Weapons¶

Numbers on this page are base values. Perks and bonuses change them.

Damage¶

Bullet hits¶

Every gun projectile's direct hit deals:

damage = ((100 / distance) * multiplier * 30 + 10) * 0.95

Distance runs from where the shot was fired to where it hits, never less than 50. So a hit deals a flat 9.5 plus 2850 × multiplier ÷ distance: each doubling of distance roughly halves it. A 1x hit deals 66.5 up close, 38 at 100 px and 15 at 500 px. A Plasma Cannon bolt (28x) deals about 1606 up close. Bullets have no range limit; they fly until they leave the arena.

In the weapon list, Hit is a direct hit at 50 px or closer. The chart groups weapons by the shot they fire.

Rockets, flames and ion blasts don't use this formula. Their damage is listed with each weapon.

Damage types¶

Perks that raise bullet damage (Uranium Filled Bullets, Doctor, Barrel Greaser, Living Fortress) apply to any gun projectile's direct hit: bullets, pellets, plasma, direct ion hits, Fire Bullets and the perk rings. They don't apply to flames, rocket hits and explosions, ion blasts, poison or Mr. Melee. Flames get Pyromaniac's ×1.5 instead; ion blasts get Ion Gun Master's ×1.2.

Enemy shots deal you a flat 10 that only Shield (and Death Clock) blocks.

Hit radius¶

A shot hits a creature when it comes within the creature's reach (3 px plus a seventh of its size) plus the shot's own radius: 1 for most bullets, 3 for Ion Minigun bolts, 5 for Ion Rifle, 10 for Ion Cannon and Plasma Cannon.

For about 0.4 s after a creature dies, its body still stops ordinary bullets. Piercing shots pass through.

Piercing¶

Gauss Gun and Gauss Shotgun slugs, Fire Bullets rounds and Blade Gun shots carry a damage pool: 300, 240 and 50. Every other shot stops on its first hit.

On each hit a piercing shot spends 1 from its pool and deals the rest, ignoring distance. Its pool then becomes twice the damage it just dealt minus the target's health. A fresh Gauss slug hits for 299; if that kills a 200 HP zombie, the slug moves on with 398. Weak enemies feed it, so a slug that keeps killing keeps getting stronger. It stops on a target with at least twice its damage (598 HP for a fresh Gauss slug, 98 for a fresh Blade), then lands one last normal hit and vanishes. The widget below fires one shot through a line of identical enemies, without damage perks.

Projectile speed¶

Shotgun-type pellets get a random 1.0–2.0× speed boost each (1.4–2.2× for Ion Shotgun and Gauss Shotgun). Barrel Greaser doubles the speed of your shots.

Accuracy¶

Each shot adds 1.3 × the weapon's spread to your spread, up to 0.48. Spread recovers 0.4 per second, down to 0.01. A shot lands at a random point around your crosshair. The scatter grows with the crosshair's distance, so spread is an angle: at the cap a shot can stray up to about 13.5°, near or far. Bites widen it too. Sharpshooter pins spread near zero.

The top four reach the cap in one shot. Flames ignore spread and go straight at the crosshair.

Shotgun-type weapons add a pellet cone on top: Shotgun and Jackhammer ±7°, Gauss Shotgun ±11.5°, Plasma Shotgun and Ion Shotgun ±15°, Sawed-off ±23°.

Weapon reference¶

Fire interval and reload are in seconds. A gun fires at most once per frame, so at 60 fps an interval rounds up to whole frames: 0.088 s and 0.09 s both become 0.1 s, and the flamers fire every frame. The icon class (bullet, fire, rocket, electric) is what the HUD ammo bar shows.

1. Pistol¶

Clip 12 · Hit 243 (4.1x) · Fire 0.712 s · Reload 1.2 s · Bullet

Always available.

Hits hard but fires slowly. Survival starts you with a 10-round clip; quests and any Pistol you pick up get the full 12.

While you hold the Pistol, 3 kills in 4 try to drop a Weapon pickup (never the Pistol). The try is cancelled if a Weapon pickup is already on the ground or you have My Favourite Weapon, and Bonus Magnet doesn't apply to it. The other kills use the normal 1-in-9 roll plus an extra 1-in-5. See drop chances.

2. Assault Rifle¶

Clip 25 · Hit 67 (1x) · Fire 0.117 s · Reload 1.2 s · Bullet

Unlocked by quest 1.1 (Land Hostile); always in the Survival drop pool.

Fast and accurate (spread 0.09) with a 25-round clip.

3. Shotgun¶

Clip 12 · 12 pellets × 78 (1.2x) · Fire 0.85 s · Reload 1.9 s · Bullet

Unlocked by quest 1.2 (Minor Alien Breach); always in the Survival drop pool.

