what weapon skills are viable

[a random gomamon]

this is my first run

[EolSunder]

mmm you can play with pretty much anything i guess, i personally would stay away from heavy weapons, maybe shotguns.

Sniper rifles and assault rifles are still king, as they were in the classic version. I always have my combat guys with assault rifles, and my skill guys with sniper rifles. Kill everything across the map, yawn. Easy to take out the more dangerous foes. eat some toast while your in ambush mode and letting everything just walk into your death zone, you get the idea.

[Radiac]

There may be some mild spoilers here in terms of what's out there and why I like what I like, no storyline stuff, just equipment details.

I usually roll with 2 snipers, 2 assault rifles, 2 melee people (One Blades, one Blunt), and 1 Heavy Weapons guy. Three of those are NPCs, one of which can be missed depending on choices you make in the game. I give one high-Intelligence guy some ranks in Energy Weapons a few levels in (not to start).

Reasons why I don't like the other weapons as much:

1. Shotguns: Okay in the early game, mostly useless in the late game. They don't do well versus armored targets, and things in the late game are generally pretty well armored, and will often start fights from long ranges.

2. Submachineguns: Not bad, but not as good as Assault Rifles, which do the same or better damage, at longer range and for less ammo consumption. SMGs cannot take Scope mods, but they probably don't really need them. In the late game, a modded-up SMG can be pretty good, but in the early game they are expensive to use (ammo costs money).

3. Brawling: Not bad, as combat skills go, but some of the late game weapons you can get for Blunt and Blades are better. Also, Brawling weapons cannot attack diagonally and cannot be modded. That said, unmodded, Brawling Weapons have the lowest Action Points to use in the game.

4. Pistols: Short range, can only take Scope and Under-Barrel mods (no magazine, no Barrel). They require you to close ranks with the enemy, which costs you action points that could be better spent just shooting from farther away.

Notes on the weapons I do like:

1. Heavy Machine guns can't be modded, but are actually not bad anyway. Still, they burn through a lot of ammo, and require that you carry a lot, so I don't recommend having more then one guy wield one, and the guy who does should probably have a Strength of like 4. Doesn't need to be any higher than that.

2. Assault Rifles are probably the best guns in the game, though I also like Sniper Rifles a lot too. Most have two firing modes, singe shot, which costs 4-5 AP, and Burst Fire which suffers from a small accuracy penalty, but fires 2-3 rounds in one go for like 6-7 AP.

3. Sniper Rifles: See Assault Rifles above. They're like 1 and 1a, and both Sniper Rifles and Assault Rifles can take all 4 types of gun mods (Scope, Barrels, Under-Barrel mods, and Magazines). Sniper Rifles have the longest range and do the most damage per bullet. They also cost like 6-7 Action Points to shoot their 1 bullet though.

4. Bladed Weapons and Blunt Weapons can both attack diagonally (well, all of the good ones anyway) and can take Grip and Weight mods. Grip mods reduce the Action Point cost by 1 and Weights increase Critical Hit chances.

5. Energy Weapons: They mostly suck, actually, since Director's Cut changed everything. There's like ONE good one that you can get, if you know how to unlock it, and I have one guy that can use that, but don't really bother with them much apart from that. Energy weapons are really, really bad against humans and animals, which you fight a lot of, and only a little better than a good Assault Rifle against robots. They can only take Under-Barrel and Scope mods.

When I make new custom rangers to start the game, I give everyone 1 rank in Heavy Weapons, because it starts them each with an M2 Heavy Machine Gun, some 5.56 ammo for it, and two Pipe Bombs, which are valuable to have. You can use the ammo for the Assault Rifles and for the one Heavy Gunner that you're keeping, you can sell the extra M2s for money right away, and I personally hold onto the pipe bombs (and try to avoid having to use them) until I meet a vendor that can sell me good weapons, at which point I will sell them to raise money for guns etc that I need. And by "good weapons" I mean Assault Rifles, Sniper Rifles, Heavy Machineguns, Blunt, and Bladed weapons that cost ~$500+ each. I also give everyone a rank in either Assault Rifle (if they're going to use it) or Sniper Rifle, just to start with some extra ammo and guns I can sell for money. It's actually not a bad idea to give each custom starter like 1 rank in Heavy, Assault and Sniper, plus a rank in either First Aid or Surgeon. That starts you with a ton of loot you can hold onto or sell as cases warrant. You should also give everyone a preferred brand of smokes, a hat, and a backpack, which you can sell and are purely cosmetic.

[New Moon On Monday]

Assault Rifle and Sniper Rifle top the list.

As far as melee goes, I feel like Blunt Weapons are good from beginning to end. Brawling starts a little weak, ends very powerful.

For a leader-type (who has reduced combat effectiveness due to high Charisma), I like Pistol. It's low AP, and there are pretty good pistols in the middle to late game. A pistol isn't a big damage-dealer, it's more for the occasional coup-de-grace or precision strike.

[Изумрудный Змий]

Assault rifles best. Pistols worst

[Aazard]

All game long:
Bullet use matter, AR's are very Damage/Bullet/AP effective.
AR > Sniper > Energy Weapon > Shotgun > "Useless"
Brawl > Bladed > Blunt
Top end gear:
Dragoon > Gamma Ray Blaster/G41 > Jackhammer
Toxic Claws/This is a Knife

[Tattoo]

Assault Rifle, Sniper Rifle, Bladed Melee, Pistol.
Shotties always seem to disappoint, energy is meh except against robots.