Author: Hawkwings
Courtesy of Planet TR
Welcome, Recruit! This guide is meant to give you all the information about the class of weapons known as "firearms."
With all that being said, I highly recommend that you take the time to read everything in the tutorial and remember it. It will save you a lot of trouble and time.
Basics
First of all, what are "firearms?" If you're thinking "Firearms are a gun" then you're partially correct. Firearms in Tabula Rasa are a class of weapons. Specifically, they are pistols, rifles, and shotguns. These are the "beginner" weapons, and you have access to them right at the beginning of the game. You start off with the "Firearms I" skill, which allows you to use these weapons, but doesn't give any bonuses to them.
Now, you might be asking, "If these are the beginner weapons, why should I bother with them after I can get weapons like the chaingun, polarity gun, or rocket launcher?" The answer is quite simple.
Firearms are overall the best weapons in the game.
A smart player will use these three classes of weapons for the entire game, and maybe have a specialist weapon or two. In fact, you could play through the entire game using only firearms, and I'd doubt you'd have much trouble. Firearms come in all different types and levels. First, let's take a look at the Firearms skill.
Firearms: the Skill
You start out as a recruit with one skill point already in Firearms, which gives you a Firearms skill level (also known as a Firearms Pump) of 1. This lets you use these three types of weapons. At level one, there are no bonuses . Getting to Pump 5 in Firearms takes 14 more skill points, which you get by the time you get to level 7. So you can have Pump 5 in Firearms by level 7. Do this. Firearms is your most important skill, and you want to max it out as soon as possible. Why? Let's take a look at the bonuses.
- At Pump 5 in Firearms, you get a 40% damage bonus with all firearms, 0.8 second reload time with pistols, +10% critical hit chance with rifles, and 75% knockback chance with shotguns. These bonuses make Firearms the best weapons in the game. Let's examine them.
- The 40% damage bonus is easy enough to understand. You'll be doing more damage with each shot. A lot more damage, in fact.
- 0.8 second reload time on Pistols is a fun bonus. The quick-reload animation your character does looks cool, and with this bonus, you can target an enemy, hold down your fire button, and your enemy will be dead in no time. Other than that, it's the least useful of these bonuses, though it is still functional.
- +10% critical hit chance on rifles means that you will be critical-hitting your enemies a lot more often. This is extremely important because critical hits do double damage. You will know if you do a critical hit because the damage number that appears over your enemy's head will be highlighted in white, plus it will be higher than all the other non-critical hits. This is the difference between killing a swarm of enemies quickly, and dying to them because you couldn't finish them off fast enough. In my opinion, this is the second-best bonus, barely getting beaten by...
- 75% knockback chance on shotguns. This is the best firearms bonus. Period. This means that when you are confronted by a swarm of enemies, you can fire your shotgun at them and they will almost always be knocked to the ground, unable to attack for about ten seconds. In that time, you can shoot them while they're on the ground, or run away without being chased. The second part is very important. If you are being chased by a huge group of enemies that will kill you if you stop to fight, keep running, switch to a shotgun, and shoot them a few times. That will knock them down long enough for you to get out of their sight.
Now that we know why exactly firearms are the greatest weapons in Tabula Rasa, there's two important things to know when using them.
Targeting
You can sticky-target your enemies by equipping a pistol or rifle, putting your targeting reticule over them and pressing TAB. That means that when firing pistols and rifles, you will always fire at that target even when they are in the middle of a swarm of enemies. This is useful because enemies move around, and you will miss if you don't target them. Also, if you fire at a large group of enemies, while they are moving around, you will hit most of them with just one shot each, not doing much. Instead, you can target one enemy, shoot them until they're dead, then move on to the next one. This decreases the amount of damage coming your way quickly, meaning that you'll live longer.
Remember though, rifles are long-range weapons, and pistols are short-range weapons. Don't target an enemy 50 meters away with a pistol. You won't do much damage.
Another thing you can do with rifles and targeting is search for enemies. Sometimes there are enemies that fire on you, but you can't see them because they're too far away for the game to show you yet. In that case, crouch, put your targeting reticule in the area of where the shots came from, then hit tab. More often than not, you will sticky-target the enemy that fired on you.
Shotguns don't have sticky-targeting. They do have a nice spread though, so if you point it in the right direction, you'll probably hit the enemy.
Crouching (AKA How to do the most damage with Firearms)
Get that "C" key nice and cozy, you're going to be very good friends with it. Basically, if you crouch, you'll do more damage with rifles and pistols. With shotguns, it doesn't matter if you crouch or not.
