Tips for new Jupiter Hell players, which will help you to choose the weapons at the beginner of the game.
How to Choose Weapon for beginners
Early on, it can be a good idea to switch between several weapons depending on the situation. Even in the late game with a well crafted weapon and a build specialising in that weapon, the right alternate weapon on swap can help negate a build’s weaknesses.
One important thing to consider is how much damage the enemies you are fighting can take. Many early enemies have 18-22 hp, so the difference between a 16 damage weapon and a 24 damage weapon is very noticeable.
Swap time and reload time
When viewing a weapon stat block, the swap time is the time it takes to switch TO this weapon. The speed of the weapon you are changing from has no effect.
When considering a weapon’s reload time, you need to know how much of the weapon reloads each time. Some like revolvers only reload one bullet at a time (but do so very quickly), others like chainguns reload a set amount, most weapons reload fully with one press. If you are using a weapon which is slow to reload, or which runs out quickly, think about what your plan is to deal wit that in an extended fight.
Pistols, Revolvers, and SMGs have a much shorter default swap time. If you are using a long range weapon like a rifle, having a good pistol on swap can help deal with anything that gets too close. They also make a good backup to finish something off when a weapon which is slow to reload runs dry.
You can get very fast swap time on any moddable weapon with the use of a B-mod, in order to craft an emergency shotgun or rocket launcher.
Shotguns
Shotguns stand out from other weapons in several ways. They often only have a single shot before needing to reload, but they can hit multiple enemies with each shot, and they are one of the only weapons that can shoot things outside of sight range.
Instead of the normal system of accuracy giving a % chance to hit, shotguns always hit things in their cone, but their damage is multiplied by the accuracy. So instead of a 50% chance to hit with a pistol or rifle, you would have guaranteed hit but 50% damage dealt with the shotgun..
When targeting an enemy, the amount of health they will lose is highlighted on their health bar. This is especially important when using a shotgun, as the damage can change just from the enemy moving closer. If you see that your shotgun will fall just short of a kill, you may be better off waiting or even advancing to get a kill shot, rather than shooting, reloading and shooting again.
Multiple shots
Some weapons, including Automatics, Rotaries, and some types of Pistol, fire more than one shot with each round. A weapon with 9 damage, but 3 shots per round, will do 27 damage if all 3 shots hit.
This has an advantage when you start getting weapon perks which increase your damage by a flat amount (such as Cleaner or Longshot) as the flat damage is added to each bullet. But it also has a disadvantage when fighting heavily armored opponents – An SMS with 6×5 damage would do 30 damage to an unarmoured foe, but only 10 damage to something with 4 points of armor as each bullet would do only 2 damage. If you are relying on a multishot weapon like this, it could be a good idea to have a single shot backup like a sniper rifle.
Damage type
When deciding what weapon(s) to use, damage type can be an important factor.
- Impact: This is the default damage type. Each point of armor the enemy has will reduce damage by 1.
- Slashing: Slashing damage does half damage to mechs, and armor is twice as effective: non-mechs with armor will reduce damage by 2 points per 1 point of armor.
- Plasma: Plasma treats armor as half as effective – losing 1 damage for every 2 points of enemy armor.
- Pierce: Piercing damage also treats armor as half as effective, and also does double damage to mechanical enemies.
This means a 34 slash damage shotgun, at point blank range, will do the full 34 damage to a zombie but only do 17 damage to a bot. On the other hand, a low damage pierce weapon like the 9mm calibrated with 16 base damage vs zombies will do 32 damage to the same bot.
Slashing as a damage type is outright worse than the other damage types, but the weapons that come with slashing tend to have higher base damage, and include most of the weapons capable of AoE damage. So they are often situationally useful.
By Qetuth
More Guides:
- Jupiter Hell: All Glossaries List
- Jupiter Hell: All Acronyms List
- Jupiter Hell: Color Guide for Beginners
- Jupiter Hell: Color Guide
