Weapon types
In NIKKE each character is equipped with one of the 6 available weapons:
- Assault Rifle
- Minigun
- Rocket Launcher
- Shotgun
- SMG
- Sniper Rifle
Assault Rifles are considered to be the most versatile weapons - they have good damage, range values and magazine sizes. Miniguns have nearly the same range values as Assault Rifles, but they have huge magazines so you can shoot for ages using them.
Shotguns have huge damage, but their range is pretty small and also their magazines require to be reloaded often. Sniper Rifles are the opposite - they are only good when you attack enemies that are far away and you also have to charge each shot, but in exchange, they deal pretty good damage.
SMGs have a similar range to Shotguns, but their damage is pretty low. As for Rocket Launchers - they are pretty unique as they have no range restrictions and they deal massive AOE damage, but their magazines usually allow you to only shoot once before you need to reload.
Ranges
Each weapon has a different range where it's performing at maximum potential and if you attack enemies that are closer (or further) you will receive damage and accuracy penalty.
Here are the range values for each weapons:
- Assault Rifle - 25% to 45%
- Minigun - 35% to 55%
- Rocket Launcher - no range restrictions
- Shotgun - 0% to 25%
- SMG - 15% to 35%
- Sniper Rifle - 45% to 100%
Before you enter a stage, you will receive information about the enemies that you will encounter inside. It looks like this:
In the stage above, you can expect to meet enemies that are in mid (62%) and far range (38%), but none will enter the close range.
This makes Shotguns and SMG pretty much useless in the stage, while ARs and Sniper Rifles will reap the enemies' lives easily.
What's the best weapon type?
There is no one best weapon type.
As you can see in the example above, you have to build a balanced team if you want to not feel useless in a stage that suddenly counters every weapon you are using. Still, in CBT a lot of people preferred to use characters with Assault Rifles as their main carries, because they were the most universal weapon.
If you want to learn how to build a good, well-rounded team, check our Team Building guide:
