Weapon Review

[ProxyJames]

So I have now gotten around to using pretty much all the weapon types with the highest level of the associated perk(s) and I have the following constitutions, I in place of reviewing EACH weapon I will just do a blanket review of all weapons in that type minus causes for things like the gunslinger stuff because it has 4 guns that all work differently>

Melee weapons

Clubs - 10/10
These little things are vicious, with all the perk and magazine perks you can just power attack for days and never run out of stam, pick up flurry of blows and it has a pretty fast attack seed! Clubs have two gimmicks from the perk and skill books, one is knock zombies back and down the other is every X amount of hits (at level 5 of the perk its every 3 hits) you do 100% more damage with the next swing so with a few skill books and perk points you toss zombies around like rag dolls its so funny

Sledgehammers - 4/10
Big and slow and uses a ton of stam per swing, early game they work great but the further you get into the game you need a weapon that can not only put down zombies quick but go in for follow up swings and you just can't do that with the sledgehammer. the hammers have one gimmick witch is knockdown and its not as high of a knockdown chance as the smaller, faster attacking clubs lol

knifes - 5/10
mostly used as a tool early on they are not that great, down the line you can make a "machete" (as a note is it named machete but it is 100% a kukri. following that up kukris are just as bad ass as machetes but I have a little bit of OCD and it is very clearly a kukri) witch is a solid fast attacking weapon, what it lacks in damage it makes up for in attack speed! its gimmick is bleed witch slows down zombies, great if your in a group on crown control.

Knuckles - 7/10
surprisingly very powerful weapon end game, not so much early game. the fists have a few gimmicks, such as stopping zombies ability to infect you, knockback (lower chance than club) every x hits do way more damage and recovering small amounts of HP with every hit while very fast its not quite as strong as other weapons so only a 7 for it

Stun batons - 1/10
these weapons are a massive disappointment, they have very very very low damage and always takes several strikes to put down a zombie. the gimmick for it is that every X hits you charge the weapon and the next hit will stun the zombie and there is a mod that adds knock back with the stun and books that add some RNG to when the weapon will charge but even with that fending off more than 2 or 3 normal zombies is rough with this weapon, trying fend off the ones that regenerate or stronger ones and you will get very injured

Ranged weapons

Bows - 2/10
So bows look great on paper but the big problem is that none of the bows pack quite as much punch as the guns, that being said they seem to be built to work exclusively with stealth as they take much much longer to draw and reload than guns, but they do have a slightly more limited range and require heavy investments in stealth to be used to there full potential and on horde night you just can't kill zombies fast enough with them, you CAN craft explosive arrows witch do a good amount of damage but not as much as grenades or other thrown explosives and if you want to be stealthy you can just find or craft a suppressor

Crossbows - 1/10
so crossbows have some advantages over bows but more drawbacks. the advantage is that you down have to draw it to fire you just fire, the downsides is they deal less damage than bows when the bow is fully drawn and take way longer to reload, otherwise they are in the same boat as bows where you need to heavily invest into stealth and during horde night you can kill zombies fast enough to make it out alive

9mm Handgun - 7/10
the 9mm handgun is a really wonderful weapon, ammo stacks to 300, solid damage, easy headshots, really good perks, good at long range when aiming down the sights and later on ingore some of the zombies armor at point blank range. (fun fact, its modeled after the beretta m9 series of handguns)

9mm SMG - 10/10
there is no downside to this weapon, it is just a straight upgrade from the 9mm handgun in every way, its full auto but you can fire in semi if you want and shares all the same perks as the 9mm handgun (fun fact, this one is a H&K MP5 with a built in suppressor, though it seems that's just for decoration in this game lol)

.44 magnum - 3/10
WHAT?! THE .44 GOT A THREE!? one reason: small mag size and VERY slow reload speed, the character takes there sweet time sniping the chambers when you reload so zombies can much on ya! that being said while the .44 shares the gunslinger perks with the 9mm handgun and SMG it differs because it has a different set of book perks, and these book perks make both .44 magnums fairly invaluable even if your not specing into handguns because of buffs like less stam when running with one and 10% better deals when you have one out when talking to a vendor! also ammo stacks to 300!

