Need weapon advice

[Bradass]

Are there any standout weapon types?

I've been using plasma pistols and ballistic assault rifles. When do I start getting plasma and laser primary weapons? Have also not seen any chain guns. Plenty of different pistol types, but hardly any primary weapon types.

I did buy a shotgun off the black market, but I'm not even sure if it's any good.

I'm having a hard time really breaking down the quality of each weapons. Is accuracy typically more important? Hard to tell what is better when enemies have so much hps and I'm not seeing when I miss.

Also, is the sniper worth it for small close range battles? Or should my infiltrator be using her pistol?

Basically, any sort of weapon advice would help.

[Lyle]

Plasma seems to outperform kinetic weapons in most respects.
I just got my hands on a Plasma Shotgun and its... Great :)

[samuelmarston]

I want a plasma shotgun!

[Flip]

I got a Plasma Rifle Prototype in the Downtown area, but I think loot is random. From what I understand it goes something like

Vs Unprotected Targets: Ballistics
Vs Armor: Plasma
Vs Shields/Inorganics: Laser

Now this does depend on weapons, shotguns do a lot of dmg and you can get hand cannons at least for ballistic and plasma that do a lot of dmg.

Overall I think Plasma is the best, good vs armor and almost no difference vs organics. Plan for me is use Plasma as primary and laser (when I get something better than the pea shooter pistol) as secondary for use vs shields.

[Gillsing]

I usually go with sniper rifles for everyone until I find a heavy weapon for the soldier. Accuracy for weapons seem to mostly dictate range, as highly accurate energy pistols seem to have longer range than uzis and such. And range is good for ranged weapons. Kill them before they can even shoot back. Up close there is always kicking.

As for when you find new weapons, that depends on what random prototypes the various mission target facilities contain. Pay your local district information broker to find out, and don't be afraid to travel to other districts to see if they have better loot.

Gate Passes to the Grid and Industrial districts only require you to more or less finish the two main compounds in Downtown, and once you have access to both of those districts you can get Gate Passes to CBD. Though it might be kind of difficult to get access to the information brokers in each of those districts. But once you have activated all the information brokers you'll be able to buy info on what each facility has to offer, at which point you can go for the ones that have the weapons you want.

Last game I finished with plasma minigun and plasma cannon for the soldier, and laser sniper rifles for all the others. Master Technician gives extra damage with lasers for the Hacker, and laser does extra damage against inorganics like drones and mechs, and also against shields. With shields gone the soldier's plasma can chew away armor. The plasma minigun also has a slightly shorter range (lower accuracy), sometimes forcing the soldier closer to the action, which was good, since Harden and Draw Fire can be used to reduce damage taken. Bad part is that when it's time to retreat, the slower soldier is already lagging behind.

Support and Hacker also had plasma rifles, but I didn't use them much because of the soldier's plasma minigun. Too much of a hassle to switch weapons every time an enemy had only armor and health. Infiltrator had a boomstick because I wanted to see if it could be used efficiently up close after a melee attack left a target with only health and no armor. But I didn't get around to that more than once or twice. (They all had Wetcorp third arms for additional weapon slots. I was planning to get them Nanofiber Muscle V2 for arms and legs to wield heavy weapons, but didn't buy it from the Black Market until the very end, at which point I felt that laser sniper rifles were good enough.)

In general I'd recommend weapons that do knock-back area damage, like the plasma cannon, laser cannon and missile launcher. They aren't needed very often, but when they're needed, they're needed. And it's quite easy to fill up the ammo from all the ammo boxes the fallen foes leave behind. Especially when using an ammo vest for 30% extra ammo. Just have to watch out with trying to fire those weapons from behind cover, as sometimes the shot can go straight into the cover, for massive 'friendly fire' damage.

A soldier with a third arm can also carry all three of those weapons, and alternative between them faster than reloading them. Combine with Rage and Mark Target for really high damage. A plasma cannon with activated Plasma Furnace Inducer can one-shot a quad mech with that combo. But back to range: Three laser sniper rifles can take out a quad mech from far enough away that it doesn't react to being shot to pieces. So if you aren't getting tremendous power, I'd go with tremendous range.

I tried the plasma shotgun in an earlier (and aborted) playthrough, and it didn't impress me. I would've wanted to catch the target with more of the blast, but to do that my agent needed to get so close that he would default to a kick instead of shooting. Other than that it seems like a shotgun is like a sniper rifle: Slow with big hits. But unlike a sniper rifle, much shorter range, that often forces the agent out of cover.

[Lyle]

Ooo, looking forward to the Rocket Launcher, yes sir. Yes sirreeee, Bob :)

I find the Plasma Shotgun packing quite a punch, especially with the Rage skill active. And unlike a sniper rifle, I believe the damage increases the closer you are, which opens up for some sweet commando action, flanking your target and then 'knock knock' on their shoulder: "whos there?" - BOOM.

And lets not forget about grenades; my main tool for decimating clusters of enemies at once, aswell as for taking out sentry guns.

