What weapons do you usually equip your colonists with?

[Terripan]

So I know that there have been a few posts before that have pretty much asked this question, but using the search function I couldn't find any of them and as far as I know there hasn't been one since at least 1.2, possibly since 1.1. So since the meta has probably changed a little since then, and since there are probably more/different users here now, I figured I might as well ask.

So the title is fairly self-explanatory. What weapons/armor do you usually give your colonists?

I think this may be a little unusual, but I typically try to avoid melee at all costs. The only circumstances where I'll give a pawn a melee weapon are pretty rare:
1) a pawn is a brawler
2) there are no guns available
3) a pawn has almost no skill in shooting, but is practically a god in melee and has at least a minor passion for it
This means that I only ever have a few melee pawns, and they are pretty much used to carry away injured pawns or to chase retreating raiders. Sometimes they are used to protect shooters from a melee charge.

As far as guns go, I try to get machine guns, in particular the machine pistol, the heavy SMG, and the assault rifle. Low skill shooters get machine pistols, since they put out a large amount of bullets(even with a lower chance to hit per bullet than other weapons, like the boltie, the amount it puts out makes up for it. This is my philosophy on fighting in the game in general), heavy SMGs are given to medium skill shooters, and assault rifles are given to high skill shooters. If I lack heavy SMGs or assault rifles, they can be substituted with machine pistols, LMGs, or bolt action rifles, but the latter is reserved for high skill shooters.

[Reyggor]

Vanilla so different to how others may work.

Most of my pawns use maces, with combat dedicated pawns having Excellent-Legendary Uranium with Shield Belts and Armour, regular pawns just get Excellent Wooden ones and Tribalwear, keeps the base value/raid size minimal.

Normally have enough combat pawns to overwhelm shooters, and occasional Doomsday vs large Tribal raid, drop-pods are biggest threat vs regular pawns and frankly they're easy to deal with when you can go 2v1 with enough penetration to bypass Pikeman/Sycther/Lancer/Mid-Tier Armour + have better DPS than their guns melee potential + you get frequent stuns.

So really good sticks + really good sticks made of metal.

[dande48]

If you have the DLC, Zeushammers are fantastic for melee, especially against mechoids. I usually have one or two melee. I keep them armored with locus (for the jumps), shields, stone skin and coagulation implants. If you can get a royal melee with the Invisibility psycast, they can take out any side Mechoid cluster solo. I've found melee in general to be super OP, especially against range. The jump packs/locus armor are too good for closing gaps.

I also always stick toughskin and venom fangs on all my ranged colonist. My favorite ranged weapon has to be the sniper. It's fantastic for hunting, since the range reduces the chance of a critter going manhunter. The Charge Lance is a close second for me, which has to be the best combat weapon in the game. It kills hard.

[Markus Reese]

definitely vs tech weapon factions, having a couple strong weapon wielders is a lot of value, I like to swap the low rof weapons for high rof though vs tribals.

One of my favorite characters of all time was a doctor who had power claws and a minigun.

[HunterSilver]

Originally posted by dande313:

If you can get a royal melee with the Invisibility psycast, they can take out any side Mechoid cluster solo.

Definitely this, especially if you stick a nuclear stomach in them. They can break everything before they start to starve and need to retreat to take a break. If you can manage to get a persona weapon with Kill-focus and Neural Cooling they can stay invisible virtually indefinitely as they smash everything.

[gimmethegepgun]

Originally posted by dande313:

My favorite ranged weapon has to be the sniper. It's fantastic for hunting, since the range reduces the chance of a critter going manhunter.

Sniper rifle is serious overkill for protecting against manhunter. The bolt action deals damage quite a bit faster without any particularly significant increase in manhunter outcomes.
The sniper rifle is just so sloooow.

[Firestorm🗿]

Originally posted by gimmethegepgun:

Originally posted by dande313:

My favorite ranged weapon has to be the sniper. It's fantastic for hunting, since the range reduces the chance of a critter going manhunter.

Sniper rifle is serious overkill for protecting against manhunter. The bolt action deals damage quite a bit faster without any particularly significant increase in manhunter outcomes.
The sniper rifle is just so sloooow.

