Does carrying a magnum increase the magnum ammo drop rate?

[MarBar]

It seems that magnum ammo will randomly drop from enemies in Chapters 4-1 and onward even if there isn't a magnum in a character's inventory. Does carrying one affect the drop rate at all?

As a bit of background, I am doing a Fresh Veteran, No Shop, No Upgrades, Kill All Bosses/Minibosses with Weapon Damage run.

So my ultimate goal is to bring enough ammo to defeat the final boss through damage. As it stands, I don't have enough with the guaranteed pickups (30 shots total, 24 from pickups and 6 in the M29) assuming the final boss has 50% magnum resistance. If I can get two more packs to drop at any time between 4-1 and 6-3, I should be set as long as I don't miss too much.

I am also a bit worried about the Gatling Gun Majini in 6-1, since I think the only way I can guarantee a quick stun using unupgraded weapons is a magnum shot to the head or legs.

[Uzi Master]

Ammo drops should be higher for weapons you have in your inventory, I think only fixed drops will be for weapons you don't have. Also don't forget that the lightning hawk comes fully loaded.

I can't remember if the game gives you any flash rounds for the grenade launcher, but if it does those would stun the gatling gun majini.

You can farm ammo fighting the Excella Ouroboros (can't remember proper name) the little mounds of tentacles will spawn pretty much infinitley.

[MarBar]

Originally posted by Uzi Master:

Ammo drops should be higher for weapons you have in your inventory, I think only fixed drops will be for weapons you don't have. Also don't forget that the lightning hawk comes fully loaded.

I can't remember if the game gives you any flash rounds for the grenade launcher, but if it does those would stun the gatling gun majini.

You can farm ammo fighting the Excella Ouroboros (can't remember proper name) the little mounds of tentacles will spawn pretty much infinitley.

Looks like I'll be dedicating an inventory slot for the magnum, each additional pack that drops will help.

I didn't forget about the L. Hawk. I was planning on either using the 5 rounds on the Gatling Gun Majini or the two reapers at the end, since it's not worth an inventory slot in the final battle considering 100 less firepower is a lot in this run.

Very interesting suggestion with the Flash Rounds. There are 6 guaranteed in 4-1 (same area you find the grenade launcher and before fighting Popkarimu), although I do plan to use some of them to make Jill's encounter a bit easier. I always thought Flash Rounds wouldn't do anything considering he has sunglasses, but it'll be worth a shot when I get there.

If I can get a lot of rifle ammo to drop during Uroboros Aheri, it'll be great since it'll be more damage per slot (18000 damage for 30 PSG-1 shots compared to 9000 damage for 12 M29 shots with 50% resistance). I'm just a bit skeptical because even in my regular runs rifle ammo gets used up pretty quickly.

[Lanzagranadas]

The way you can increase magnum ammo drop percentage is by going around with an empty magnum and no extra bullets (store any magnum bullets you have as soon as you can). The game RNG slightly boosts the percentage drop for weapons you or your partner are lacking ammo for so, don't expect much if you have a fully loaded magnum and a full slot of bullets already.

And try to avoid ammo shortage for the other weapons you have so the RNG doesn't prioritize them instead. Of course, carrying no magnum at all would mean 0% random drop chances, but going with the empty gun you should make the game "think" that you've run out of ammo for that weapon and that should increase the drop chances.

[MarBar]

Originally posted by Lanzagranadas:

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And try to avoid ammo shortage for the other weapons you have so the RNG doesn't prioritize them instead. Of course, carrying no magnum at all would mean 0% random drop chances, but going with the empty gun you should make the game "think" that you've run out of ammo for that weapon and that should increase the drop chances.

Thanks, I'll try to keep that in mind, although having to fully kill the three chainsaw majinis in 3-2 really drained my ammo at this time. I probably won't be using up any magnum rounds until 6-1, but keeping around an empty one after that for the final push may help.

[talgaby]

Due to the universal inventory system, you can just farm ammo by replaying certain chapters before going back to continue your play through. So you don't really have to conserve it just for conserving's sake.

