Pistol efficacy

[Allafif]

I'm playing a gunslinger and found it really underwhelming; even going akimbo, it seemed like two pistols do about the same damage as one rifle, but with less accuracy and consuming double ammo.

Looking at penetration debug numbers, I found that pistols and rifles actually have penetration values that are 4 lower than the number listed ingame, making them comparable to a same-tier melee weapon. Since rifles have slightly higher base values, they're generally going to penetrate more.

I guess pistols might shine with heavy investment that lets you shoot at really low energy costs - I'll start investing in the more expensive skills and try it out, now that I'm in the midgame and barely have to think about ammo.

They're definitely weak in the early game though, especially with ammo being scarce. Maybe Fastest Gun in the Rust should be earlier in the tree? Some kind of ammo scrounging, or starting with the lead slug crafting recipe?

[zehelvion]

Ammo isn't an issue a little later on. The main problem with pistols is that they don't offer the immensely useful option to immobilize your foe.

[dis astranagant]

Ammo will always be a bit of a problem for pistols. Your whole gimmick is spamming shots with weak weapons and a lot of common enemies in later areas simply don't give a ♥♥♥♥ about how many pistol rounds you can put in them. You'll want a backup plan. I suggest grenades.

Alternately, pick up a pair of chain pistols and pray for dicerape. Then cry when you see how long the 400 rounds you bought from Grit Gate and Kyakukya last.

[zehelvion]

Hmm.. When I played Gun Slinger, I mostly used laser pistols.. Is that so rare? If I remember correctly the lasers were superior to the chain pistols but the Bearcraftship rifle thing was better than the pistols. Not sure but it seems like this game is pretty playable no matter what route you pick as long as you work out a way to overcome enemy AV and keep yourself alive.

[dis astranagant]

Laser pistols are probably better against a lot of trash mobs but praying for crits with chain pistols is likely your best bet against king crabs and cragmensch if you don't have a fat stack of HE Grenades handy.

[zehelvion]

Interesting. What about Eigen? It looks pretty decent.

[zehelvion]

Originally posted by TERROR INSTINCT:

Laser pistols are probably better against a lot of trash mobs but praying for crits with chain pistols is likely your best bet against king crabs and cragmensch if you don't have a fat stack of HE Grenades handy.

Went to Bethesda Susa and indeed there are a lot of King Crabs and Cragmensch there with nice AV but suprisingly, neither of took more than four or five hits from my dual crysteel blades with 34 agility using shank. Using a bio bracelet I noticed the Cragmensch av is 15 which is suprising because a cryosteel weapon seems to penetrate them often enough (they only have 25 health so it doesn't take many hits). The king crabs were significantly weaker and took some x2 and x3 hits for 20+ damage (dual wielding meant two shots took it out).