Shadow Warrior 2: more wang than you can handle

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Shadow Warrior 2: more wang than you can handle

40 Proof Listerine: Jul 1, 2007; Baroness Kanan-Zelaya of the minor House of Carbon

Mzbundifund posted:

Is there any reason to use the dual-wielding over the ammo-doubling mod? Dual wielding makes you spend more ammo, deal less damage per shot, makes you a lot less accurate (so more of that damage is wasted), and makes you spend more time reloading.

Ammo doubling just gives you a flat damage boost in exchange for double ammo costs.

Is it just for style points?

Numbers-wise, Dual-wielding gives better damage for your ammo efficiency at the expense of accuracy and reload compared to using the doubler.

Picking a random example out of my inventory, comparing a 64 yellow Geminate to a 63 legendary doubler, the doubler gives 167% damage for 200% ammo, while dual wielding at -13% damage gives 174% damage for 200% ammo and -50% reload.

As also mentioned, shooting double the bullets with dual wield gives double the elemental procs and greater control over ammo usage, since you'll overkill a lot of things with the doubler.

For accurate burst damage, the doubler's fantastic, such as on a revolver, but for maximum DPS on a big target like a Herculon or an elite, dumping 100 elemental rounds out of an SMG very quickly puts a nice big dent in the health bar. It's especially nice for the cybernetic mechs that don't have an easy crit spot.

For further comparison, a similar level orange triple-barrel multi-shot is 300% damage at half the fire rate for +50% DPS total, while an explosive mod at +75% explosion and -13% base damage works out similar to ~+55% damage overall separated into two packets.

So since stats wise it works similar, you can pick which options work for what feels good with the gun and do just fine, which is a pretty great feat for the weapon balancing off the launch.

# ¿ Oct 20, 2016 01:07

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# ¿ May 22, 2024 00:27

40 Proof Listerine: Jul 1, 2007; Baroness Kanan-Zelaya of the minor House of Carbon

Malek posted:

Unless I missed something, I get more skill points by just going straight the objective and finishing the quest asap. What upgrades are you referring to?

Every single level has a unique boss with a giant skull logo (which you get an achievement for beating), and the bosses have a great chance to drop new guns on top of fabulous regular loot. The bosses tend to only be available in the original missions, not Free Roam, so if you missed any on your first run, you can get them on your second.

Some of the bosses are pretty tucked away in the level with the objective about halfway in, so if you just keep moving forward through demons, you'll generally find them without fuss (while also learning some of the pieces in the random level generator fairly well).

EDIT: The new Insanity difficulties (unlocked at level 31+)really aren't messing around - Insanity 2+ is cranking the early New Game+ loot back up to mid-late game level quality, but the enemies hit like a truck and there's a lot more elites around. I've switched over to the second life medal while figuring out how to optimize the gun build, since damage auras everywhere is a huge pain. Might be worth respeccing to the aura reduction - can't just coast on raw DPS.

40 Proof Listerine fucked around with this message at 02:03 on Oct 23, 2016

# ¿ Oct 23, 2016 00:47

40 Proof Listerine: Jul 1, 2007; Baroness Kanan-Zelaya of the minor House of Carbon

spit on my clit posted:

Do i..need to do anything special to unlock all the tiers of insanity?

Keep leveling up - Insanity 2 unlocks at level 31, Insanity 3 at 51, Insanity 4 at 71. Realistically these won't unlock until you do New Game+.

# ¿ Jan 5, 2017 04:33

40 Proof Listerine: Jul 1, 2007; Baroness Kanan-Zelaya of the minor House of Carbon

RyokoTK posted:

Bought this game on Steam sale and it's a ton of fun! I liked Borderlands so the silly gear grind is right up my alley, and this one is way better than Borderlands so far.

But here's my question: does this game have a Diablo/Borderlands-style NG+ loop where it keeps getting harder? If so, is there any reason for me to crank up the difficulty in the first playthrough? I'm at about 50% completion and it's pretty easy on normal difficulty, very little stuff hurts me, but I'm wondering if it's just better off to get all the skills and guns before I start messing around with that.

It absolutely does have the NG+ loop going for it, and additional difficulties unlock as you level up. Cranking up the difficulty not only increases the challenge, but increases the level and variety of the gems that drop. You'll still get access to the same guns regardsless of what difficulty you're on. On the first playthrough, play whatever you're comfortable with, then on New Game+ crank up the difficulties as you unlock them and it'll be rated very close to your current power level.

# ¿ Mar 18, 2017 19:58

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