Machine Gun Versus Minigun

[JohnnyTheWolf]

I'm not sure I understand the differences between the two weapons. Since both use the same type of ammunition, is it better to save it for the Minigun or does the Machine Gun still useful after you acquire the former?

Thanks in advance.

[Larrywho]

The minigun shoots faster is great for large hords of Klears. The tompson is good for smaller swarms and does not use ammo as fast.

[Mumblez]

Originally posted by Larrywho:

The minigun shoots faster is great for large hords of Klears. The tompson is good for smaller swarms and does not use ammo as fast.

Pretty much this. Minigun has a higher dps, but the control for firing is inprecise (needs to wind up).

tommy gun is super precise, and is very easy to tag light targets with 2 - 4 bullets, or shoot down rockets while saving ammo. But of course it has a slower fire rate, meaning less damage.

Essentially boils down to ammo conservation, if you are tripping over ammo just use the chaingun, if you are counting bullets, tommy gun.

[Magpie]

The minigun now does 20 damage per shot as opposed to the original 10 damage per shot.
Another difference from the original is that the firerate is now significantly slower -- although still faster than the tommy gun -- so that more ammo can be conserved.
On top of this is the obvious spin-up time, making it stupid to use in-doors with tight corners due to Croteam's infamous strategy of throwing kleers and kamikaze at you when you least expect it.

The Tommy Gun does 10 base damage and has perfect, straight-line-accuracy (but this point almost feels moot, because regardless of the minigun being slightly less accurate, this is never going to be an issue because nothing is every really far enough away to miss).

Ideally, any high-end player would tell you to use the Tommy Gun on enemies such as beheaded rocketeers of any sort, kamikaze, flying gnaars, electro-fish, small groups of marsh-hoppers and harpies for the sake of ammo conservation, as well as using it in-doors (early levels predominantly).
The minigun should be used for nearly any other situation, from biomechs, to reptiloids, to arachnoids, to lava golems, to werebulls, to any significantly huge horde of enemies.

Hopefully this overly in-depth analysis will help.

[Mumblez]

Actually, minigun still has 100% accuracy, its just the spin up / high ammo consumption which is a problem. Its still perfectly accurate though, even across entire maps

[SP_TOOP]

The Tommy Gun is mainly good for clearing swarms of Marsh Hoppers.

[Scaff]

The minigun should get nerfed, its too flexible. Perfect accuracy, near-projectile speed, amazing rate of fire, good DPS. I only use to Tommygun for the instant fire (revving the Minigun isn't a really big deal), staggering kamikazes and saving ammo.

Also I read something about the Minigun not actually firing every second shot.

[Serious Talos NatSL]

Originally posted by SP_TOOP:

The Tommy Gun is mainly good for clearing swarms of Marsh Hoppers.

Regarding this I'd say the chainsaw is a better solution, minigun/tommy gun ammo is very important, especially on higher difficulties, I wouldn't waste them on Hoppers.

[Jimmieblack]

As I already told my opinion on those 2 weapons in the seriousforums:

As soon as you get Minigun scrap your Tommygun forever except for Marsh Hopper SWARMS! The Minigun fires only SLIGHTLY! faster then Tommy but does 10 damage more per bullet, yes the SAME BULLET. That means: Every 2nd bullet is wasted with the Tommy. You can kill all little guys with just 1 bullet of Minigun assuming your aiming is good.

For the Marsh Hopper swarms its like this: Since Minigun fires a little bit faster then Tommygun and with lots of targets that you are mainly just spamming the area you will miss more bullets with Minigun and you will waste your ammo faster. Since Marsh Hoppers die to even 1 Tommybullet you are better of using this gun in this case but only in this case.

The bullet waste factor doesnt seem too bad with just little guys when using Tommygun. However everything that takes more then 2 Minigun bullets to kill.. dont use your Tommygun period.

[Magpie]

Originally posted by Serious NatSL:

Regarding this I'd say the chainsaw is a better solution, minigun/tommy gun ammo is very important, especially on higher difficulties, I wouldn't waste them on Hoppers.

The reason I say that the Tommy Gun is best for Marsh Hoppers on high difficulty is because they do so much ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ damage if they make contact with you. The chainsaw is ridiculously good, but it's way too risky for most situations unless it's those sparse packs of Marsh Hoppers (10-20) or something.
Also, the Chainsaw IS only accessible in TSE, so the Tommy Gun is pretty much your only practical savior for them in TFE.

[JohnnyTheWolf]

I absolutely loathe the Marsh Hoppers.