User blog:RefillSunset/How to Augment guns

The last time i created a page for this, GoldenApple deleted it because he thought it should belong to a blog post, so here we are.

One of the greatest differences between SAS4 and its predecessors is that the guns can now be upgraded to maximize their potential and cover their weaknesses. So far I've seen so many people asking, "How should I augment gun X?" or "I have a 5** gun Y, what should I put there?" that I have decided to post this guideline to help. This guideline is just derived from my personal experience, not directly from any NK community, so you guys don't really have to agree to it (even if it WAS from NK community, you still don't need to agree to it).

Please comment below to let me know how you think, or if you need advice, or anything. Don't comment below if you want extra weapons or strongboxes, i can't give you those. All i can is give you photos.

Augments:
1)       Deadly: Double damage is never wrong. At lvl 10, guns have damage increased by 100%. All guns need to have Deadly Augmented, except for guns that don’t focus on straight-on damage, like the Stripper or the Ronson Flamethrower. In this case, augment Tenacious to maximize the Damage over Time

2)       Overclocked: At lvl 10, guns give you 100% fire rate. Technically double fire rate means double damage output over a period of time, but don’t augment Overclocked for every gun. Remember, there are semi-auto guns, and normal people can hardly click faster than 9rps, and that is when you are not aiming. Overclocked is welcome for all full-auto guns as it means 4 times the damage with Deadly augmented, but don’t augment a Striker or a Sabre. Also, do keep in mind that you can only fire as long as the clip still has bullets. Augmenting a Ronson 55 with Overclocked and nothing else is NOT smart.

3)       Capacity: With great power comes great responsibility. With great fire rate comes great need for an increased clip size. At level 10, capacity gives your gun 150% of the normal clip, which is very useful to keep your gun firing constantly at hordes. This augment is particularly useful for guns that have too small a clip size, or too small for its fire rate (I.E. Stripper or Hard Thorn). It is also important as the HD ammo you receive from Field Supplies depend on this (with lvl 5 mastery, HD ammo is more powerful than ever before).

4)       Tenacious: Similar to deadly, at lvl 10, tenacious increases the damage over Time by 100%. Again, extra damage is never wrong. Tenacious is especially useful for guns that have or focus on Damage over Time. However, there are always questions of “Should I get Deadly or Tenacious?” for guns that do BOTH direct damage and damage over time. See FAQ for more details.

5)       Biosynthesis: Sure sounds cool but in fact Biosynthesis is not good enough to sustain your life in a battle. A normal Shambler deals around 35 damage. Even at level 10, Biosynthesis only gives you 30 health per kill, not even enough to compensate a single hit from a Shambler. Sure, you do have armor, but shamblers don’t really come one by one either.

6)       Piercing: Piercing also counts towards the number of zombies the Gigavolt or the Trailblazer can arc to. At level 10, it technically increases the damage of the gun by [initial pierce x 100%] (if its initial pierce is 1, then 100%. If 2 pierce, 200%). However, remember very rarely do zombies line up for you to shoot. It is not smart to augment piercing to the RIA 50, for instance, since 12 pierce will not do you any good.

7)       Pinpoint: At max level pinpoint gives your gun 9% larger chance to deal critical hits. This is only effective if you have a lot of skill points in Critical shots for your character. Otherwise, wasting an entire augment space just to have 9 shots out of 100 that deal 5% more damage is not worth it at all. Generally, this augment is not very good as too many skill points are wasted to make it viable, but with the new sniper rifle mastery, crits have become more considerable.

8)       Race-modded: I always have questions for people who love to augment Race-modded: Why not augment Capacity? Why not upgrade your gloves to improve reload speed? Why not put skill points in reload speed? Of course, there are cases where Race-modded is better than capacity, such as in a Mustang, when Capacity is not available, but there are always other places where you can upgrade your reloading speed, and hardly any place where you can upgrade the clip size or damage of your gun.

9)       Adaptive: At max level adaptive ignores 40% of enemy resistance. While I had not thought much of it, Adaptive is surprisingly good for certain guns that you use as your primary weapon. For instance, it takes around 5-6 shots for my Striker to kill a Fiery Skin-Regenerating-Apex Bloater. Not bad. If you have a large variety of guns to choose from, then simply use another gun to take down zombies that resist your damage type, but what makes adaptive great is at taking down zombies that resist ALL kinds of damage type, or just handy for lazy people.