*Laughs in VWE Anti Material Rifle*

[Firestorm🗿]

Originally posted by Terripan:

I think this may be a little unusual, but I typically try to avoid melee at all costs. The only circumstances where I'll give a pawn a melee weapon are pretty rare:
1) a pawn is a brawler
2) there are no guns available
3) a pawn has almost no skill in shooting, but is practically a god in melee and has at least a minor passion for it
This means that I only ever have a few melee pawns, and they are pretty much used to carry away injured pawns or to chase retreating raiders. Sometimes they are used to protect shooters from a melee charge.

As far as guns go, I try to get machine guns, in particular the machine pistol, the heavy SMG, and the assault rifle. Low skill shooters get machine pistols, since they put out a large amount of bullets(even with a lower chance to hit per bullet than other weapons, like the boltie, the amount it puts out makes up for it. This is my philosophy on fighting in the game in general), heavy SMGs are given to medium skill shooters, and assault rifles are given to high skill shooters. If I lack heavy SMGs or assault rifles, they can be substituted with machine pistols, LMGs, or bolt action rifles, but the latter is reserved for high skill shooters.

I do a similar weapon loadout too, except that my highest skill shooters get bolties, then snipers, then Charge Lances as my tech increases. The guys who get Assault rifles instead of Snipers get Charge Rifles later, and my low skill shooters (except my melee pawns) get their smgs, lmgs etc replaced by more powerful things such as Miniguns, launchers ect.

Do NOT underestimate the power of melee. If a mech ship lands and they don't have any scythers, don't even bother to shoot at em from range, it is much safer to beat em to death instead and since all other mech types are ♥♥♥♥ at melee, your colonists should only come out with cuts and bruises at worst if you do it right. I have started using Simple Sidearms, which allows me to equip multiple weapons on my pawns. Ofc there is a weight limit as to what I can have them take but that still lets me equip all of my pawns that are not designated headbashers/choppers with knives, gladiuses ect. By having all my shooty bois having a backup melee weapon, I can have them perform charges on enemies in cover, stabby stabby, and take the cover for themselves.

I have also started using most of the Vanilla Expanded mods. I recommend checking those out, especially Vanilla Weapons Expanded and Vanilla Apparel Expanded. The sheer amount of new weapons and armour that those mods add really adds to not only variety, which is the spice of life, but tactical options. entrenched enemies? Use a grenade launcher. Centipedes? Use a single shot rocket launcher, or maybe an anti-material rifle. Heavy Power Armour looks really hecking sexy and I can't wait to research it.

[frumple]

Sniper rifles are situational, but they really shine in those situations.

[Morkonan]

Originally posted by Terripan:

...
As far as guns go, I try to get machine guns, in particular the machine pistol, the heavy SMG, and the assault rifle. ...

Basically, my preferences are:

Light Machine Gun - For unskilled shooters defending at range from a fixed position.
Bolt-Action Rifles - Good all'rounder choice, especially for medium to advanced shooters.
Assault Rifle - Good shooters with decent armor.
Sniper Rifle - At least one pawn in a defensive formation has to be a Sniper with sniper-quality skill levels.

For general use, pistols aren't that great. Make a decision based on quality only. The issue is that an unskilled shooter using a pistol is just going to have to rely on their target staying at the perfect range for them to use that weapon. It's sort of situational.

Shotguns - Are awesome, any type at the appropriate tech level. They're great against approaching melee raiders for their stopping power.

"Stagger" <--- This is A Big Deal ™. It's critical, at least for me, to plan for Stopping Power being a tool you can use.

"Stopping power allows a ranged weapon to stagger whatever their projectile hits if the victim's body size is less than or equal to the stopping power value, slowing them down to 1/6th of their normal speed for 95 ticks (1.58 secs) - explosives will stagger regardless though. " - https://rimworldwiki.com/wiki/Combat

This is a huge part of combat in Rimworld for any engagement that isn't a Turret-Fest-Killzone-Defense... Seriously. If you're defending from a fixed position, which you usually are in Rimworld, then Stopping Power is as much a part of combat as having your pet boomalope explode in your face...

(Where's that darn "Stopping Power" table at?)

So, basically, that uber-awesome Machine Pistol not only doesn't have much range, but won't "stagger" any enemy that is rushing the wielder.

