Introduction
There are 7 basic kinds of weapons in Saint Row IV(SRIV), you can carry one of each in your backpack(not including your fist). And you can always seperate the weapons based on their use into three categories:
-Basic, hardcore, powerful, gun. (Requires bullets, needs to reload)
-Shiny fancy alien stuff. (No clip ammo, no reload, but will overheat)
-Err, energy weapons..? (Usually shiny, but doesn't need ammo at all, uses energy, which will automaticlly refill overtime when not firing, have a completely seperate heat bar)
And of course the basic 7 weapons kinds:
-Melee
-Pistol
-SMG
-Shotgun
-Rifle
-Explosive
-Special
Also every weapon can be costomized. You can change the weapon's skins. Just go to your nearest friendly fire, click on your weapon, and click costomize.
And here it goes.
Melee Weapons
So yeah. Melee weapons.
I'm not gonna sit here and list all of them because really they are not that different. You swing them and get instant kills.
Instead I'm gonna talk about
Melee weapon tips
From where I see it, the only real use for melee weapons, if not to troll, is for players who don't have fully upgraded weapons, to kill murderbots.
Since they are first introduced, they become the single biggest pain in the ass this game has to offer. Because they have a super high damage output, high health, won't be slowed down or interrupted by any damage, and will kick you flying if you bump into one.
When the player doesn't have a decently upgraded weapon yet, or worse, doesn't even have duel SMG or even duel pistol, it's pretty much impossible to kill one unless you keep playing hide and seek.
However, 2 swings from trusty tentacle bat instant kills the murderbot.
End of story. Just make sure don't get kicked flying. Your melee range is longer than the reach of a robot foot.
Pistols
To me, the only reason to use pistol is to kill aliens and evil cops. Which makes it the most used weapon in the game.
Of course you have to have perfect aim (like me :) ) to make sure you headshot every time, and there can't be too many enemies.
Also you can one-shot aliens on the flying wheelchair and behind the turrent by headshotting them with a pistol. Better than spending 3 clips of SMG right.
Heavy Pistol
My #1 favorite weapon in the entire game.
Headshot for alien/evil cop is a garenteed kill, body shot takes away about 1/5-1/4 the health of an alien.
The rate of fire is slower than quickshot pistol, but hits are way stronger.
Ammo is cheap and the off-hand ammo is plenty.
No need to overexplain. If you have decent aim and can headshot most of the time, this is the weapon of choice aginst alien minions. If you can't, however, I recommend spamming with SMGs, which is for later.
Alien Pistol
The Shiny counterpart to the heavy pistol.
No reload required (but requires ammo, just doesn't need to reload), but will overheat fairly quick.
Look is... Not as macho as the heavy pistol.
Something worth noting is that the shots from an alien pistol can disrupt a shielded enemy even through shield. So you can just fire on the shield and headshot the alien coward behind it when you have the chance. Something you can't do with the heavy pistol unless you brought the explosive ammo upgrade.
Quickshot Pistol
Thanks stormo fr correcting this part.
It have a fast rate of fire, as advertised. The damage is lower than the heavy pistol. But due to the much higher firing speed, huge clip size, and the low recoil, this provides much higher DPS than the heavy pistol.
It have the abillity to penetrate armor and annoying alien shield when fully upgraded.
SMG
The only reason to ever use SMG is if your pistol aim is bad, or to do something that purely requires DPS (taking down a portal) when you don't want to waste your shotgun ammo, and have a special rifle (A rifle that acts like a special. Definition by me.) and not the alien rifle.
Or of course if you are surrounded and needs some spam power.
Rapid Fire SMG
This and heavy SMG is not like heavy pistol vs quickshot pistol.
This weapons deals a ton of damage at close range, but consumes ammo very quickly, and is inefffective from mid-range to long-range.
But mind that this game is not CS:GO. There is no sudden in-door close-range encounters, and the low-accuracy of this weapon makes it almost impossible to headshot. So the "kill rate" is almost the same as the heavy SMG even at close range.
The weapon of choice when you have the automatic rifle or alien rifle. But don't ever use this if otherwise, for that you will lose all source of effective mid-range weapon.
Alien SMG
The shiny counterpart of the rapid fire SMG. Not much to be said.
Heavy SMG
Medium range, OK damage, higher accuracy compare to the rapid fire but still low.
To this point you can tell I don't like SMG that much already. It's just a steady damage source for stuff like portal or void when you don't have the rocket launcher or it dodges all your projectile. But every, single, SMG is a bad choice if you are planning on shooting people with it. 2-3 headshots required to killan alien, and because of the low accuracy that's pretty much impossible unless you shoot it as a pistol.
