How to Shoot

A simple guide that should help you decide which weapon is the best in a given situation.

Basics

Weapons have two obvious stats, damage and chance to hit. From this you already get a third important stat, how much damage this weapon will make in average. So if you have a 150 damage weapon with 50% accuracy it will make 75 damage in average.

But there is one hidden stat that you have to remember. Different types of weapon have a different number of "shots" or hits. While a Sniper Rifle or a Power Axe only roll one hit, a Heavy Bolter spread his damage in 3 hits. This has an interesting side effect, while the chance to get max damage is much lower then the percentage suggest, the chance to make some damage is much higher. So if you have 3 hits for a total of 150 damage with 50% accuracy, you only get in about every 8th try a full 150 damage hit, but 50 or more damage will happen in 7 of 8 tries or 87.5%.

So the 1 hit weapons are much more reliable in making full damage while the multi hit weapons are more reliable in doing some damage.

There are other important factors I leaving out now, some weapons have a area of effect or additional effects that can influence your decision. Weakening multiple targets or "burn" cards from your enemy with an attack are very powerful and you should not lose sight of this factor.

Situations

Take out a low health target

This is a easy situation, you want enough damage to kill the Target with high accuracy. So look at your weapons, every weapon that can kill your target with 1 hit is a valid option, as more hit the weapon can do as better it becomes. A 70% Bolter with 3 hits has a better chance then the 95% Sniper Rifle.

Take out a high health target

When a single hit from a multi hit weapon is not enough to kill the target it becomes a bit harder. If you have to hit 2 out of 3 then the chances are still higher but they get closer to the show percentage. So only if the alternatives are close use the multi shots. And less needed hit or more possible hits are helpful. 2 of 4 is much better then 2 of 3, but 3 of 4 is worse.

Make as much damage as possible

It doesn't matter how many shots a weapon do, the average damage is always damage * hit chance. So take the weapon with most damage and best hit change. I prefer singe hit weapons but that is just my preference. In this situation the additional effects of the weapons become much more important.

Make damage as soon as possible

You have one healthy target that has to go down quick, then multi hits become stronger again, because they make most of the time at least some damage. Also very important each weapon that gets at least one hit reduces the armor (as long as the weapon not ignore armor in the first place).

Other

The situations are unfortunately not always that easy to see, sometimes you shoot your target and then decide if it is a low or high health target or if you want to wait or need to run.

Summary

So that's all. There is much more - effort and positioning are very important - but this should help you to find the right weapon when you are in one of these situations.

Maybe there are some helpful comments, if not maybe you want to leave one?

[Emperor's Gene Seed]

Gratitude Battle Brother!

[XIII]

nice guide!

[Josh-FuManchu]

Thank you.