I would say im a few hours in. I am not a fan of the plasma cutter this time around. Ive been sticking with the semi auto rifle shootgun combo. Im not sure how a feel about the weapon system. With all guns sharing the same ammo I never feel the need to switch guns. In some ways I like the idea of exploring for gun parts in other ways I miss the strategy for having the right mix of guns for the right job.

I'm playing on hard and getting my ass handed to me using the Plasma Cutter. I'm even using the "Planet Cracker" Plasma Cutter, all four slots fully decked with weapon damage bonuses. :(

Flamethrowers attachments/mains seem pretty nuts for damage output.

Surprisingly, shotgun attachments/mains have been very useful for the majority of the game, moreso than the cutter was.

Will have to keep experimenting.

I have a feeling that odd combos like a Shotgun+stasis w/ ForceGun knockback or really *any gun* +stasis/ knock will end up being useful for Impossibleruns/solo-runs.

The force gun fuckin sucks now! It used to be like God's Vorpal Shotgun of Necromorph Slaying +9 and now it's this light push-a-guy-over thing.

@blake_brown said:

I'm playing on hard and getting my ass handed to me using the Plasma Cutter. I'm even using the "Planet Cracker" Plasma Cutter, all four slots fully decked with weapon damage bonuses. :(

Break that shit down. That Planet Cracker is only supposed to get you through the early game (first six chapters). Seriously, break it down and use a better frame. I've got a MK V Super Duper Compact Frame and a Line Gun tip on it (with rotating module of course) and that 8-shot Plasma Cutter absolutely decimates everything. Black Necromorphs die in two shots (one to the legs, another to the arm) and even bosses fall to its Noisy Cricket levels of power.

EDIT: Also, any +1 Damage or +2 Damage modules should go on the Plasma Cutter once you get the better frame. I thought that went without saying but who knows.

Plasma cutter can actually be godly.

Yes the standard head and even the planet cracker bonus one are not very efficient. But use the wide beam head (forgot exact name, it's the 8 shot one like @Oldirtybearon: said) and it will shear off limbs in one shot, has a wider spread, very very good damage. If slightly low fire rate, which is why you get a 4 upgrade slot frame and put in some hybrid fire rate and dmg upgrades on it.

For lower slot I find the best choice is the kinetic melee weapon knife thing, if anyone starts getting too close it will make a salad out of them. Recently added the stasis attachment that makes all shots stasis the enemy for a second for even more OP luls, it works for melee weapon too, meaning melee attacks not only slice and dice the enemy but freeze him in place to boot.

This setup has served my for most of the game now and has been more effective then any other combination i tried to experiment with.

But another fun setup is to have a sniper rifle, with a minigun, plus stasis attachment. Sniper rifle is super high damage (oneshots to the body), fires instantly (unlike the particle beam), very nice for when you need a lot of precise damage at any range. The rivet minigun with stasis attachment will freeze enemies in perpetuity as long as it's firing with seems kinda game breaking almost.

@Tennmuerti:

I'll keep some of these in mind for hard-runs!

Plasma Cutter and Pulse Rifle. I like sticking with the classics. It worked in 1 and 2 and it works here.

Underslung flamethrower with magnesium mod and stasis. As soon as they start burning, they go into stasis and stay frozen for a decent chunk of time. It's better than the force gun for clearing up enemies that have you cornered.

Oh, and on top of that you put rail gun with machine gun mod thing. And everything has +2 damage and +1 clip mods. The stasis mod on the flamethrower also affects the top part so the rapid fire machine gun/nail thing becomes Godly against the faster and tougher late game enemies.

Also, the wide beam PC paired with the revolver undernearth is fun to use, especially with a corrosive mod attached. The revolver will one shot limbs but takes a bit of aiming. It's fun to use on enemies that are far enough away that you can fine tune your aim. Not the best weapon but it feels so satisfying.

I'm surprised at how negatively the Planet Cracker plasma cutter is being received. That sucker's deadly once you get an underweapon and some upgrades. Throw some acid ammo in there, and you're set. I'm all but tearing through Hard with it.

The shotgun with a force gun attachment. Mainly because it seems like all of the enemies in this game charge you, in the past, I always used the plasma cutter.

Shotgun with a flamethrower underneath, loaded with all my rate of fire upgrades. The shotgun will decimate anything at any range and the flamethrower has the shotty covered when it isn't firing fast enough.

