How to use harpoon gun?

[[Z]ebra]

It barely deals any damage, human husk takes more than 5 to die. Sometimes harpoons stick to enemy, sometimes they jump away, sometimes disappear entirely.

[Maximum stupidity]

Its gimmic is that you can load up to 6 harpoons and rapidfire them. plus they are retrivable so no ammo cost.

[[Z]ebra]

Originally posted by Maximum stupidity:

Its gimmic is that you can load up to 6 harpoons and rapidfire them. plus they are retrivable so no ammo cost.

I wasn't able to rapidfire them, I have to wait around 3 seconds to shoot another one.

[ThatCat]

It isn't a very effective weapon, but it and its ammo are cheap to craft, and it's better than nothing. The harpoon coil-rifle is more useful if you can acquire it, and you can boost damage further with alternate ammo types such as explosive and physicorium harpoons.

[Maximum stupidity]

Originally posted by Z bird up:

Originally posted by Maximum stupidity:

Its gimmic is that you can load up to 6 harpoons and rapidfire them. plus they are retrivable so no ammo cost.

I wasn't able to rapidfire them, I have to wait around 3 seconds to shoot another one.

I can tell you it is not 3 seconds, 1 at most. plus enemies get stun for shord period

[DuckieMcduck]

Harpoons inflicts hefty amounts of bleed, which is damage over time. Hitting critical parts (heads) do quite a bit of laceration damage and stun as well, the ammo is extremely cheap (1 steel = 6 shots which are also recoverable).

Human husks are very beefy enemies (they have the second most health out of the small spawn gang at 200HP). Three headshots kill it with neither skills or quality or special ammo, it's more if you hit them in legs/arms/torso. This is similar between all creatures.

The Security Officer's left tree lets you do great amount of damage with harpoons, specially after increasing quality. With Slayer/Spec-Ops and no quality a normal harpoon gun with cheap harpoons can kill Husks in 2 shots, with master quality it only takes 1 shot.

Best way to use it in my opinion is similar to Shotgun; Use it as an initial burst damage then swap to a side arm to finish it off while they recover from stun. Swap back and repeat the loop until it's dead.

[[Z]ebra]

Originally posted by Maximum stupidity:

enemies get stun for shord period

All enemies (i.e. crawlers, tigersharks, mudraptors) or just specific types?

Originally posted by UnluckyDuckie:

Harpoons inflicts hefty amounts of bleed, which is damage over time.

What are the prerequisites for bleeding to apply? Do harpoons have to get stuck inside a body when rope is visible, just get stuck, or any successful hit even if harpoon gets thrown away still apply bleed?

[Maximum stupidity]

Originally posted by Z bird up:

Originally posted by Maximum stupidity:

enemies get stun for shord period

All enemies (i.e. crawlers, tigersharks, mudraptors) or just specific types?

Originally posted by UnluckyDuckie:

Harpoons inflicts hefty amounts of bleed, which is damage over time.

What are the prerequisites for bleeding to apply? Do harpoons have to get stuck inside a body when rope is visible, just get stuck, or any successful hit even if harpoon gets thrown away still apply bleed?

All smal enemies get stunned (crawler, mudraptors, threshers, etc) Larger enemies are usually resistant to stun. (Hammerheads and bigger)

[Buggy Boy]

Harpoons are probably most effective against bandits in an outpost - a coupe of good shots and they'll very quickly be on the floor bleeding out, then you retrieve your harpoons and move on to the next. You need to avoid their gun shots of course, or carry plenty of bandages and meds (heavy armour helps too).

Harpoons are not so good in the darkness of a cave, when crawlers are darting about it can be very difficult to hit them in the dark. Drop a flare or glow stick and try to lure them into the light. Similar tactics apply for wrecks, though they're easier as usually you can just unload a full clip and it will bring them down, they can't swim up or down as easily to avoid your shots. I tend to lure enemies out so that my sub guns can take care of them.

Harpoons are much less effective against armoured enemies such as the mudraptor, they will bounce off their main body shell so you need to aim for the head.

[CryonicSuspension]

It's just a ghetto weapon, a pre-cursor to the Harpoon Coil Rifle.

[DuckieMcduck]

Originally posted by Z bird up:

Originally posted by Maximum stupidity:

enemies get stun for shord period

All enemies (i.e. crawlers, tigersharks, mudraptors) or just specific types?

Originally posted by UnluckyDuckie:

Harpoons inflicts hefty amounts of bleed, which is damage over time.

What are the prerequisites for bleeding to apply? Do harpoons have to get stuck inside a body when rope is visible, just get stuck, or any successful hit even if harpoon gets thrown away still apply bleed?

Bleed is applied on hit and starts dealing Blood Loss damage very slowly.

That said, it doesn't really do much for the Harpoon against small game. Husks in particular regenerate faster than they can bleed. It can cause more of an impact in larger creatures because the wounds will start mounting exponentially the more you hit them.

Some creatures are immune to stun, like the Hammerhead, so the stun doesnt do much there.

You can see some of the testing on big/small here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9r-TZ5JMiE

[lunaris80]

Try to aim them. Harpoon gun are very rewarding if you managed to land critical and kill your target in one hit. Aunt Doris or any security officer can pull this with proper skil. Head shoot will decapitate your target while torso shoot will stuck out through the body. Husk have more HP so you need to aim properly for head shoot if you dont have slayer or Aunt Doris.

With initial weapon skill of 30 everyone can use them but at that level and if im not playing security i prefer rubber shotgun or stun baton.