Weapons and Enemies Guide

This is a brief guide to weapons and enemies based on my observations playing.

Emergency Weapons (Blue)

Emergency weapons always come with infinite ammo. Some of them aren't bad, but they all share a common issue: low overall damage output. Instead of having ammunition, each has a "heat" mechanic which is slightly different for each weapon.

Plasma Pistol

Strengths: Honestly, it really doesn't have any.
Weaknesses: Quickly overheats, dual-wielding shares heat gauge, shoddy accuracy and projectile speed.

The "starter gun". It can be used for quick followup shots at close range, but otherwise its damage is pitiful and its sustained fire is laughable. Find a different weapon when you can.

Blast Pistol

Strengths: Great upfront damage and burst damage, fairly decent reload time, can be manually reloaded, even better when using two of them at once
Weaknesses: Limited magazine size of 3, projectiles don't travel much further than a few meters necessitating close combat

Unlocks shortly after the plasma pistol. It is a solid close-range weapon for dealing with annoying fast-moving targets (drones) or for vaporizing relatively weak enemies (soldiers). With a full magazine or with two of them, you can blast apart some harder enemies like patrol bots or Kani security drones and still be OK, but anything heavier you will need to play behind cover and time your bursts.

It also is completely useless outside point blank range, the projectiles will disappear.

Laser Pistol

Strengths: Highly accurate and lethal when repeatedly hitting weak points, good sustain fire if timed correctly
Weaknesses: Only gets three shots in a burst and each subsequent shot multiplies the recharge delay (1s -> 2s -> 4s), high skill floor to use effectively

Sort of the opposite of the Blast Pistol, the laser pistol is like a minature sniper rifle if you can keep a steady hand and hit heads/optics with it. This makes it good in more wide open areas where you have a bit more time to aim, but against harder targets the need to pace your shots and aim carefully becomes a detriment. Dual wielding also shares the recharge pool which is annoying.

Scatter/Homing Weapons (Red)

These are all of the weapons that share the red ammunition pool. They generally excel at annihilating things up close.

Super Shotgun

Feed: Side-by-side, two shells per reload (can reload early for just one shell without wasting ammo)
Strengths: Absolutely annihilates most things up close with both barrels, if you get a chance to use two of them at once, four barrels kills virtually anything but bosses, highly ammo efficient
Weaknesses: Spread is very significant at ranges further than a few meters, sometimes missing targets at medium range entirely. Frequent reloading.

The classic. While powerful, its significant spread makes it very difficult to engage small targets or hit weak points outside point-blank range reliably. It is best to try and fight targets from around cover so you can take advantage of the dumb AI that will stick its chest directly in front of both your barrels.

You can sometimes engage multiple enemies at once at medium range using this weapon, but this is unreliable at best and ill-advised. You can't always count on a shot staggering your target.

Bouncer Shotgun

Feed: 5-round detachable magazine
Strengths: Decent damage, pellets home in on targets after bouncing once, instantly turning it from a short-range weapon to a long-range room clearer
Weaknesses: Damage is somewhat lacking, but mitigated by homing properties of pellets, pellets are a hazard to you if shot head-on at obstacles, homing is not as useful in close quarters

An effective take on the super shotgun which thankfully does not involve as much reloading. Since this weapon's pellets home in on any visible target after they hit a surface, you can easily clear massive open areas simply by shooting at the opposite wall or floor and seeing if any of the pellets change course. This makes it very effective at clearing out wider spaces, but in narrower areas the pellets usually don't have enough tracking to make a difference.

As with any bouncing weapon, don't shoot at walls directly in front of you and be mindful of your background -- it's easy to get distracted and hit by one of your own pellets if nothing is around for it to home in on.

Dart Gun

Feed: 7-dart harmonica clip (consumes 4 ammo per reload)
Strengths: Darts strongly seek any visible target after firing and deal decent individual damage
Weaknesses: Darts can sometimes seek inappropriate targets and have difficulty shooting around corners in close quarters, weapon is ammo hungry compared to other weapons in its class

I would say this weapon is not really worth the pre-requisite unlock which is beating the game on "damage amplifier" (one hit kills everything including you mode). It is a useful weapon but it kind of takes some of the fun of aiming and hitting things out of the game. On the plus side, it is great for dealing with weak but annoying and fast moving enemies (like drones).

Military/Police Weapons (Purple)

Each of these weapons are pretty decent and can hold their own overall.

