Battle Shapers: All Weapons Guide (V0.1.3)

Welcome to my little summary of the Battle Shapers arsenal! As stated in the description, this guide will provide a comprehensive look at every obtainable weapon in the game as it is today. Is it going to be highly opinionated?

Yes.

With that in mind, let’s take a look at the format with the handy sidearm that everyone should be familiar with by now.

The Argument

Generally I’ll provide a quick spiel about each weapon. I’ll cover it’s strengths, it’s weaknesses, and how useful it actually is with all that in mind. As for The Argument, it’s …fine. It’s a solid starting weapon and is arguably better than some other weapons you’ll find at the start of a run. It does however get a low grade simply because it only exists as a starting weapon. Don’t go holding on to it for too long.

Rank: C

Every weapon will be ranked from S down to C, with one single exception.
S-Rank conveys my belief that said weapon is exceptional at any point in a run.
A-Rank means that said weapon is a solid choice regardless of circumstances.
B-Rank means that said weapon is good in certain builds and circumstances but not all.
C-Rank means that said weapon isn’t particularly useful in most situations.

Alright! With the format covered, everything will be covered alphabetically. Let’s get to it!

The Accelerator

Starting off strong, we have your typical railgun. Tapping the LMB causes the Accelerator to lob a rather… disappointing projectile in a short, clumsy arc. As a result, you quickly learn not to do that. The Accelerator is the first of many guns with a charge mechanic. Fully charge the gun by holding the LMB, and said projectile becomes a hitscan lance of heavy damage.

Now that’s impressive by itself, but what elevates the Accelerator is that it has a critical charge mechanic. By firing at the exact moment the charging cycle completes, the charged shot takes on a red colouration, dealing guaranteed critical damage while piercing enemies. It’s rather easy to judge due to the visual cue of the gun’s armature sliding back coupled with a distinctive sound when the cycle completes. Learn the rhythm of the Accelerator and it becomes extraordinarily deadly in just about any situation, though it does suffer against swarms.

Rank: A

The Aftershock

A rather wonderful introduction to the world of Vibro weapons, the Aftershock is a portable bullet-hell machine. A submachine gun with ricocheting rounds, the Aftershock is generally designed to be sprayed in the general direction of enemies rather than being used for precise kills. The reason for this is simple: Vibro weapons are fundamentally based around crowd control. The Vibro status spreads damage between all enemies with Vibro stacks on them, meaning that groups can be dealt with rather quickly by simply firing indiscriminately into them. What’s more is that successive hits can trigger the Resonance effect, slowing the entire group while dealing even more Vibro damage, possibly causing a chain reaction.

All in all, a very solid weapon, but not exactly one you want to rely on in a boss fight due to lack of single-target damage.

NOTE: If you ever see an Aftershock with Multishot on it, GRAB IT. It’s a quick and easy way of making life miserable for everyone in the tower who isn’t you.

Rank: A

The Banisher

A rather curious weapon for the style of gameplay encouraged by Battle Shapers, the Banisher is a semi-auto DMR with a substantial bonus to precision hits (headshots, really). While it’s hitscan rounds are quite effective the Banisher suffers from partially sharing a niche with the Accelerator, both being long-range precision weapons but the latter largely being more effective. I think it largely comes down to preference. Are you precise enough to consistently land the headshots the Banisher specializes in delivering, or does the Accelerator’s rhythm feel much more natural to you? For me it’s the latter, and as a result the Banisher has always felt somewhat lackluster by comparison.

Rank: B

The Battering Ram

Oh dear.

I have to admit, the Battering Ram has the rather unfortunate distinction of being one of extremely few video game shotguns that I just don’t like. It’s damage is decent for it’s role but a variety of factors combine to make it feel extremely lackluster, including but not limited to it’s single-round magazine and it’s extremely cartoony sound effect. My advice: just recycle it, you can find something better.

