Watching the whole episode and leaving my personalized thoughts as someone with 3500+ hours in the game on the guns themselves and this will be a long read! Pistol vs. Dualies debate, I personally think between the two, I have way more consistent super fast fire rate with Pistol > Dualies and I don't make Dualies unless I find a pistol to nab and get 10 bullets w/o reloading. Silenced is def. best non-Mole Crate weapon overall. Shotgun/Jag had that nerf that wasn't a nerf, just 33% range nerf for 50% increased damage didn't exactly make it a geniune nerf imo and the removal of the multi-pellet damage also ruined the punchiness of the shots so you might miss a consistent shot due to underwhelming sounds. Magnum/Deagle, the Blue vs. Purple is more or less an exact mirror aside from Deagle having .5 degrees better spread, same will be true for several other guns where the blue/purple difference of the same category weapons are almost the same exact but the stat differences is pretty minimal on the better one. SMG feels meh and part of the problem with this weapon is that it has the same firerate as 3-4 other guns, damage it mostly matches with pistols and such as well as the fall off, its a bit too often I die to tracking and getting armor sniped and its a gun thats forgotten unless you get it in OHKO which is just 1 bullet wonders. Thomas Gun, still needs to be rarer than what they gave it, prior to the nerfs, the spawn rate once gave me and 7 other players the same gun.. recoil nerf is now just burst 5-6 shots unless up close but the spawn ratio can still be a bit too often than I like and I wish the mag nerf was 32 > 35, would make it more fair. Superite Laser, chuck it back to Thomas' Workshop and send it back to space, Minigun firerate w/ Sniper spam recoil w/ mag of Thomas Gun w/ damage of a common SMG, on top of that its completely separated on its ammo type and its place in the game makes no sense, to make a gun to punish skilled players for the lesser skilled just rubs me the wrong way, its like they wanted an excuse to add it to the game, at least from how I've heard it so far, definitely the worst gun in SAR's history. Hunting Rifle def. beats Sniper in aggression and speed especially fire rate since HR can be an infinite ammo sink but with Sniper you have to either have support or manually support it as its slower than HR over time but the zoom for Sniper is definitely a decent make up but both guns have their versatility and use, though HR beats Sniper in the recoil department for sure, no contest, its like a pick your poison so it's got uses. AK is a bit too commonplace in SAR and the reduced mag capacity of 5 did make it more challenging in some scenarios but it's one of those guns where I played the stronger damage variants and yes, it did make a difference but pickrates is still high. M16, about similar to the AK but overall better statline and rarer, recoil randomness past 8 shots > 5 w/ AK, its basically just a higher tier AR, nothing much to say. Bow & Sparrow.. oh boy too many movement kiddies in pubs (including controller players) getting outplayed with unpredictable movement and the TTK is very high, I think the Bow being slowed down in the spam gameplay honestly could make it more in line with Sparrow Launcher but would upset all the Bow mains if they couldn't jump fire every single jump LOL. Sparrow Launcher, ngl this gun is underrated and pairs super well with Sniper if you're good with accuracy but reloading is a downside over Bow, so there's a caveat, the +1 to clip size was funny to hear people say it made the gun strong but personally it made it more balanced and fun in the game (add to the consistency of 5/5 Sniper/Sparrow). Dartgun/Dartfly are almost exact carbon copies except Dartfly ricochets to an extra target, both of these guns I have mixed opinions but I take advantage of their niche quirks that seemingly go underused so there's strategy over being the battle medic but there's ways to counter it due to the slower bullet speed, not sure where the balance would be but imo I prefer it not be buffed. BCG.. I rather have the day 1 version vs. the insanely buffed 2 shot Legendary version, it's basically an upgrade to the Bow & Sparrow so its just a splash area bow and I still want it nerfed to the ground. Minigun is super underrated and being the #1 Minigun killer, I don't think anyone took the time to learn the strategies of Minigun as much to understand the fundamentals of how to play it so effectively to be very dangerous and I still say the Sniper/Minigun loadout is top tier fun gameplay hahaha, I should make a Minigun/Single Pistol guide given those are two guns I use the most, maybe that'll be a future idea to shelf. Hmm :thinking: Melee changing the swing trajectories made my normal box breaking methods go away as I had consistent spots to break many of them, I don't really use it much but that's all I gotta say. Powerups: Claw Boots, niche, good for beginning and Ice + shallow water locations. Banana Forker, still wish it got nerfed to 15 HP / Banan, the nerf it got was barely too little of a nerf so 15 being 7 banans would be better, or even 17.5 for 6. Every sweat uses it but I never use it, I personally have a