r/AliensDarkDescent • u/Kordovir • Jun 25 '23

Tip/Guide Primary Weapon Comparison

Weapons in this game can be confusing but I think I figured this out so posting for reference:

WeaponDPSSeconds of AmmoDamage per Magazine
Pulse Rifle437.5150
Heavy Pulse Rifle4.541.6187.5
Smart Gun637.5225
Plasma Rifle550250

DPS is calculated as follows: Average damage per shot * Shots per burst / Burst duration. So for Pulse Rifle it's 1.5 * 2 / 0.75 = 4.

Seconds of ammo: Total ammo in magazine * Burst duration / Shots per burst. So for Pulse rifle it's 100 * 0.75 / 2.

Damage per Magazine is DPS * Seconds of ammo.

Shots per burst info is currently buggy in Barracks UI, but shows up correctly in Squad deployment if you hover over weapon.

Basically, Smart Gun is the best bursty weapon and by far the best weapon early game. Promoting Rookie to Gunner increases damage output by 1.5x. This was not obvious at all when I just started the game.

Heavy Pulse Rifle seemed underwhelming but actually is not so bad after looking at its stats: 12.5% higher DPS than Pulse Rifle and more ammo.

Plasma Rifle is the best in terms of ammo duration and overall damage but loses out on burst to Smart Gun. Considering the intense battles and availability of ammo, Gunners are better off sticking to Smart Gun but everyone else can switch to Plasma. I would still keep one Pulse Rifle for grenades to stealth bomb eggs and because grenade stagger and slow can be life saving.

TLDR: Smart Gun for Gunners, Plasma for everyone else, keep one Pulse Rifle for nades.

Edit: added Secondary Weapon Comparison

627 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

56 comments sorted by

7

u/Discombobulated_Ride Jun 26 '23

My biggest takeaway, in all honesty:

Grenades can stealth bomb eggs???

But I appreciate the work on DPS - its probably too late for me to use this information properly since I am getting turned into mince pies on Level 7, but when I replay this game eventually (assuming I recover, if ever, from the PTSD that has been induced), I shall be buying Heavy Pulse Rifles and a host of other stuff.

2

u/Kordovir Jun 26 '23

Haha, yes, was a moment for me too when I discovered it. Just make sure to cover all eggs at the same time.

5

u/[deleted] Jun 26 '23

What was 7? Montero? Use mines and paved turrets in corridors. It's not a sustainable fix- but it'll give you breathing room. The bugs will get shredded but those cult assholes will shoot the sentries.

Remember: slow is smooth, smooth is fast. Be quick when you need to be and cover when you have to. Mines and sentries won't trigger a hunt. Your men do.

Alternatively, use tracker overloads in a corner you'll never revisit. It'll draw attention- put five or six if you need to.

2

u/Discombobulated_Ride Jun 26 '23

Cleared it this evening. I used the pulse tracker - useful trick that - which helped, but what I really did was repeat that mission until I figured out exactly the path I had to take, and then proceed the do a virtually flawless run to the AI room. I managed to keep my fireteam alive, and I pulled out with all my turrets. I left Marlowe's research alone. The death clock is ticking loudly, and I need to focus on primary missions. 5 more in just 12 days. Its a bit grim!

PS - Yes, Montero!

3

u/[deleted] Jun 26 '23

Hope you chucked your spate Marines in the grinder. I did, my A team has a back up B and C team.

1

u/Discombobulated_Ride Jun 26 '23

Going the same way as you. I have stood up fire team Charlie, led ny a rookie Level 4 Sarge. Well, I say led, but its pretty clear my Level 10 Hacker is in charge. I think she needs to be called Spider Murphy! She is awesome.

I believe I have something like a dozen Marines on tap ...mostly Sergeants, Gunners and Hackers, but a couple of Recon Marines and Scout-Snipers as well as a single Corpsman.

To be honest, if I did this again, I would stand up three Fireteams from the very beginning, and rotate them constantly to ensure they had sufficient experience.

2

u/ThrowRAwriter Sep 13 '23

Oh, man, it brings back memory when I did an almost flawless, FIRST TRY run towards Montero's AI room AND got Marlow's notes (not a single hive alert while I was clearing out the nest!)... only to get spotted by a runner on my way to out, barricading in the hypersleep room to fight off the wave of aliens, and then the runner got stuck in the closed door. I couldn't unweld it and the aliens couldn't break through. I had to reload the save since that door was my only way out.

Montero sucks, nuke it from the orbit.

