What are your favorite weapon types?

[jasta85]

So, I just finished my pacifist run, and now I'm about to do a murder hobo run where I kill anything I'm able to kill. I know that given how the skill system works, it's best for each character to focus on one weapon (so it skills up in each fight). I'm wondering what your favorite weapons to use are, given that there are more weapon types than there are characters you can use in the party. Ammo seems pretty plentiful based on my run but that might just be because I wasn't using any of it.

[Morgian]

You will probably need two weapons, because most ranged weapons cannot fire at targets next to you. Therefore a melee weapon or shotgun is useful in the other hand. The damn frogs can kill you easily otherwise.
The ammo for energy weapons is almost non-existent, but I got an energy pistol, SMG and saw *sigh*, and saw a scoped energy rifle at a trader (would have required master trader to get I suppose). By non-existent I mean I got 10 ammo and a NPC was offering me two more for 1k ny the time I reached the Habitat.

Pistols have an abominable range, but so do all weapons except rifles. One of the SMGs has a range of 2. All ranged weapons have a big handicap: you cannot shoot through your party members. If one gets in the way, the enemy is completely safe from you. Keep that in mind when placing your party on the field.
Often someone will get blocked, no matter what. At the fight before the brothel the distance and the small bridge across assure that your numbers matter not much. At first most are out of effective range, and moving across the bridge is tricky, if you don't want to block everyone except the first two.

I did not go for pacifist and found some fights impossible. The frogs will get you (that group of seven with psykers is impossible for now), the darn plant will get you (takes practically no damage and regenerates more than you did anyway), and some of the two-legged problems will get you, too. The ambush in Mission Control took me several tries due to the setup and the cover.
Wearing armor practically requires the armor feat or you get a hefty penalty for wearing too much. Some armor pieces are exclusive to each other and take more than one slot, especially helmets, but they don't advertise this. Some arms are "full armor" and these don't work with jackets. It is a bit of a mini-game to piece together the optimum armor sets for the party.
However, armor is not too effective. Evans went down in one round in several fights, simply because the enemies went for him together. Maybe he is just unlucky?

[Sardonac]

I think overall pistols are probably the most flexible weapon type. You don't need a lot of high stats to make them work, and they have great crit synergy due to feats.


Shotguns are strong too but take longer to get off the ground. SMGs you generally build around grazes and armor pen - that makes them fairly strong once they get going but still have a bit of a struggle against durable targets.


Rifles generally fall into either single shot or burst builds. Single target are flexible crit builds with decent versatility. Burst rifle builds have high stat requirements to optimize for bursts (strength 8 for -1AP to burst) that make them harder to work into a typical build. I think single shot builds are generally better, just build them around high reaction to get a lot of free shots.

For melee I prefer blunt weapons to blades. They're both usable I just feel like stacking penetration and knockdowns with blunt weapons works better. Doubly so in a party where other people can exploit the knockdowns.


Of all the types I think Pistols, Shotguns and Rifles (single shot) are easiest to play with. Optimizing SMGs and Assault Rifles is a little harder due to stats and the crit penalty to bursts. Generally I either ignore crit and focus on normal hits/grazes, or stack crit so high that I can crit even with the penalty. (much harder) Its just easier to headshot something with a 60% crit chance.

[Nordom]

Originally posted by Morgian:

You will probably need two weapons, because most ranged weapons cannot fire at targets next to you.

All ranged weapons have modes that can fire at adjacent opponents, snap shots for single fire weapons plus burst fire options for smgs, assault rifles, and I assume the autoshotguns.

Still it's worthwhile to keep a melee weapon in your secondary slot even if unskilled just because sometimes melee/shorter ranged enemies like to charge past you towards softer targets so free reaction attacks. Not uncommon to see your team slice/bludgeon an opponent twice as he maneuvers around them then shoot him with reaction fire in these situations.

