Firearms

A gunman has got to keep his cool and have the reflexes to take the best possible shot.

The ability to use all sorts of firearms in combat. This skill affects how likely you are to hit someone with any kind of fired weapon.

=Pistols and Related=

Advantages to Pistols:

 * Using only one hand greatly helps healing in combat or any other auxiliary item.
 * Pistols cannot be parried and all guns effectively halve your opponents dodge, meaning high hit-percentage at low skill is very possible.
 * Pistols do bullet damage which is decently hard to soak among several other very unique damage types.
 * It is a great secondary weapon for blades users.
 * With enough brawn and accuracy, pistols can be dual wielded for a significant boost in speed and effective damage. (Thank you, Tenren.)

Cons to Pistols:

 * Good ammo is expensive or craft-only.
 * You cannot parry an attack with a pistol, meaning you have to rely solely on your armor and or dodge to protect your ass.
 * During combat you will have to reload, this can cost valuable time in a battle.
 * Dual wielding does nothing to your effective DPS, don't do it.
 * Pistols lack high damage potential compared to rifles; in most scenarios rifles are better.

See Weapons for more details.

Guide to Pistols
This is a guide to the more common pistols found throughout the Inferno. All pistols use brawn to determine attack speed.

Starter Pistols
These guns have cheap ammo that can readily be bought in the automats in front of Ammu-Nation.
 * .22 Revolver - Due to how insanely weak it is, it makes the perfect early-game grind weapon. Its speedloads are the size of tin cans, they hold 20 rounds each.
 * Defender 6mm - Much stronger than the .22 revolver, these can be obtained by shoving rent-a-cops down the stairs, these dudes are often found patrolling in NPC housing.
 * Powersquirt - This gun does acid or fire damage and is quite fast, however the ammo is more than three times as expensive as 6mm rounds. These can be bought at 77Jack's Gun Room as well as in Camp Benjamin, ask a corpmate to help you get one if you cant get it yourself. This pistol can be used for a long time, and is an excellent candidate to be modded and kept for farming acid/fire vulnerable enemies or other special purposes. If you can get your hands on a few freakbile powersquirt clips this weapon is terrifying, able to dish out enough acid damage to rival and even exceed most other end game guns.

Intermediate Pistols
These pistols are just a step above the starters in terms of skill and will help you increase your raws.
 * Nail Gun - These are crafted and ammo is extremely cheap and is found at the hardware store, HH on the map. 50 shots a clip, these will be good from 2-4 raw. The supreme grinding gun, use this to get to your fifth raw.
 * Kel-tec P11 9mm - The cheaper 9mm pistol, also good from 2-4 raw if you cant get a corpmate to make a nail gun. Can be bought at Liddy Arms.
 * 9mm Beretta - The alternative to the Kel-tec P11, this gun is more expensive but it does 2 more min and max damage. Also found at Liddy Arms and also at Ammu-Nations and 77Jack's. Obtained for free from the Edith's Doll journal however.
 * Walther P99 - The more expensive version of the 9mm Beretta, scales better, and more expensive compared to the 9mm Beretta. Bought from Pegleg Pete.
 * Sawn-Off Shotgun- A great gun to use when you don't feel like wasting your good ammo, fires the standard array of shotgun shells.
 * .44 Revolver- Don't ask why the next two revolvers in terms of skill shoot smaller bullets but this is the revolver option for 2-4 raw. Found at 77Jack's. With hand-loads the damage is close to that of the Desert Hawk.
 * Snubnosed .38 Revolver- Good from 3-5 raw, the ammo for this and the next pistol are shared.
 * .357 Revolver - Good from 4-6 raw, can use both .38 specials and .357s just like the .38 before it. This and the last are the only two viable weapons for grinding your sixth and last raw of pistols and they're both six-shooters, have patience.

Late Game Pistols
You get the endgame pistols very early on in the game and there is very little variation, maybe this will change in the future.
 * 12mm Hammerhead pistol - This is every gunslinger's bread and butter gun. You need to learn pistols past 6 from trainers/players so this is pretty much it. These can be found in just about every stocked corp store.
 * 12mm Viper pistol - +3 tohit and 1-1 more damage over a regular Hammerhead in exchange for being .2 speed slower. Still arguably better.
 * 12mm FlugHammer pistol - A fully modded Hammerhead, a status symbol among pistolers. When you see someone with one of these you know they've done some shit, or at least paid someone else who did.
 * Super Shorty - Oh boy! A not 12mm late game pistol, this is a sawn-off on roids. 13-* skill raw required, uses the same ammo as other shotguns. Has a really really fast speedcap of 2.6, but you probably don't have the brawn for it. Deadly for pvp as it can fire elemental shells many armors can't soak.