SMG

Feed: 28-round top-mounted magazine
Strengths: Absolutely blisteringly fast rate of fire chews up anything in close range and puts enough lead down to be a hazard for things out to medium range
Weaknesses: Extremely significant spread makes engaging anything outside of close range almost a waste of ammo, easy to burn through several magazines, low individual round damage

Possibly one of the most fun weapons to dual wield since you can vomit out 56 rounds in an instant. Similar to the Super Shotgun, but perhaps a bit more controllable in how much lead you decide to put down range. Using short bursts at point blank range, its possible to pace yourself and take out particular targets one at a time to conserve ammo.

Unfortunately, hitting weakpoints outside of close range is largely random chance, and this weapon falters in more open rooms. It also struggles to deal with heavier targets like mechs with one magazine and sometimes requires two or more.

Assault Rifle

Feed: 30-round box magazine
Strengths: High accurate in bursts, consistent fire rate, good optics, ammo efficient, great against weak points
Weaknesses: Slow overall fire rate and damage per second, significantly struggles at dealing with hard targets or targets with no readily targetable weak points

Great for dealing with Soldiers, drones, and virtually any other trash-type target, especially those with visible weak points. It is highly ammo efficient and good at tapping heads cleanly and consistently. Unfortunately it has a significant amount of trouble dealing a lot of damage quickly, especially against harder targets like mechs, Kani drones, and bosses. This leads to a lot of backpedaling and holding the trigger on their head. Using two of them at once helps reduce the time needed, but another high-damage weapon might be more preferable.

Revolver

Feed: 6-round cylinder
Strengths: Perfectly accurate, high rate of fire, high damage
Weaknesses: Frequent reloading, somewhat ammo hungry

There are few general-purpose guns that match the revolver's ease-of-use, lethality, and general usefulness. It is easily one of the best guns in the game. Most enemies can be dispatched with a well-placed shot or two, and most of the guards go down with just one chest shot. Its perfect accuracy and fast fire rate when slamming the trigger only enhance its usefulness as both a sniper and a close-range burst damage dealer.

Get used to reloading it quickly and counting your shots, since you'll need those skills when using it a lot. Once you are capable, however, even bosses won't last 12 headshots dispensed in five seconds.

Power Weapons (Orange)

All of the weapons in this category absolutely destroy most things they touch, however the ammo limits of this category (only 5 reloads spare) tends to limit their engagement envelope a lot.

Railgun

Feed: 4-round stripper clip
Strengths: Perfect accuracy, extremely high damage, projectile hits every target along its trajectory
Weaknesses: Limited rate of fire, frequent reloading

A great weapon for picking enemies off at a distance and eliminating dense lines of enemies running at you down a hallway. Perfectly capable of destroying hard-to-kill targets with a well-placed weakpoint shot.

Unfortunately it can be easy to be overwhelmed or pressured when using this weapon and it is a good idea to have a closer-range backup weapon on hand. The need to reload so frequently and the need to generally place your shots makes this weapon difficult to utilize at close range.

Laser Rifle

Feed: 100-round battery cells
Strengths: Absolutely monsterous damage output, perfectly accurate
Weaknesses: Must wind-up for 1s before firing at all, easy to burn through entire cells, stopping firing at any time requires windup for firing again

Despite not liking this weapon a lot, I usually keep it on me just for melting hard-to-kill targets. While it isn't very useful against trash enemies, its frankly disgusting damage potential against bosses and hardened targets makes it hard to ignore. A single full cell (which gets emptied in about 1.5s of continuous firing after windup) can usually annihilate a boss, especially if dumped into its head. If not, a quick reload is only moments away.

Carry this alongside a more general-purpose gun and you'll always have something to fall back on whenever a hard target wants to have a go.

Sonic Pulse Generator

Feed: 9-shot battery cells
Strengths: Creates a generously-sized and timed field that bounces projectiles in the direction you are aiming, reflected projectiles gain homing properties
Weaknesses: Virtually impossible to kill anything without reflecting a projectile, only deals marginal damage at point-blank range

I hate it. It is useful to direct walls of lead back towards whoever fired it, and the homing makes it a good long-range room clearer, but it can barely kill anything by itself and the redirection angle being tied to where you are aiming makes it significantly frustrating to use. This usually means if you reflect something without positioning the gun coming out of your head directly in the direction you want the projectile to go, it will miss its target. This is especially apparent on smaller, harder to hit targets at close range like Kani drones. Avoid.