[Morgian]

I could not get a shot off at foes next to me with assault rilfes and pistols. But I will explore that next time in game, since I now have more guns to test. Maybe I overlooked the option and was blindsided by the text on shotguns - I noticed only by chance that knives have several attack modes (that option is not very obvious), I might have overlooked them on the guns. But after my first experience I made sure everyone had a melee weapon and left it at that.

[Sardonac]

Originally posted by Morgian:

I could not get a shot off at foes next to me with assault rilfes and pistols. But I will explore that next time in game, since I now have more guns to test. Maybe I overlooked the option and was blindsided by the text on shotguns - I noticed only by chance that knives have several attack modes (that option is not very obvious), I night have overlooked them on the guns. But after my first experience I made sure everyone had a melee weapon and left it at that.

Yeah you can do it with snap shot with pistols/rifles. It penalizes your crit rate but its also the cheapest attack in terms of action points. Short/Long burst with assault rifles will also work.

[Bazongo]

Originally posted by Morgian:

I could not get a shot off at foes next to me with assault rilfes and pistols. But I will explore that next time in game, since I now have more guns to test. Maybe I overlooked the option and was blindsided by the text on shotguns - I noticed only by chance that knives have several attack modes (that option is not very obvious), I might have overlooked them on the guns. But after my first experience I made sure everyone had a melee weapon and left it at that.

yeah he's right, shotguns would be pointless without snap shot imo, it's the far left option

but I can understand how youd never figure that out

as for the original question I think knives are the coolest weapons in the game

[wendigo211]

On melee, I prefer Blunt to Bladed, simply because blunt has the 7 AP variants that hit like a truck and against some of the high armor enemies that's what you need (e.g. Morgian mentioned the Crawler, the warhammer makes short work of that thing, you'll probably need to use the powersaw to kill it with blades). I find, in general, Carve is better than Knockdown, although Knockdown has a better critical effect.

For ranged, I think I like pistols the best, but they do have damage issues. Once you get a little further you can find some shotguns with good ranges, and I find pistols and shotguns compete for the same function. Rifles probably have the best damage, but the AP use limits them. E.g. you can make a SMG character that can short burst for 8 AP, with a Rifle a short burst is 12 AP. However, my rifle experience is limited to Evans, who isn't the best example of a rifleman (probably want a Dodge This! character for a rifleman).

[family guy]

As long as you can get 8 dex any stat layout can support a decent smg build with sprayer and gunfighter. For your party members I would just use the weapon class they start with: Evans - rifles, Jed - shotguns, Faythe - pistols. Remember to take the associated weapon feat as soon as you can!

[wendigo211]

I prefer assassin Faythe with blades to Faythe with pistols, since the perk gives her a +2 to melee damage (although she misses out on taking berserker). Evans can use pistols instead of rifles as well (he starts with 2 in each) although I'm not sure which one I prefer for him. Jed can go for blunt instead of shotguns, but I'd stick with shotguns.

[The Commander]

You do not need 2 weapon types - in fact it's detrimental as you'd be wasting progression in your main one. Any weapon can point blank shoot (albeit with penalties). Concentrate on 1 and maximise your build to it's strengths. e.g High crit rifle guy having great perception and perks that raise crit chance. In many ways you are trying to create a build that can handle the end game conflicts.
All weapon types have energy options - and ammo (cells) is plentiful (not for everyday use but for when you really need it - i.e. a knockdown bullseye on a creeper / or Ol' Bub) - especially in the late game. Much depends on play style and your team. With 3 companions a variety of weapon types is good (Jed makes an awesome blunt tank).
Energy weapons are not a separate option - you graduate and progress to their use for the really tough battles (monks, floaters, robot, final courthouse battles etc.) I think there are maybe 400 + energy cells in the game - that's 80 shots for the heavy energy rifle or 125 + for the Officers energy pistol. I usually have plenty spare at the end.
My personal favourites are the big hitting rifles with a high crit chance but I also love pistols, shotguns and blunt. I don't really think there are any 'bad' weapons, make your choice and build accordingly.
Best thing to do is check out 'player submitted builds' thread - you'll find amazing variety for every conceivable weapon type and character build.