You have just gotten into Loadout, ready to get into the Weaponcrafting as soon as possible, the incredible amount of possible combinations making you hungry for your very own weapon...but then there is the question: What weapon DO I actually want? What role do I want to take, or what kind of playstyle actually suits me? That's what I made this guide for: To help creating a weapon (or several ones) that are not only efficient, badass and outright awesome, but also something that represents YOU!

To all those that already know what they want, this guide might not really what you need, but could prove some interesting ideas nonetheless. This guide mainly aims at helping new or uncertain players to find their unique playstyle among the many ones that one can possibly create in Loadout, yet it should also spark the creativity within the readers of this guide, so you might find something, an idea or an example of mine, that sparks your interest, who knows?

That said, let us start with the layout of this guide, which is separated into three sections:

• The Basics: What the guns are made out of and what the stats mean
  
• Payloads and stats: Fine-tuning in detail!
  
• A little bit of Tesla, a dash of rocket: Combining everything into YOUR gun!

I confirm that this guide was written 100% by me, Gin-German and is not copied from another guide or person's work, nor is it published in the name of another person aside me. LOADOUT and all related trademarks belong to Edge of Reality and not me, I just made this guide. All screen shots are taken from in-game and show beta-gameplay footage, thus are still (at the point of writing this guide) subject to changes on the part of Edge of Reality.

Okay, you started Loadout and went STRAIGHT to the Weaponcrafting and went through the brief tutorial that showed you how to build a weapon and wish to go straight creating one, but still have complications about what part does exactly what? Then let me explain you the details of the weapon, what changes and differences the different parts have and how they affect the stats of the weapon (and what the stats mean).




(Important note: I am referring to Tier I parts here to prevent too many spoilers!)


The Chassis is basically what defines the Weapon's Ammo and what "type" of ammunition it fires, making the choice of the chassis a very important step. Currently (as of the point this guide is/was written) there are four different Chassis, the Rifle, Launcher, Pulse, and Beam.

The Rifle is, simply put, the "classical", bullet firing gun-chassis that relies on the old-reliable method of shooting lead at high velocities at your enemies to turn them into swiss cheese. There is nothing spectacular about it, but that does not mean that this gun is at disadvantage in Loadout! The Rifle fires high-velocity bullets and fires the second-fastest ammunition in the game (Beam being the fastest) and is also among the fastest firing chassis too. Their damage is mediocre, making them wonderful all-purpose weapons, especially when combined with Payloads (more on that later).

The Launcher is the stereotypical rocket launcher with a twist: Amongst the classical one-shot firemode with huge damage this chassis can, especially when combines with proper Payloads, a devastating weapon. Unique to the Beam and Launcher weapon, the gun does not feature a catridge or magazine that contains the ammo, but in case of the launcher it's rather up to the amount of rockets that are attatched to the gun (more on that at the "Magazine" section). The Launcher has also the highest amount of customization options to its ammo than any other chassis, allowing for a variety of different "rockets" to be fired with different effects and playstyles.

The Pulse seems like a cross-breed of the Rifle and the Beam chassis, firing round projectiles of energy that float through the air at a rather slow velocity. It fires slower than the Rifle Chassis, but makes up for that with greater accuracy and higher damage, which cam be easily amplified with the use of Payloads. Much like the rifle, the projectiles are fired in rapid succession, yet the slower speed leaves the opponent a little more time to react, but this can also be abused to your own favor to fire at pursuing enemies that run into the oncoming hail of pulse balls after runnin around a corner.

The Beam Chassis seems to come straight from the future, offering a low-power, INSTANT-HIT laser that always has an accuracy of 100% as it fires in a straight line. Unique to it is the complete lack of ammunition, which is replaced by a heat gauge. Continuously firing the beam starts to heat the weapon up, which goes on without penalty until it hits 100%, which overheats the weapon for several seconds before cooling off again like normal. Making clever use of the instant hit function of the laser (which as in fact NOT infinite range!) and the constant cooldown can let a skillful player harass enemies without end



(Here you can see the different types of Chassis as well as the five parts of the gun you can change.)