I second weapon varied, but I mostly used a rapid fire plasma cutter with the more powerful planet cracker one on the bottom.

im only on chapter 5 and i been using the plasma cutter. og style, but i really want a shotgun, hopefully i find some parts for it

FYI:

Even tho the planet cracker plasma cutter tip attachment shows as doing more damage on the stats when crafting, compared to the wide beam plasma cutter head, it actually does less damage.

Tested by shooting legs of basic necromorphs on normal with +2 dmg upgrades: planet cracker takes 2 shots, wide beam only needs 1 shot to take off a leg

I have three weapons I use... I fit them into my two slots and the fourth slot I rotate trying to figure out what I want... leaning towards a semi-auto assault rifle or the sniper rifle for human targets and large weak spot hitting but I haven't found something I'm completely satisfied with yet.

Weapon 1:

Top tool: Military core - Evangelizer (sp?) conical tip

Circuits: +3 damage / +3 rate of fire (all four slots)

The evangelizer conical tip makes a variant of the standard shotgun that sacrifices clip capacity and reload speed in exchange for fire rate. Stacking damage and rate of fire on it turns it into a real beast with a fire rate approaching true "semi-autoness" with minimal delay between trigger pulls. It's great for short to mid range and somewhat functional at longer range though unreliable.

Bottom tool: Survey charge - The tip that turns it into a rocket launcher

Circuits: +X Reload / +X Clip capacity (don't have +3's so I just use best I've found so far).

I like the range and damage the unmodified rocket launcher has over the normal grenade launcher. It already kills most enemies in one shot so damage mods would be inefficient most of the time as it would all be overkill. Clip capacity allows me to spread the damage per clip around among more targets. Reload speed applies to both weapons and because the shotgun is my main it makes it an even better weapon and helps make up some of the reload speed lost from it being the evangelizer variant.

Modifications: blast shield / electrical charge

Blast shield allows me to fire the rocket launcher without fear and electrical charge just feels better than the other options I have for the shotgun.

Weapon 2:

Top tool: Not set in stone, experiment with this one.

Circuits: Reload speed, for the same reason I use it on the bottom of my other weapon.

Bottom tool: Plasma core - the tip that turns it into a pbaoe attack where you shoot the ground.

Circuits: Damage and reload speed

Modifications: Medic support (I always play co-op), acid bath.

The end result of the bottom weapon is a nice attack that hits all the enemies in melee range around me and soaks them in acid. I like acid bath mostly because of the sound it makes, it's hard to gauge effectiveness.

Is the widebeam the line gun head? Or is there another plasma head that is called wide?

@superfiasco: if you're referring to my and Oldirtybearon's posts, then it's called Compact Conic Dispersal tip, on a Plasma Core module, on a compact frame. Simplest way to build it is to just take any basic Plasma Cutter (or planet cracker) or even your starting one and just change the tip.

@superfiasco said:

Is the widebeam the line gun head? Or is there another plasma head that is called wide?

If you were building on a heavy frame, yes. The people who were talking about it earlier though were using compact frames, it has a different name on the compact frame.

I'm about 3/4ths of the way through the game (mostly on hard, a bit on impossible), and am rocking the following:

• Heavy Ripper/Electrocution + Stasis Mod

This has proven invaluable when things start swarming me or I'm backed into a wall. The Ripper itself does some solid damage in those situations, but the electrocution module makes it gorgeous - it has just as much ammo as the Ripper top, so each shot gets a storm of electricity around the blade. The electricity has some great reach, hitting anything the Ripper blade doesn't, and the stasis mod ensures that anything caught gets slowed down for more cutting. I was struggling with large groups for a while and this solved my problem.

• Heavy Galvanizer/Shotgun + Acid Mod

The damage weapon. The Galvanizer top's burst fire works perfectly for me as a compromise between full-auto and semi-auto, as I'm not wasting nearly as much ammo while still making quick work of individual limbs. The shotgun blows anyone back if it doesn't just take off every limb from something.

I gotta say that I'm loving the weapon crafting. There seem to be some fun combos, but those two finally solved everything for me. Enough to deal with swarms and crowds while still having enough firepower to quickly take out individual enemies.

So far hands down the chain lightning gun. Its basically the shot gun but seems to fire faster, and just plain better. Shock stuns other near by enemies. Sadly I didnt start using it till late game. Just started a new game+ on hard. Drops everything is one shot. Things are actually too easy with it,

The carbine rifle/shotgun you get from the limited edition and a linegun/shotgun i made. i havent delved too deeply into the crafting tho but i did just get the pulse rifle so i will def make that