Rank: C

The Crescent Blade

The second (and last) of the railgun-type weapons, the Crescent Blade is a rather technical piece of hardware. Tapping the LMB fires a wide but slow projectile that deals Shock damage. Charging the weapon allows it to fire a much wider projectile that pierces through enemies, allowing you to hit entire groups if positioned correctly. While this sounds great on paper, I find that the time spent trying to cultivate these big hits are generally better spent paying attention to your own position and nearby threats. In short, it’s a weapon that can easily cause tunnel-vision on things that aren’t actually that important in your current situation, which isn’t helped by the fact that it’s charge cycle doesn’t give nearly as much feedback as that of the Accelerator.

Rank: B

The Crimson Repeater

A rather incredible little handcannon, the Crimson Repeater is best defined by a few things. On one hand it’s the first Pyro weapon you’re likely to find, with it’s standard fire delivering rather accurate incendiary rounds. What really makes the Crimson Repeater special is it’s combination of a fast charge time, and a charge shot that throws out a homing round that detonates in a rather spectacular explosion on impact. These traits combine to create a weapon that is extremely efficient at dishing out damage at any range, doubly so when those Pyro stacks build up enough to proc the Meltdown status. In all seriousness, there is no time in a run where this gun is a poor choice.

If you see it, grab it. If it has Multishot, you’re set for the rest of the run.

Rank: S

The Firestarter

The first of the grenade launchers (though it took me much longer to get), the Firestarter fires timed sticky grenades in bursts of three. With a bit of a horizontal spread, it can be difficult to hit a target with more than one of the grenades without being at point-blank range, and you can forget about hitting flying targets. In spite of that, the Firestarter has extremely respectable damage output and can dish out Meltdown procs to multiple targets in extremely rapid fashion with it’s sizeable blast radius. It’s great against ground targets and bosses alike. Quite a solid choice in my opinion.

NOTE: Devs, I am talking directly to you. Please for all that’s good in the world change this thing’s emissives to orange instead of white. It looks so wrong compared to the other Pyro weapons.

Rank: A

The Ion Blaster

A solid all-around choice, the Ion Blaster is more of a precision handgun than it’s cousins. Dealing Shock damage on hit with an additional Shock stack from precision hits, the Ion Blaster can easily deal out repeated EMP procs on priority targets, keeping them exactly where you want them.

NOTE: This gun may actually have one of the coolest reload animations ever. Props to whomever at Metric Empire is responsible for that.

Rank: A

The Needleator

A decent all-rounder, the Needleator only really suffers from being a Kinetic weapon. While that doesn’t sound so bad, it means that more specialized “elemental” weapons tend to outpace it as they can utilize status effects and procs. It’s a decent stop-gap weapon but not something you want to rely on.

Rank: B

The Plasma Carbine

If you haven’t noticed it yet, Pyro weapons tend to make things explode, and the Plasma Carbine is no exception. An assault rifle with a slower rate of fire, the Plasma Carbine is very effective at delivering a constant stream of Pyro stacks and Meltdown procs to both single targets and small groups. It’s equally effective against all targets, including Juggernauts as it’s explosive rounds allow it to deal consistent damage despite their shields. While the recoil per shot is a bit heavy, the slower rate of fire ensures the weapon is always controllable (maybe not so much under the effects of Rapidfire, though). Never a bad choice.

Rank: A

The Quiver

Took us long enough to get to another Vibro weapon. The Quiver is another excellent example of how Vibro weapons focus on crowd control, firing slightly slow, but perfectly accurate projectiles that pierce through any enemies in front of them and radiate Vibro pulses as they travel. While very effective at spreading Vibro stacks through groups of enemies, it’s slow projectile and low magazine capacity mean that the Quiver lacks flexibility, making it a more… situational weapon, and not one you want to take into boss fights.

Rank: B

The Raging Blaze

Simply put, the Raging Blaze is a flamethrower. You’d think a flamethrower would be emblematic of Pyro weapons as a whole but unfortunately, it just isn’t very good. It’s range can be difficult to judge, the projectile hitboxes feel inconsistent at close range, and despite it’s cavernous magazine, it actually does very little damage per “shot”, relying purely on weight of Pyro stacks and Meltdown procs. Is it usable? Yes, but it’s also dangerous because of how close you need to get and generally there are better options.