So you wanna akimbo these bitches?
Dual wielding as a whole isn't good for pistols. No, you don't shoot twice the bullets. You shoot hella slower in most cases to the point you might as well throw your pistol for better results.

But if you want to: there is a small use of dual-wielding that doesn't fuck you over.

NEEDS CONFIRMATION

DUAL-WIELDING THE SAME TYPE OF PISTOL WITH THE SAME SPEED - This effectively increase your clip size by the two clips. Basically, you can fire more shots before you need to reload. But be ware, you will reload longer since you will reload both guns. This is recommended if using a gun like the .71 Desert Hawk, since they have such a low clip size of 5, dual-wielding 2 of them is recommended.

ADDENUM TO DUAL-WIELDING - Since various pistol changes these things can now be dual wielded for an effective increase speed and killing power at the cost of accuracy (a whopping -7 tohit) and a much higher brawn requirement for speed capping. Most dual pistols such as twin Hammerhead/Viper 12mms and Powersquirts will speed cap at 20 brawn, provided they are modded with recoil suppressors. (23 for buffered Desert Hawks!) If managed properly, a berserk dual wielding pistolero is terrifying. It is highly advised that pistol users take the large costs of this potential into account while allocating gym stats.

COUNTER AIMING - You can counter aim, if quickdraw is high enough, 2 people. Please follow the tip above about use same type/same speed pistols.

*1 HANDED WEAPON/PISTOL COMBO - Normally this is ill-adivsed due to the speed conflicts, which would drastically slow you down. However, with testing, the powersquirt can be dual wielded with a 1 handed, fast (crime stick, kukri, fine katana etc) weapon and actually be somewhat viable. For best effect, use freakbile clips. It is quite interesting.

Other Pistols
These are other pistols that can be found around Hell, often situational or weird. You can assume that ammo can be a hassle and is most likely crafted or found rarely as a drop.
 * Dart Pistol - These pistols do all of barely any damage and knock targets the fuck out. Fires black sleep clips
 * Needler - These things will more likely be used on you should you piss off Corpclave, they paralyze the fuck out of you. Fires curare needles. Curare is only effective against unarmored targets.
 * Harpoon Pistol - A rare find under the sea. These do a large amount of stab damage, harpoon clips are pricey and can be found at BlastArms in the Crater. Use these for lucky shots on vampires.
 * Flechette Pistol - A pistol that fires flechettes that do slash damage instead of shot. Useful against zombies but overall a bad gun. Fires Flechette Clips.
 * Needle Pistol - These do slash, stab, and the coveted bleed damage and are fast. Ammo ISN'T a bitch with these, buy clips for it at BlastArms in the Crater.
 * Lizard Gun - It is a dinosaur that fires a bullet. Fires a .40 slug. Single shot only. Gimmick weapon, used to make lasblasters.
 * TT-77 - This pistol is sad. It cries for the day it can be happy. Fires the big 14.5mm anti-material round at the same damage as a beretta.
 * .71 Desert Hawk - If its rusty, it'll explode eventually. If not, have fun as it hits pretty hard. Fires, obviously the .71 round fairly quickly with enough brawn and mods.
 * Samaritan - Big Fucking Gun, it is slow and has a tendency to explode an enemy. Fires the massive .92 round.

=Rifles and Related=

Advantages to Rifles

 * Rifles are hyper-accurate. Like all guns, rifles effectively halve their target's dodge, and they also cannot be parried. This is a sufficiently strong bonus that a properly min-maxed rifleman can be hit with every to-hit debuff a player can throw at them, and the rifleman will still never miss in PvP (outside of a small RNG chance of missing, which always exists).
 * Rifles have the widest damage portfolio of any class in the game. By loading up with elemental ammo or picking up special guns, rifles can do any of the following damtypes: bullet, beat, slash, stab, EMP, cold, wasting, bleed, explode, electric, irradiation and burn. The only (player-available) damtypes rifles can't do are acid, laser, and all the meme damtypes like crazy. This means that rifles can cover the bases of any mob's weakness in PvE, and in PvP, they can attack with exotic damtypes in large quantities that are difficult or impossible to soak.
 * Rifles have high damage across the board. Their pure bullet damage is very high (particularly with handloads) and the elemental ammo types can get scary totals as well, especially considering how hard they are to soak.
 * Rifles can attack from cover, forcing melee users to spend time charging at them, and greatly helping you dodge enemy gun users.
 * Rifles have a higher magazine capacity when compared to pistols.
 * Good rifles are easy to come by. The AR-17 is one of the strongest weapons in the entire game, and the process of crafting one is so trivial that they can be picked up for well under $10,000. The game also literally hands you a free SCAR once per roll if you know where to look; ask a knowledgeable corpmate!
 * Rifles can aim, which will often score you a free headshot against certain boss mobs (and foolish or unprepared players). Given the raw power of many rifles, this can effectively auto-win you fights before they even start with a nasty opening crit.
 * Rifles get their own custom stun, called "duck and weave". With sufficient to-hit and speed, you can effectively stunlock many opponents with this. This is unique to the rifles class, and you don't need any special preparation or know-how to activate it; it just kicks in on its own.
 * Rifles auto-crit berserkers; the first shot you shoot at any player attacking you with on will be an automatic critical hit. This perk is unique to the rifles class, and requires no special commands or preparation -- it's pure free damage.

