[ButterPoached]

Let me preface this by saying that I have had super bad rolls on mission rewards, so the only blueprint I've managed to pick up is Hans' rare gun... and I haven't unlocked Hans yet. For people who have advanced gear: how much better is it, really?

I've been having a good time playing this game so far; its super stylish and (despite the amount of grumbling) it has good pacing and allows a wide variety of play. Each character has a really different feel. However, I keep running into the problem of just not having good enough DPS to shoot my way out a situation that goes South.

Ironically, it is rarely the Antagonist or elites that dooms a mission, but rather regular enemies hitting a critical mass that makes melee impossible. I'm not sure how many HP a basic enemy has, but if I had to guess, I'd say 200, as it takes Alicia a full clip to kill each enemy at her medium range band (~35 damage per shot depending on pellet spread. Does this game even use pellets?). That means a troop transport that drops 5 enemies adds 1000 HP to the field. That adds up very fast if you, for instance, have someone D/C mid map. The Gunship section of Hanging by a Thread is especially bad for this; if the Antagonist takes out one Raider, and you have one Raider on the turret, all of a sudden there is a TON of meat for two Raiders to chew through. It's not uncommon to get pushed all the way back up the ramp and into the Raider spawn section after a bad engagement, and until you pay your DPS deficit, you'll be stuck there dumping your ammo as fast as possible.

I'm not saying that this is a bad trend; it is certainly dynamic. My problem is that in the event that normal enemies pile up, there is no way for Raiders to use superior skill to fight their way back. Even if you approach an engagement on your own terms and use your weapons optimally, you will only kill maybe two grunts before you need to disengage, heal, and reload. It feels weird for the Antagonist to feel more flimsy than naked shotgun mutants...

I get that the starter weapons for each character are supposed to be "easier to use, but less powerful" than the crafted ones, but they feel a little like water pistols right now. Maybe add headshot boxes on grunts to reward tight aiming? Give starter weapons a damage multiplier against grunts so that Elites, Bosses, and Antagonists become the main attraction?

[DAXIMA]

I don't have all the weapons for every character, but i do have all of Lycus's weapons. Each weapon seems much better than his starter. Spinning coin can one shot most of the non elite enemies with the exceptions being the robots and the rocket troops. The other one "Shit Happens" also seems to have more range and damage than the starter one, but is a little bit harder to use.  For Alicia I only have the Vinc right now but i dont think that it outdoes the starter one for her. Konstantine I only have the hornet for him. The hornet is basically a downgrade but it is pretty fun to use, it has ricochet bullets that do more damage after the bounce.

[Vladpw123]

Well for my experience alternatice weapons not better just different.
For example Ogon storm for Konstantine deal more damage but overheats quickly (really) and stop shoting after overheeting.
Also i have Aura mortis for Harec this gun is intrestin it deal more damage and have 4x damage mult instead of 3 for usual gun, also it more stelthy. But it really slow.

[Rhynerd]

Other than Lycus's two guns, the only weapon I can call a specific upgrade for a character might be Alicia's Smoking Daisy, and this is mainly because I used to use it to blow myself up as an antagonist. It's hard to get Aleph out of a bomb.

Harec's weapons exist on different points of his charge up time to max damage line, with the Ignis Fugit offering the lowest damage but fastest charge while the Aura Mortis has the highest damage but the largest charge-up time. This in turn affects how much players will move him around or use his abilities.

Konstantin's weapons (as far as I know, having only used default and Shtorm) have different rev-up times and react to overheat differently. I actually stopped playing with the Shtorm in the closed beta because I found the effort to balance the slower rev-time with the weapons heat system too much of a hassle, yet I remember another player who was an infamous Champion of the Apocalypse who would use that weapon against other raiders, most likely for the heavy burst damage it could do if he could get the drop on a player.

Hans's weapons have different mag sizes, firing rates, blast radii, and will ask for different amounts of mobility. With the default, you're free to move as you please for the most part. For the Angsar, you will want to hold an area or to create a sort of carpet of death against charging enemies. Play defensively and make every shot in your 3 round mags count. For the USU, you are rewarded for flying into the face of enemies and penalized for flying away from them, and this gun is one you could actually treat like an assault rifle, both in spite of and because of it's 8-round mag.

Mikah's weapons, as far as I've heard, affect the ranges she fights at. Granny prefers longer ranges, while the K&N (or is it K&K? I forget.) is something to unload into enemies from point blank.