[MarBar]

Originally posted by talgaby:

Due to the universal inventory system, you can just farm ammo by replaying certain chapters before going back to continue your play through. So you don't really have to conserve it just for conserving's sake.

While true, I believe that replaying chapters to farm for ammo defeats the purpose of playing these kind of restricted challenge runs. Playing around limited resources is what makes them interesting to me. Besides, I like to carry over my difficulty grade to the subsequent chapters for anything below Professional, which's why I still play out chapter 2-3 despite it not affecting items at all.

[Carrion‏‏‎ ☯]

The final 2 Gatling Gun Majini were a huge hastle for me in my challenge runs, but I found that the easiest way to kill them is with the RPG (from Chapter 3-1). If you wait till they're beside each other then you can one shot them both if you hit the ground between them. It's the best use of the RPG in my opinion since that part of the game is so chaotic. After you kill them (which should take 3-5 seconds after they spawn), quickly pick up the card keys, run to the door and unlock it. The drops around the area aren't worth it if you don't need them. After that stage it's mostly smooth sailing from there if you know what you're doing. And if you have full health and are decent at button mashing scenes, you can kill the final Wesker boss in a pretty epic way if you know how to do it. From my memory, you only need a few shots from magnum and full health to kill him.

[MarBar]

Originally posted by Carrion:

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And if you have full health and are decent at button mashing scenes, you can kill the final Wesker boss in a pretty epic way if you know how to do it. From my memory, you only need a few shots from magnum and full health to kill him.

One of the criteria for this run is "Kill All Bosses/Minibosses with Weapon Damage", so I can't use that method. The ultimate goal is to drain his 28k HP with weapon fire, accounting for resistances. To give an idea of how much of a resource drain this criteria is, this is my inventory before Chapter 3-3:

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1343495850

Low ammo all around, hand grenades were mostly used to kill the Executioner and 3rd chainsaw majini in 3-2, and surprisingly low health. Chapter 3-2 was pretty brutal on ammo considering there were 3 chainsaw majinis (which btw, are extremely tanky, reasonable considering you are intended to run away from the last two) and 3 Big Man Majinis.

Honestly, for the Chapter 6-3 Gatling Gun Majinis, I usually do the gun turret method, where you drop down to the left of the door after killing the reapers, make sure the gatling gun majinis follow you together, then run around counter-clockwise to the machine gun turret, then stunlock them. The free nitrogen rounds make dealing with the normal majini pretty easy and I don't have to expend any high-damage ammo.

I'm still pretty far from that point so I have options, but I was planning on using the rocket launcher on 5-3 Wesker. I have to defeat him anyway with this run, but another factor is making sure the AI survives, which is more difficult without a ballistic vest. I can try to stun then melee combo him using Electric Rounds though, since there's a save point at the start of the boss fight and Electric Rounds aren't good for much else (Acid and Flash are better for reapers anyway).

[Carrion‏‏‎ ☯]

In my 10 or so playthroughs I've never used the gun turrent in that section because I didn't find it that necessary. It just seemed really impractical to me, I didn't even know it was there for the longest time. The RPG could be considered a weapon as it's primary use is to hurt things, such as weapons are designed to :P

The vests were never really worth the space they required imo, sure you could take more damage if you wore them but Veteran wasn't really that difficult anyways. I only ever used them in Professional because you basically get instakilled from most attacks if you don't have them if I remember correctly.

I used to have a lot of fun doing challenges like that until I made them too difficult on myself and got sick of the game after getting stuck on the 2 Gatling Gun Majini's in a No Upgrade, Pistol Only, No Buying, Inventory Only Challenge (if you put excess items in the box, you can't get them out). Pretty basic but on Veteran it can seem quite impossible at times. I think I had to give Sheva her bow so she could help me, but for some reason she rarely used the damn thing... Anyways, good luck on your challenges, hopefully you don't get bored of the game like I did.

[MarBar]

The gun turret is very good if you're doing a challenge without powerful weapons, since it can keep them both stunlocked as long as you have them in your view. I'm surprised you didn't get through your challenge since there are a finite amount of base majini, so you can kite the gatling gun majini around until you kill all the little guys, then lure them into the turret range.