.44 desert vulture 10-10
So this weapon is better in every way to the .44 magnum, while I think they both do the same damage the Deagle (lets call a spade a spade, it is totally desert eagle, witch do have a barrel for and can be chambered in .44 magnum or .50 AE) fires much faster, reloads faster and has a much larger magazine (more than double the magnum with the mod) so all the things that made you want to carry a magnum around + its good in combat and it only takes 2-3 shots to bring down the much bigger zombies and the fact that ammo stacks to 300 makes it a good friend when exploring new zones or defending your base on horde night.

Sniper Rifles - 6/10
Snipers are...a mixed bag. the basic hunting rifle is just garbage because of its very long reload time and it only has ONE shot (fun fact, during a reload with the hunting rifle you can clearly see another 7.62 round inside of a internal magazine) but once you get the better versions the weapon because they hold a great deal more ammo. if you want to get into stealth this is the weapon to go for, with a suppressor and a ghillie suit (a suit of clothing you learn to craft by collecting the 7 books for snipers) you become the stealth king/queen, even on horde nights it shines because every kill makes you do more and more damage with them, works best when your in a group providing covering fire! ammo only stacks to 150 though, make them count.

shotguns - 6/10
shotguns are great during every stage of the game and do a crazy amount of damage (I do believe a dead on hit with all the pellets hitting one zombie they deal the most damage out of any firearm) but the do have a downside: because the devs don't understand how they work the pellets will just fire right though zombies, witch is awesome sometimes when fighting the horde but when you inside you base you WILL heavily damage/destroy your own blocks, but they can stun and dismember zombies with ease.

Machine guns - 6/10
these weapons are great, they all work just like the SMG but have higher damage, they are all also really accurate, a big boon is that when aiming down the sight every hit scored gives you back stam so you can say down the sights as long as your getting hits, with the books each hit makes you more accurate and deal more damage and lets you sprint faster, with run and gun when you need to reload you can get enough distance so those pesky zombies can get a munch in! the downside: same ammo as the snipers so it only stacks to 150! so you really have to haul around alot of ammo for them.

[Amanoob105]

You give corssbows way too little credit. In this way I would say the criteria by with you judge these weapons has its flaws.

-First and foremost they're silent by default. When sneaking though a building and you don't want to wake up the whole place they let you headshot the zombies one at a time. You don't need to invest in stealth skills to get the most from them, just stay crouched and keep your distance where possible.
-As a result of the above the reload time doesn't matter when time is on your side.
-Early game they, and by extension bows, have a massive advantage in that their ammo is dirt cheap to make and made of things plentiful to find. This lets you save up on bullets, and gunpowder, for the big night while still having a ranged option.
Even as the game goes on their ammo is far easier, and typically cheaper, to make in bulk than other ranged weapons.

Is it the best hoard night weapon? No, not in the slightest. But it doesn't need to be as there are plenty of other weapons that can cover that job. This is the weapon that never leaves your side between hoard nights (unless you can get ahold of the recipe for explosive bolts/arrows and turn it effectively into a grenade launcher, then it can have some fun along with the other guys).

[Crater Creator]

Thanks for an insightful and thorough post, OP. People may disagree on some details, but this forms a good primer for anyone wondering about the game’s weapons.

[OH! MY CAR]

On the hardest settings Sledge is 10/10

Knife is a little better on harder settings as well, because bleed damage is not reduced, I believe.

[IRuleAll]

totally disagree on your crossbow and bow assessment. in the early game the sneak attack head shots are massive, make no noise, and can easily one shot most zombies even on insane with no sneak perks used. during horde nights their exploding ammo is great for setting off piles of pipe bombs that you have thrown out, and its relatively cheap to make(especially compared to a frag rocket), and using the drop mechanic with your pipe bombs combined with crossbow and bow, makes it way less likely you blow yourself up when you fall back to light them with your exploding arrows/bolts.

Too me shotguns are the worst by a lot, they have absolutely no stopping power and when you play on insane with nightmare speed for all, there are plenty of times where the zombies will run right through your shotgun blast and hit you, because it has little to no stopping power when you just aim for mass. which is really stupid, because thats what a shotgun is supposed to be used for in most games, up close crowd control that staggers. instead, a 9mm has more stopping power as far as stopping a zombie running in at full sprint and you just shoot from the hip and aim for body mass. and the most annoying part about shotguns is how much collateral dmg they cause to the walls, floors, and containers. you can shoot a target point blank in the chest, and it seems like it ends up doing more dmg to the PoI than the actual zombie

[david.artrex]

I totally disagree with almost everything. For instanceI always use a bow if its possible. For me its by far the best weapon in the game.