Disadvantages to Rifles

 * Rifles, like other guns, are PC-, which means you need to rely on your dodge to not get hit. Given that rolling to dodge is much better than rolling to parry, however, this is often a blessing in disguise.
 * Cover can be hard to utilize against end-game enemies. This can be partly counteracted by queueing the cover action before you enter the tile, or simply using Stench mutation's ability.
 * Guns need ammo. Carrying a lot of ammo is a necessity, to be able to go on long stints away from automats and gun stores.
 * Special ammo is mildly tricky to get. You'll have to buy it from Camp Benjamin or the Abandoned Highway (though small quantities can sometimes be found elsewhere), which requires good reputation with the FCEF.
 * Hand-load rounds require crafters. Unless you're able to buff up your craft, you won't be making your own, and given that it's a boring job with no XP gain crafters can often be reluctant to do it for you.
 * The exotic rifles are mildly difficult to acquire (and feed). Plasma rifles/bottles, needle rifles, and tantalum sabot sniper rounds can be tricky to come by, requiring a bit more crafting know-how.
 * Guns need to reload. This isn't really a problem, especially with the magical command to manage your clips, because you'll generally kill the other guy long before you need to reload. It can crop up with the lower-capacity rifles, however, and if you forget to reload before a fight you'll be kicking yourself half-way through as you pause to load up. Do be careful that you don't keep shooting after you run out of ammo, otherwise you'll trash your gun.
 * Gun mods cost a lot of money. They also require the completion of a short quest before you can buy them yourself.
 * Rifles have pre-defined hard caps on their speed, like all guns, and most of these are much slower than the melee speedcap of 2.6. Even though most of them can reach respectable speeds with enough brawn, few can keep up with a jawbreaker on the loose.

Weapons
Here's a quick overview of some of the more notable rifles in the game. A more exhaustive list can be found on the Weaponry page.


 * M100 Rifle - Can be bought from Blastarms. Does respectable damage, but is slow. If you come out of the tutorial with no XP to spend, this is the first rifle you'll want to reach for. Grab a 10/22 or ask a corpmate if you can't make it to Blastarms. Don't bother modding it, you'll be moving on soon enough.


 * American 180 - Craft-only. Uses .22 Pancakes (bought from Blastarms). Notable for having the highest magazine capacity and fastest speed of any rifle, but between its mediocre damage and being craft only, most people skip straight to the Kel-Tec or AR-17.


 * EMP Shotgun - The proton pack of rifles. Slow, but hits for super nasty damage with ectoblast cells. Loading it up with mk I or II cells for ghosts isn't worth it, you might as well use an AR-17 with thumpers or tsap. These are also one-handed, bizarrely enough.


 * Kel-Tec KSG Shotgun - The one good rifles shotgun (EMP shotgun doesn't count). As fast as an AR-17 if you work 21 brawn into your build or buffs, and can do the standard shotgun thing of having a bunch of ammo types. The AR-17 or SCAR are usually better picks, but this thing is kinda neat at punching through nullianac packs with incendiary shells.


 * Needle Rifle - Uses needle clips. A rather exotic rifle with a small pool of niche uses. The best rifle that works underwater, so it makes a great Kraken-killer.


 * TEC-9 Machine Pistol - Drops super rarely on mobs from the top floor of Nukem Academy. Slightly faster and easier to speedcap than an AR-17, while also doing more bullet damage, but it can't use elemental rounds and is oh so very rare.


 * AR-17 - Arguably the best all-round rifle. Does heaps of elemental damage, shot damage scales very high, is ludicrously easy to craft, and gets an innate +2 to-hit bonus. Almost any build in the game that can hit 18 brawn and 8 raw in rifles can use this weapon to almost its max potential, aside from being less accurate than a devoted rifleman. High elemental damage can three-shot very tanky mobs like basilisks and big dinosaurs (and most players, through the majority of armor sets you'll encounter). It's a bit slow though.