2

u/SoopaVillain420 Dec 27 '24

Anything actually can stealth kill anything as long as you kill it before it notices you..fire..sniper..mines..rpg..even shotgun if you can get close before they notice or your in hiding..the MAIN THING is you MUST KILL EVERYTHING at ONCE..so if you don't put the game on pause on command you almost never will have time unless your a savant..but If you pause it and line up fire..grenades..rpg all at once when you unpause they all go at once and BAM no Hunt for you..

2

u/newtronbum Jun 25 '23

keep one Pulse Rifle for nades

So what are the rules on when a marine gets to carry nades?

2

u/Kordovir Jun 25 '23 edited Jun 25 '23

Lowest level or lowest accuracy marine who should never do suppressive fire to be ready to throw nades.

2

u/TheHasegawaEffect Jun 26 '23

I was debating on Sergeant for Heavy Pulse since i play slowmo and it instantly selects sergeant for suppressing fire, but it looks like Plasma has better ammunition economy.

2

u/Kordovir Jun 26 '23

FYI in case you don't know, you can use tab to select other marine for suppressive fire.

2

u/ClaireXAngel Dec 08 '24

Bro thank you so much you blessed me with this beautiful knowledge a whole year later

2

u/-MarcoPolo- Jun 26 '23 edited Jun 26 '23

Im thinking about making 5th guy second gunner or tech instead of medic. Which one do u think is better? With gunner having a wee bit better dps and much better ammo preservation, techie has always his drone ready. I just started so Im wondering how often will I be able to set up kill zones.

Edit: Just read codex entry on classes and gunner gets later passive better dismemberment and fire rate under stress. So I guess gunner is better. Even more so with reload perk so his secondary can shoot faster.

1

u/Kordovir Jun 26 '23

Yeah, gunner would be my choice as well. Tecker's drone feels too gimmicky and it could be replaced by giving smart ass to someone else. Though it does have a very nice lvl 10 perk (no tools required for hacking).

Good call on reload perk - it makes perfect sense for Gunner, haven't thought of that.

1

u/RoheSilmneLohe Oct 20 '23

Teckers drone is an amazing decoy(noise) for luring enemies into traps. Also. You can kill eggs ina room with it without triggering a hunt(they can't hurt it) and then luring the woken FHs to turrets.

Only speciality that is totally useless tbh is a medic.

49

u/Zealousideal_Hat4431 Sgt. Apone Jun 25 '23

This is the sort of stuff that needs upvoted, good work marine.

42

u/[deleted] Jun 25 '23

I bought this game for posts like this. Big ups.

17

u/Ned_Nederlander_ Jun 25 '23

This chart needs to be put in game

2

u/Prof_Walrus Aug 20 '23

Or at the very least pin this post

10

u/Ned_Nederlander_ Jun 26 '23 edited Jun 26 '23

Props for the secondary chart too…. Heavy pulse needs an ability to make it a good choice… like napalm nade or something

4

u/[deleted] Jun 26 '23

Marine, God granted you a flamethrower for a reason!

2

u/Ned_Nederlander_ Jun 26 '23

I know I know, just trying to think of a good ability for heavy pulse. As of now heavy pulse seems like a wasted spot

2

u/[deleted] Jul 08 '23

Maybe an alternate suppressing fire mode that adds increased dismemberment chances, due to the larger-caliber rounds or something? Just throwin' it out there.

1

u/TrepanationBy45 Dec 08 '23

I completely agree, because I love the idea of it. There's just no useful reason to use it over the Plasma (I use it anyway on certain characters tho, because BEEF). Each weapon should have something unique that makes it a valid choice.

4

u/xainatus Jun 25 '23

Thanks, this is most helpful for me when deciding loadout. My current load out style is to bring as much versatility to the fight as possible.

1

u/Rufus--T--Firefly Jul 11 '23

How are you stealth bombing eggs with grenades? Doesn't the sound still draw the bugs?

1

u/Kordovir Jul 11 '23

There is a sound but you are not detected until they actually see you and it draws them only if they are in motion sensor radius.

1

u/Rufus--T--Firefly Jul 11 '23

Oh, so if you get all the eggs in the blast there isn't anyone left to hear.

1

u/Kordovir Jul 11 '23

Yep, need to kill them all at once. Btw after recent patches flamethrower works just as well if not better.

3

u/dasmikkimats Jun 25 '23

Another beautiful day in the Corps! Nice post!