10)   Skeletonized: Once again, there are many ways to increase your move speed or reduce the speed penalty rather than using a precious augment space. The Heavy class’ skill extends to all guns but an augmentation does not.

11)   Enlarged: There is very limited advice I can give on this augment as I do not use Rocket Launchers, but one thing I do know is that Enlarged is useless if you are not facing a crowd. When facing a crowd, why not toss a few nades? Why not fire off one more shot?

I hope this helps you guys augmenting guns. If there are any specific questions or advice, comment below. Happy hunting. ==FAQ ==

Q1: Should I augment Deadly or Tenacious or both on my gun?
A1: First thing you should know is that DoT are extra sauce to the original damage for most guns. Straight on damage is usually better than damage over time except for the Stripper and the Flamethrower. Since there aren’t that many guns with Damage over Time I’ll list them out. These are just my personal opinions and advice.

<p class="MsoNormal">1) Poison Claw: Tenacious. This gun needs more pierce and capacity, and the DoT is stronger than the damage.

<p class="MsoNormal">2) Stripper: Tenacious as base damage is too weak, while DoT is very powerful.

<p class="MsoNormal">3) Flamerthrower: Tenacious unless you really really want to take zombies down THAT quickly. Even in that case, overclocked might be better. Besides, the base damage of this gun is very low as well.

<p class="MsoNormal">4) Ria T7: Both, or Deadly along with overclocked. Again, damage is superior to DoT, but this cheap SMG could afford some extra damage.

<p class="MsoNormal">5) Ria 20 Striker: Deadly, as DoT is weaker. Tenacious might be useful but currently I find adaptive more handy. Either way is fine, really.

<p class="MsoNormal">6) HIKS: Both. This gun packs a real punch and with both, it packs a super strong mega-sized punch. While people may prefer capacity and overclocked, I don’t see the need for capacity as the reload isn’t that long.

Q2: How do I augment Gun X?
<p class="MsoNormal">A2: The following is listed according to the priority of the augments according to what I prefer. It may not suit you, and you might find other augments much more useful.

<p class="MsoNormal">I will not offer explanations for augmenting Deadly Capacity Overclocked or Deadly Capacity Piercing because it just increases the overall damage.

<p class="MsoNormal">Pistols: Masteries sure help out a lot but it is very hard to get lvl 5 mastery for pistols, and most masteries increase the movement speed anyway.

<p class="MsoNormal">-HVM 001: Deadly, Capacity, Race-modded. Pistols are mainly for extremely desperate cases so it’s best the reload is quick

<p class="MsoNormal">-Trailblazer: Deadly, Capacity, Race-modded/Piercing so you can fire longer with more arcs to zombies.

<p class="MsoNormal">-Poison Claw: Tenacious, Piercing, Race-modded as this gun works best with more pierce and the reload is slow.

<p class="MsoNormal">-Ria 313: Deadly, Capacity, Race-modded.

<p class="MsoNormal">-CM202: Deadly, Capacity, Race-modded.

<p class="MsoNormal">-CM205: Deadly, Capacity, Overclocked/Piercing. This gun should be treated as an SMG.

<p class="MsoNormal">-Ronson 45: Capacity, Deadly, Adaptive. This pistol is excellent and what it requires is just a larger clip and more power.

<p class="MsoNormal">-Sabre: Deadly, Capacity, Adaptive. Similar to Ronson 45

<p class="MsoNormal">-Mustang: Deadly, Race-modded, Piercing/Adaptive. This gun should be treated it as a quick-reload quick-firing shotgun. With the new masteries I heard capacity can be augmented, but I’m not sure.

<p class="MsoNormal">SMGs: Masteries reduce (and nearly eliminate) the need for piercing, but the extra clip size and damage is just insufficent

<p class="MsoNormal">-HVM 002: Deadly, Capacity, Overclocked.

<p class="MsoNormal">-CM 307: Deadly, Capacity, Overclocked.

<p class="MsoNormal">-Ria 7: Deadly, Capacity, Overclocked

<p class="MsoNormal">-Ria T-7: Deadly, Tenacious/Overclocked, Capacity for extra damage

<p class="MsoNormal">-CM 351 Sunflare: Deadly, Overclocked, Capacity. This is an excellent replacement for some assault rifles but will need more damage.