 * Bullpup Rifle/Sighted Sturmgewher - Mostly notable for being a noob trap and the weapon you accidentally buy elemental ammo for if you aren't paying attention. Utterly, utterly inferior to the AR-17 in every way except speed, and that isn't worth the -10 drop in minimum damage. Same is true of the wasteland bullpup. The Sturmgewher is a twice-per-roll reward for being a big tough guy in the Skydock. It's a fully modded bullpup reskin, and therefore also terrible, but it's unbelievably sexy.


 * Sniper Rifle - Incredibly slow, but incredibly high damage. Using tantalum sabot rounds and aiming should allow you to instantly kill almost any player (and make a huge dent in some bosses).


 * SCAR-L - As fast as a capped-out melee weapon, which is rare among the rifles. Can stunlock pretty well with duck-and-weave if you've got the stats to back it up, and does respectable damage as well. A really solid choice for PvP in particular.


 * Plasma Rifle - Top-tier burn damage, great crit and solid speed, but horrendous to craft, and the ammo is similarly tricky. Burn damage is also not terribly strong in PvP because of leech-hide and dusters soaking burn so well, and ammo is too expensive to justify for PvE. Fantastic if you're ganking someone who's in studded armordillo or something though; laughs in the face of the ubiquitous Firewalker. Also gets maximum style points for three-shotting nullianacs.

Mods
Rifles have a really small mod pool. Every rifle can take the laser sight (which can be crafted or bought), and all of them except for the plasma rifle can take the propellant enhancer. Both are no-brainers; extra to-hit and damage will make your guns even more consistent, which is a very good thing.

Racials
What to consider when picking your racial mutation:


 * Abomination/Hideous Freak - A pretty poor pick, even with the odd min-maxed dodge rifles setup. No matter what, your to-hit will suffer, all your extra cool will be an almost complete waste because you're almost stress-immune anyway, and you'll have to convince someone else to farm elemental ammo for you.


 * Vampire - The obvious choice. Vampire's playstyle isn't for everyone, but +2 rifles on a silver platter and +4 brawn opens up the door to all kinds of min-max shenanigans; a vamp can speedcap a SCAR without spending a single point in brawn with just a couple implants. The extra senses helps with your PC- dodginess too. Bear in mind that you'll have to put your 2-handed rifles away to grab mobs and give them the succ, so combat feeding doesn't work as well as it does with spears and fists.


 * Zombie - It used to be that zombies could use rifles with no speed penalty, but this is no longer the case, so Zombie riflers are really slow now. On the other hand, zombie riflers do have the neat potential to become unflappable high-damage terminators (with a crippling achilles heel in weakness to, of course). Also note that a zombie with an AR-17 and enough blacktalons can take on basilisks indefinitely on Coventry Island; they will be literally unable to die a permanent death because basilisks cannot fatality, and they'll be able to punch through basilisks very fast with the bleed damage from the blacktalons.


 * Chud - On the one hand, this is a pretty poor pick. The mutation gives you -2 rifles as part of the package, and you won't have the fisting stats to buff up your minions. On the other hand, rifles is strong enough that it doesn't really matter unless you won't accept anything but shit-hot stats (and if that's the case, why are you going chud?).

Strategy

 * PvE - Take cover before every engagement to make every enemy take time to hit you, or lower their tohit dramatically. Using cover and the high DPS of rifles, you can get away with fights that you have no business winning at lower XP totals. More generally, the AR-17 is just about king for PvE. Iceblox and blacktalons cut through dinosaurs and basilisks respectively at a rate that no other class in the game can even come close to, which turns these mobs from dangerously tanky opponents into laughable XP fountains. The AR-17 in particular can also be worked into almost any build in the game that can sustain 18 brawn with minimal skill investment, so this makes a great secondary weapon for many classes who just want to cheese basilisks with blacktalons or something alongside their normal build's power.


 * PvP - Duck and weave is strong, so feel free to load up a SCAR with your ammo of choice. If you're expecting to go up against Caballero + Studded Armordillo or something, though, you'll want to reach for an elemental AR or plasma rifle instead. The AR is also predictably strong in general; few armor sets can argue with the mountainous elemental damage scaling. There's some debate on whether thumpers or blacktalons are better for PvP. Thumpers offer random stuns and can only be partially soaked by Silicone Skin (or a ludicrously specialist exosuit). Blacktalons can't be soaked at all and can KO on crits, though this is less common than thumper stuns. In the end, both are beastly, so don't worry too much. Iceblox and tsap rounds are inferior because cold and electric damage are easier to soak.

Note that unless you're planning on doing a lot of PvP, rifles are sufficiently accurate that you don't need to worry about investing in Cool too much, despite this ostensibly being one of the class's core stats. Serious PvPers need the accuracy to counter Carrie and other debuffs, but everyone else (especially carebears) can feel free to invest in Senses instead to be super dodgy or Brains to do nerdy stuff -- just remember to slap on some bling to buff up your cool.