But wait, there's more!
When you're running around, then you stop, see the three dots on your targeting reticule that mode in towards the center? If you fire while they're far away, you do less damage. If you fire when they're all the way at the center, then you do the most damage. It takes about a second for the dots to go from all the way apart to all the way in the center, so to do the most damage, you need to stop, wait for one second, then fire. For shotguns, this is all you need to do to get max damage, but for pistols and rifles, you can crouch for even more damage.
So in summary, to do the most damage with pistols and rifles: target your enemy, crouch, wait 1 second, then fire until they're dead. With shotguns, stop, wait one second, then fire at the biggest group of enemies near you.
Now, let's examine the weapons individually.
Pistols
The pistol is the first weapon you get in Boot Camp. It is a short-ranged weapon, fires quickly, and dishes out the greatest amount of damage in the shortest amount of time. For all you experienced players out there, the pistol has the best DPS.
Pistols are best at short range, under 20 meters. At ranges longer than that, their damage drops off significantly.
Pistols come in all damage types except Cryogenic and Incendiary.
Rifles
In my opinion, rifles are the best weapons in the game. If I only had to play with one weapon type, I'd choose the rifle. It is a medium-ranged weapon, does great damage per shot, and fires moderately quickly. The rifle probably has the second-best DPS, though I haven't done any tests to make sure.
The rifle's optimum range is 60 meters, which means that it will do max damage up to 60 meters away. There is no damage penalty to using rifles at point-blank distance though.
Rifles come in all damage types except Cryogenic and Incendiary.
Shotguns
Shotguns are immensely satisfying to use. Who doesn't like seeing their enemies fly away from them after being hit by a shotgun? Remember , shotguns don't have sticky targeting, but they do have a good spread. If there are two enemies in front of you, aim for the space between them, and the shotgun can hit them both. It will do max damage to both of them even though they're only getting hit by some of the pellets. However, shotguns fire rather slowly and take a while to reload, so be careful. Shotguns use 3 ammo per shot, so a physical shotgun gets 15 shots before reloading, not 45.
The shotgun does damage out to 20 meters. The cone of damage is about 30 degrees, though that is just an estimate.
If there is only 1 enemy, knock it down with a shotgun, then kill it with a pistol or rifle, which will kill the enemy faster.
Now let's examine the damage types these weapons can do.
Damage Types
Different types of damage are more or less effective against certain enemies. Some enemies have armor that is especially effective one type of damage, or are entirely immune to a certain type of damage. They may also have a weakness to another type of damage.
Physical: The first weapons that you get do physical damage. They put a high-speed bullet into the flesh/exoskeleton/chassis of the enemy. Physical damage is reliable and weapons that do physical damage have the largest clip sizes, but some enemies are immune to physical damage.
Physical damage firearms magazine sizes:
Pistol: 20
Rifle: 20
Shotgun: 45 (15 shots)
Ammo type: Cartridges
Enemies weak to Physical damage:
Warnets
Enemies immune to Physical damage:
Kael
Juggernaughts
Laser: These weapons fire a coherent beam of light that flash-vaporize flesh and metal alike.
Laser damage firearms magazine sizes:
Pistol: 10
Rifle: 10
Shotgun: 30 (10 shots)
Ammo type: Power Cells
Enemies weak to Laser damage:
Atta
Enemies immune to Laser damage:
Lightbenders
Sonic: These weapons fire a packet? Wave? Of sound. Don't ask me how they work.
Sonic damage firearms magazine sizes:
Pistol: 10
Rifle: 10
Shotgun: 30 (10 shots)
Ammo type: Power Cells
Enemies weak to Sonic damage:
Lightbenders
Enemies immune to Sonic damage:
Howlers, Hominus Machina
Electric: These weapons electrocute the enemy
Electric damage firearms magazine sizes:
Pistol: 10
Rifle: 10
Shotgun: 30 (10 shots)
Ammo type: Power Cells
Enemies weak to Electric damage:
Brann
Reconstructor Bots
Warden Bots
Fthik
Enemies immune to Electric damage:
Beam Mantas (those things in Plateau)
EMP: These weapons short out machinery and fry armor.
EMP damage firearms magazine sizes:
Pistol: 10
Rifle: 10
Shotgun: 30 (10 shots)
Ammo type: Power Cells
Enemies weak to EMP damage:
All robots
Enemies immune to EMP damage:
All non-robots. EMP will take down their armor, but won't damage their health.