Explosive Weapons (Green)

I'll be real, none of these weapons are very good. The explosions are not very powerful or don't outpace the damage that can be done with some of the other proper firearms. Some of these explosive weapons fill a nice niche, however.

Grenade Launcher Pistol

Feed: Single-round grenade
Strengths: Good damage potential, explodes on direct hit, can be bounced off the floor or walls for a shallower angle or around corners
Weaknesses: Terrible for close-quarters combat, can be dangerous to use up close, grenade loses a lot of its velocity when bouncing

Its OK as a side weapon. It can be useful as a tool to shoot over walls/around corners and maybe catch some enemies by surprise, but using it only by itself becomes a liability. The grenade is at least fairly powerful which makes it useful to clear some of the harder targets out.

Rocket Launcher

Feed: Single-round rocket
Strengths: Decent damage potential, rocket has homing properties, somewhat easy to use.
Weaknesses: Clumsy to use due to its size and less damage potential then the grenade launcher pistol.

Its not very remarkable besides some homing potential of the missile which makes it easy to use in larger rooms. Its damage is also less then the grenade launcher pistol which generally makes it inferior.

Sticky Grenade Launcher

Feed: 3-round revolving grenade clip (3 ammo per reload)
Strengths: Much more control over the grenades compared to the grenade launcher pistol, grenades can be used as a trap or planted to avoid shields
Weaknesses: Rather ammo hungry

This weapon went from "mediocre" to "pretty good" when I found you can shoot the grenades on the ground and wait for a Kani security drone to walk over it (shield included) and detonate the grenade to instantly kill the little buggers. This gives it great utility in dealing with those things in addition to just generally being able to stick to enemies and blow up them and whatever is nearby them. It does chew through its ammo reserve very quickly, however.

Minigun

Im just listing it here because I know it exists. I don't have it yet. I assume its as overpowered as its unlock requirements are.

Enemies

I'll try to be brief, there isn't much to talk about.

Corporate Guard/Soldier

Strengths: Decent tracking and prediction, will make you keep your head down
Weaknesses: Shoot them in the face. Alternatively, hide around a corner, wait for them to come investigate, and shoot them in the face.
Variations: Blue - Plasma Pistol; Purple - SMG; Red - Super Shotgun
Variations: Soldiers - Identical to guards, but have faster reaction time to your presence, fire faster, and move more aggressively towards your last known location

The standard beat cop of the corporation. They are not particularly remarkable. They will track your movement and shoot at the point you will be if your head continues moving in that direction. It is possible to avoid their shots consistently by moving your head or body in a way that changes your momentum after they fire. This can be useful to dodge incoming fire at closer range.

Blue troops (plasma pistol) fire at mostly regular intervals. Purple troops (SMG) will spray in your general direction, with the inaccuracy making it rather difficult to dodge consistently. Red troops (shotgun) will fire two shells in your direction which is difficult to dodge without cover.

As a side note, all types of guards will try to shoot at the corner of your last known location for a bit before moving up. Don't get overzealous and peek before they're done suppressing you, or you'll eat a bullet. Purple and red guards will also stop to reload at normal intervals. Soldiers are especially aggressive and have very little hesitation for aiming.

Drone

Strengths: Fast, small, annoying
Weaknesses: Generally instantly killed by a single hit from anything
Variations: Blue - Plasma bolt; Purple - SMG bolt; Green - explodes on death or contact

The bane of your existence and the reason you carry around a dart gun. They are difficult to hit and notoriously get up into your personal space both making them harder to hit and impossible to dodge. Green drones make a unique noise and will explode on death, making them a great tool to kill enemies from a distance or yourself up close. If you are pressed into a corner by a green drone, just let it touch you and then run away -- it has to go through an explosion animation which is long enough for you to reach a safe distance.

Tracked Security Robot

Strengths: Hard to disable, accurate, lower to the floor allowing it to get behind waist-high cover
Weaknesses: Optical mounts on either side of the turret are weak points, fat frame makes it easy to hit, damaging it anywhere interrupts its attack

The first robot-type enemy you'll encounter. They're not terribly hard to defeat but they have a good amount of health which means you need more than just a few shots to take them out. Keep the pressure on and keep cover close at hand. Most notably, constant damage interrupts this enemy's attack. This is particularly apparent with weapons like the Assault Rifle or SMG which can prevent it from taking advantage of you being in the open while you blast it, so as long as you don't run out of ammo in your magazine.