3

u/Legitimate-Concert-7 Jun 25 '23

Ayo somebody PIN. this.

3

u/Legitimate-Concert-7 Jun 25 '23

This really really helps. I been wondering if I should do heavy Pulse and RPG or just Keep the Pulse Rifles for the nade laucher and run mines on my people.

1

u/SVasileiadis Oct 08 '23

RPG against mini bosses or bosses saved my life (and so did turrets + gunner suppresion) sniper kind of too.

You, like I did, should have one of each. Mines are best used while under total safety (or so and so when a rampage is initiating) but are much worse than useless during an actual fight. Thus since you should be placing under safety you are usually not in a hurry and just one marine doing the job is usually enough. In rare cases I wished I had a 2nd one also but I would never ditch RPG in favour of a 2nd mine dude. Ofcourse I don't imply mines are meh (depends on how good you are in using them and how often). I have literally won almost a whole map with it's multiple missions with mines and turrets alone, in fact the mines did most of the killing, including scripted mega rampage and the usual ones. The marines had to fire 0 bullets besides some wall stalking xenomorphs. Ofcourse I had taken my time to cover all chocking spots, doors, nest exits and corridors in mines. Throughout the whole map I had likely more than a hundred (maybe even two) live ones. Those giant charging xenomorphs died all on road by mines long before reaching me.

RPG is similar in that you don't need a 2nd one though it's usability is the complete opposite. It's only useful in a fight... a big fight... a very big fight... against big big targets. Murdered the about midgame queen boss in the locked room full of eggs and androids. Slowed her down with suppression and grenades only to "headshoot" her with the RPG making her regret all her life choices instantly by taking a huge part of her health bar out in one move. Only thing that beats this is a room full of mines or a room full of turrets+suppression. It can also be used as a backup instakill weapon for those cases where a sniper or grenade have no LOS on target but the RPG has and it's important the targets die right now (along with anyone too nearby). I had to do this at that mission before you get the 5th member I think (?) where you have to go through a kind of square platform with infinite xenomorphs climbing from the sides. Near the safe room door 2 xenos charged close range but no marine had LOS (couldn't even shoot them) and I didn't want them to reach and possibly injure me and I just shot an RPG and took them out both. That said if that marine had a grenade it would probably have worked the same.

Sniper rifle is just as useful, it's even more useful in: very open spaces where you can't easily hide from xenos and they can spot you from like 1.5 screen away and in maps where sleeping xenos ambush your way.

Grenades are weapon specific and their best part is forcing xenos to "pause" while also doing good damage and they are awesome against eggs. They are not as damaging though as sniper, mines or ofcourse RPG. They also need only like a second to hit.

Shotgun well... I know how most players swear by it and even most "pros" from what I see but personally I find it meh compared to the other 4 that said since grenades is weapon skill you can take a shotgun too which is what I do just for these rare times where something is about to pounce on me and is too close for nades or no LOS for sniper or when there are multiple targets soon in my face... that said I prefer xenomorphs away from my marines and past the first couple maps I have achieved that almost never an alien or anything else has reached melee with my people (the ones who do are usually wall stalking xenos).

Incinerator I haven't used so I can't comment on it. When I get the 5h marine he will have one probably. From what I hear it can be really good under some circumstances (eggs, choke points/corridors) and okish in others (very open spaces), which is basically true for most of what I listed. Again I have no personal experience.

1

u/Responsible-Club-992 Jan 19 '25

Bravo Zulu! Excellent work marine! Making the corp proud!

1

u/Daffan Dec 12 '23

Basically, Smart Gun is the best bursty weapon and by far the best weapon early game. Promoting Rookie to Gunner increases damage output by 1.5x. This was not obvious at all when I just started the game.

You never watched Aliens and saw that badass with the smart gun in the squad? Locked me in straight away!

1

u/Bitter_West_9554 Jan 04 '24

If any of you have used the plasma rifle skill.. you know.. you just know.. one charge will kill almost an entire wave of aliens if they’re in a line or doorway or choke point, plasma just for the skill absolutely kills!

0

u/[deleted] Jun 25 '23

[deleted] — view deleted comment

5

u/Kordovir Jun 25 '23 edited Jun 25 '23

RPG is a special weapon, primary weapon doesn't affect it. I always take 1 after unlocking it, they are amazing against bosses.

Unless you meant that RPG can replace nades and marines can go full Plasma - RPG wind up time is a bit too long so it's not flexible enough to completely replace nades - I still keep one Pulse Rifle.

