Shotgun vs. Rifle vs. SMG vs. Pistol

[colonel_eviscerator]

What are the pros and cons of each in practice? I've read the wiki and understand that pistols apparently attract fewer zombies due to being quieter, and that SMGs are basically expensive bullet hoses that you struggle to keep fed at lower levels, but I'm still trying to understand what sets rifles and shotguns apart.

Rifles seem to have a slower aim speed, and less headshot damage, but offer comparable/greater bullet cap and higher range, whereas shotguns seem to have higher damage, yet are hindered by reload speed and a low bullet capacity per inventory slot.

Are two-gun builds viable? I'm seriously considering trying to game the system by using two shotguns simultaneously.

[aMoodyPube]

Coming from Dead Frontier I absolutely hate the two-gun system, hopefully it changes in the future.
I've found any Shotguns apart from the double barels in this game absolutely pointless.
Rifles for headshotting is obviously fantastic and my first go to weapon.
Pistols, great at low-end levels, seem to me they become redundant at higher levels. Not as useful or as powerful as they were in DF.
Melee is dead.

So far I dislike the skills and I'm missing the preset classes of the Dead Frontier days.

[repzik27]

This is what i've been able to deduce from using all weapons

Pistols- Low pershot damage, relatively accurate,
Rifles- Medium pershot damage, very accurate
Shotguns- High pershot damage BUT spread between all of it shots, Inaccurate but can hit multiple targets.
SMGs- Low damage pershot, High rate of fire, low accuracy but high damage persecond.

To me Pistols and rifles are the pretty much the same thing except pistols are less accurate and do less damage, I like them best cause they can get head shots easily and thus negate there single and low damage compared to shotguns.

Shotguns are great if you are like my friend and bad at aiming. If you get all the shot on one target they can do massive damage but you can spread the damage around if due to it being able to hit more than one target. They are pretty reliable at oneshoting most mobs IF you can it an entire shot on the head. This is only really possible at very close range so it presents it's own risk since some shot guns only have 2 shots and they seem to have the longest reloads of all the guns in the game. The advantage of the pistols and rifles is the standoff range and faster reloads compaire to shotguns.

SMG though they do less damage than pistols make up for it with rate of fire and thus have the highest damage per minute of all weapons. The few times I've use my smg they take out zombies faster then any other weapon assuming that you hit your shots. They can be good if you want to say blitz a building but as you said they burn through ammo very quickly. Personally I only use one SMG the scorpion that uses the .32. I use to get rid of giant stacks of .32 ammo to make rooom for more valuable ammo.

As for attracting zombies, Personally I see almost no difference, any gun seems to attract the attention of the zombies in the room when you fire, and sure a few more zombies come into the room when I use a shotgun vs other guns but i'ts not to bad and to me it means more EXP.

[done87]

i use shotgun with jog, able to jog up to zombie and head shot them with ease and also have equipments with headshot and body shot

[Sweets]

shotguns for me the rifles are good but i prefer the shotgun and in my opinion they do decent to great damage there also good hunting really tough bosses

[Moneypleazz]

I also use shotguns and jog. As well as mutated dmg and stun duration. Makes for a great boss hunting build, especially Juggernaut and Tendril.

[FiniteThrills]

I believe in this version, all guns attract the same amount of aggro, at least for now.

[Dope Pope]

Shotguns deal the most amount of damage generally. It's kinda hard to land all the pellets on the head of the infected, but if you manage then it's going to do double the already high shotgun damage. Obviously best use at very close range. Can only stack 20 ammo in an inventory slot.

Pistol has the lowest damage compared to the others (not counting SMG, cause they're crap), but they can stack 50 ammo in an inventory slot. The headshot damage multiplier is either 2 or 2.5 (depending on if you're using semiauto or revolver). Pistol ammo are usually cheaper than rifle and shotgun ammo. They also have large magazine size (semiauto only) and lower aim time.

Rifles are highly accurate weapons and therefore can be used at greater ranges. Rifle base damage is pretty low, but all rifles have a headshot damage multiplier of 3, so make sure you hit those headshots. Rifles generally have lower magazine capacity than the pistol but higher than shotgun. Can stack 30 ammo in an inventory slot.