[Hazard]

At least in 1.02 there seemed to be something wrong with the shotguns. Based on some very brief testing it looked like both of them, even the plasma version, had a pretty severe penalty against armor, since their damage seemed to increased quite a bit when only health was left.

Perhaps the stat screen gives false damage numbers, or maybe it's just really rare to hit with the full blast. In any case, they certainly didn't impress me. The enemy anti-riot troopers with their shotguns didn't deal much damage, either, so at least it kinda cuts both ways.

[Gillsing]

Originally posted by Dino swe:

... flanking your target and then 'knock knock' on their shoulder: "whos there?" - BOOM.

Ah, but as I mentioned, once you're close enough to knock on their shoulder, you're too close for shooting, and all you'll do is kick them. Which isn't nothing, but not as good as a sniper rifle from a fair distance.

Originally posted by Dino swe:

And lets not forget about grenades; my main tool for decimating clusters of enemies at once, aswell as for taking out sentry guns.

I guess grenades do everything that cannons and the launcher does, and without a lot of the risks as well. But the soldier can only carry three of them, and that makes them a lot more difficult to reload from ammo boxes. (Until this latest patch, which I have yet to play, the reliable Ammo Pack hasn't been very accessible in areas with elevations of any kind.)

Though I recently realised that most of the yellow 'Packages' in compounds are actually Munition Supply Crates, and just standing nearby one will give ammo regen! So I guess Ammo Packs won't really be needed from now on.

[Qualily]

I went with two plasma rifles, one laser smg and a laser sniper rifle. Silenced. The soldier eventually picked up a heavy weapon (the plasma beam I believe) but I didn't really use it more than once or twice for giggles. No need for it.

I did give my soldier grenades though which came in handy if I compeltely botched the entire mission (as far as stealth is concerned). I also realized that I could get incredibly cheesy with them by plonking down an ammo box and then just repeatedly chuck grenades over a wall. It mostly served to raise the alert levels to even crazier degrees but it was funny for a little while.

[Lyle]

Originally posted by Gillsing:

Originally posted by Dino swe:

... flanking your target and then 'knock knock' on their shoulder: "whos there?" - BOOM.

Ah, but as I mentioned, once you're close enough to knock on their shoulder, you're too close for shooting, and all you'll do is kick them. Which isn't nothing, but not as good as a sniper rifle from a fair distance.

A kick for style, followed up by a spray of superheated plasma pellets burning through a body like butter. Whats not to like :)

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=512720549

I only wish the impact would also set the target on fire. That would be something ...

Originally posted by Gillsing:

I guess grenades do everything that cannons and the launcher does, and without a lot of the risks as well. But the soldier can only carry three of them

I believe hijacked Commanders also carry em. And you can also outfit your other agents with a spare one. I love it when I select my entire group, press G and target a huge cluster or sentry, and 4 grenades are being lobbed at once. Overkill is badass :P

[Flip]

@Gillsing, why laser snipers on your other troops? Isn't the rate of fire very slow?

[Gillsing]

Slow but powerful, and the range is long enough for my liking. And people who don't have shields are likely to take massive damage from the soldier's heavy plasma weaponry. It worked in the Dracogenics tower, even if they had to retreat at times because their positions were being overwhelmed.

[Flip]

gave it a try, Soldier with Plasma Minigun (fun for the whole family), Support * Infiltrator with Laser Sniper and Hacker with Plasma Rifle and raided the Eternals Induction Centre.

Burst Dmg is nice but bit concerned about rate of fire. That being said, enemies, shielded or otherwise did die rather quickly....

Researching Laser SMG, will give that a go as well, see how it works. If only there was a laser rifle....

[sf]

I use body-weapon slot. All carry silenced sniper as 3rd weapon, and plasma for 2nd (soldier uses minigun+accuracy/beam+damage. minigun seems to do more damage, but beam seems to have longer range and looks cool lol)

for handgun, all uses the plasma handgun (silenced). Handgun mostly should be used for stealth kill and type and damage seems irrelevenat most of the time.

[Gillsing]

Originally posted by Nevan:

Researching Laser SMG, will give that a go as well, see how it works. If only there was a laser rifle....

While it's certainly good to have fast laser weapons, I find that three laser sniper rifles are just fast enough to take out the shields on a target before the plasma minigun or cannon is ready to take out the remaining armor. And the DPS is much higher for the sniper rifles. Almost twice as high against both health and shields. No contest in my book. But sure, two laser sniper rifles and two plasma weapons are probably better. It's just that it's nice to have a way to shoot down attack drones that stay at a long distance and fire their own shield-eating lasers, so that's one reason to have a third laser sniper rifle instead of a plasma rifle. (Uzy Korp drones are armored though, so I guess a plasma rifle might be better for those.)

[Victor]

i'm rocking super heated zeus heavy plasma beams on my hacker and support, an overclocked laser sniper on my infiltrator and a flamethrower as well as another zeus on my soldier. even the most powerful enemies in the game melt within seconds.