[ProxyJames]

well everything I put down were my experiences, this is a game has alot to do with time management, witch is another reason that the bow/crossbows are bad because sneaking in and killing everything without getting noticed takes WAY longer than just running in with a club and beating everything to death in 1/4th the time it took to sneak, bows should have a gimmick in witch you can pin enemies to the ground or walls then they would be way more useful and cool.

for sledges, I have them a huge chance on harder difficulties and the swing times are just too long, yes I can kill most zombies in one hit but that means nothing if I get hit 6 times because I can only kill maybe one zombie at a time (very slowly) with the club I run in and power attack a few times, rag doll everything and get hit 0 times.

I messed with the stun baton a bit more and its kind of....RNG? sometimes I would get a kill in one hit other times it would take 1-5 (btw was using one with the skill maxed out, most of the tech junkie books and on gamestage 180) so because it was super inconsistent I ditched it and went back to my love the steel club.

also I never noticed the shotgun had no stopping power....actually most tougher zombies just ignore stun and knockback anyways most of the time and because 1-2 shots kill or blow off arms/legs I can't see what you were saying about it is true

that being said I find myself running around exclusively with the Deagle because most of the time it one shots weak zombies and I can carry 300 bullets and I don't really have issues when looting ammo so far and if I ever do need to make ammo I have more than enough brass and lead.

also as a general note, I exclusively aim for the head, at all times, I miss about....I want to say 20-30% of the time (can't say if that is right as hit boxes in this game are wonky as ♥♥♥♥, once I shot a infected cop point blank in the head and missed O.o), rarely I aim for the neck or upper torso.

[MMJ]

Since the game can be changed quite a bit on the will of the player (difficulty settings, % of loot, % of xp, zombies speed ...), it's hard to gave a definitive and absolute note on each weapon.

For my part, i always play on normal with the loot set to 25 %, so bows and crossbows quickly became invaluable to me, since even with such a low loot rate, it's easy to craft them (same for their ammo).
I also love to play a stealthy survivor, and often manage to clear a full POI with a bow and nothing else.

And you can guess that with the loot set to 25 %, i'm never gonna go gun blazing inside a POI anyway. I reserve all the ammo i can found or craft for blood moons.

So ... what i'm trying to say is : weapons utililty greatly vary depending on your personnal game settings. Don't be so quick to dismiss some weapons because they don't kill quick.

Finally, you haven't mentionned the rocket launcher or the explosives in your review, but hey ... i'm almost never use them personnaly (except maybe the molotov on some horde night - weak damages, yes, but at least, they don't blow my own walls to pieces like the other explosives)

[Grilled cheese sandwich]

Clubs and shotguns all day long. I agree with your point that if zombies make it into your base that the collateral damage is a problem. SMG is a great short/medium range gun used in combo with the shotgun in the case that happens. Nice review!

[Jonnson]

hm, this is my response to stun baton being given a 1, and also you fail to note that the knuckles at end game will auto headshot/kill which makes them the most powerful melee weapon. Clubs are nice, I agree, but in endgame stamina is not an issue.

https://youtu.be/5g5Sv3OA7CQ?t=160

[ProxyJames]

Originally posted by Jonnson:

hm, this is my response to stun baton being given a 1, and also you fail to note that the knuckles at end game will auto headshot/kill which makes them the most powerful melee weapon. Clubs are nice, I agree, but in endgame stamina is not an issue.

https://youtu.be/5g5Sv3OA7CQ?t=160

he doesn't actually kill anything with the stun baton XD he just uses it to stun them so we can back up and throw stuff lol also any weapon can one shot zombies with a crit but firsts do alot less than clubs so without crits they still are good, I never said they were bad I just said there damage was lower than clubs and they don't knockback as much

[Mardoin69]