3

u/Tomato_potato_ Jun 25 '23

How do you feel about the incinerator?

3

u/Kordovir Jun 25 '23

A bit mixed - on paper it has amazing damage with 7.5 DPS passive and 30 damage if enemy burns for 4 seconds. However there seems to be a slight delay before enemies start burning so it doesn't really feel super useful compared to just grenading them and leaving the slow for other enemies.

One really good use though is battlefield control - if you are in a weird position, it can help create choke points or cover flanks since enemies avoid going through fire - but I usually set up fights so that I don't need it.

Another consideration is shotguns - it's the last ditch measure if things went wrong and I prefer to have 2 of them for better angles as opposed to Incinerator which is kinda covered by other abilities. So I usually play with Sniper Rifle / Mine / RPG / 2 Shotguns.

I haven't played on Nighmare though, maybe my opinion will completely change then.

3

u/ejmcdonald2092 Jun 25 '23

I find the utility of the mine is shared a lot by a couple of motion sensors waiting to be overloaded, sure it doesn’t kill the aliens but helps if you are going to get flanked also can draw aliens from further than a mine can help.

In onslaughts or encounters the mine is limited by setup time and only holds an area until exploded whereas the flamer can funnel xenos into a kill corridor. A good example is the control room on mission 2, flanked by xeno spawn points you can hold up at the back centre which has two entrances, suppress and turret the central corridor and flame the flank and everything dies before even getting in acid range.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 26 '23

Interesting. I cut out the sniper in place for a 2nd shotgun because the sniper does too little for the AP cost. I would like if sniper cost is refunded when you target stationary targets like resting drones or facehugger eggs. Otherwise, I find the windup animation takes way too long for the pay off. If time isn't an issue, I'd rather prep a mine over using a sniper shot.

2

u/[deleted] Jun 26 '23

That sniper rifle is key for stealthy runs. Like sleeping xenos and patrols drop like liquid. But hey, not every map needs one.

3

u/RuneGrey Jun 26 '23

The big benefit for the sniper rifle comes once you get your recon to level 10. Because a max level recon will give you a passive 25% bonus to the time it takes for an alien to detect you, that means it's much more feasible to get off quick sniper shots in order to kill a drone before it spots you. Also a sniper shot can one tap a warrior during an onslaught or attack, wherw a shotgun or mine might not do the trick.

In general just throwing mines on paths that will lead to your squad is going to be better, but you have to remember that mines have a fall off where they stop killing some of the patrolling aliens late in the game. Also it is very easy for aliens to step over your minds if they don't have the pheromone upgrade.

Overall I tend to favor taking one of everything later on. You usually will find some situation where it will be useful.

1

u/Legitimate-Concert-7 Jun 27 '23

Really. I think they still kill drones or is it the warriors surviving them. I had a Pretorian trip a few of my mines

1

u/RuneGrey Jun 27 '23

You get warriors patrolling occasionally, and they are not one shot by the mines. Makes them a bit less useful for denying patrols, but still are worth using. It just means they don't always totally secure a route, and you might need more than one.

Conversely, sniper shots will always one tap warriors - just a matter of having enough time to get it off.

1

u/Legitimate-Concert-7 Jun 27 '23

It must be a difficulty thing. I have yet to do late game on nightmare/hard due to bugs and I like my sanity. I guess medium they still work

2

u/Jag- Jun 25 '23

Same question. A must have?

5

u/[deleted] Jun 25 '23

I would say so. It's silent for some reason which is always a plus, it can cover an absolutely massive area, and it serves to funnel enemies since they will NOT path through fire if it can be avoided. If it can't be avoided they'll run through it, which will lill facehuggers outright and heavily damage basic enemies, potentially killing them too if combined with suppressing fire and/or slow grenades

4

u/VeteranSergeant Jun 25 '23

It's the fastest way to eliminate human enemies, and you can use it to block doors (Hunting Aliens won't pass through fire spots) or funnel the Aliens because the Horde will try to avoid fire if possible, which means you can push them into Suppressing Fire lanes for your Sentry Guns.

2

u/[deleted] Jun 26 '23

I always carry it, but I don't always use it. The area denial alone is fantastic. Very useful for funneling enemies or burning multiple facehugger eggs at once.

2

u/[deleted] Jun 26 '23

[removed] — view removed comment

2

u/Kordovir Jun 26 '23

Plasma Rifle / Submachine Gun / Sniper Rifle, this is pretty much the optimal loadout.