Unfortunately I only have one rocket to use, so I have to choose carefully. Normally I like to save it for Uroboros Mkono since that boss is just a big bullet sponge, but I'm stockpiling pretty much all my incendiary grenades for that one.

I personally like the bulletproof vest for certain encounters, such as the rotating elevator or the boss fight in 5-3. If I remember correctly, crossbows will always put you into dying unless you have a bulletproof vest on Professional, so it's pretty good early on. Melee attacks pretty much put you into dying status regardless though, unless it's from a normally weak attack such as dogs.

And thanks, I'm fairly certain I'll be able to get through it. I personally didn't make them ridiculous just because I didn't want to get too frustrated, while also experiencing new playstyles. It'll be smoother if I can get an extra pack or two of magnum ammo to drop before Chapter 6, but hey, figuring out how to solve problem with what you have is the big appeal of challenge runs that make them fun for me.

[aardvarkpepper]

So my ultimate goal is to bring enough ammo to defeat the final boss through damage. As it stands, I don't have enough with the guaranteed pickups (30 shots total, 24 from pickups and 6 in the M29) assuming the final boss has 50% magnum resistance. If I can get two more packs to drop at any time between 4-1 and 6-3, I should be set as long as I don't miss too much.

I am also a bit worried about the Gatling Gun Majini in 6-1, since I think the only way I can guarantee a quick stun using unupgraded weapons is a magnum shot to the head or legs.

As in without the tag team Chris-Sheva? That's a lot of damage. You could tote the 3-1 rocket launcher all that way but it would really suck to keep an inventory slot dedicated to that purpose that long, and besides that's kind of um. Well.

Is the restriction on WEAPON DAMAGE ONLY or can you do melees too? Tag team melees?

Gatling Gun Majini in 6-1 is weaksauce. Just shoot him in the head with VZ61 machine gun (I don't like the HK's weird accuracy issues and SIG does less than AK, but AK is okay too). get a stun, reload, melee, repeat. You don't even need tag team melee or weapon upgrades. Then too there's loads of explosive canisters all over the place though I suppose if you're a purist you can't use those maybe? If he tosses a grenade or swings his gun as a melee attack or gears up to start firing, you can easily avoid those attacks, just run.

As to fighting chainsaw majini, again, just shoot them in the head until stun (works with no-upgraded guns too) then melee. Unless again melees are not considered fair game. The only time I'd use a grenade on a chainsaw majini is if I were ALSO cleaning up a bunch of regular majini that were grouped up, or if the chainsaw majini is one that got back up again after being "killed" and was going into that berserker repeat slash business.

Generally I do not like using shotgun as there's a bit of delay even after firing that just makes the character sort of slow and vulnerable to attacks. Machine gun or pistol allows quick fleeing. I use the S75 rifle for its high damage too, but one has to be careful because of the reload animation so it depends.

Mind, I'm not saying do away with shotgun, it's good for knocking down whip-head Cephalos or against crowds and even against bosses in some cases. But if I think things are going to actually get dangerous - that I might actually get hit - I won't use the shotgun then.

==

As to magnum round usage, well I dunno. The major areas I'd use magnum rounds are 5-2's boss and 5-3's boss, the first because of limited window to do damage (though you CAN use other weapons if you spam flame and incendiaries and regular ammo fire), the last because of the seven minutes thing. Using electric rounds on Wesker, well that I haven't done yet.

As to raw damage, I think S75 rifle might be the way to go if you want to carry enough ammo to beat Wesker on firepower alone. S75 does 750 damage per shot, and rifle ammo stacks to 30. S&W M29 does 1500 per shot and stacks to 12, right?

==

24 magnum round pickups? There's 12 rounds in the area you get the S&W M29 in 3-1. There's 6 rounds near the end of 3-3. I can't think of anyplace else.

[MarBar]

Originally posted by aardvarkpepper:

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Is the restriction on WEAPON DAMAGE ONLY or can you do melees too? Tag team melees?

