scattering too hard. Instead what happens is they mow down everything all the time (until they don't and you get one tapped because lol).

[zverozvero]

Once armor+health (and numbers) catch up a bit few pellets is not enough too often to be a problem. Dice roll is strongly in our favour but each level is few hundreds of those.