hatred. Ninja Boots, perfectly fine with the state its at, it didn't have a use in the past but now it's very in line on balance. I don't think the 5% movement increase applies to hamballs at all, just base movement, hamballs should be separate but blue mushrooms does make it faster. Snorkel, it's only good for gas circle plays or end game drink offs and if you eat a skunk nade or step in poison mushroom it reduces a small amount of damage, nothing too much to say, it has use but very specific scenarios. Cupgrade, overall well rounded and good for getting back into fights faster and utilized in end games where you win in areas that have no campfires and the opponent has snorkel, cause of 1 tick difference. Impossible Tape, I miss the old version of this as it made solo'ing tougher squads in 1v4 so satisfying but it completely killed it for me for a while until the buff of the taping for Impossible Tape came in, it came out during Mystery Mode and it was so FUN, nowadays I don't see myself taking it but it's got a use when you need it for importance sake, however tier 1's against bots will be repeat armor city. Bandolier, never had any need to use it outside of Bwoking Dead but otherwise it's a powerup I simply don't care about but it's not completely useless but not a powerup you'll ever see me use outside of Bwoking Dead. Super Juicer.. what the hell were the devs thinking of adding this one? There's not even much of a use case for needing to have 150% more health juice unless you're purposely taking damage a lot, even then it has little purpose over every other powerup that even if someone Alt+F4'ed it, nobody would scream and cry over it, its so forgetable, it's such a shame. Throwables: (I could talk all day about all the broken throwable stuff I've found in SAR but that's a whole other topic for another day) Grenade - Overall good, it's decent. Skunk Nade - Good for blocking areas and having good info w/ damage ticks. Banans - Other than blocking areas off, it's too annoying to have as a random pickup and again.. forker, pls nerf more. Cat Mine - It's a noticeable and very loud area denial nade, very little effectiveness unless a player can't find it in few areas of the map, underwhelming and overrated imo. Zipline - Waste of space for a throwable slot when randomly picking it up, only good for certain scenarios like Beaver Dam or areas where the rotate locations would take too long to make shortcuts and you can press opposite direction to infinitely ride them which is perfect for fake outs, very underused tactic.
I didnt know that theres a part 2 to episode 2
(Now its episode 3)
Good catch, I was at work lol
Watching the whole episode and leaving my personalized thoughts as someone with 3500+ hours in the game on the guns themselves and this will be a long read!
Pistol vs. Dualies debate, I personally think between the two, I have way more consistent super fast fire rate with Pistol > Dualies and I don't make Dualies unless I find a pistol to nab and get 10 bullets w/o reloading.
Silenced is def. best non-Mole Crate weapon overall.
Shotgun/Jag had that nerf that wasn't a nerf, just 33% range nerf for 50% increased damage didn't exactly make it a geniune nerf imo and the removal of the multi-pellet damage also ruined the punchiness of the shots so you might miss a consistent shot due to underwhelming sounds.
Magnum/Deagle, the Blue vs. Purple is more or less an exact mirror aside from Deagle having .5 degrees better spread, same will be true for several other guns where the blue/purple difference of the same category weapons are almost the same exact but the stat differences is pretty minimal on the better one.
SMG feels meh and part of the problem with this weapon is that it has the same firerate as 3-4 other guns, damage it mostly matches with pistols and such as well as the fall off, its a bit too often I die to tracking and getting armor sniped and its a gun thats forgotten unless you get it in OHKO which is just 1 bullet wonders.
Thomas Gun, still needs to be rarer than what they gave it, prior to the nerfs, the spawn rate once gave me and 7 other players the same gun.. recoil nerf is now just burst 5-6 shots unless up close but the spawn ratio can still be a bit too often than I like and I wish the mag nerf was 32 > 35, would make it more fair.
Superite Laser, chuck it back to Thomas' Workshop and send it back to space, Minigun firerate w/ Sniper spam recoil w/ mag of Thomas Gun w/ damage of a common SMG, on top of that its completely separated on its ammo type and its place in the game makes no sense, to make a gun to punish skilled players for the lesser skilled just rubs me the wrong way, its like they wanted an excuse to add it to the game, at least from how I've heard it so far, definitely the worst gun in SAR's history.
Hunting Rifle def. beats Sniper in aggression and speed especially fire rate since HR can be an infinite ammo sink but with Sniper you have to either have support or manually support it as its slower than HR over time but the zoom for Sniper is definitely a decent make up but both guns have their versatility and use, though HR beats Sniper in the recoil department for sure, no contest, its like a pick your poison so it's got uses.