Kani Security Drone

Strengths: Tough energy shield at a distance makes it very hard to take out at range, harasses with plasma bolts at a distance
Weaknesses: Drops shield when in melee range and stops shooting, after its melee attack it is temporarily immobilized, making it an easy target

Little orange robots that sound deceptively cute. They will harass you form a distance with accurate plasma fire, but once they get up close they turn into a harmless docile little headcrab. Let the headcrab jump at you, side step it, then hit it with both barrels of a super shotgun. That usually kills it.

If engaging from a distance, you will need a lot of damage to both disable the shield and the drone. A laser rifle or rail gun can help, but any other weapon will need a lot of time on target. Most notably, sticky grenades can be laid in front of it and detonated when its shield is over the grenade. This both kills the drone and sends it careening into the ceiling which is both satisfying and entertaining. The same can be done with a grenade launcher pistol grenade, but it needs very good timing and bouncing to get it to come to a stop and explode under the shield.

Walker Mech

Strengths: Tough, high health pool, good offensive power, weak point rarely exposed while on the attack
Weaknesses: Rear armor is a weak point if you can catch it off guard, large frame is somewhat easy to hit, railgun automatically penetrates its weakpoint when attacking from the front
Variations: Blue - Plasma bolters; Red - Railgun

Tough security mechas that are hard to disable without a power weapon on hand. They will take more than just casual weapons fire to disable and their weakpoints are generally shielded from your attack unless you catch them unaware. The railgun variant also cannot have its attack dodged if it is allowed to fully charge, so keep cover close at hand. Blast them into submission with a powerful weapon or shotgun.

Test Subject

Strengths: Very high health pool
Weaknesses: Head, melee only attack

Spawned when breaking any test tubes in the Research and Development levels. While hostile, these enemies do not need to be killed to open the elevator. They can sometimes be problematic when causing a lot of collateral damage, but most of the time they can be avoided and killed easily despite their tough health bar.

Security Camera

Strengths: Annoying and mounted outside of your typical field of view, also alerts nearby enemies to your location
Weaknesses: One bullet lmao

Randomly placed around rooms in the Executive Power levels. When alerted to you, it will turn to face you and shoot bursts of three shots at you. While hostile, they don't need to be destroyed to advance the stage.

Bosses

Ill be brief about each of the boss enemies. Some of the boss enemies only appear on hard and above, so I would recommend you play at that difficulty at least.

Giant Rat (Sewers)

Strengths: Absurdly high health pool for the early game
Weaknesses: Attacks are easily avoided by strafing

The rat is mostly notable for filtering you with his absolutely massive health pool. Just keep blasting, strafing, and try to keep an eye on your ammo. A blast pistol is recommended if you don't have a proper primary weapon.

The rat will begin hunting you shortly after you enter the level and will run directly to your location. This also has a habit of alerting the enemies in the room it runs from, so be ready to deal with a two-pronged assault. Once the rat gets within a short enough distance, it has to do a short windup animation before it starts vomiting nickelodeon slime at you. When ending its attack, it also shoots the slime slightly further than normal, designed to punish you if you are merely backing straight up. It can't keep up if you just circle it at arm's length though.

Booster Bruce (Vaccine Warehouse)

Strengths: Fast and can stay on top of your location easily when alerted
Weaknesses: No tracking on his shots means he's always shooting behind you if you are moving, not particularly tough

Blast him in the face while moving. He'll go down rather quickly. He also has to pause to reload for about a second, so that's a good time to change direction. Bit of a pushover.

The Accountant (Profit Management)

Strengths: Strong energy shield that always faces the player, rapidly firing SMG
Weaknesses: Virtually no health pool to speak of, gets killed accidentally by any amount of splash damage, general pushover

The number one strategy for this clown is to toss an explosive anywhere nearby him and he usually dies. He also appears to have an aversion to pressuring the player and tries to stay in the room he spawns in which makes him that much easier to deal with. You can break his shield down with enough damage if you lack any indirect damage.

Spider Tank (Chemical Processing)

Strengths: Bigger and badder version of the walker mechs, rapid firing minigun, explosive main cannon attack, high health pool
Weaknesses: Rather slow and plodding, and thankfully his absolutely massive frame is very easy to hit with any weapon, most attacks easily dodged by strafing

There's not much strategy besides keep close to cover and keep blasting as much as you can. Be careful of the main cannon blast as its explosive damage can easily splash you if you're nearby it. Reflecting the main cannon blast back with the Sonic Pulse Generator is funny.