That Charge Rifle? Great damage, won't slow down anything.

Heavy SMG? Looks nice on paper, crappy for slowing down advancing enemy raiders when a Light SMG would put out more "stopping power" at higher volume.

If your target is getting Staggered, it's not rushing your defensive position. It's also standing there, waiting to get shot by other pawns and not currently shooting at you.

Stopping Power is awesome. Weapons that have no Stopping Power should certainly not be used by any unskilled pawns. Stopping Power works even if the damage result isn't that great.

Edit-Add:

I wanted to add an illustrative question as an example of how Stopping Power and its Stagger effect matters.

Is that unskilled shooter pawn armed with a machine pistol actually going to end up killing that Raider that is attacking them?

Really? Seriously - Is that pawn capable of downing that Raider while armed with that Machine Pistol? The answer is - Not too likely...

So, what can they do but just fire off a bunch of hastily aimed rounds that might "wound" a Raider, but won't likely kill them before they, themselves, are effectively downed or horribly injured?

Stagger that target!

And, if they had a nice revolver with stopping power (forget which one has it atm) guess what? IF they manage to hit the target, that Raider will stop in its tracks for at least one second... That could mean the difference between that unskilled pawn successfully ducking into cover or actually having enough time to fire off another round with a weapon that packs more "punch."

And, giving them Light Machine Guns, with that weapon's stopping power, lets them Spray&Pray "Stopping Power" all over the firezone for more skilled pawns to utilize to land the finishing headshots.

Stopping Power = No Joke = It's one of the attributes that all the cool kids consider when they're deciding on ranged weapon choices for Pawns in Rimworld.

[<⬆️➡️⬇️⬇️⬇️>]

Whatever the hell game brings you, make best of it ^^

[Feyda]

I like to have a variety in my ranged options. LMGs are pretty nice due to high range, high ROF. Assault rifles are the longest range multishot weapon. Charge lances have fantastic damage and charge rifles are great for armor penetration though their range is a bit lacking. I usually have a mix of a couple of every kind, that way my guys engage at different ranges. Quality plays a massive role in the weapons. Masterwork and Legendary weapons have bonuses to their accuracy, base damage, and armor penetration while Excellent only gets accuracy.

Armor penetration plays a bigger role later in the game, mechs will bounce a lot of gunpowder weapon shots, you definitely want charge weapons or mono swords to deal with centipedes.

[Lady Crimson (RIP)]

I usually go with a bolt action rifle.

It's just such a nice accuracy and range as well as damage. Supposedly other weapons are better but they can't really contend with it until you get into the assault rifle and more advanced weapons.

[Morkonan]

Originally posted by Lady Crimson:

I usually go with a bolt action rifle.

It's just such a nice accuracy and range as well as damage. Supposedly other weapons are better but they can't really contend with it until you get into the assault rifle and more advanced weapons.

^--- Bolt-Action Rifles are superb. A Bolt-Action Rifle can cause a huge amount of damage in one hit and they are very accurate with very good range. BAR's (:)) are very nice default weapon choices, IMO. I never have a group of defenders that doesn't include bolt-action rifle users, even when I get to Assault/Charge Rifes there's at least one/two BAR users plinking away with great effect. (Assault Rifles are great and better than Charge Rifles in some situations. Charge Rifles have no Stagger effect.)

A true "Browning Automatic Rifle" would be darn cool...

[FrankTheMagicPotato]

Early game i try to get melee pawns a gladius or other weapon. Colonists get bolt action rifles, lmgs, or heavy smgs. I dont use revolvers or pistols. Later on all assault rifles, with a sniper or two if i have a really good shooter. Melee get better swords, monoswords/zeushammers if possible, plasteel if not. late game its charge rifles and snipers, and all mono/zeus sword/hammers

[Firestorm🗿]

Originally posted by Lady Crimson:

I usually go with a bolt action rifle.

It's just such a nice accuracy and range as well as damage. Supposedly other weapons are better but they can't really contend with it until you get into the assault rifle and more advanced weapons.

YUP. Rushing Gunsmithing then having your best crafter pawn mass-producing Bolties (and hand cannons for the lesser shots if you are using VWE) is a good strat for early game arming.