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Regular melee attacks are fine. I guess a more accurate description is that the final hit cannot be a special command or environmental effect. From what I can remember: 1-2 Uroboros without the furnace getting the final hit (Get the Gold Ring), 4-1 Popokarimu with weapons (Get the Soul Gem), 5-1 U-8 so the killing blow is not from tossing a grenade into its mouth, 5-2 Reaper without the furnace, 5-3 Wesker before time limit, 6-3 Uroboros Wesker without the special knife kill. Unfortunately, you have to inject Wesker in the penultimate boss battle.

Originally posted by aardvarkpepper:

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Gatling Gun Majini in 6-1 is weaksauce. Just shoot him in the head with VZ61 machine gun (I don't like the HK's weird accuracy issues and SIG does less than AK, but AK is okay too). get a stun, reload, melee, repeat. You don't even need tag team melee or weapon upgrades. Then too there's loads of explosive canisters all over the place though I suppose if you're a purist you can't use those maybe? If he tosses a grenade or swings his gun as a melee attack or gears up to start firing, you can easily avoid those attacks, just run.

...

The problem for me is that I do not know if unupgraded Machine Guns can stun the Gatling Gun Majini fast enough, especially since they have additional resistance to MGs (75% resistance compared to 70% for other guns, if I remember correctly). It's my fault for not testing it before I started the run. Plus, the save point is fairly far back if I remember right (at the very least, having to re-do the stealth section) which makes me skeptical about strategies I haven't used yet.

Originally posted by aardvarkpepper:

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As to fighting chainsaw majini, again, just shoot them in the head until stun (works with no-upgraded guns too) then melee. Unless again melees are not considered fair game. The only time I'd use a grenade on a chainsaw majini is if I were ALSO cleaning up a bunch of regular majini that were grouped up, or if the chainsaw majini is one that got back up again after being "killed" and was going into that berserker repeat slash business.

Generally I do not like using shotgun as there's a bit of delay even after firing that just makes the character sort of slow and vulnerable to attacks. Machine gun or pistol allows quick fleeing. I use the S75 rifle for its high damage too, but one has to be careful because of the reload animation so it depends.

Mind, I'm not saying do away with shotgun, it's good for knocking down whip-head Cephalos or against crowds and even against bosses in some cases. But if I think things are going to actually get dangerous - that I might actually get hit - I won't use the shotgun then.

...

I already passed the part when I posted the screenshot above. For the first two, I shoot the chainsaw majini twice in the head with the handgun to stun, run into close range, then either fire the shotgun 4 times or knife 5 times before melee, then I try to run closer so the AI will also do a follow-up melee. Doing this takes about 30-50 handgun ammo, more if I didn't use any shotgun shells. One of them seems guaranteed to get up (the one that spawns closer to the starting door), so as soon as he starts rising I fire some rifle shots before he gets anywhere.

The 3rd chainsaw majini, where you have to defend Josh on the control panel, is more problematic since the longer it stays alive, the more ammo that needs to be burnt for the regular majini. Not to mention increasing the chance of getting hit or Josh getting killed by the chainsaw majini. So I had to use a proximity bomb, 4 hand grenades, and a bunch of rifle ammo just to end the fight quickly.

Originally posted by aardvarkpepper:

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As to magnum round usage, well I dunno. The major areas I'd use magnum rounds are 5-2's boss and 5-3's boss, the first because of limited window to do damage (though you CAN use other weapons if you spam flame and incendiaries and regular ammo fire), the last because of the seven minutes thing. Using electric rounds on Wesker, well that I haven't done yet.

As to raw damage, I think S75 rifle might be the way to go if you want to carry enough ammo to beat Wesker on firepower alone. S75 does 750 damage per shot, and rifle ammo stacks to 30. S&W M29 does 1500 per shot and stacks to 12, right?

==

24 magnum round pickups? There's 12 rounds in the area you get the S&W M29 in 3-1. There's 6 rounds near the end of 3-3. I can't think of anyplace else.

Yep, the 8 incendiary grenades I'm saving up are all for Uroboros Mkono. I'm trying not to use any magnum rounds until at least 6-1. I was pleasantly surprised that Electric Rounds stun Wesker, because they really are not very useful for much else.

