So spent some time with the rail gun yesterday and honestly, it feels the same now.

[Kashra Fall]

Outside of being able to 1 shot bile titans, it still takes the leg armor off a charger in 2 shots, or head shots it in 3.

1 shots commanders
1 shots bile warriors
1 shots hive guardians
1 shots heavy devastators
1 shots devastators
1-2 shots bersekers
1 shots striders


I recall when we checked the gun out after the patch to the railgun that it wasn't one shotting a lot of these anymore, even with 90% charge, yet all this was being done with about 75% charge. The chargers specifically going down in 3 shots was quite the marvel though. Combine it with the stun grenade and you can't kill just about anything with the railgun lol.

Is it great? No, but it's passable and is still a fine weapon (To me.) I know some people hate it, but I always liked this thing. Just stopped using it for a while in favor of some other options, but glad to see it still works.

[Riitoken]

For chargers, isn't the Recoiless a better choice?

[Midas]

I think it just needs a proper scope. It's meant to be a precision weapon, so having a dot sight makes no sense at all.

[Kashra Fall]

Originally posted by Riitoken:

For chargers, isn't the Recoiless a better choice?

Recoiless is one shot, so yes it is the better choice. You also have a 3-4 second reload after shooting, so it isn't a great option in a big group of enemies. Railgun is a mobile gun. Recoiless is not. I love them both so it works out!

[Sebb]

Originally posted by Kashra Fall:

The chargers specifically going down in 3 shots was quite the marvel though.

Thats not good at all in helldive difficulty though, 3 shots for a charger while EVERYTHING else is coming at you is too much of an hassle if you ask me, I would rather stick to my dear recoilless

[Nick Walker II]

Originally posted by Midas:

I think it just needs a proper scope. It's meant to be a precision weapon, so having a dot sight makes no sense at all.

I wouldn't say no to a scope

[Kashra Fall]

Originally posted by Sebb:

Originally posted by Kashra Fall:

The chargers specifically going down in 3 shots was quite the marvel though.

Thats not good at all in helldive difficulty though, 3 shots for a charger while EVERYTHING else is coming at you is too much of an hassle if you ask me, I would rather stick to my dear recoilless

Stun grenade halts everything coming at you and these tests were performed in helldive btw. My friend had a flamethrower, his TTK a charger by shooting in the leg was 4 seconds. My TTK was 8 seconds. Not much a difference really.

[Midas]

Originally posted by Sebb:

Originally posted by Kashra Fall:

The chargers specifically going down in 3 shots was quite the marvel though.

Thats not good at all in helldive difficulty though, 3 shots for a charger while EVERYTHING else is coming at you is too much of an hassle if you ask me, I would rather stick to my dear recoilless

On helldive it shouldn't matter. There should be enough anti-tank people that if someone has a railgun, they should be focused on killing off the high-threat medium targets anyways.

[LoveTruffle]

The Railgun is pretty good at the moment. It doesn't have too many critical shortcomings. I wouldn't want it to be the only anti-armor weapon the team, but it has a good range of targets it can take down efficiently.

[Sebb]

Originally posted by Midas:

Originally posted by Sebb:

Thats not good at all in helldive difficulty though, 3 shots for a charger while EVERYTHING else is coming at you is too much of an hassle if you ask me, I would rather stick to my dear recoilless

On helldive it shouldn't matter. There should be enough anti-tank people that if someone has a railgun, they should be focused on killing off the high-threat medium targets anyways.

Oh I would love to find your teammates then, I babysit most of the time. There are so many players that seem clueless and just instantly quit when things get tough on helldive

[Queltis]

Originally posted by Midas:

Originally posted by Sebb:

Thats not good at all in helldive difficulty though, 3 shots for a charger while EVERYTHING else is coming at you is too much of an hassle if you ask me, I would rather stick to my dear recoilless

On helldive it shouldn't matter. There should be enough anti-tank people that if someone has a railgun, they should be focused on killing off the high-threat medium targets anyways.

If you're on Helldive you'll have someone using weapons with better ammo capacity than the railgun for better kill times. Being able to OHK chaff isn't unique to the railgun, and other weapons do it with better ammo economy.

[Sleepy_Walker]

My conclusions (admittedly more bot experience) are that the railgun is very good against bots and is OK against bugs.

