This is EXACTLY what I was looking for, thank you! A lot of rimworld content is a lot of recycled tips, but yours have genuinely taught me a lot. Subbed and looking forward for more. Thanks!
Pistol and Revolver are kind of stop-gap weapons you get from the raiders, but probably you should not make your own, in light of better options. Bolt-action rifle is an easy weapon to overlook, because it is early and not exactly flashy. BUT it is second-longest range rifle beyond sniper rifle. It still has decent damage, penetration, good accuracy. With good enough shooters in the colony, it CAN easily be the backbone of your combat force. Especially that it gets far better with quality improvements. Pump shotgun is also easy to overlook, as it gets easily overshadowed by its replacement weapon - but pump shotgun is available early and has considerable rate of fire. Sniper rifle - honestly, it is a poor weapon beyond kiting and speciffic niches, like taking down pesky turrets or mortar builders - it requires a very good shooter AND quality to be viable. Charge lance - this weapon is a poor primary weapon. BUT if you sprinkle one per say... 3-4 charge rifles, it covers for their lack of range and provides the burst damage against tougher or armoured targets. Machine pistol - it is honestly one of those weapons you probably should not make yourself - it is fine when salvaged, but at early stage of the game... you are unlikely to have pawns skilled enough to overcome its flaws. AND pump shotgun is objectively a better close range weapon. It is fun to watch when it is massed, a complete bullet-hose. Assault rifle vs SMG - SMG is probably a better option in a tight killbox. BUT for general purpose weapon... Assault Rifle is king. The main thing is has going on - it has reliable accuracy, good DPS and most importantly - it has RANGE. This is important. If you do not use killboxes where you dictate the range of the engagement - Assault Rifle allows your pawns to fire while in cover against everything except missile launchers and sniper rifles. Why is this important? Tribal greatbows, and Mechanoid Lancers. These weapons are dangerous, have a potential to heavily wound or outright kill even fairly armoured pawns and their range is good enough to force most other weapon users out of cover. This alone is huge, because a decent enough pawn can down a Lancer before it gets to shoot. Chain shotgun - it is a king of infestation clearing. Especially if you combine it with new biotech flamer. It is also a beast in ambush corridor fighting. It has low armour pen, true, BUT sheer firepower is still enough to overcome this flaw against most enemies. Charge rifle - it is a beast of a weapon, but it is inconsistent. It has comparatively low accuracy, so unless you can pump Legendaries with a production specialist, this thing needs a skilled shooter to operate effectively. BUT it is insanely effective. Good damage, good penetration, decent rate of fire. The problem with them is range - 26 is really short for a top-tier weapon BUT this gun is basically necessary when dealing with Marine armour higher tier bandits and tough enemies like centipedes. LMG - honestly, it massively underperforms - mostly due to its lacking range. It is a low accuracy suppression weapon but it only does its job when the enemy is already a bit close for comfort. 4-5 tiles really make that much of a difference. Speaking of which: Minigun - this is a beast of a weapon IF you fill specific requireements. First of... Normal quality... it's garbage. It needs very high qualities and good shooter, ironincally. There is a persistent myth that minigun has forced miss radius meaning that quality of shooter does not matter. I have no idea WHY this myth persists. But minigun did not have a forced miss radius for 6 years now - since BETA 19. Back on topic - minigun is basically like a bunch of assault rifles strapped together - and that includes that sweet 31 tile range. Legendary minigun with a good shooter, set of eye bionics to boot, preferably a trigger happy shooting specialist carrying a heavy bandollier is objectively the BEST vanilla weapon in the game - because it massively benefits from all these boosts. It shreds any common enemy, plain and simple. Despite its low penetration, it is also the best weapon against Centipedes - all weapons have an accuracy bonus against them, so... minigun can simply use its sheer volume of fire. The only downside is that minigun is heavy and slows you pawns down. Couple of firearm-adjacent things to note: Respect non-firearm throwables. Pila are deadly, so are the Greatbows. Cover saves lives, and so does range. I generally avoid cheesing with killboxes TOO much. and this is where range comes into play - weapons with good enough range to force you out of cover are insanely dangerous. Trigger-happy vs Careful Shooter - A lot of people say that Careful Shooter is basically a debuff. I made some testing... And this is a stinking lie. Careful Shooter is worse in a long run - true, but until you hit very high levels of shooting skill, Carful Shooter either outperforms Trigger Happy quite significantly or is roughly equal. From around level 15, Trigger Happy starts outperforming Careful Shooter at very close ranges. Against single targets, Careful Shooter typically achieves a better first-hit/first-burst kill than Trigger Happy, even if TH achieves better DPS overall. However - a major point where TH outperforms CS is a multi-target potential. TH will have a better rate of new target acquisition, and lowered accuracy matters less against multiple foes.
@fhfdghx4344 Good question. I always stick to one weapon type within each category, but I do tend to mix the categories often. For example, all pawns get a heavy SMG but I add in a sniper rifle and a couple mini guns.
This is EXACTLY what I was looking for, thank you! A lot of rimworld content is a lot of recycled tips, but yours have genuinely taught me a lot. Subbed and looking forward for more. Thanks!
Several thoudand hours into rimworld and this video still taught me some new stuff.
Those guides and explanations videos are so great! I would love to see more! Do you usually play the combats without pausing?
