Is one better than the other. New to the game and didn't see any stat sheet for weapons. Thanks

Plasma > Laser > Good Old Bullets.

That said, it's been difficult for me to go straight to Plasma from the default weapons, because your standard assault rifles and what not become increasingly ineffective as new enemy types show up. It's definitely doable, but I don't know if skipping *all* laser weaponry is worthwhile.

Plasma is better, but lasers are far better than the starting weapons and are much cheaper and quicker to get.

My recommendation is to try to get laser weapons before things like Chrysalids and Mutons start showing up. Then, work on getting plasma.

Plasma is definitely better than Lasers. However I recommend you get lasers for at least the important class types in your squad before upgrading to plasma, cause converting to plasma can take a lot of money and time.

How much do you guys prioritize buying better pistols? I just find I use them so little that I usually only buy the laser pistol and plasma pistol for my sniper. Then when I'm in the end game and I have a little money to spare, I deck my whole team out with plasma pistols.

Also, I kind of like having the default pistol, as it does so little damage that it's good when you only have one enemy left, and you DON'T want to kill him; you can whittle him down with pistols, then have one guy run in and stun him to get the capture.

Plasma. I didn't even bother with lasers.

@BisonHero said:

How much do you guys prioritize buying better pistols? I just find I use them so little that I usually only buy the laser pistol and plasma pistol for my sniper. Then when I'm in the end game and I have a little money to spare, I deck my whole team out with plasma pistols.

Also, I kind of like having the default pistol, as it does so little damage that it's good when you only have one enemy left, and you DON'T want to kill him; you can whittle him down with pistols, then have one guy run in and stun him to get the capture.

I rolled with 2 snipers(Without the movie and shoot skill) and 2 assaults for 90% of the game, I was ALWAYS using my pistols so Plasmas with the upgrades in Engineering and the Pistol skill for snipers? They're super effective.

@BisonHero: I give them to my snipers, and after that, assaults. And even then, only if they're equipped with a shotgun.

I'm not a big fan of snapshot for snipers, so the pistols are nice for overwatch or for when I get into a bad place with my first move action. Pistols are also nice for assaults on overwatch, at least for when I'm not expecting close contact. Since overwatch happens on sight, and not necessarily in range, I'd rather have these people taking potshots with pistols and not shotguns with their terrible chance to hit.

As for accidentally taking aliens out, at least later in the game, I've found that a combination of rockets, grenades, and upgraded pistols will work to get an enemy's HP down to stunnable numbers.

You can actually skip laser weapons pretty easily since thin men carry light plasma rifles fairly early in the game and stunning them will give you their gun. Then you just have to research them. This worked out well for me during a playthrough in which I was a bit strapped for cash and preferred capturing weapons to purchasing them.

@Ubersmake said:

Plasma > Laser > Good Old Bullets.

That said, it's been difficult for me to go straight to Plasma from the default weapons, because your standard assault rifles and what not become increasingly ineffective as new enemy types show up. It's definitely doable, but I don't know if skipping *all* laser weaponry is worthwhile.

When you play on higher difficulties going straight to plasma just isn't an option.

I love the animation of the sniper plasma rifle... but yeah plasma > laser > bullets, altough I always got laser before plasma, but I only played on normal

@Ares42 said:

When you play on higher difficulties going straight to plasma just isn't an option.

Definitely. On easy or normal, you might be able to skip laser weapons, but on higher difficulties, you really need the extra firepower of laser weapons to make a dent in the buffed up enemy hit points while you wait to research plasma.

Lasers are ok at the start but plasma is much better.

Personally I tend to skip over laser and go straight to plasma. The key is to get the stunner asap then focus all your research into plasma to unlock using them. Take out the thin men early on as they have light plasma rifles and they are only a few damage points lower then the regular plasma rifles but they make up for the hit in damage by giving +10 aim. By the time they start rolling out the bigger guns with Mutons you should have more then enough to equip your squad. It's also good to get the insectoids early on as well as they have the plasma pistol. Keep in mind the squad maxes at 6 so you only need to capture 6 insectoids for the pistols and 6 thin men for their light plasma minus one for each heavy/sniper you have in your squad. Those you need to buy stuff for.

All that said, I wish there was a way to upgrade the weapons so the default ones can match the plasma in damage. I just like the look of the normal weapons and hate needing to throw them away a few missions in once they become in effective.

I was actually kind of disappointed that there was only three "tiers" of weapons. I thought there would be a little more. Maybe even some unique weapons. Oh well... DLC/Expansion, I'm waiting for you.

@Strife777: There's a mod out there (so it's out of the question if you have the 360 or PS3 version), and I forget the name. But what it did was keep ballistic weapons viable throughout the game. Plasma weapons became your heavy weapons, but they were also more inaccurate. Laser weapons became much more accurate, but would do a range of damage, similar to Second Wave's Damage Roulette.

Haven't tried it (again, I forget the name) or Second Wave yet, but it seems interesting from a loadout perspective. I'm stupidly telling myself to finish at least one game on Ironman Classic before seeing what the community has cooked up.

Plasma plasma plasma always plasma.

Thanks a bunch guys! :)

Once you research plasma there is literally no reason to still be using laser weapons. It's a real shame, I was hoping they would carry some of the attributes from the original X-Com into here.

For example, In the original game, laser weapons were more accurate and didn't need to be reloaded, at the expense of being a bit less powerful. There was also the fact that the sectopod is considerably more vulnerable to laser weaponry than plasma.

If your playing on normal and resources/credits are not too tight, definitely plasma. Later in the game it may not be a bad idea to equip an alloy cannon to as assault trooper, but a plasma rifle is a more accurate alternative.

As other people mentioned, Laser weapons CAN be skipped on Easy/Normal, but playing on Classic, you'll need the additional firepower of lasers for their very affordable cost well before you're able to outfit your team with plasma. Without the additional offense, I would have lost soldiers mid-game, no doubt.

@TwoSe7enFive: Plasma all the way baby!

how do you go straight to plasma?

i had full lasers for a pretty long time before plasma even became an option?

Just finished the assault on the alien base, and now the plasma weapons have shown up in my research facility. Should I go ahead and start researching them now, when the time to research them is going to be 13 days, or just wait until it drops? Also, should I focus on better armor (skeleton suit, etc.) before the weapons? Just throwing out some questions I've had rumbling around in my head for the past week or so. Thanks!

@JackBurt0n If you want to reduce the research time you need to interrogate a muton. It'll give you plasma weapons research credit and half the research time for all plasma, well worth it. I would research the suits before the plasma weapons but I played on classic and I needed that shit to keep my guys alive.

Thanks, Arabes!

I went straight in on light plasma research. Gives you an early game damage and hit % boost which can really help keep your guys alive.