SMGs are crap, don't use them. They're highly ineffecient with their very low damage/shot. They are wildly inaccurate, and their rate of fire is much too fast for their own good. They might be good for PvP, but this is an ineffective and expensive weapon to use against zombies.

I might be biased against the SMGs, but see for yourself to get your own opinion of the SMGs

[zdowgg]

i got my 6 shooter 9mm to one shot every thing to head except bosses

[done87]

smg can be good with big head bosses, head shot a whole clip close range and run>repeat

[BumFight]

Pistol is great for looting
smg seems powerful but very wasteful compared to other weapons
shotguns are really weird
rifles are probably top tier for killing bosses

[Rattenkoenig]

The speed six is great, 9mm ammo stacks to 50 and it does 7.5 heashot damage, very good inventory space (ammo) to damage ratio.

[Akat]

I basically use everything except the smg, but my mastery build focuses on pistols because shotguns and rifles are pretty strong by themselves.

I use pistols as my main weapon because they have the largest ammo stack, and with headshot buffs you can oneshot many enemies when you loot. Pistol ammo is the only type I buy.

Rifles are basically a better version of pistol in terms of raw damage, and you can reliably headshot zombies down long hallways, but their downside is their lower ammo stack and the price of ammo. What I do with rifles is I just save all the ammo I loot for them, and then use rifle when I'm either low on pistol ammo, or am out boss hunting.

Shotguns are the strongest, but their low ammo stacks make them good for boss hunting and bad for looting. Same deal as rifles in that I hoard all the ammo I find, and then use it when I'm boss hunting. I use these the least because I prefer killing zombies at long/medium range.

I speculate that smg's would be good for crowd control situations, but I haven't seen large runner hoards like in DF1 that justify burning through a ton of ammo with them.

Originally posted by aMoodyPube:

Coming from Dead Frontier I absolutely hate the two-gun system, hopefully it changes in the future.
I've found any Shotguns apart from the double barels in this game absolutely pointless.
Rifles for headshotting is obviously fantastic and my first go to weapon.
Pistols, great at low-end levels, seem to me they become redundant at higher levels. Not as useful or as powerful as they were in DF.
Melee is dead.

So far I dislike the skills and I'm missing the preset classes of the Dead Frontier days.

I honestly don't mind the two gun system. DF2 is a lot slower paced than DF1, so just having two guns makes sense.

When I loadout, I have one melee weapon and the weapon I'm using. There are a lot of times where if you have stealth, you can take out a zombie or two that have their backs turned on you to save some ammo.

[PSYCHOPATH]

I optimized my clothing and weapon stats so my Sawn-off shotgun has a clip of 3 and reloads in 0.4 sec! I can reload faster than a tendril can recover from the stun damage of my shotgun blast. Spamming 36 damage headshots is OP!

[Secret-Almond]

SMG is the best for boss huting. I can solo all the boss, I can 15+ shot skill the boss if you hit em straight to head. Let’s say 1 clip for all the boss except Titan which 1 and a half clip will do

[RopeDrink]

It's not much different from DF1. Pistols are the all-round weapon - decent capacity, clip, aiming and damage, but you're not going to win damage races with it. Effective at anything other than super-long range.

Unlike DF1, however, DF2 doesn't have as much emphasis on noise (even if it is a thing here as well). As such, Pistols would be one of the quieter weapons, albeit that doesn't matter considering you'd be firing it quite frequently.

Rifles are the inverse - lower capacity/clips but designed for range and impact. Delicious for picking off pests from extreme distances, but not something you'd want in your hands if being rushed by runners.

Shotguns are another opposite - they're exclusively close-range impact weapons. You're not going to do much at medium or long range, but a well aimed up-close shotty blast is devestating.

SMGs are similar to pistols, except automatic. Can be capable of sweet damage and decent safety, albeit an ammo hog and (again) not much use at extreme ranges.

Melee is the same-old ammo'less / silent weapon it has always been... Fine for smacking easy zombies, but not exactly amazing in a swarm. There will come a point where most people will be doing themselves a disservice by having melee in their arsenal unless they have a secondary catch-all firearm to fill the void melee leaves you with.