I mean leaning towards the PSG-1 for the final battle. While the S75 is better for each shot, the low rate of fire means that the fight will drag on longer, which opens up more possibilities of getting hit. I also like the PSG-1's sway pattern more (it's more of a side to side semi-circle compared to the S75's full circle). I also do believe Wesker has some sort of Magnum Resistance, from what I heard and from my previous experience of Wesker not dying as fast as he should when I used one in the past.

There is also a pack of magnum ammo in the 5-3 licker room, right before the Wesker boss fight. It's in the same room as the bridge controls.

[aardvarkpepper]

I went into 6-1 and tried the gatling gun majini fight on Veteran. Shooting the gatling gun majini in the face didn't work for me at first.

I'm super rusty in re5; I've been playing a lot of re revelations 2 and re6 and the controls are different. Aiming was awful (I could hardly get headshots against majini leading up to the fight) and I couldn't get the spacing against the gatling gun majini right either. (Normally I'm basically invincible because when he's going to swing I just back up and he whiffs every time but because I'm rusty I got hit a lot).

I tried a variety of un-upgraded guns. VZ61 and SIG machine guns could get a stun but the firing period was too long; I could fire into stun then melee but I'd have to run away because I couldn't shoot the gunner enough to re-stun him before he swung or attacked. Normally that wouldn't be an issue because I wouldn't get hit but I was rusty so I was getting hit. The AK was a little better but still not basically good enough.

I tried the S75 rifle next, same thing. Ithaca shotgun same thing.

Finally I said the heck with it and used the M3 shotgun. Easy peasy. Sort of.

Before the boss fight make sure the base majini are all dead. If you didn't take your time in the place where all the base majini are running around, when you go up the ladder to the boss fight area, a couple base majini might be on your right near some tanks that will blow up. Shoot the tanks to blow them up and the majini too, or otherwise make sure they die quickly especially if you have an AI partner as the AI partner might trigger the boss.

Next part, boss is coming down and if he throws a grenade get away from the grenade, if he aims gun take cover. Let him come closer while you stay in cover, until he's about 15 feet away - basically you have to cover ground to get into melee range before he comes out of stun.

Then when you think you'll be able to fire a gun for a little while without getting interrupted by him firing his gatling or throwing a grenade, empty the AK machine gun into his body. You don't have to aim for the head. This should stun him. If he does an attack and you have to run from a grenade or take cover do that, just be sure not to gete hurt. While you're running around reload the AK, then empty the AK into the boss when you can (remembering you have to be close).

When the boss goes into stun, immediately run towards him as you switch to the M3 shotgun. You must have the shotgun ready before you melee him. When you melee the boss it will probably be a "Haymaker" melee, which has a long animation. So you will not have much time to act before the boss recovers. This is ESPECIALLY true for the Haymaker animation. If you have the M3 ready though, if you fire the instant you can and you hit the boss, you can get off two shotgun blasts that will put him into stun.

Now when you melee the boss, you will probably do the "Uppercut" melee. (You will know which melee you're doing because the input prompt tells you what you're doing, and of course the animation is different). The upper cut is quick (though you should be able to inventory reload during the melee). So while you're doing the uppercut animation, inventory reload.

As soon as you come out of the uppercut animation, run towards the boss (it's a small distance, like a half step or a step) so your shotgun scatter won't reduce damge. I don't know if that's essential but I always do it, and I think it's worth mentioning because if you don't do enough damage you won't re-stun the boss. Anyways you run towards the boss, the boss hasn't really recovered, and you unload a shotgun blast.

If the boss goes into stun (which he sometimes does), uppercut and repeat process.

If the boss doesn't go into stun unload another shotgun blast. If you actually hit the boss with both shotgun blasts, this will put him into stun. I think you will even have time for a third shotgun blast, though I never needed to do it. The uppercut animation gives you lots of time to do whatever.

Anyways at this point the boss is in stun, so you uppercut and inventory reload.

. . . now here's the other tricky parts.