Tight ±7° cone, so most pellets land on one target up close.

4. Sawed-off Shotgun¶

Clip 12 · 12 pellets × 78 (1.2x) · Fire 0.87 s · Reload 1.9 s · Bullet

Unlocked by quest 2.8 (Land Of Lizards).

Same pellets as the Shotgun in a cone three times wider (±23°). Better for sweeping crowds, worse for focused fire.

5. Submachine Gun¶

Clip 30 · Hit 67 (1x) · Fire 0.088 s · Reload 1.2 s · Bullet

Unlocked by quest 1.6 (The Random Factor); always in the Survival drop pool.

The shortest fire interval outside the flamers, with low spread (0.082) and a 30-round clip.

6. Gauss Gun¶

Clip 6 · Hit 299, pierces · Fire 0.6 s · Reload 1.6 s · Bullet

Unlocked by quest 1.8 (Alien Squads).

Near-instant slugs (4320 px/s) that pierce and don't lose damage with distance. One shot maxes out your spread.

7. Mean Minigun¶

Clip 120 · Fires Pistol rounds: Hit 243 (4.1x) · Fire 0.09 s · Reload 4.0 s · Bullet

Unlocked by quest 2.6 (Evil Zombies At Large).

Pistol-strength bullets at minigun speed: about twice the Plasma Minigun's damage per second. While you hold it your top speed drops to 40%, firing or not, and the 4-second reload leaves you exposed.

8. Flamethrower¶

Clip 30 · Flame up to 10 · Fire every frame · Reload 2.0 s · Fire

Unlocked by quest 1.4 (Frontline Assault).

Throws 60 flames a second at 0.1 ammo each: 5 s of fire per clip. Each flame burns the first creature it touches for 10 × its remaining strength, fading to nothing over about 1.1 s (roughly 130 px).

9. Plasma Rifle¶

Clip 20 · Hit 295 (5x) · Fire 0.291 s · Reload 1.2 s · Bullet

Unlocked by quest 2.2 (Spider Spawns).

Each bolt hits like a Pistol shot and a bit more, at more than twice the rate.

10. Multi-Plasma¶

Clip 8 · 3 × 295 (5x) + 2 × 129 (2.1x) · Fire 0.621 s · Reload 1.4 s · Bullet

Unlocked by quest 3.2 (Lizard Kings).

Fires five bolts in a fixed fan: Plasma Rifle bolts straight ahead and at ±18°, Plasma Minigun bolts at ±30°.

11. Plasma Minigun¶

Clip 30 · Hit 129 (2.1x) · Fire 0.11 s · Reload 1.3 s · Bullet

Unlocked by quest 2.10 (Spideroids).

Rapid plasma stream with a quick 1.3 s reload.

12. Rocket Launcher¶

Clip 5 · Hit 500–600 + 80 px blast · Fire 0.741 s · Reload 1.2 s · Rocket

Unlocked by quest 1.10 (8-legged Terror).

Rockets leave at 90 px/s and speed up to 500. A fresh rocket hits harder (600, down to 500 after 2 s). The blast grows to 80 px over ⅓ s and deals up to about 245 near its centre. A rocket that hits nothing explodes after 2 s with a 40 px blast. Blasts never hurt you.

13. Seeker Rockets¶

Clip 8 · Hit 80–120 + 28 px blast · Fire 0.311 s · Reload 1.2 s · Rocket

Unlocked by quest 3.4 (Hidden Evil).

Each rocket locks onto the enemy nearest your crosshair when fired. If that target dies, it turns to the enemy nearest the rocket. About a fifth of the Rocket Launcher's hit, with a small blast (up to about 85). Seekers last 4 s.

14. Plasma Shotgun¶

Clip 8 · 14 pellets × 129 (2.1x) · Fire 0.48 s · Reload 3.1 s · Bullet

Unlocked by quest 4.4 (The Collaboration).

Fires 14 Plasma Minigun bolts in a ±15° cone. Devastating burst, but the 3.1-second reload punishes an empty clip.

15. Blow Torch¶

Clip 30 · Flame 8–10 · Fire every frame · Reload 1.5 s · Fire

Unlocked by quest 3.6 (The Lizquidation).

Flames die at 80% strength, after about 0.22 s, so the reach is only about 55 px, but every flame that lands burns for 8–10. At 0.05 ammo per flame a clip lasts 10 s.

17. Mini-Rocket Swarmers¶

Clip 5 · 5 Seeker rockets per shot · Fire 1.8 s · Reload 1.8 s · Rocket

Unlocked by quest 4.6 (The Unblitzkrieg).

One trigger pull fires the whole clip as homing Seeker rockets, then reloads.