AK is a bit too commonplace in SAR and the reduced mag capacity of 5 did make it more challenging in some scenarios but it's one of those guns where I played the stronger damage variants and yes, it did make a difference but pickrates is still high.
M16, about similar to the AK but overall better statline and rarer, recoil randomness past 8 shots > 5 w/ AK, its basically just a higher tier AR, nothing much to say.
Bow & Sparrow.. oh boy too many movement kiddies in pubs (including controller players) getting outplayed with unpredictable movement and the TTK is very high, I think the Bow being slowed down in the spam gameplay honestly could make it more in line with Sparrow Launcher but would upset all the Bow mains if they couldn't jump fire every single jump LOL.
Sparrow Launcher, ngl this gun is underrated and pairs super well with Sniper if you're good with accuracy but reloading is a downside over Bow, so there's a caveat, the +1 to clip size was funny to hear people say it made the gun strong but personally it made it more balanced and fun in the game (add to the consistency of 5/5 Sniper/Sparrow).
Dartgun/Dartfly are almost exact carbon copies except Dartfly ricochets to an extra target, both of these guns I have mixed opinions but I take advantage of their niche quirks that seemingly go underused so there's strategy over being the battle medic but there's ways to counter it due to the slower bullet speed, not sure where the balance would be but imo I prefer it not be buffed.
BCG.. I rather have the day 1 version vs. the insanely buffed 2 shot Legendary version, it's basically an upgrade to the Bow & Sparrow so its just a splash area bow and I still want it nerfed to the ground.
Minigun is super underrated and being the #1 Minigun killer, I don't think anyone took the time to learn the strategies of Minigun as much to understand the fundamentals of how to play it so effectively to be very dangerous and I still say the Sniper/Minigun loadout is top tier fun gameplay hahaha, I should make a Minigun/Single Pistol guide given those are two guns I use the most, maybe that'll be a future idea to shelf. Hmm :thinking:
Melee changing the swing trajectories made my normal box breaking methods go away as I had consistent spots to break many of them, I don't really use it much but that's all I gotta say.
Powerups:
Claw Boots, niche, good for beginning and Ice + shallow water locations.
Banana Forker, still wish it got nerfed to 15 HP / Banan, the nerf it got was barely too little of a nerf so 15 being 7 banans would be better, or even 17.5 for 6. Every sweat uses it but I never use it, I personally have a hatred.
Ninja Boots, perfectly fine with the state its at, it didn't have a use in the past but now it's very in line on balance. I don't think the 5% movement increase applies to hamballs at all, just base movement, hamballs should be separate but blue mushrooms does make it faster.
Snorkel, it's only good for gas circle plays or end game drink offs and if you eat a skunk nade or step in poison mushroom it reduces a small amount of damage, nothing too much to say, it has use but very specific scenarios.
Cupgrade, overall well rounded and good for getting back into fights faster and utilized in end games where you win in areas that have no campfires and the opponent has snorkel, cause of 1 tick difference.
Impossible Tape, I miss the old version of this as it made solo'ing tougher squads in 1v4 so satisfying but it completely killed it for me for a while until the buff of the taping for Impossible Tape came in, it came out during Mystery Mode and it was so FUN, nowadays I don't see myself taking it but it's got a use when you need it for importance sake, however tier 1's against bots will be repeat armor city.
Bandolier, never had any need to use it outside of Bwoking Dead but otherwise it's a powerup I simply don't care about but it's not completely useless but not a powerup you'll ever see me use outside of Bwoking Dead.
Super Juicer.. what the hell were the devs thinking of adding this one? There's not even much of a use case for needing to have 150% more health juice unless you're purposely taking damage a lot, even then it has little purpose over every other powerup that even if someone Alt+F4'ed it, nobody would scream and cry over it, its so forgetable, it's such a shame.
Throwables:
(I could talk all day about all the broken throwable stuff I've found in SAR but that's a whole other topic for another day)
Grenade - Overall good, it's decent.
Skunk Nade - Good for blocking areas and having good info w/ damage ticks.
Banans - Other than blocking areas off, it's too annoying to have as a random pickup and again.. forker, pls nerf more.
Cat Mine - It's a noticeable and very loud area denial nade, very little effectiveness unless a player can't find it in few areas of the map, underwhelming and overrated imo.
Zipline - Waste of space for a throwable slot when randomly picking it up, only good for certain scenarios like Beaver Dam or areas where the rotate locations would take too long to make shortcuts and you can press opposite direction to infinitely ride them which is perfect for fake outs, very underused tactic.
ALSO MYSTERY MODE IS COMING BACK, IM COMING BACK FOR THE GRIND BABY! WOOOOOO!!!