Best gun for low accuracy colonists?

[Chuck]

I got a bunch of refugees joining my colony, but many are not very good at combat. I want to equip them with weapons that will make them the most useful right now, in terms of training them i heard that sniper or autopistol is best, but right now i need to know what they should use to maximize their combat effectiveness.

[Security Cam #7]

Shotguns

[di eshor ribly]

The sniper rifle is usually considered a bad choice for low accuracy colonists. The firing speed is too slow - especially if the pawn is missing shots. Take closer range weapon like a shotgun or a rapid fire option like SMG/LMGs or the autopistol as mentioned. The more shots they fire, the faster they gain skill.

[8faiNt ı♣ı]

LMG LMG LMG LMG LMG LMG

Rain hell on them

[gimmethegepgun]

Autopistol, heavy SMG, and machine pistol are all highly accurate at short range and won't care too much about them being a bad shot.

[Daus the Kaus]

It really depends. Snipers work because (in optimal scenario) they get to shoot earlier and so they get more chances to shoot, of course in real gameplay, you won't have 3 or 4 snipers lying around and they will be missing all their shots, Low range weapons (as shotguns, autopistols, SMG and others probably) are a gamble, they have the best experience gain as they shoot many projectiles and pretty fast, the short distance greatly increase the accuracy, but you are shooting at a range where if they miss to a meele attacker, they are in problems.

[gimmethegepgun]

Originally posted by Daus the Kaus:

Low range weapons (as shotguns, autopistols, SMG and others probably) are a gamble, they have the best experience gain as they shoot many projectiles and pretty fast, the short distance greatly increase the accuracy, but you are shooting at a range where if they miss to a meele attacker, they are in problems.

Even if they hit the melee attacker they probably aren't going to take them down. But that applies to most weapons. There aren't very many that can reliably take down someone rushing to melee on their own before the attacker reaches them, even with a skilled shooter.
That's why you have multiple people shooting them. When the enemy reaches one of your pawns, they'll engage that one, which would probably result in them losing after a while, but you can have your other guys just shoot the enemy and take them down while they're engaged.

[SamtheCossack]

If you are using a killbox, volume of fire is your friend. You typically have a lot of enemies packing in, so you want to throw as many bullets as possible into that crowd. LMGs and Heavy Submachine guns are both excellent for low skill shooters in this scenario. Miniguns are better, but very expensive.

[Astasia]

If you want combat effectiveness I would say LMGs or miniguns would generally be the best bet for a low accuracy pawn. Those weapons are more about spraying bullets in an area and less about hitting a specific enemy, a lot of their damage is designed to come from missing and hitting targets in the area.

The rough mechanic of actual accuracy in combat is ([shooter accuracy]^[range])*[weapon accuracy]. Giving them a highly accurate or low accuracy weapon doesn't really matter because it's a static multiplier and affects every colonist the same way, a 50% accuracy weapon is going to miss 50% more of the time no matter who wields it. Likewise fast or slow weapons, in the long run there's not much difference, it will average out, but slower weapons will feel more RNG and you might have some fights where they seem to contribute nothing because they miss every shot while other fights they get a few lucky shots in a row, but with faster weapons they will tend to feel more consistent. The important part is range though, if you want a low accuracy colonist to hit anything reliably, having them at shorter range will help, to that end using a pistol or shotgun while standing directly behind a melee pawn engaged with the enemy is also a solid option.

[Cat®]

Temporary pawns? I'd equip them with whatever junk I had that was going to be destroyed anyway; though I favour longer range weapons. Their skill will not improve significantly during their stay so their combat utility is all that matters. You put them out there so more important pawns are not hurt. If you have enough of everything at excellent+ quality; any short-range rapid-fire weapon. SMG, Chain Shotgun, Charge Rifle.

[Bozobub]

A knife and a kick in the pants. "Up and at that centipede, soldier!"

[gimmethegepgun]

Originally posted by Bozobub:

A knife and a kick in the pants. "Up and at that centipede, soldier!"

It's better than having no one in melee against the Centipede.
Someone punching it is better than having no one in melee.

[Recklessdvo]

Armor and a sword

[GeneralVeers]

High rate of fire seems to work decently for my low-skill shooters.

Including when they're NOT in combat. Each "shot" (far as I know, a 6-bullet burst from an LMG only counts as one shot) gains shooting skill. So give them a gun that shoots fast. Then have them go hunt a squirrel. They won't be able to hit it, so they'll spend hours practicing on it and getting lots of skill-ups. :)

(plus, ONE hit will almost definitely kill the squirrel, so there's no "mad squirrel" risk.......)