Is grapple gun kinda “useless”?

[SmudgyRotter]

What I meant “useless” is that it takes up 2 slots of inventory (and you don’t have many empty slots to spare while venturing, if you don’t use ladybug pet), 1 for hooks and 1 for the gun. The gun doesn’t even pull you up like a what most other grappling guns from other games do, it only pull you down quick if you are in the air gliding, but I don’t see why I need that often, as I can just be little patient while traveling, especially with my grasshopper. Oh I forgot to mention that it’s even more useless when I already have to make space for my bow and arrows.

I’m still new to game so let me know what I miss or don’t understand here.

[william_es]

Nope, you kind of nailed it.

Nearly everyone saw "grapple" and assumed it mean it pulls you up. It's doesn't really do that.

Apparently it's meant to be used like spiderman's webslinging. You're supposed to attach the hook, and swing on it. Like tarzan grabbing vines in the jungle.

There was a guy on here who used it a lot... to the point where he carried multiple stacks of hooks. He described webslinging all over the map at insane speed.

Me personally, I never got the hang of it, and nearly fell off a great tree first couple times using it (before I had gliding wings too). I put that hot mess in a chest, have never really used it since.

Once you get a flying mount or the aetherian wings, you won't need it.

[SmudgyRotter]

Originally posted by william_es:

Nope, you kind of nailed it.

Nearly everyone saw "grapple" and assumed it mean it pulls you up. It's doesn't really do that.

Apparently it's meant to be used like spiderman's webslinging. You're supposed to attach the hook, and swing on it. Like tarzan grabbing vines in the jungle.

There was a guy on here who used it a lot... to the point where he carried multiple stacks of hooks. He described webslinging all over the map at insane speed.

Me personally, I never got the hang of it, and nearly fell off a great tree first couple times using it (before I had gliding wings too). I put that hot mess in a chest, have never really used it since.

Once you get a flying mount or the aetherian wings, you won't need it.

I didn’t know there is flying mount option, but so far I’m really content with my grasshopper pet, It does amazingly jump good distant, it’s basically immune to fall damage, and not too horrible in combat. I may keep it until late game.

The grappling gun would be much more attractive, if devs deletes that hook item, and gives the gun rechargeable ammo (like maybe 1,2 or 3 sec), also a little boost whenever you shoot and want to be pull up. Otherwise 2 used slots, and expendable ammo are too much to care about.

[TurokGMT]

The damn thing is lethal - you have to look up and judge distance to grapnel target which means you're not looking at how far away the ground is. If you miss, typically you're already in freefall rather than a glide, so you're just pancake. Even if you hit your target, if you've just leapt off a low ledge, you're likely to just swing into the ground at speed if you didn't leave enough clearance.
I feel it just needs a rework - allow us to use it in conjunction with wings as a height booster, similar to say how the grapnel is used in the Just Cause games.
Or go nuts and let us fire it at hornets for a free tow.
As it is, it's just to dangerous to use and feels pointless outside of the starting area where all the trees are. It just doesn't feel fun to use, just risky most of the time.
I'm sure there's an element of "git gud" about it, but why bother when you have the much simpler mechanics of the glide wings?

[william_es]

Originally posted by SmudgyRotter:

I didn’t know there is flying mount option, but so far I’m really content with my grasshopper pet, It does amazingly jump good distant, it’s basically immune to fall damage, and not too horrible in combat. I may keep it until late game.

There are a few flyers now.

Damselfly. Very delicate, low stamina. More of a glider. You can fly upwards for all of 2 seconds, then it's just down, down, down. To be honest, I recommend skipping them.

Hornets. Vrooom vroom. Love them. I have three, all named after different attack helicopters. They're tough, do good damage, and with high enough stamina, they can literally fly forever. When stamina reaches zero, it will start to regen, even while _still_ flying. So power up until stamina is gone, and while you are slowly slowly descending, you will regen enough stamina to return to the previous height.

If you want a good hornet, go to forbidden monuments area. They all start in the 90's level wise. As opposed to single digit levels in the rest of the original map. A level 90-100 black hornet will have great stats. Use the antenna view to see a bar graph of their random stat distribution. Highly recommend a high stamina one.

Originally posted by SmudgyRotter:

The grappling gun would be much more attractive, if devs deletes that hook item, and gives the gun rechargeable ammo (like maybe 1,2 or 3 sec), also a little boost whenever you shoot and want to be pull up. Otherwise 2 used slots, and expendable ammo are too much to care about.

The bad news is... the grapple was already reworked at least once, maybe 2 times. It was _worse_ at launch. I've really only seen one person in forums say they really used it much, but that guy was a power user. He described how he used it, and all i could respond with was "it works????".

The grapple gun just becomes obsolete really quick.

[Drudackus]

I have no doubt, that in the early days after release of the Grapple Gun, there were some players who mastered and thoroughly enjoyed playing with it. But the learning curve was a little beyond my ability and I failed to make the most of it.

At this stage, given its current design and function, and the availability of the various flying mounts, there just isn't sufficient incentive for player to invest the effort into mastering it, in my opinion. If a retraction function were added, to allow the user to directly gain elevation, it may yet become more usable and enjoyable for more players, but its also a question of how the devs can most effectively use their time. If that time comes, I think it will have to wait, for now.

For now, I think multiplayer challenges hold greatest potential for the Grapple Gun, or some other form of challenge where people post videos of their activities online.

[donald.nintendo]

i kinda like the grapple gun. mostly just to climb up somewhere slightly faster or to move on the ground faster.

but other than that, useless.

[william_es]

Originally posted by donald.nintendo:

i kinda like the grapple gun. mostly just to climb up somewhere slightly faster or to move on the ground faster.

but other than that, useless.

Yeah, once you get the aetherian wings, there's no real need for a grapple gun. Those wings let you do powered flight and gliding. If you pump your stamina up to 100, it almost negates the need for a flying mount.

Which is awesome, because right now I spend 99% of my time riding a scorpion. Best mount in the whole game as far as I care. Love them. Finally a combat mount that can tank and kill boss level threats (and easily).