Best Service Weapon Form?

[Leine]

In terms of specifically the different weapon modes I find that the fully upgraded charge out performs pretty much every other mode with the trade off being blowing yourself up when enemies are too close and pierce being a very niche mode that is useful against flying types and armored enemies that are essentially dead but keep spamming armor.
I mean what's the point of choosing any other service weapon form when 1 shot of charge will 1 shot anything in the area and break all if not most armor all at the same time.
And if it takes 2 shots it'll still be less effort and more reward than any other service weapon form.
Not to mention you can actually grab your own rockets with launch to massively increase the damage it does and counter flying enemies with shields very effectively with a single use of launch. Combining that with the ability to shoot up to 3 rockets at a single time the damage output is a hilarious. Though you can only grab up to 2 rockets fast enough with launch as they fire simultaneously. You also can't have any projectile speed increases, especially Thin Space since it essentially just turns charge into a gun that creates explosions where ever your mouse is pointed. But I don't know why you would be using anything other than more damage.


Shatter is imo useless because the effective range for it makes it a no go as you lose more for being close to enemies than enemies lose being close to you.

Spin is fairly useless unless you have amo refund mods and in terms of accuracy completely worthless unless you have accuracy mods which make it essentially a laser beam. Damage is also subpar but it does make a very good source of energy regain if you take the head shot mod for whatever reason.

Grip, meh. Better than spin but it's only really effective when using it to head shot enemies. Though I did use to bring it out to finish off 1 health enemies that lived launch but it's not worth swapping out pierce as charge can do it just fine.

Surge. A worse version of charge thats single upside is that it has a greater base range which may or may not be a fault. Damage output seems lower but I haven't fully upgraded it but since you can't grab your own grenades as far as I can tell its uses are limited though it does stick on stuff for whatever that's worth. So in theory you could just shoot a wall behind a flying enemy and blow it up from there invalidating them dodging you but charge does the same thing except you don't have to manually blow it up.

A side note does anyone know if any other service weapon forms have a specific unique mod?
For instance the charge weapon mode has a unique mod called Thin Space, there is only one and it is a quest reward.
It increases projectile speed by 500% and does what you think it would do. Very fun but pointless as flying enemies can still avoid 500% projectile speed. Maybe I should add another 2 projectile speed increases and see if they can still dodge? Not really worth though.

Essentially: "Having a bad day using charge? Don't worry every other mode is even worse don't bother swapping."

[Cryptic]

lol service weapon goes pew pew

[Miral]

Most of the service weapon forms have a unique mod. I've found three or four so far. But yes, once you get Thin Space then Charge wins best weapon form, no contest.

Grip is the old standby that I pretty much always had equipped for headshots.

Before I got the good stuff for Charge my other slot was usually Shatter. The unique mod for that is also pretty good, but even before that it does decent damage as long as you respect that it's a shotgun and it's meant to be used in peoples' faces. (Use Grip or Charge for ranged work.)

[Solidus Cocklidus]

Originally posted by CrypticReference:

lol service weapon goes pew pew

lmao pewpew

[Kilo]

I made a post regarding how easy the game is with pierce, It's base damage is extremely high, plus mods can make it 80%+ damage increase, and It's pinpoint accurate for headshots at any range. You only get 2 shots before a 5sec recharge but you can just use launch during that time

The hardest (non boss) enemies I'm currently against are shield lvl6 which It's 1-2 shotting

[Aidenel]

I prefer Charge or the new one from the Wake DLC.
It just suits my playstyle.

[marsHm311oW]

Sting was good till you figure out Launch skill is way much better against everything.

[Spats]

Fully-upgraded Surge with upgrades to blast radius, damage, and armor damage is my favorite. If you get good at timing you can detonate mid-air within a group of flying enemies, using it like ack-ack. It clears whole rooms in Shum like nothing else. Biggest downside is it is really easy to kill yourself in the bigger blast radius.

[Se7eN]

On the contrary...

