What are the main differences between the Spear Gun and Harpoon?

[Willis the Illest]

Besides fire rate and damage, are there any major differences? And is one better than the other most of the time (taking into consideration the cost difference, etc.)

[[BOT] DepthDude]

It depends if your good. 4500 gold is before the first safe if you know how to use dpv.

[Seraph]

For fast and small sharks, the Spear Gun is superior because you don't need the extra firepower but the higher rate of fire does come in handy, and it allows you to save quite a bit of money to use on equipment. On the bigger ones I prefer the Harpoon because they're easier to hit and the extra damage actually comes into play, although a Spear Gun with Drag and Toxic performs just as well on Bulls and GWs. Though it's great to one-shot a Bull with a Harpoon before it has a chance to enrage.

The Spear Gun brings Tigers one knife hit away from death, but the Harpoon one-shots them, as well as Hammerheads and un-enraged Bulls. I'm not sure if the Bull one-shot is with or without the Penetrating upgrade, but I always get that as the extra damage outweighs Toxic or Bleed on bigger ones anyway, as it nearly one-shots a GW as well. Explosive is only if you're really bad and want to prove how bad you are by using it against small and fast sharks.

[Ray G.]

Speargun has faster reload, it's cheaper and do less damage. With all the changes I don't remember how much is it now, something between 170-200 dmg.

Harpoon has slightly longer reload, it's bloody expensive and do more damage - 300. Also has penetrating (+120 dmg) and explosive modifiers (slower projectile but does aoe damage, most vets avoid the mod unless for fun). Both of those mods you won't find on speargun.

Other than that there aren't any major differences. Projectile speed is the same (except when explosive modifier is equiped).

[Todd the Wraith]

Harpoon is an ideal anti-Bull and anti-Hammerhead gun. With explosive it can be used quite well against the 3 fast sharks too (because it explodes in proximity to them, so you don't need to actually hit them, just be somewhat close), providing there is a MASSIVE skill gap between the diver and the shark.

Spear gun on the other hand is basically the worst gun in the game (except on Devil's head, where it is overpowered due to night vision scope and long corridors, meaning divers can just each look at a different entrance and just need to left click without even moving the mouse in time.

[Seraph]

Originally posted by TheQuietScone:

Spear gun on the other hand is basically the worst gun in the game

Not at all.

[SnoW]

Main thing i'd bear in mind: noise they make.
I love the speargun - i think it's what i use most of the time.
However it makes a 'whoosh' kind of a sound when fired (to me anyhow)
And it's quite a lengthly sound compared to the quick firing sound the harpoon makes.

So the two main considerations for me are:
How long you can't rely on your hearing for sounds of sharks swimming nearby.
And what modifiyers do they have.

NOISE
Every speargun shot makes a noise for most of a second that can mask a nearby shark.

Harpoon barely makes any noise

BALANCE / USES

I see the speargun as fairly balanced as it's a powerful early weapon but has the above disadvantage, in the same way using the sonar gun used as a sonar/wall hax.. creates that 'Bonnng' sound which is loud and lasts a while - once again rendering you and your team mates unable to properly hear sharks.
On this point even sonar bouys can be a nuissance.

Back to the speargun though;
It has good upgrades early on, harpoon has better ones later on to deal with tank sharks.

Harpoon is overkill for a speed shark - it just kills them straight up.
Speargun will 1 hit kill a thresher, tiger * and mako**
*If you add toxic rounds the tiger is definatley dead.
** if the mako went for ignore pain - you might not kill it - but by then you probably have money to buy an ads / aps (better for mako)

It does work well against some large sharks - not two tank sharks, but if you have a mix of a tiger and HH say... - the drag rounds would do you well, killing one shark in one hit, and slowing the HH down for your team mates.


So, TLDR
Harpoon is best, most dmg, quietest firing.
Speargun: Makes more noise (can mask shark movements) reasonable damage for an early on weapon, usually buyable when the sharks still haven't evolved much so you can make use of modifyers with it to mess with the sharks.
And another big pro is you can usually buy two!

[SeanXD]

Originally posted by Seraph:

Originally posted by TheQuietScone:

Spear gun on the other hand is basically the worst gun in the game

Not at all.

That spot is reserved for Spear Pistols

[Seraph]

Originally posted by SeanXD:

Originally posted by Seraph:

Not at all.

That spot is reserved for Spear Pistols :bernie:

We have a winner!

[Pho3nix]

Spear Gun is more challenging, and fun! I'd say skip the Harpoon alltogether and just focus honing your skills with the cheaper alternative... I've gotten some amazing long-shot kills with it.

The rifles are good of course, but there's just something really satisfying with spearing a shark dead in its tracks

[SnoW]

^ yup : )