Cryogenic: these weapons freeze the enemy
Cryogenic damage firearms magazine sizes:
Pistol: Cryogenic pistols don't exist
Rifle: Cryogenic rifles don't exist
Shotgun: 15 (5 shots)
Ammo type: canister ammunition
Enemies weak to Cryogenic damage:
Flaregashers
Enemies immune to Cryogenic damage:
Unknown
Incendiary: these weapons burn the enemy.
Incendiary damage firearms magazine sizes:
Pistol: Incendiary pistols don't exist
Rifle: Incendiary rifles don't exist
Shotgun: 15 (5 shots)
Ammo type: canister ammunition
Enemies weak to Incendiary damage:
Thrax soldiers
Enemies immune to Incendiary damage:
Flaregarshers
Heat, Condition, and Jamming
As you fire your firearm, the icon in the lower left that corresponds to your current firearm will begin filling up yellow, then orange, then red. This is the heat meter. As your weapon heats up, its condition will deteriorate faster. If it reaches the top, your weapon will jam and be inoperable. Your weapon will also jam in normal operation, though this is rare. To clear a jam, reload your weapon. The heat meter will decrease by itself over time, so if you have a weapon that is near the top of the heat meter, switch to a different weapon.
If you mouse-over your firearm, you will see a stat that reads "Condition:" followed by a percentage number. This is the current condition of your weapon. 100% means that it is fully operational, and 0% means that you cannot use it. This number decreases on its own in normal operation, but will go down faster if you fire the weapon at high heat levels, or use your firearm as a melee weapon. To repair your firearm, go to any vendor, click on the third tab at the bottom of their window, and hit "Repair All". This will repair not only your firearms, but also any other equipment that has taken damage.
Melee Attacks
Melee attacks are a separate skill, but you perform the attack with your weapon. Be warned: every time you melee attack besides an "Overkill" move, your weapon's condition will decrease by 1%. Use melee attacks sparingly.
Shopping for Firearms
At base weapons dealers, you can buy basic physical firearms and all types of ammo. As soon as you get to a high enough level to get a better firearm, do so. Higher level firearms do more damage.
When you're out in the field, you can often find firearms on dead enemies. These are better than the vendor firearms because they come in different damage types and because they have bonuses. Sometimes you will pick up a firearm that is a lower level than you are currently using. Don't use these. The primary objective of a firearm is to do maximum damage to the enemy, and not to boost your stats.
Sometimes you will pick up a firearm that is a higher level than you can use. Save these. When you are a high enough level to use them, do so immediately. More damage equals more enemies dead faster.
Ammunition
Your weapons require ammunition, which you can buy at any vendor except crafting vendors. If you mouse-over your firearm, it will tell you what type of ammunition it needs. There are two factors: the type of ammunition and the quality level. Low-level weapons will only take standard-quality ammunition. You cannot load higher-quality ammunition into your lower-quality firearm. If you are using multiple weapons with the same ammunition type, you will need to buy a lot of ammo. For low-level players, I recommend sticking with physical weapons only, and keeping about 1000 rounds of ammunition with you. As your level increases and you spend more time in the field without resupply, you may want to have 2000 rounds with you, or even more. For power cells, since so many damage types use them, you may want more ammo. Incendiary and cryogenic shotguns take canister ammunition, and I recommend around 500 rounds with you. If you use firearms as your primary weapon, you will not have to worry so much about ammunition, because firearms are very efficient with ammunition. You get a lot of damage out of a single bullet, especially with rifles.
Conclusion
Here's a quick summary of information and advice:
- Firearms are the best weapons in Tabula Rasa. Use them often.
- Get to Skill Level (Pump) 5 in Firearms as soon as you can. You can do that by level 7 if you don't spend skills in anything else.
- When using a pistol, hit tab to sticky-target 1 enemy, close to within 20 meters of an enemy, hit "C" to crouch, wait 1 second, then fire until the enemy is dead.
- When using a rifle, close to within 60 meters of your enemy, hit tab to sticky-target an enemy, hit "C" to crouch, wait 1 second, then fire until the enemy is dead.
- When using a shotgun, close to within 20 meters of a group of enemies, stop, wait 1 second, then fire at the center of the group. Repeat until there is only 1 enemy remaining alive, then switch to a pistol or rifle to kill them.
- Always use the highest-level firearms that you can. If you find firearms that are higher levels than you can currently use, save them and use them when you are at that level.
- If your weapon jams, reload.
- Every time you are at a vendor, repair all your equipment and buy ammo.
- Use firearms. They are the best weapons in the game. Period.