Help understanding SV weapons

[SteelBlood]

I have some questions about which SV weapons are best for certain situations. I'm only looking for the purposes of weapons, not anything like tactics. I'm asking about what to use, not how to do something (ex. strafing, getting out of sv and digging, etc)

I've been playing a long time, but have been away a few years. Pretty much whole time I've been playing I usually use 2x gatlings for drones, and 4x unguided rockets for turrets. I'll use cannon turrets to protect bases from drones instead of miniguns.

1) Only non SV question: What is the point of handheld energy weapons? I know energy weapons are generally better against shields, but handheld weapons are too small for practical use against POI shields. (Or NPC CVs if any of those have shields nowadays.)

2) Best SV weapon to take down POI shields? I've heard arguments mainly for gatlings and pulse lasers due to gatlings ROF, and lasers bonuses against shields. I've heard plasma also gets bonuses vs shields but has too slow ROF.

3) Best SV weapon to take out turrets? Never been able to figure out guided missiles and don't know if plasma would be much better than the rockets I've been using.

4) What is the point of railguns? If lasers are better for shields, rockets/plasma vs turrets, and gatlings for drones, I don't see any use for them. I know you can use them for long range sniping but it seems drones can dodge and they don't seem to do enough to turrets or shields, in my outdated experience.

I'm generally looking for what weapons kill quickest. Some weapons work better with certain tactics, or are more resource efficient. Which is nice, but is not what I am curious about.

[Lerch Addams]

1. They hit harder and have overall better rate of fire. Use them against any NPC.
(i never attempt attacking shielded POIs with handheld weapons, keeps me intact longer)

2. Plasma Cannon (4) and Rocket Launcher (4-6).

3. Rocket Launcher. (you had it right in your post, just use a few more)

4. Railguns hit really hard but the RoF isn't worth it unless you're into well timed shots with large effects. Plasma cannon work just as well against drones with better rate of fire.

I pretty much EM Pulse rifle + Shotgun on foot and the aforementioned SV mounted weapons for shut about everything.

It should be noted that while attacking a hardened target like a shielded drone base you can hold down fire and switch between weapons 1 and 2 to increase damage output.

[SteelBlood]

Thanks for the input!

[shdwdrvr83]

Originally posted by SteelBlood:

I have some questions about which SV weapons are best for certain situations. I'm only looking for the purposes of weapons, not anything like tactics. I'm asking about what to use, not how to do something (ex. strafing, getting out of sv and digging, etc)

I've been playing a long time, but have been away a few years. Pretty much whole time I've been playing I usually use 2x gatlings for drones, and 4x unguided rockets for turrets. I'll use cannon turrets to protect bases from drones instead of miniguns.

1) Only non SV question: What is the point of handheld energy weapons? I know energy weapons are generally better against shields, but handheld weapons are too small for practical use against POI shields. (Or NPC CVs if any of those have shields nowadays.)

There are *some* benefits, but I don't use them often. The epic laser minigun is actually a good exception. It does decent, fast damage, and it's actually got one of the best damage to shield ratios. You can take down a full base shield in about 3000 rounds, and it doesn't take very long with the insane rate of fire. You'll also specifically need this for the crashed legacy infector POI, as it's the only weapon in the game that can break the special shield used there.

Originally posted by SteelBlood:

2) Best SV weapon to take down POI shields? I've heard arguments mainly for gatlings and pulse lasers due to gatlings ROF, and lasers bonuses against shields. I've heard plasma also gets bonuses vs shields but has too slow ROF.

I strongly recommend reading this post I put together that has all of the exact numbers for which weapons deal damage to shields and how much they do.
https://steamcommunity.com/app/383120/discussions/0/2572068116213820917/

By ammo round, rockets do about twice what plasma does, and about 8 times what pulse lasers do, but the lasers and plasma fire at a faster pace.

Since you're primarily concerned about time rather than ammo consumption, I did the math out for you to figure out what does the most damage per second to shields:

Minigun (160 * .05) damage / 0.2 secs = 40 damage/sec
Railgun (2780 * .03) damage /1.5 secs = 55.6 damage/sec
Rocket Launcher (2350 * .067) damage / 2 secs = 78.725 damage/sec
Pulse Laser (400 * 0.1) damage / 0.35 secs = 114.28 damage/sec
Plasma Cannon (615 * 0.15) damage / 0.8 secs = 115.3 damage/sec

This is of course for one of the corresponding weapons. You'll want to run as many as you can. Plasma cannons are slightly faster, but the difference between them and pulse lasers are only 1 damage/sec.

Note - there are much better ways to take down shielded POIs than with an SV, I'd rate an SV at probably the 5th-ish choice or worse given the difficulty involved. Even running 4 plasma cannons, it'll still take 78 seconds of constant fire to drain a 36khp poi shield
There's a good thread here with all the options summed up related to breaking the shield on the drone base, where at least 8+ options are discussed and weighed against one another.

Originally posted by SteelBlood:

3) Best SV weapon to take out turrets? Never been able to figure out guided missiles and don't know if plasma would be much better than the rockets I've been using.

Rockets or Plasma. Rockets fire slower but do more damage, Plasma fires faster but does less. Both deal explosive damage so you don't have to hit the exact block, which is important when moving quickly. Rockets are easier to get earlier and the ammo doesn't use rare materials, so they're generally the go-to solution here.

Originally posted by SteelBlood:

4) What is the point of railguns? If lasers are better for shields, rockets/plasma vs turrets, and gatlings for drones, I don't see any use for them. I know you can use them for long range sniping but it seems drones can dodge and they don't seem to do enough to turrets or shields, in my outdated experience.

You're absolutely right here. If you look in the configuration code, Railguns used to deal explosive damage, but don't anymore. This means that you have to hit the exact block unlike plasma or rockets. They fire slow like rockets, ammo is expensive, and while they do a lot of direct damage, they don't do any splash damage. They'd be good for slowly drilling into a hard target with precision - maybe if you want to blast into the core of a base or CV but don't want to set off any of the explosive devices around your path.
In general though, they make up an awkward place where plasma or rockets are just better in almost any situation.

Overall, you've got one of the best configurations already. Running with some number of gattling guns for infantry/drones and 4 rocket launchers for turrets is the cheapest early/mid game configuration, and good at basically any time.
I'm a fan of either using gattling guns or pulse lasers for weak targets, and either plasma or rockets for big things. If you're primarily concerned with taking down shields fast, you could swap either of your weapons, but probably swapping the 4x rockets for 4x plasma will be the most effective for shields, though it'll reduce your effectiveness a little against turrets once the shields are down. An alternative would be swapping the 2x gattling guns for 4x pulse lasers. They'll still be good for all the things the gattling guns are, they'll take down the shields almost as fast as the plasma would, and you'll still have your rockets for turrets.

Hope all of this helps.

[SteelBlood]

Wow, fantastic in depth response! That really helped me understand thanks so much! Read every word. Really appreciate the time it took for that response and especially the math you did. Feel like I know what my best options are now.

[Priest]

Originally posted by SteelBlood:

I have some questions about which SV weapons are best for certain situations. I'm only looking for the purposes of weapons, not anything like tactics.

What completly depends on each other

(Except the Crashed legacy infector poi i never saw) i am very successful in PVE by using only gatlings and rockets. (on my Sv, no HV)

or with other words, all fighter i use currently are
SV
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2178893496
CV
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2179599372

[Lerch Addams]

Originally posted by shdwdrvr83:

--- SCIENCE ---

Hope all of this helps.

Mathematical version of a mic drop right here.