Rank: C

The Scourge

Or as I like to call it, the softball launcher. The Scourge is the second genade launcher on the list and unlike the Firestarter, fires a single round at a time. These grenades deal Kinetic damage and have both enormous knockback and a huge blast radius. While that may sound impressive, my nickname for it stands because it actually does rather low damage, specializing more in knocking enemies around than anything else. It’s a weapon where it’s actual effectiveness is closely tied to the Core you’re currently using, with the Wind Core probably getting the most out of it. As such, ranking it will be a bit different.

Rank: B (with Wind Core)
C (with anything else)

The Shock Rifle

An interesting addition to the Shock family of weapons, the Shock rifle fires a stream of accurate projectiles that cause electrical arcs to nearby enemies on hit. Overall, it’s a respectable gun without any real downsides but it doesn’t exactly stand out much aside from the crowd control provided by it’s arcs, potentially causing EMP procs. A solid choice in just about any situation.

Rank: A

The Sonic Lance

The Sonic Lance is a weapon I personally find to be questionable. It fires three-round bursts of wide and slow Vibro waves that pierce through enemies. As you’ve probably guessed like with all Vibro weapons before it, the Sonic Lance specializes in spreading around as many Vibro stacks as possible. That’s all well and good, but my main problems with it are that the waves seem to collide with terrain far too easily, and the burst feels… awful. I can’t fully articulate why. Maybe it’s just because of how long it takes to get all three shots out, but I can’t stand it and this is from someone who likes burst-fire weapons.

Both the Quiver and Aftershock are better. Don’t bother with this thing if you have one of them already.

Rank: C

The Stormcaller

The first of the “special launchers”, the Stormcaller honestly feels like Battle Shaper’s version of the Mega Buster, and I mean that in the best possible way. True to my claim, it has a charge mechanic. Uncharged shots are small but fast energy blasts that explode on impact, dealing a solid chunk of damage. Fully charging the weapon discharges a large energy orb that will slowly travel in a straight line, piercing through all enemies and bouncing off walls. You may be tempted to rely entirely on charged shots but trust me, the uncharged shot is good enough that you don’t need to.

Of the three “special launchers” the Stormcaller is best in class.

Rank: A

The Tectonic Launcher

Alright, the time has come.

This is the Tectonic Launcher.

This is the worst weapon in the game, and I hate saying that because the idea behind it is great, but in practice it just doesn’t work. In function, the Tectonic Launcher is a fully automatic rocket launcher that projects a constant stream of airbursting Vibro warheads. Now that sounds fantastic in concept, I thought so, but the weapon is ruined by one thing: it’s rockets are range-fused. They detonate after travelling a certain distance, which means that unless you’re firing at the wall or floor (which is made completely useless if you’ve picked up bullet-ricochet cores) the Tectonic Launcher will only damage enemies in an extremely specific range band, and 90% of the time, they won’t be in it. I’m not even sure if it benefits from the explosion size bonus from the Volt Core. I’ve tested it and it didn’t seem to make a difference.

For this, I have to give it my lowest rank.

Rank: F

Now I have a plan for this and any other time in the future when I give something the F-Rank. I will make a suggestion to fix this weapon. In this case, Devs, please remove the range-fuse and replace it with a proximity-fuse. This alone will remove virtually all of the frustration that currently stems from trying to use this thing. I’m not trying to tell you how to make your game, I just hate seeing a weapon that just doesn’t work.

The Wildfire

The last of the “special launchers”, the Wildfire is probably the closest to being a conventional rocket launcher, but it has a very special trick up it’s sleeve. As the rocket travels, it drops a constant stream of explosive plasma orbs that detonate on contact with enemies or the ground. In the latter case a burning puddle is spawned that will deal Pyro damage to any enemy that touches it. This makes the Wildfire a surprisingly technical weapon compared to the rest of the Pyro family. It gives you the choice of delivering direct damage with the rocket, or carpet-bombing entire sections of the room by firing it overhead. It’s a cool trick but one I generally don’t find to be particularly useful outside of certain circumstances.

Rank: B