Bug advantage:
- Kills Hive Guard, Warrior, and Brood Commander very fast
- Kills Spewers in an acceptable amount of time (1-2 headshots, ignores armor)
- Approximately as capable against chargers as flame thrower (can kill within one charger charge depending on range and other factors)
- Has ability to kill/scare off Stalkers (admittedly not a great time regardless)

Bot advantage:
- Kills Scout Striders VERY quickly
- Kills Devastators acceptably fast (like 80% charge to chest or any charge to legs/stomach)
- Kills Hulks either very fast or in a slightly unreasonable amount of time
- Has the ability to eventually kill cannon towers (If it wants to waste 45 seconds of my time, might as well kill it in that time)

Co-op possibilities:
- Spear + 1 railgun vs damaged tank part or hulk body = kill
- Eat/recoiless + 1 railgun vs Titan head = kill
- Safe railgun + 1-2 medium pen primary shots vs Devastator chest = kill

Multiple railgun helldiver advantages:
- Bots: approximately 60% more effectiveness with two helldivers (Lots of viable targets, more railguns to service)
- Bugs: approximately 40% more effectiveness with two helldivers (mostly faster charger kills or wiping out multiple spewers quickly)

[Graf Erik]

Eh. The Railgun is okay, but its not good.

Performance-wise it an okay-ish weapon against mid enemies. Its to slow again weak enemies, its to weak against strong enemies. Which put it in a peculiar place to begin with.

Then it has the worst handling from all weapons in the game. You dont only have to charge it before every shot, you have to release when its loaded, you have to manualy watch the charge-meter, and if you charge a split second too long it will explode.
Also the scale on the charge meter is made from black lines, and the the background of the charge meter turns black when you start charging! At this point is obvious that they put in a lot of work to ensure that the RG is a pita to use. They coded in a dynamic color change to hide the charge-meter scale while charging.
Oh, and also you need to manual reload after every single shot.

And because that all together isnt bad enough it has a 'scope' (no it hasnt, it has a dot-visor) thats only good on close distance. For a weapon which entire purpose is to blow single, well-aimed high penetration shots on weakspots thats a disaster. On 50m the aiming spot covers an entire devestator.

[Shazbot!]

Originally posted by Graf Erik:

Eh. The Railgun is okay, but its not good.

Performance-wise it an okay-ish weapon against mid enemies. Its to slow again weak enemies, its to weak against strong enemies. Which put it in a peculiar place to begin with.

Then it has the worst handling from all weapons in the game. You dont only have to charge it before every shot, you have to release when its loaded, you have to manualy watch the charge-meter, and if you charge a split second too long it will explode.
Also the scale on the charge meter is made from black lines, and the the background of the charge meter turns black when you start charging! At this point is obvious that they put in a lot of work to ensure that the RG is a pita to use. They coded in a dynamic color change to hide the charge-meter scale while charging.
Oh, and also you need to manual reload after every single shot.

And because that all together isnt bad enough it has a 'scope' (no it hasnt, it has a dot-visor) thats only good on close distance. For a weapon which entire purpose is to blow single, well-aimed high penetration shots on weakspots thats a disaster. On 50m the aiming spot covers an entire devestator.

Skill issue: the post.

[Enju]

Originally posted by Kashra Fall:

Originally posted by Sebb:

Thats not good at all in helldive difficulty though, 3 shots for a charger while EVERYTHING else is coming at you is too much of an hassle if you ask me, I would rather stick to my dear recoilless

Stun grenade halts everything coming at you and these tests were performed in helldive btw. My friend had a flamethrower, his TTK a charger by shooting in the leg was 4 seconds. My TTK was 8 seconds. Not much a difference really.

That's a very long time when it constantly throws 3-4 chargers at once, if not more.

[Kashra Fall]

Originally posted by Enju:

Originally posted by Kashra Fall:

Stun grenade halts everything coming at you and these tests were performed in helldive btw. My friend had a flamethrower, his TTK a charger by shooting in the leg was 4 seconds. My TTK was 8 seconds. Not much a difference really.

That's a very long time when it constantly throws 3-4 chargers at once, if not more.

Well, let's compare here shall we? EAT call down time in 2-4 seconds depending on stratagem settings per planet. You have to pick it up, aim it and bam, dead charger, 2 EAT's, 1 minute cool down, 2 chargers remaining.

Recoiless, 1 shot, 4 second reload, 7 shots total (1 in the rocket launcher.)

Spear (We don't talk about spear.)

Arc thrower, around 8-9 hits, 1.5 seconds to charge a shot.

Flame thrower, semi close range, 4 second TTK, possibility of 5th degree burns.

Quasar cannon. By the time it fires, you already fired the railgun 3 times. If you miss, it's a 15 second cool down.

So as you can see, railgun isn't that bad in these regards! Stratagem airstrikes are undoubtedly a better choice, but the rail gun CAN stand on its own feet.