The whole time you're moving in on the boss and driving him backwards. So once you have him against a wall, it's easy for him to sort of scoot out from your line of fire. So if the boss is against a wall, remember your uppercut and shotgun blasts will not drive him back, but YOU are moving FORWARDS as you do the uppercut and stuff probably. So then you actually take a half step or a step BACKWARDS after every uppercut. So the boss stays in front of you, and you keep stun-locking and damaging him until he's dead.

Sometimes Sheva will do a melee attack. The boss throws up his hands and gets his balance. If you unload your shotgun into him then, that's not good. Because when the boss recovery animation is over, he'll attack, and your shotgun will be empty so you can't shoot him to put him into stun. So if Sheva does a melee attack, wait for the boss's arms to go up and flail about a bit, then wait for his arms to come down a bit, then start firing. You should be able to put him into stun then. If you want, you can shoot him and inventory reload as he recovers.

Finally, if you mess up somehow, maybe you don't inventory reload or whatever, just run to cover. Fix your inventory and reload and stuff, then repeat process.

I killed the gatling gun majini six times in a row without taking damage using this method, using only AK machine gun, M3 shotgun, and melees. I didn't use the gas tanks scattered around the area, and Sheva was unarmed.

It takes about 30-60 AK shots depending how many times you set up a stun at range, maybe 90-120 if you lose in the middle and have to run away and set up stun at range again. Then it takes about 19-24 shotgun shells depending on how many times Sheva melees.

Only part I'm not sure of is maybe if I shot him in a different place with the M3 shotgun maybe I would get a "Haymaker" prompt instead of an "Uppercut" prompt. Haymaker does a load more damage, but again you have to be careful with it because you have to blast him with the shotgun immediately as soon as you can, you don't have time to move at all, just fire.

One last tricky part - most of this is pretty automatic once you get it down, but because the gunner's backpack blocks shots, you have to be careful about the area you engage in. If you have a bad angle at all, the backpack can block shots, then the gunner is mad and you're right next to him and you can't stun him since your shotgun is empty and your machine gun won't stun him fast enough before he can swing at you. So generally I would try to get the first stun near the base of the stairs he comes down (not waiting for him to walk closer to the gas tank near the wall), and drive him onto the stairs then into the back wall, or into the area to the left of the stairs. If you engage him in the sort of corridor made between the wall and the boxes, the angle gets weird sometimes.

Note - this is basically a no skill way of killing the chaingun majini boss, since I was super rusty I kept trying to do things like "evade command" (which doesn't exist in RE5) and my aiming was pretty awful I have to admit. So if it worked for me in my rusty state it ought to work for you too.

[MarBar]

Thanks for performing the experiment. Honestly, this sounds like a pretty good strategy to use in the run. Machine Gun ammo is plentiful and the shotgun isn't really used much after 6-1 except for panic situations against stun rod base majini. As long as I can preserve rifle ammo, it'll be good since a lot of the mid-late game benefits from using the rifle. The fact that you were able to consistently execute the plan is a pretty good sign as well, since you don't move around the map that much and limit the chances of accidents happening.

I'm think that the gatling gun majini will block shotgun blasts regardless of how much damage or where the pellets hit, if I recall correctly from when I used the Hydra a long time ago.

I can also use spare hand grenades to do the intial stun as well, playing like BSAA Chris in Mercenaries, since I don't think there's much use for hand grenades after 6-1.

But of course, if I do happen to get extra magnum ammo to drop from enemies, it'll be a lot easier. Even unupgraded, one shot is a guaranteed stun as long as he isn't in a recovery frame.

When I get to 6-1, I may try setting the AI to attack mode to move it forward before using a Haymaker/Backhand to see if it can trigger a follow-up melee. Free ~900 damage melees can be helpful, even if it changes the rhythm of the fight.

Personally, I have the opposite problem when changing games. Whenever I go back to playing Revelations, I play it like the older games and try to run away/avoid attacks instead of trying to dodge them. It sometimes takes a bit to remember I can move and shoot in that game as well, since I got used to standing still when taking aim.

Once again, thanks for testing this fight out, even though you weren't comfortable with the controls.