Best weapon to equip on survivors?

[S.C.P.D.]

I'm conflicting whether to all give them anti material rifle/cannons, or give them fully automatic weapons like Raider's AR.
Btw, will taking away their melee weapon making them to only use guns?

[Aesyle]

.50 cal weapons = 1 shot kill of normal zeds
7.62mm = multiple shots before normal zed is dead

So, it's better to equip them with .50 cal weapons.

Originally posted by S.C.P.D.:

Btw, will taking away their melee weapon making them to only use guns?

No.
If you take away melee weapon, they use Close Combat weapon when near zed. And unless your survivor isn't specced for Close Combat, they do very poorly in hand-to-hand combat.

[S.C.P.D.]

Originally posted by Aesyle:

.50 cal weapons = 1 shot kill of normal zeds
7.62mm = multiple shots before normal zed is dead

So, it's better to equip them with .50 cal weapons.

From what I could observe, sometimes even .50 won't one shot a zombie, not very often but it happens.
I think the only gun that can 100% one shot zombie is the CLEO heavy sniper.
I'm conflicting with Raider's AR is because full auto guns can only be burst fired by survivors and the fire interval is quite short, like 2 fire(6 bullets) per second, that kill normal zombies much more effectively than .50. On the other hand, .50 takes like 8 bullets for a NPC to down a juggernaut while Raider's AR takes like 20 second. (Even though with muzzle gadget they both have full bar stats on DMG but that one bar shows like 10% of .50's actual damage lol)

[Doctor Darling]

I think it's good to have an array of different weapons equipped. That way they can deal with mass generic enemies like the zombies and heavy targets like the Juggernaut. You can always keep the heavy weapon on whoever you are controlling, so you can focus on the heavier targets that pose the biggest threat while the npcs deal with the zombies. But I think it's mostly up to personal preference.

[S.C.P.D.]

Originally posted by Doctor Mothling:

I think it's good to have an array of different weapons equipped. That way they can deal with mass generic enemies like the zombies and heavy targets like the Juggernaut. You can always keep the heavy weapon on whoever you are controlling, so you can focus on the heavier targets that pose the biggest threat while the npcs deal with the zombies. But I think it's mostly up to personal preference.

What are some other decent weaponry other than .50 rifles?

[NvR]

7.62 silenced rifle is enough for AI-controlled survivors to hold on their own, you can throw 1 or 2 .50 cal guns into the mix for the juggs

[S.C.P.D.]

Originally posted by NvR:

7.62 silenced rifle is enough for AI-controlled survivors to hold on their own, you can throw 1 or 2 .50 cal guns into the mix for the juggs

Single shot 7.62 is not enough for the horde if you wanna do CLEO supply drop on lethal lol

[Aesyle]

Originally posted by S.C.P.D.:

From what I could observe, sometimes even .50 won't one shot a zombie, not very often but it happens.

NPCs miss some shots, hence why they won't kill normal zed with 1st shot when having .50 cal weapon.

Overall, it's down to player preference. I have all my survivors equipped with B50FGs and zeds aren't an issue for me. Though, i don't know if survivor Weapon skill also plays a role (i have only RT survivors, with maxxed out skills).

I like hearing the loud gunfire of B50FG, so, i like my survivors having them.

[Protectron]

Excellent NPC guns:

B50FG (Mysterious Wandering Trader)
Timberwolf (personal mission, MWT)
Raider's AK47 (hostile NPCs)
Raider's AR15 (hostile NPCs, PH)
FBI Fighting Rifle (Bounty Broker; WW2 pack)
Non-Compliant SKS (Bounty Broker; Pawn Shop Pack)
M1918 BAR (PH)
Barrow-Style BAR (PH, Bounty Broker; WW2 pack)

Good NPC guns:

M3 Grease Gun (PH, Bounty Broker; WW2 pack)
MP40 Submachine Gun (Bounty Broker; WW2 pack)
G18 Custom Auto (Rare Weapons Cases)

Decent NPC guns:

Raider's Uzi .22 (hostile NPCs)
Model 99-50 (Ammo traders)
Dillinger Pattern 1911 (PH)
RTX Cyclone (Red Talon Trader)
RTX Rampart (Red Talon Trader)

(I finally made a Notepad file with these, since people ask about this often. For those who regularly read in here, sorry for the repetition.)