Shatter, with the "Spam Mail" mod makes a shielded flyer or fatty dead in two shots....even if they are being actively healed.

Spam Mail = Projectile spread entirely removed....effectively making it a slug shot.

I too, felt Shatter was nearly useless before getting that particular mod.

[r_plus_seven]

Pierce / Charge was my main weapon for most of the game until I played the new DLC. Sharpened hiss/Flying ranger makes the pierce obsolete since they move way so fast and charging it takes alot of time, right now Charge is everything and shatter for close range

[Ant Ra]

Different weapon forms against different opponents. But actually the inserted mods are crucial.
Once you have collected infinite mods with proper names everything looks quite different. Unlimited ammo for grip, HP +60% or was it 100% ?, Shatter with Athis (?) spam mod -100 pellet spread shoots like a laser up to shatters maximum distance - every pellet hits the target. With a 16 pellet infinite this is a truck that hits the mark.

You can get this by certain (side) missions guaranteed, by office alarms and the jukebox after you have unlocked the lvl 6 pass. I don't know exactly how many of these mods with their own names exist, but I BELIEVE there are 7 of them, one for each type of weapon and a personal one.

And btw, spin is a very good weapon.With it you can easily interrupt opponents like accelerated hiss and flying throwers.
Especially the last boss Hartmann. Then he cannot darken the room by letting all the energy boxes jump out.

Edit: You can also get these mods by cleaning certain infested objects. The wagon and the mailbox are such candidates

[Raptor]

Grip is hands down the best with its 100% ammo back mod from the furnace easter egg. Although spamming launch outclasses all the weapons.

[Sakhari]

Putting aside a fully powered Launch as that's basically easy-mode by itself...

Surge is all right as an alternative to Charge in open areas with lots of flying enemies. If you're not comfortable aiming with Pierce on the go, air-detonating Surge bombs (especially with a blast-radius mod) makes taking down flyers fairly safe and easy with very little accuracy required.

Gold-modded Grip is borderline broken against the large bosses and even without the gold mod, it's just a well-rounded source of fairly accurate, steady damage.

I like using Shatter with a Shield-heavy setup. If you prefer to play up close, it's good against enemy shields and quickly finishes anything that you've stunned with your shield's debris-blast.

Not much to say about Pierce. If you 'are' comfortable with your aim, it's a viable option against pretty much anything.

For general clearance of large, open areas, I think Charge is the easiest to use. For single-targets in tight spaces (where Charge is just as likely to hurt you as it is to hit your target), the gold-modded Grip is likely the best choice. The only form that I think outright sucks (even with the gold mod) is Spin since it's an in-between-y option that doesn't do anything particularly well and I find it hard to justify bringing along in a game where you can carry two weapons at a time.

[DeadJericho]

how long does it take to get some of these weapons, or upgrade one?

ive been playing a few hours and havent got anywhere near enough stuff to upgrade anything

[Sakhari]

Originally posted by DeadJericho:

how long does it take to get some of these weapons, or upgrade one?

ive been playing a few hours and havent got anywhere near enough stuff to upgrade anything

The crafting recipes for the other forms and their upgrades are unlocked when you have at least one of each required resource for that recipe in your inventory. By the time you're able to explore the Research and Containment sectors, most of the resources that you need to build and upgrade each weapon to level 2 should be available to you. Each of the level 3 upgrades requires 1 specific type of resource that you can only get from certain sidequest bosses or by nearly finishing the main storyline (I forget exactly which part of the final missions gives you the item).

The Surge is a little different - it won't be available to build or upgrade until you can start collecting resources in the Investigations sector which isn't unlocked until roughly the last quarter of the game.

The time it takes to get the resources can depend a bit on RNG but usually, I have 'almost' everything I need for the level 2 upgrades by simply killing what I run into while completing the main and side-missions. Unless you're actively avoiding combat and not opening resource crates, you shouldn't need to spend much time on dedicated farming for materials.

[DeadJericho]

is it best to save resources for the form upgrades, or should i invest resources in getting better mods from the mods-vendor thingy??