<p class="MsoNormal">-Ronson 55: Deadly, Capacity, Race-modded/Overclocked

<p class="MsoNormal">-Phantom: Deadly, Capacity, Race-modded/Overclocked.

<p class="MsoNormal">Assault Rifles: Assault Rifle masteries increases the general power, nothing specific, except Hard Thorn no longer needs piercing

<p class="MsoNormal">-Ronson 65-a: Deadly, Capacity, Overclocked.

<p class="MsoNormal">-Raptor: Deadly, Capacity, Overclocked.

<p class="MsoNormal">-CM Gigavolt: Capacity, Deadly, Overclocked/Piercing.

<p class="MsoNormal">-RIA 20 DSC: Deadly, Capacity, Adaptive. You can’t click so fast with a semi auto gun

<p class="MsoNormal">-RIA 20 PARA: Deadly, Capacity, Overclocked.

<p class="MsoNormal">-RIA 20 Striker: Deadly, Capacity, Adaptive. You can’t click so fast with semi-auto gun. Adaptive to make it more useful in higher levels.

<p class="MsoNormal">-CM 405 Planet Stormer: Deadly, Capacity, Overclocked/Adaptive. Adaptive so the gun doesn’t devour so much cash

<p class="MsoNormal">-CM 451 Starburst: Deadly, Capacity, Overclocked.

<p class="MsoNormal">-HVM 005 G-Class: Deadly, Capacity, Overclocked.

<p class="MsoNormal">-Mixmaster: Deadly, Overclocked, Adaptive. This gun’s damage far outshines its reputation. With damage like that, you hardly need a larger clip as zombies will be dead in seconds. Adaptive will make it more viable for higher levels

<p class="MsoNormal">-Sub-Light COM2: Capacity, Deadly, Overclocked/Adaptive. Overall a balanced and good gun, just improve all stats to make it more useful in higher levels.

<p class="MsoNormal">-Hard Thorn: Deadly, Capacity, Overclocked/Adaptive, to make it more useful in higher levels.

<p class="MsoNormal">Shotguns: Shotgun masteries hardly affect the general usage of a shotgun. Range? Please, everyone knows shotguns are for close range

<p class="MsoNormal">-HVM 004: Deadly, Capacity, Piercing/Adaptive. This is a great primary gun.

<p class="MsoNormal">-RIA 30 Strikeforce: Deadly, Tenacious, Piercing. Check my gun reviews for reason (it’s too long to explain here)

<p class="MsoNormal">-Stripper: Tenacious, Capacity, Overclocked. Kinda similar to normal augments, but with Tenacious for extra damage

<p class="MsoNormal">-1887 Shockfield: Capacity, Deadly, Race-modded. This is a great primary gun, except the clip is just too small, so you can see I use two augments to allow continuous firing.

<p class="MsoNormal">LMGs:

<p class="MsoNormal">-CM 505: Deadly, Overclocked, Adaptive. Similar to the Mixmaster.

<p class="MsoNormal">-HVM 008: Deadly, Capacity, Overclocked.

<p class="MsoNormal">-Ronson LBM: Deadly, Adaptive, Piercing. With firing rate like that, the clip is acceptable, What you need is something to upgrade the damage, but maintain the low economical cost in using this gun.

<p class="MsoNormal">-Supermarine: Deadly, Overclocked, Adaptive. Kinda like the CM 505, but slightly weaker.

<p class="MsoNormal">Sniper Rifles: With Masteries, many people are going crit-based snipers. Personally, I don’t, because I prefer a more stable (yet high) source for damage.

<p class="MsoNormal">-Ria 50: Deadly, Overclocked/Adaptive, Capacity. Not much good for higher levels, but not much good for anything else either, so just use it as a gun before you find the HIKS.

<p class="MsoNormal">-Hornet: Deadly, Capacity, Overclocked/Adaptive. Just like a Sublight COM2.

<p class="MsoNormal">-HIKS S300: Deadly, Tenacious, Adaptive/Capacity/Overclocked, to just increase the damage in all possible ways.

<p class="MsoNormal">I cannot give comments on Rocket Launchers, I’m afraid, since I don’t use them at all.