For how I play.....this is a good assessment. People argue favor for bows and yeah....a few Alpha's ago, bows were my fav.....especially early game. But, the way it's been playing out with loot, the stealth mechanics and sleeper mechanics in A19, I don't even START with a bow anymore. I'm not going to waste time trying to sneak around everywhere cuz it won't matter anyway. Zombies outside the building seem to know you're inside the building no matter what most the time so, what's the point? Just snipe sleepers before going into the rooms and who needs stealth? Not this guy! So, I'd agree bows are somewhat useless. Try taking down a bear with a bow.....better be up on 2nd floor of a building...that's all I have to say! lol

[Jonnson]

Originally posted by ProxyJames:

Originally posted by Jonnson:

hm, this is my response to stun baton being given a 1, and also you fail to note that the knuckles at end game will auto headshot/kill which makes them the most powerful melee weapon. Clubs are nice, I agree, but in endgame stamina is not an issue.

https://youtu.be/5g5Sv3OA7CQ?t=160

he doesn't actually kill anything with the stun baton XD he just uses it to stun them so we can back up and throw stuff lol also any weapon can one shot zombies with a crit but firsts do alot less than clubs so without crits they still are good, I never said they were bad I just said there damage was lower than clubs and they don't knockback as much

heh, ya its a crowd control weapon. I guess I didn't realize your review was strictly on dps.

and no my friend. The knuckles get an automatic killshot on heads way more often than other weapons. Its a feature of the weapon. You may not notice this on the lower settings as like you say, "any weapon can one shot zombies with a crit," but on higher settings you will really notice this effect on a zombie with equivalent 4000 health since the crits do no kill them nearly as often, whereas the knuckles kill regardless.

I used molys in this video because I was doing all the weapons in the series. I lost interest in the game for now so I stopped uploading all these vids, but I'll upload the one where I did the club tonight. Like I say its a good weapon, I like it to. But you guys gotta stop relating to newbs that the baton is crap when it is, in fact, the only defensive weapon in the game, and therefore highly useful. I mean, these opinions are all subjective, but if your gonna post a "review" try to be a little more comprehensive. The knife, stone ax combo is really strong at newbie levels, for instance, and you made it sound like its garbage while noting the machete, and ignoring the ax altogether. I can do the first 50 levels using a bone knife and a stone ax pretty easily because they use little to no stamina, and at lowbie levels stamina is important. Also, the spear is highly useful at low to mid levels for base builders as its range allows one to fight on walls, or build perches to deal with dogs, and you didn't even mention the spear.

And finally, the baton is my primary weapon all through the mid levels (100-200). While its good for horde nights, in the way I've shown (aeo stun, then bomb, or burn) its most effective when doing poi's, especially when playing on nightmare run settings, or dealing with ferals, animals, or spider zeds early on. In this vid I stun locked a bear, and while it takes some time to bring him down, understand that this can be done at level 1 should you obtain a baton that early, and these days they are sold at the vendor for 250 coins, fairly often. You cannot do this with any other weapon,you would be lunch.

https://youtu.be/WQ7mAdbFZPA

Try to consider that this is on insane setting where the bear is doing 4x dmg, and I am doing 1 quarter dmg=)

The baton is not a "1," your use of it is.

[ProxyJames]

yeah honestly, the stuff he did in the video, maybe 5 people are going to do that, everyone else is going to build a base with tons of turrets and a narrow elevated path with two sledge turrets knocking the zombies off while they pop off assault rifle or .44 mag shots, maybe sniper and SMG shots (or 9mm)
also that only really works when you in a open field and can throw explosives without having to worry about loot or the area around you lol

[Khissi]

It sure is cool how this game is so perfectly balanced, that every person is able to find THEIR best way to play. Also interesting is how other people tend to believe that THEIR favorite way to play should be the only way anyone should ever want to play.

I love our developers.. please, never listen to those sorts of people.

a17... pistol, bow, pump shotgun
a18... sledge, crossbow, pistol, AK/M60 horde
a19... club, crossbow, Dvulture, M60 for horde

I also love how my own personal preferences change with the game. Can hardly wait to see what a20 brings.

[[-=O=-]^FightinCock]

Sledgehammers - 10/10 in my book.... once mastered it is the nastiest melee.
Can make one in starting mins of the game
Can hit multi zombies in one swing, seting them on fire, knocking them down or just plan ol popping heads.
And can't play insane level without it.

And the latest sniper rifle, 10/10 highest damage gun in the game.