pistol vs asault rifle vs shotgun

[Sidartha]

I'm wondering what is best for early weapon? I have heard/seen ppl saying to craft an assault rifle ASAP but the dmg on it is less than the pistol so I'm wondering why? Is it just rate of fire or what? What about the shotgun? Is that not viable? Until I can find some kits I'm stuck with one of those 3 so would like to know which is best and I'm unsure just going by what I have read vs what stats I see on the weapons. Any info is appreciated!

[Tobjv]

Chainsaw>Shotgun>Rifle>Pistol. If you do choose to use the chainsaw as a melee weapon remember to keep track of its fuel and don't fight off more than one enemy at a time.

[Sidartha]

Thanks for the info. Out of curiosity why do people rate the rifle higher than the pistol when the pistol does more dmg? Is it just rate of fire or magazine size?

[Tobjv]

IMO the rifle does more DPS, Not many npc's in this game drop in one hit to the head. So the DPS with the rifle + the no recoil. For me, makes it a upgraded pistol.

[Sneed's Feed and Seed (Chuck's)]

Shotgun is great for dealing with drones at close range, or hunting. Rifle is better for longer range encounters with drones or mobs.

Pistol is fairly useless due to low rate of fire as compared to rifles, and damage as compared with shotguns.

[Pembroke]

Damage per second (including reload times). That's the major thing when ranking weapons for close combat where you can't avoid taking damage. Situational issues can, of course, change things e.g. head shots from a sufficient distance -> sniper rifle.

[FourGreenFields]

Pistol is generally short-ranged, and quite weak. The AR will do much better damage/s, and has longer range too, I think. I mainly use the pistol to use up any of its ammo I find for hunting.

Only used a shotgun once I think. Fired against a Nightmare at point blank - saw the shots miss left and right, seemingly no hit. Maybe usefull against enemies that aren't as thin, but ARs work well enough against anything for me, and a shotgun would be another slot for the gun and at least a second one for the ammo.

(Note: Haven't used guns all that much the latest patch, but I think they weren't changed much)

[Tal]

I prefer the shotgun over anything I've used so far, mostly for hunting. You can take out many of the fauna in a shot to the head if you're close enough, I remember taking out Ice Golems (correct me if I'm wrong on name) in 3 while back tracking. That being said, once I had turrets on my CV most things were just taken by that.

[Spoooonn]

Another way rate the lower level weapons is damage points per magazine. pistols - 400 per mag, assult - 700 per mag, assult 2 - 1200 per mag, pulse rifle - 1500 dmg, and T2 pistol 1200 dmg. My favorite early SP game weapon is a pulse rifle. I rarely build one, I just keep looking in abandoned POIs until I find one.

[Sidartha]

Nice thanks for the info. I wanted to make a pulse rifle but didn't have the kit. Will keep looking for a weapon or kit.

[skyrider_sr]

complete the hunting missions in your PDA I think a pulse rifle and a t2 pistol are rewards for them.