Oh the smoke+grenades is a very helpful tip
wonderful video
Pistol and Revolver are kind of stop-gap weapons you get from the raiders, but probably you should not make your own, in light of better options.
Bolt-action rifle is an easy weapon to overlook, because it is early and not exactly flashy. BUT it is second-longest range rifle beyond sniper rifle. It still has decent damage, penetration, good accuracy. With good enough shooters in the colony, it CAN easily be the backbone of your combat force. Especially that it gets far better with quality improvements.
Pump shotgun is also easy to overlook, as it gets easily overshadowed by its replacement weapon - but pump shotgun is available early and has considerable rate of fire.
Sniper rifle - honestly, it is a poor weapon beyond kiting and speciffic niches, like taking down pesky turrets or mortar builders - it requires a very good shooter AND quality to be viable.
Charge lance - this weapon is a poor primary weapon. BUT if you sprinkle one per say... 3-4 charge rifles, it covers for their lack of range and provides the burst damage against tougher or armoured targets.
Machine pistol - it is honestly one of those weapons you probably should not make yourself - it is fine when salvaged, but at early stage of the game... you are unlikely to have pawns skilled enough to overcome its flaws. AND pump shotgun is objectively a better close range weapon. It is fun to watch when it is massed, a complete bullet-hose.
Assault rifle vs SMG - SMG is probably a better option in a tight killbox. BUT for general purpose weapon... Assault Rifle is king. The main thing is has going on - it has reliable accuracy, good DPS and most importantly - it has RANGE. This is important. If you do not use killboxes where you dictate the range of the engagement - Assault Rifle allows your pawns to fire while in cover against everything except missile launchers and sniper rifles.
Why is this important? Tribal greatbows, and Mechanoid Lancers. These weapons are dangerous, have a potential to heavily wound or outright kill even fairly armoured pawns and their range is good enough to force most other weapon users out of cover.
This alone is huge, because a decent enough pawn can down a Lancer before it gets to shoot.
Chain shotgun - it is a king of infestation clearing. Especially if you combine it with new biotech flamer. It is also a beast in ambush corridor fighting. It has low armour pen, true, BUT sheer firepower is still enough to overcome this flaw against most enemies.
Charge rifle - it is a beast of a weapon, but it is inconsistent. It has comparatively low accuracy, so unless you can pump Legendaries with a production specialist, this thing needs a skilled shooter to operate effectively. BUT it is insanely effective. Good damage, good penetration, decent rate of fire. The problem with them is range - 26 is really short for a top-tier weapon BUT this gun is basically necessary when dealing with Marine armour higher tier bandits and tough enemies like centipedes.
LMG - honestly, it massively underperforms - mostly due to its lacking range. It is a low accuracy suppression weapon but it only does its job when the enemy is already a bit close for comfort. 4-5 tiles really make that much of a difference. Speaking of which:
Minigun - this is a beast of a weapon IF you fill specific requireements. First of... Normal quality... it's garbage. It needs very high qualities and good shooter, ironincally.
There is a persistent myth that minigun has forced miss radius meaning that quality of shooter does not matter. I have no idea WHY this myth persists. But minigun did not have a forced miss radius for 6 years now - since BETA 19.
Back on topic - minigun is basically like a bunch of assault rifles strapped together - and that includes that sweet 31 tile range. Legendary minigun with a good shooter, set of eye bionics to boot, preferably a trigger happy shooting specialist carrying a heavy bandollier is objectively the BEST vanilla weapon in the game - because it massively benefits from all these boosts.
It shreds any common enemy, plain and simple. Despite its low penetration, it is also the best weapon against Centipedes - all weapons have an accuracy bonus against them, so... minigun can simply use its sheer volume of fire.
The only downside is that minigun is heavy and slows you pawns down.
Couple of firearm-adjacent things to note:
Respect non-firearm throwables. Pila are deadly, so are the Greatbows.
Cover saves lives, and so does range. I generally avoid cheesing with killboxes TOO much. and this is where range comes into play - weapons with good enough range to force you out of cover are insanely dangerous.
Trigger-happy vs Careful Shooter - A lot of people say that Careful Shooter is basically a debuff. I made some testing... And this is a stinking lie. Careful Shooter is worse in a long run - true, but until you hit very high levels of shooting skill, Carful Shooter either outperforms Trigger Happy quite significantly or is roughly equal.
From around level 15, Trigger Happy starts outperforming Careful Shooter at very close ranges. Against single targets, Careful Shooter typically achieves a better first-hit/first-burst kill than Trigger Happy, even if TH achieves better DPS overall. However - a major point where TH outperforms CS is a multi-target potential. TH will have a better rate of new target acquisition, and lowered accuracy matters less against multiple foes.
When i played vanilla i almost exclusively used the LMG. Never really got far enough to replace it with a minigun lol
Now do it for all the mods :P
Great video thanks! Chapters would be great though
@@jaysonp9426 Good call, I'll add chapters today.
Do you like to mix the types of weapons used in your combat group for different ranges/speeds, or just stick them all with the same weapon?
@fhfdghx4344 Good question. I always stick to one weapon type within each category, but I do tend to mix the categories often. For example, all pawns get a heavy SMG but I add in a sniper rifle and a couple mini guns.
Honestly I love tear gas but it's from the mod...