... I might have forgotten some, but I don't think so. I tend to put Handmade Brakes on 7.62, Professional Brakes on 5.56 and ideally Advanced Brakes on the rest. If you can put Advanced Brakes on all of them, I don't see why you shouldn't, though - it's just a matter of availability.

Edit: note that the Raider's Uzi, Dillinger Pattern 1911 and RTX Cyclone (basically any drum magazine gun) all have huge advantages of being given to Gunslingers. The 1911 is very slow to reload and is empty in 4-5 bursts (that sounds like a single shot), so non-gunslingers will stand there for five seconds trying to reload. The RTX Cyclone is emptied in like 2-3 seconds, so while the reload is relatively quick, the Gunslinger will spray much more lead over the course of a 3-minute siege. If you give that sidearm shotgun to a Sharpshooter, however, the penetration will stagger, kill and dismember most of a horde of regular/plague zeds in one salvo. Assault will enable them to down a horde.

Full-auto guns given to Sharpshooters will maximize the utility of the penetration. 50 caliber guns given to Assault will shoot more precisely as the recoil is largely eliminated.

What I do is to give a Timberwolf, a B50FG and a RTX Cyclone to three survivors. The rest then gets the full-auto-only guns. This lets the anti-materiel wielders blow up the Juggernauts, the Cyclone wielder get up close and personal and put 8x12 holes in 3 seconds into any horde entering the base, while the rest of the threats are dealt with by full-auto SMGs and assault rifles.

[SpunkyJones]

I find AR/AK's with brakes are good enough, don't feel the need to have a .50 on everyone.

[SpunkyJones]

Originally posted by NvR:

7.62 silenced rifle is enough for AI-controlled survivors to hold on their own, you can throw 1 or 2 .50 cal guns into the mix for the juggs

I'd advise against silencers for AI controlled, it limits their range and noise isn't a concern for AI survivors, noise only matters for the player controlled character. Replace silencers with brakes etc.

[Aesyle]

Originally posted by Protectron:

... I might have forgotten some, but I don't think so.

NIce list. But you forgot some:
RTX Hordebreaker
RTX Stormbringer
Eternal Guard's Infinite Rage
AKS-74U Valentine
among others.

[Protectron]

Originally posted by Aesyle:

Originally posted by Protectron:

... I might have forgotten some, but I don't think so.

NIce list. But you forgot some:
RTX Hordebreaker
RTX Stormbringer
Eternal Guard's Infinite Rage
AKS-74U Valentine
among others.

These have select fire, and that meanst that the NPCs are largely choosing single-fire, which drastically reduces their effectiveness.

[S.C.P.D.]

What about CLEO weapons? I have access to all of those. Mostly curious about CLEO sharpshooter rifle and heavy sniper, if anyone have experience equipping NPC with these.

[S.C.P.D.]

Originally posted by Protectron:

Excellent NPC guns:

B50FG (Mysterious Wandering Trader)
Timberwolf (personal mission, MWT)
Raider's AK47 (hostile NPCs)
Raider's AR15 (hostile NPCs, PH)
FBI Fighting Rifle (Bounty Broker; WW2 pack)
Non-Compliant SKS (Bounty Broker; Pawn Shop Pack)
M1918 BAR (PH)
Barrow-Style BAR (PH, Bounty Broker; WW2 pack)

I'll take a look into those, thanks

[Stormcrow]

CLEO Heavy Sniper all day if you have it unlocked. Survivors will shoot 8 times before reloading and it has a faster reload speed than the other 50. cals