There are so many different guns in Cataclysm and I don’t know anything about guns to begin with. I never know which one to pick, and which type to pick (rifle/sub/pistol), and which kind of ammo is the easiest to find.
Is there any kind of tier list for firearms in DDA so that I don’t have to trawl through each individual weapon’s statistics? Any tips would be appreciated.
For general use pistols and submachine guns, something shooting 9mm or .45, for assault rifles, something chambered 5.56, for things that you need to kill fast, the rivtech revolver.
I often run with a UMP 45, the rivtech revolver, and a M9.
Shotguns, because they will one hit kill any standard zombie even with no skills, and are the difference between death and survival against high-HP specials.
Unless you’re playing with Dynamic or Wander (Dynamic 2.0) spawns activated, in which case they’re only going to make you live a bit longer.
Once you get some firearms skill, a .45 pistol tends to be a good mix of power and ease of finding bullets.
Later in the game a long range rifle can help a lot.
Some rough guides are: 9mm seems pretty common and they drop in piles of 50 for standard shots, mid/late game a glock should make a decent ‘walking around gun.’ The ammo that the SKS takes drop in piles of 80 (cant remember the type), this can make it a good general purpose rifle. Find three stacks of ammo and you are good for a fair while.
So yeah, generally most bullets above .22 will do the job, you want to save the really high powered stuff and anything with good armor pierce for turrets and nastier enemies, but generally the gun you want you use in a more ‘day to day’ fashion is the one you have the most ammo for.
I generally grab all the ammo I can find above .22 ratshot and store it in my truck. Ill also go for 1 gun for each type of ammo if I can. Also grab all the gun mods you can get your hands on, they are small and you never know when you will need one.
For guns, for pistols im generally looking for the one with the highest damage bonus, recoil and dispersion arent generally a huge worry. Rivetech pistols are all well and truely top tier, keeping one in a holster as a backup handcannon for hulks and the like is always a smart play even if you only have limited ammo for them. As an eg. im partial to the 1911, ammo is pretty common, it has a decent damage bonus and can 1 shot many enemies with a bit of skill, it has a small mag at 7, but with a spare mag mod that problem is minimized a bit.
Pretty much any shotguns beyond a single shot is great but they are very loud and fairly large, ammo also takes up a fair bit of space. Ill generally use a shotgun if im looking to clear out a mall or something, then go back and drop it off so I can go through and loot.
Rifles I put into 2 catagories: Low powered training rifles and High powered ones for hitting hard targets. Low powered is something like a .22 or 9mm, you are pretty much going to use this to up your rifle skill to a decent level, they will kill stuff, but it will take more than a few shots usually.
High powered rifles are best used for things like turrets and clearing labs. .308 and 30-06 are both nice heavy calibers. You want something with high damage, low recoil and then hopefully low dispersion. As an eg, I love the savage, it has nice high damage, heavy caliber (.308) and low recoil. Only a 3 shot mag, but generally Im hoping to 1-2 shot single targets like turrets with it.
I also pretty much always take trigger happy, so ill only use a weapon with burst fire very very late game when I have 1000s of spare rounds. SMGs I find are only really useful for clearing out schools and malls where you come up against large hordes of lower tier enemies. They are also great for clearing out spores near fungal beds, but beyond that, im going for a high powered single shot gun.
Thankyou very much guys this helps a lot.
The ammo that the SKS takes drop in piles of 80 (cant remember the type)7.62×39mm. Fits for the AK too.
Is there an ammo/gun with power above that of a 9mm +P+ from a Glock? It’s quite rare, but I need it to kill turrets in labs, tank bots, chicken walkers, and robots in general. I had to melee a tank bot because my reloaded +P+ just bounced off. I only lived thanks to Cloaking System.
Reflex recurve bow + metal arrows + darkness + night vision.
Seriously. Especially against bots - they can’t hear you when you stay in place and spam arrows and they can’t sniff you out.
Even if you’ve got low strength, it’s just a range penalty.
Use EMP/blasters/launchers/explosives in that order with cloaking or darkness/NV. Maybe - maybe - you can use long-range rifles or an elephant gun, but finding both the gun and the ammo will be tricky. Do not engage in any other case, bots will fuck you up.
So… machete is a no go?
Yeah, I totally know what you mean. I’m the same. I’ll go with whatever I have ammo for, more often than not it ends up being a 9mm, .45 or maybe .40. Depends on what I find. And then the compare items (default “I”) is your best friend. But then, which do you want? Higher damage, lower recoil, lower dispersion? Also, I seem to remember reading that dispersion doesn’t do anything atm?
And then…after all that, if two guns are kinda on an equal footing, literally go with 1) has the coolest name 2) looks coolest by google image :lol:
But tbh I mostly play melee + bow or crossbow.
every gun can be usefull even .22 pistol can do some damage just do not use ratshot better disasemble it and create better ammo
i preffer stick to mele and bow but when shit happen is good to carry 2 pistols (1 with high mag capcity and 1 with high stoping power) they alslo do not take any inventory space if you holster them (good combination is glock and rivtech pistol)
bigger guns need more space in inventory so carry them when you need like SKS is nice medium range gun realy nice for taking out turrents good for labs and military outpost raids
high capcity weapons like most smg are realy good for clearing big amouts of enemies they fire small pistol rounds and its great for clearing crowded areas like malls or shools sometimes labs
AT weapons are not a thing what you need allways with you usefull mostly for bigger enemy like tank bot or hulk (but hulk can be killed with good pistol)
grenade launchers may be handy for dealing with hordes of zombies in open area they come in so many types but try stick to frag
It is pretty much the to-hit penalty for ranged attacks. It determines whether you will get a miss, a grazing shot, good shot, crit or a headshot. 1 point of dispersion is about as bad as 1 point less of dexterity or perception. Dispersion also limits your ability to train weapon skills.
Should I use a reflex recurve bow or a heavy crossbow? My strength is at 46 normally.
EDIT: The answer is neither, because both need two arms to wield and I only have 1.
try pistol crossbow
Nah, I have a gun. But I will try it and see whether it’s powerful enough to damage armored targets, which is what I’m trying to do.
A flintlock pistol should be able to down most machines if you have the skill to crit effectively (might have trouble with Secubots and Tankdrones need a LAW or somesuch.). It’s a hard choice with only 1-handed weapons.
It does suffer from lack of range and very long reload time though.
If you’ve got cover an EMP grenade should deal with anything smaller than a tank drone.
A Cx4 Storm with a sniper conversion and recoil stock is a great weapon into late game if you can make it happen. 9mm ammo is plentiful, and with the conversion it jumps from teens to low 20s to 50+ damage a shot. The low recoil with the stock means you can stand your ground and minimize recoil growth, and suppressed it makes like 6 noise.
For .45 I prefer a USP if I can find one, that extra 5 rounds makes a huge difference.
For armor…anything .30-06 and up. Put a brass catcher and scope on that puppy and snipe turrets from 25 tiles away.
With regards to ammo types, does a higher number generally mean more damage then? I literally know nothing about guns.
Just read the stats. Read the descriptions.