Dr. A. Morral (Research & Development)

Strengths: Very aggressive, area-denial caustic bombs flush the player out of areas and block view, dangerous up close
Weaknesses: No direct ranged attacks, tends to kill everyone else around him while trying to kill you

At range, the Dr. will throw caustic bombs that tend to block your view and damage anything nearby. Up close, the Dr. will suddenly take out what I can only describe as a sludge pressure washer and spray you with it. I have been killed while trying to clear damage amplifier, instantly, because I opened the door he was behind and he instantly took out his sludge washer. It was infuriating.

Stay outside of arms reach and shoot him in the head repeatedly until he dies. He's a pushover if you can stay outside of two meters.

Gold Leader (Executive Power)

Strengths: Strong energy shield, quick reaction time, high health pool, multiple attacks for different ranges
Weaknesses: None, really, besides shooting him in the head and around the shield's gap

A challenging boss. At long range, he will try to track and shoot you with a rail gun which is not able to be dodged. At close range, he will whip out a shotgun and fire it quickly after aiming, making it hard to dodge.

Peek him carefully and quickly, and shoot decisively. Dump as much burst damage as you can on him, then reload in cover and try again. Repeat until he dies. Sitting in the open or staring at him for too long will get you flattened.

CEO (High Worth Individual)

Strengths: Height advantage can make him difficult to take cover from and make him hard to hit without instant-transmission weapons, high health pool
Weaknesses: Rather large target makes him somewhat easy to hit despite the distance

The final boss. He's a bit of a pain to deal with, but if you have the right weapons (revolver, laser rifle, railgun) he can easily be dispatched. Just stay behind cover and peek over the top of it to engage. When he sees you, he'll try to fire a hail of chaingun bullets, but most of them will miss if you have proper cover.

There are three stages, and between stages 1-2 and 2-3 he will summon about 4-5 corporate soldiers to try and engage you. Once these are dispatched, he will move to the next stage. If you hide behind cover too much, the CEO will occasionally carpet bomb the area with caustic gas bombs, sometimes forcing you to reposition. Just keep that cover close at hand and keep blasting and he'll go down.

Closing

Smash that mf dislike button.

[Biscuit]

Makes the final boss a cakewalk tho

[Skeleton Man]

counterpoint: the big pancake blaster isn't fun to use

[Spelunker]

as a top player, the sonic pulse generator is one of the best in the game. you can fire your own bullets and they do ~3x dmg with the plasma. the blast pistol and laser pistol can be used till end game even on spicy, they're some of the best in the game. the spg makes any non hitscan weapon 10x better and makes the bullets homing. genuinely one of the best weapons in the game, even with the plasma you can get 2-3 shots in per spg burst and demolish stalkers. just thought that you should know you're wrong about its usefulness. its entirely useful in all scenarios.

[VOID]

Hey, it's your guide, and it reflects your tastes! No problem there!
I just wanted to give an update on the close range damage thing, not question your opinions.
It''s a great guide!

[Skeleton Man]

It is too unreliable on small or agile targets and too risky to time correctly in close-in areas. I much prefer guns that shoot real bullets.

[Ken]

To me the Sonic Pulse Generator is way more than useless, especially in Damage Amplifier Mutation. I think of it as a shield. The size of the AOE makes drones coming around corners super easy.

Reflecting shots is a really easy way to kill the walkers and all the bosses. (except the lab boss in the yellow coat in the lab levels)

It's also nice shelter when I get too far from a corner and find some bad guys.

It's definitely one of my favorite weapons to come across in Hard Booze.

For sure it takes some getting used to.... but I really like it.

[Ken]

Right On! Nice Guide. Thanks!

[VOID]

Thanks for the update! It is still more of a novelty weapon than anything else (although I kind of like it), but after reading your guide and then unlocking it, I was quite surprised when it killed a guard and sent it flying away.
As Ken mentions, it is effective against drones at close range, although I doubt it helps with explosive drones.

[Skeleton Man]

wording slightly modified to illustrate that it is slightly more than completely useless at point blank range

[Ken]

The Sonic Pulse Generator kills drones if they are hit by any of the red circles it emits when fired.