Talk:Hard Thorn/@comment-71.138.134.60-20140712061416/@comment-173.61.190.180-20140712194916

In my opinion, it's a tough call for which gun to use. The HVM 004's two pierce makes it useful for crowd control, but it being semi-auto means that you have to click constantly, and I can barely click ten times per second continuously to max out the 004's DPS.

There's a five-damage difference between the HVM 004 (70 dmg x 6 flechettes) and the Hard Thorn (85 dmg x 5 flechettes), which is pretty insignificant, except that you get the 004 slightly earlier. The Hard Thorn uses assault rifle ammo, though, which is half as expensive as the shotgun ammo the 004 uses ($80 for 200 vs $80 for 100).

The Hard Thorn's one pierce to me balances out the fact that it is full-auto, so to my preference, I would go with the Hard Thorn, but still keep an HVM 004 with lots of augments, or a [RED] HVM 004, which in my experience, is obtained much earlier than a [RED] Hard Thorn.