Hey all,

As far as firearms go in Arcanum, there isn't a lot of flexibility when it comes to endgame choices. Droch's Warbringer is pretty much unequivocally the best gun in the game, with 20-40 D + 10-10 ED, 13 speed and a bullet consumption of 1. The Blade Launcher can be considered another good choice for the endgame, with reliable but expensive damage, and the Mechanized Gun has the highest potential damage but also eats bullets like a fiend.

But in the mid-game, things get a little hazier. I've seen people advocate all sorts of guns from personal preference, and I thought I'd poll the crowd to see what people prefer to use. Criteria should probably include max damage, damage variability, speed, elemental damage, TH bonuses, MSR and bullet consumption.

(I'd assume candidates for discussion would be Fine Revolver, Sharpshooter Pistol, Hand Cannon, Long-Range Pistol, Looking-Glass Rifle, Elephant Gun, Charged Accelerator Gun. Arguments for Mechanized Gun, Blade Launcher and Tesla Gun as viable mid- to late-game weapons are welcome too.)

Anyway I know I've been a little chatty on the forums recently, but I just thought I'd throw it out there if anyone were interested in bragging about their best builds' midgame weapons. If you do, feel free to leave a blurb.

All guns get worse and worse as the game goes on. Firearms in Arcanum are just a huge tease. They seem to be really cool, but in fact they're the worst choice you can make for combat focus. There are two primary reasons for this.

Dodge works against bullets first of all. Not only does it work, it works really, really well as you discover when you blow through large amounts of expensive ammo firing at orc badits only to have them dodge your attacks. The second reason Firearms stink is that bullets, being tech weapons, become less and less effective as your targets become more and more magickal. Guess what most of the late-game monsters have an affinity for. If you said Magick, you are correct.

In the late game you'll be trying to attack monsters who a) can dodge most of your bullets and b) won't be greatly harmed by them even if they fail to dodge.

For the long haul there's only one firearm of choice, and that's the Tesla Gun. It's lightning damage isn't affected by Magick Affinity, and it's not too expensive to keep it fully supplied with ammo. For the mid-game I'd go for the Hand Cannon or the Elephant Gun (assuming you don't already have a Tesla Gun).

On paper the Mechanized Gun has the highest damage output of any firearm. If you think that's a good recommendation I invite you to try it out. It uses so much ammo you can't carry enough with you to keep it supplied for long, but that won't be a problem because you'll soon be penniless after spending days at a time hitting the stores in Tarant buying bullets and bullet crafting items.

There's one other gun that deserves mention, and that's the Tranquilizer Gun, which is great in its own way. Essentially you just tranq anything that bothers you and let your companions kill it. The funny thing is there are lots of monsters -- like undead -- that should be immune to tranquilizers, but aren't.

There's actually even a third reason, IMHO: the need to waste CPs building up Perception. IMO, it's even more of a dump stat than Beauty, since a higher BE at least gets you better prices with the merchants.

You won't need the greater range that a higher PE supposedly provides, even if you invest in Throwing, since most of your battles are going to be on-screen with a limited target distance anyway. You don't need it for Spot Traps, what with the available spell (and scrolls for) Detect Hidden. You'd only otherwise need it for Prowling and/or Disarm Traps if you were RP'ing that kind of character.

But that's just my two cents; if I had to spread myself thin building up my IN, DX and PE (not to mention the combat skills and tech trees associated with each stat) it'd take me too long to get myself to where I wanted to be, and there's a good chance I'd run out of CPs before I got there. However, your (or the OP's) mileage may vary.

Your argument for this is really interesting, and completely correct. I'd like to play a character with an early electricity doctorate sometime, it sounds like a fun playthrough. These are also really interesting perspectives, and they do indeed fit the precedent of the woefully underpowered Arcanum gunslinger. Fortunately for me, at least, I expected to be that way when I started my firearms character - and since that character was my first, I didn't mind uber-leveling and bringing along an entire caravan of followers since my patience was high and perfectionism low. Frankly I know my question sounds like a powergaming question, but I play firearms more from a place of enjoying the gunslinger character itself than needing to be a hyper-efficient damage dealer. Towards that end I'd just stick to being a stun/backstab monster or a harm/disintegrate mage :P

I'd still be interesting in hearing about people's preferences for mid-game guns though!

I understand, and I've probably played more firearms characters than any other type. It's that experience that informs me when I say that the problem with firearms isn't that they're too weak (which they are), it's that the type is fundamentally flawed due to the game mechanics. If firearms was simply a relatively weak combat skill, that would be one thing, but the true problem is worse than that. Firearms is arguably the coolest seeming combat skill on paper, but unquestionably the most frustrating combat skill in practice. That's a really lethal combination from an enjoyment point of view, and sadly it's not really apparent until you get pretty far into the game.

I've experimented with every gun in the game trying to find good ones. Despite how many different kinds there are, there are only a handful that are practically useful. I always use a Fate Point to grab the Hand Cannon as soon as I get to Tarant. I use that until I can get my mitts on the Elephant Gun, or else I use the Tranquilizer Gun. Then last it's the Tesla Gun. Out of all the different kinds of guns, those are the only ones that are really practical. The rest all have one or more fatal flaws.

The Looking Glass Rifle, for example: should be really fun, but it's a waste because sniping simply doesn't work. Even if you successfully hit your target in the head, you don't do much more damage than a regular hit. But in order to score a headshot you have to overcome your target's Dodge ability: that's right, an orc bandit who isn't even aware of your presence can dodge the bullets aimed at his head from your Looking Glass Rifle.

I forgot to mention the best Firearms trick of all, though -- and this is actually kind of fun. You get a bunch of Tranquilizer Guns, and give them to your companions. That way your party members knock out all your enemies and you kill them at your leisure.

Now this I like.

It's the most effective way to run a big party of NPC gunslingers.

There are very few tranq-immune monsters, too. I could list them, but why ruin the surprise?