18. Rocket Minigun¶

Clip 16 · Hit 40–80 + 20 px blast · Fire 0.12 s · Reload 1.8 s · Rocket

Unlocked by quest 3.8 (Lizard Raze).

Rapid rockets that speed up from 90 to 600 px/s. Each blast deals up to about 60.

19. Pulse Gun¶

Clip 16 · Hit 67 (1x) · Fire 0.1 s · Reload 0.1 s · Electric

Unlocked by quest 4.2 (Zombie Time).

Each hit shoves the target back about 10 px. No spread at all, and the 0.1 s reload means you're almost never empty. That reload is too short to trigger Angry Reloader.

20. Jackhammer¶

Clip 16 · 4 pellets × 78 (1.2x) · Fire 0.14 s · Reload 3.0 s · Bullet

Unlocked by quest 3.10 (Zombie Masters).

Automatic shotgun: four Shotgun pellets in the Shotgun's ±7° cone, at rifle speed. The 3-second reload is the price.

21. Ion Rifle¶

Clip 8 · Hit 181 (3x) + 27 blast · Fire 0.4 s · Reload 1.35 s · Electric

Unlocked by quest 2.4 (Two Fronts).

Each impact leaves a blast that hits everything within 88 px for about 27 more.

22. Ion Minigun¶

Clip 20 · Hit 89 (1.4x) + 11 blast · Fire 0.1 s · Reload 1.8 s · Electric

Unlocked by quest 4.8 (Syntax Terror).

Rapid ion bolts. Each impact hits everything within 60 px for about 11 more.

23. Ion Cannon¶

Clip 3 · Hit 961 (16.7x) + 115 blast · Fire 1.0 s · Reload 3.0 s · Electric

Unlocked by quest 4.10 (The End of All).

Slow bolts (240 px/s) that hit hard and leave a 128 px blast worth about 115 to everything inside. Only 3 rounds, and one shot maxes out your spread.

24. Shrinkifier 5k¶

Clip 8 · Hit 9.5 + shrink · Fire 0.21 s · Reload 1.22 s · Bullet

Secret weapon.

Each hit shrinks the target to 65% of its size. Anything that drops below size 16 dies on the spot, whatever its health: a size-50 creature dies on the third hit, a size-64 one on the fourth.

25. Blade Gun¶

Clip 6 · Hit 49, pierces; last hit 637 (11x) · Fire 0.35 s · Reload 3.5 s · Bullet

Secret weapon.

Pierces with a 50 pool: it cuts through anything under 98 HP, and weak kills make it stronger. Once its pool runs out, its last hit uses the 11x multiplier.

28. Plasma Cannon¶

Clip 3 · Hit 1606 (28x) + ring of 12 × 295 · Fire 0.9 s · Reload 2.7 s · Bullet

Unlocked by quest 5.10 (The Gathering).

The biggest multiplier in the game, on a slow bolt (240 px/s). When it hits, it bursts into a ring of 12 Plasma Rifle bolts flying outward from the target. One shot maxes out your spread.

29. Splitter Gun¶

Clip 6 · Hit 352 (6x), splits · Fire 0.7 s · Reload 2.2 s · Bullet

Secret weapon.

Every hit splits the shot into two fragments at ±60°, and fragments split again on their own hits. Fragments start at the impact point, so they hit at close-range damage (about 350). They can also hit you for 10 each.

30. Gauss Shotgun¶

Clip 4 · 6 slugs × 299, pierce · Fire 1.05 s · Reload 2.1 s · Bullet

Unlocked by quest 5.4 (The Gang Wars).

Six full Gauss slugs in a ±11.5° cone. Each pierces and keeps its damage at any range.

31. Ion Shotgun¶

Clip 10 · 8 pellets × 89 (1.4x) + 11 blast each · Fire 0.85 s · Reload 1.9 s · Electric

Unlocked by quest 5.1 (The Beating).

Eight Ion Minigun bolts in a ±15° cone. Each impact hits everything within 60 px for about 11 more.

Unobtainable weapons¶

Nothing unlocks these, so they never drop. You can still look at them in the remake with crimson view arsenal.

The four blanks still spend ammo and play a firing sound.

Availability¶

• Pistol is always available.
• Each quest unlocks its weapon on first completion; see each weapon above.
• In Survival, the Assault Rifle, Shotgun and Submachine Gun can always drop, even before you've unlocked them in quests.
• Splitter Gun unlocks after hardcore 4.10. Shrinkifier 5k and Blade Gun are one-run Survival rewards.
• Weapon pickups and the Random Weapon perk pick an unlocked weapon at random. If the roll lands on a gun you've ever been handed (your save keeps the count across all runs), there's a 50% chance to roll once more, so guns you've never had come up more often. Quest 5.10 never drops the Ion Cannon.