But again for the third time, very important stuff:
It's your only choice if your pistol aim is not good enough
Shotguns
There are 2 kinds of shotgun. Shotgun, and thumpgun, which is an alien simi-auto cannon that was mistakenly categorized as shotgun. Let's get through the shotgun part first.
Pump Action Shotgun
Low rate of fire, slow reload, low accuracy and low clip size. Paired with slightly higher damage compared to the simi-auto shotgun.
Used for bodyshotting aliens when you don't feel like aiming.
It's better than the simi-auto when you are facing less enemies.
Simi-Auto Shotgun
Higher rate of fire, faster reload, higher accuracy and higher clipsize compared to the pump action. Pretty much direct upgrade except now you can barely kill an alien with one shot.
And now finally:
Thumpgun
Have you ever played dead rising 3? This is the Z.A.R.
Very high mid-long-range damage output, accuracy of a sniper rifle, fully automatic with higher fire rate than the other two shotguns.
Ever wondered what to use to kill a warden? Heavy pistol? No. SMG? No. Rocket launcher? Hell no.
This is it. The single best weapon in the game when it comes to old-fasioned hitscan damage output. This is the weapon to kill bosses.
But it's bad for killing common aliens, for you have to headshot to one shot aliens. Pistol have higher rate of fire and cheaper ammo for that. Don't use it on normies.
Inflato-Ray
Wait what? Why is this here?
You shoot people with it, they will expand and explode. It have no trait of a shotgun.
A troll weapon.
Rifles
Some rifles in the game just doesn't act like rifle. Instead more like special. That's the reason for SMG to exist. I will get into that.
Automatic Rifle
A normal rifle. So normal. Medium damage, pretty good range, medium firing speed, acts like any other rifle in any other game. If you are carrying this there is no reason to use SMG unless it's for pure damage output (portals). It's more accurate and more powerful, so a burst spam around head will usually kill the poor alien. Heavy SMG will take a lot more time and bullets to kill someone, and the rifle have better range than the rapid fire and alien SMG.
Burst fire rifle
Trash.
If you like one hit kills with precise shots, even pistols are better than this.
Not as accuate as it should be, in fact it seems to be even less accurate than the automatic rifle. You normally need 2-3 bursts to kill an alien due to the un-headshot-table accuracy and low damage.
Ridiculously low DPS when it comes to portal and bosses.
Alien Rifle
It's like the alien version of the burst rifle, except better in every way.
Not that accurate, but fires a burst of 3 high damage shot, decent firing (bursting) speed, and satisfying sound. The DPS is pretty high, you should use this to take down portals if you are carrying heavy SMG or if the portal is far away.
Now we are entering the zone of special rifles. If you are taking one of these, you better have the heavy SMG with you.
Disintegrator
You have to hold M1 to charge the shot before shooting every time, and release to fire the shot.
Gives a super precise high damage shot that will vanish target on hit. Works on props too, like the energy sword.
It can one shot any alien and evil cop, but doesn't on harder difficulty. And deals high damage on stuff like warden.
One thing to keep in mind is that it run out of ammo in like 10-12 shots and needs to recharge . And if you can hit headshots, pistols are always better.
Bounce Rifle
It shoots projectiles that bounces off on successful hits and automaticlly hit other enemies.
A charge weapon so no ammo required.
It have a low rate of fire, and you have to shoot an alien like 5 times to kill it. Yes it bounces and can damage mutiple targets at once, but the damage and firing speed is just so pathetic...
And it fires slow projectile, so the aim is pure luck beyond mid-range.
You can use this for aliens if you don't feel like aiming, but take the heavy SMG with you, and don't use this on bosses.
Suming up:#2 Automatic rifle: Almost a direct upgrade to SMG but that's pretty much it
Burst rifle: Direct downgrade to heavy pistol
#1 Alien rifle: DPS weapon, can also be used to bodyshot aliens
#3 Disintegrator: DPH weapon, conveniently deletes stuff
Bounce rifle: Half troll, if you want to play with this, just don't use it on vehicles and bosses.
Explosives
Finally some fun!
So yeah, if you picked the right weapon to take, explosives can easily kill large groups of enemy (the ones on control point), blow up voids, and make beautifle fireworks.
RPG
It blows stuff up, not much to be said.
Also mind that explosives in SRIV is also high damage, so this is viable aginst warden and bosses
Low off hand ammo and low projectile speed, but you can upgrade it to homing rockets or something
AFTER THE UPGRADE, you can direct the rocket manually, BUT can't fire until previous rocket is exploded, so basiclly bye bye to your firing speed.
Alien RPG
Can't feel any difference between this and the normal RPG in terms of explosion radious and damage.
It's a charge weapon, you have to press down M1 and charge this like the disintegrator every time before shooting, and ammo comes from a charge bar that refills pretty slow.
Tiny Pistol
This is the secret weapon in the game.
To find it, go to your map, look around the lower left corner of the world, try to find an "unknown store". Go there, and find the store that says "Let's Pretend". Go into the store and shoot the door that says "employees only", go down the stairs and turn right, the tiny pistol is on the couch.
Although it's a secret, this is the most easily accessed explosive weapon in the game, before you have the money to spend on the rocket launcher, and before super-powered skinny aliens drop the alien rocket launcher.
This weapon is hitscan, so no projectile speed and acts like a gun. It's the best tool to shoot down voids. But it's an energy weapon, every shot will use 25% of the total energy, and it recharges very slowly...
Not recommended after you get the................
(Trumpets)
Black Hole Launcher
Shoots a projectile that will spawn a black hole on impact, or spawn a black hole anyway when it reaches the max range.
The black hole will suck in and instant kill any alien/car/UFO/evil cop near it, and turn aliens and evil cops further away into ragdoll for a pretty long time, and do damage to them.
The projectile speed is pretty fast, it's viable to be used to take down voids and alien cars, and very large groups of enemy.
Energy weapon, it charges pretty fast.
But this weapon barely does any damage to bosses and wardens and stuff.
Still my #1 choice!
Specials
Dubstep Gun
This is one of the best weapons for taking down bosses in the early stages of the game.
The upside is obivious, high DPS, cool look, it's completely viable for all purposes.
However there's quite a few downsides.
It have to pre-heat everytime before shooting, so when fighting wardens, you will likely already be knocked down before it even fires. And even if you get to shoot with it, the pre-heat will waste a few precious seconds when the warden's shield is down.
And it's actually a projectile weapon so you have to aim with it, but every time you open fire it's a frenzy, so it's hard to get a clean aim.
Abduction Gun
The charging acts like the alien RPG, you have to charge before shooting. It creates a sky beam at the place you are aiming and suck in aliens and evil cops.
It's pretty much the black hole gun when you don't have the black hole gun yet.
Not viable aginst bosses, and it doesn't work as well as it seems on minions, most of them are actually not dead, just turned into ragdolls.
Sniper rifle
Err, yeah, if you ever feel like picking off aliens and minions with super-expensive ammo with a low firing rate weapon from a far away, use it I guess.
It's the kind of weapon that is just for fun, in the cluster#$%& of SRIV there is no point to shoot anything from far way.
Not viable aginst bosses, not any more than a heavy pistol.
Lasergun Arm
This weapon is dropped by murderbots as a temporary weapon, you can use it but can't keep it. The gateway weapon cache version of it can be unlocked through side quest.
Very high DPS, very good at close range, but the weird horizontal bullet spread makes it probabally the weapon with the lowest accuracy in the entire game.
And you have to pre-heat before shooting, same problem with the dubstep gun.
It's viable aginst bosses at close range, and although you can, I do not recommend using it on minions because it's a huge waste of ammo and health (slow walking speed when shooting makes you a target practice).
Minethrower Arm
A look-a-like of the lasergun arm, instead of being a cool alien laser gatlin gun, it shoots the weakest explosive in the game with no range and no accuracy.
And worst of all, the mines doesn't explode unless somebody almost walk on it, I don't see a single purpose of this weapon except being a Jonny Gat household mouse trapper launcher.
Garbage against bosses.
Suming Up: What Are The Best Weapons In The Game??!
Aginst normal aliens/evil cops
Melee: Energy sword, and before you unlock it, tentacle bat.
Pistol: Heavy pistol/Alien pistol
SMG: Rapid fire/alien, unless you don't have a viable rifle, in which case heavy SMG
Rifle: Alien rifle
Shotgun: Thump gun
Explosives: Black hole gun
Special: Lasergun arm/dubstep gun
Best weapons aginst wardens/bosses
#1 Thumpgun
#2 Lasergun arm
#3 RPG/Alien RPG/tiny pistol
Trash can
-Burst rifle
Ahhh finally over. Took me days.
I do not own any of the pictures in the guide.
Source: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=901142859
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