Hey folks! I've started out my current character after a number of restarts and he is 13th level in Act 1 without having completed The Information Quest. I've set them up pretty much all about Reflex - Assault & Handguns, but I am very seriously thinking about using the Respec Cyberware mod to change to either a Gorilla Arms Scrapper Build or a Mantis Blades Build. Before I put the main question forward, let me ask this: When using Smart Guns, will the Tyger Claw gang members ALWAYS be around, and will they always have that quality which basically makes Smart weapons worthless agianst them? If the answer is yes to both, I feel the Smart Weapon option is thus killed for me in any future playthrough.

Now, the main questions: If I were to use the Gorilla Arms, are they considered Lethal Weapons for the purposes of beating somone to death? Secondly, can they cause any sort of visual effect to show my utter domination of an enemy, such as dismemberment, or as with Mantis Blades, that hoist up while pinned like a bug? The reason I need to ask is that there is more than one repulsive monster associated with a certain character's quest that I want to utterly squash. If torture was an option in this game but you could only do it once, I would want to do it to them. It's really for this reason that I am moving to Melee, as I want to utterly squash them in toe to toe melee and make sure me, spitting in their ugly face, is the last thing they see before Hell swallows them whole.

Thanks in advance to anyone and everyone that replies and especially to that person that gives me the best and most complete answer! I truly love this game, except for one thing: I am extremely mad I cannot kill Wakako for spoiler reasons. I will probably start another topic about Wakako and the attached reasons why I feel she *needs* to have a patch adjustment so that players can choose to end her disgusting life, in as horrible a manner as possible.

the smart guns work fine on a lot of Tyger Claws and others but you will always run into thugs around that have certain resistances no matter what build you have made.

the gorilla arms and mantis blades are a cool option because it leaves the opportunity to add a third gun to your arsenal while still having a melee weapon. plus they can be taken inside areas where you have to leave your weapons behind. i guess the monowire also works but i have never used it yet.

any non-lethal weapon can still be used to kill enemies. when their health drops to zero they fall down writhing, but another hit once on the ground and they die no matter what non-lethal weapon you may be using.

i believe if you hit someone with heavy blunt melee attacks they can suffer the same type of visual damages as with guns, blades, etc. pretty sure i remember a few's heads popping off.
but there is no special visual effect from beating someone that i remember ever seeing.

i'm not sure what GOG's stance on spoilers is, but many members have been complaining a lot about others creating topics with spoiler titles and posting spoilers inside threads without a manual [spoiler] tag in place.
pretty stupid that there is no actual forum spoiler option available in the "Add or edit your post" section.