Now that the Chassis is either chosen or considered, let's take a look at the different parts the weapons have. There are four of them for both Beam and Launcher Chassis and five for the Pulse and Rifle Chassis, which use Magazines as fifth part. The indivudual parts are called Stock, Scope, Barrel, Trigger and Magazine.

The Stock is important for defining the recoil of your weapon, ranging from redicing impact by a large deal at the cost of damage and stopping power or even lighter stocks to increase both recoil and damage. Recoil does not affect the stat for accuracy at all, but when testing the weapon by firing it will show that the jitter of the weapon can indeed have a heavy impact on the ACTUAL accuracy of your firing!

The Scope defines the level of zoom the weapon offers, along with the accuracy when firing while "zooming" in with it. They do not affect the hip firing accuracy, but is important when wishing to fire at targets further away, even more so when trying to snipe enemies from afar. Damage is not affected by this though, so one might consider a different Scope when range does not really matter.

The Barrel is one of the more defining parts of the weapon, as it is affects all attributes by a fair amount, most importantly the effective range of the weapon. A fast firing barrel has of course a shorter range than the sniping barrel, so the barrel is crucial at setting the range where enemies are best fought in. The maximum firing speed is also set by the barrel (in combination with the Trigger and magazine, see Stats section for more) and the damage is mostly affected by the barrel as well, so beware what barrel you choose. Lastly, the Launcher Chassis uses the barrel to define the amount of rockets loaded instead of a magazine and reloading replaces the whole stack of rockets in one go. Remind that in case you want a launcher with more ammunition!

The Trigger alters, aside the firing speed and slightly the damage of your gun, the "firemode" your weapon will have. Semi-Automatic is the classical "Fire as fast as you pull the trigger" firemode, while full-auto is self-explanatory. Spooling is a faster version of full-auto, yet needs time to "wind-up" proprtly, much like a minigun (which has NOTHING to do with the barrel! You can use a Spooling trigger with a silencer or any other barrel too!). 2- round and 3-round burst fire two and three bullets (respectively) in rapid succession and while the shots are fired without any interference inbetween the single shots, the recoil after they are fired is increased drastically. Triggers apply (With few exceptions) to all guns, so a Rifle with three-round burst could make a good weapon to ambush players, or a spooling trigger with Minigun barrel can make a fast firing weapon that tears through enemies like a lawnmower.

The Magazine is the last remaining part and only available for the Rifle and Pulse weapon, but they control how much ammo can be fired before needing to reload. Standart Magazines carry 50 bullets/charges and extended ones 150, yet the latter takes longer to reload. The Catridge magazine loads bullets as individual shells (think of loading a pumpgun) with increased damage for the weapon due to the limited amount of bullets. The Bolt-Action magazine loads, as the name implies, one single bullet that packs a LOT more damage than all other magazines do, but reloads the slowest of them all. Ideal for snipers and those who prefer 1 Powerful shot this magazine offers the least flexibility of all types of magazines.



(Notice the lack of a Magazine Slot and instead the focus on the Barrel part)

Now that the gun's components are taken care of, let's get to the last two technical topics: The Payloads and the stats (and what they stand for). First we are going to look at the Payloads, which play a major role regarding damage and support in the game.



(Behold: The Payloads in all their glory!)




Payloads affect the gun you built in a very important way because they set the type of damage you do with your weapon. Alternatively you can choose one of the two support Payloads (Healing and Juice) to aid your teammates rather than damage your foes. The Payloads are as following:

Slug: Slug deals kinetic damage to enemies and can be regarded as "physical" damage which offers no ups or downs and a mediocre demage output. Rifles shoot bullets, Launchers explode like normal and Pulse and Beam are firing yellow-colored energy that deals the same kinetic damage as the other two weapons. A good all-rounder this Payload is combined with the Rifle Chassis and Sniper Barrel excelling at long range, but a good ol-fashined machinegun never hurt anybody (except your enemies ;)

Tesla Nikolai Tesla was not only a genius that invented the tesla coil and many other things modern electronical devices use, he also laid the foundation for one of the coolest weapons ever: Tesla weapons, which are "shockingly" effective to hurt multiple enemies with chain-lightning and the power of electricity! Tesla Payloads lower a weapon's damage in return for the ability to deal more damage to shields and enemy turrets, as well as the abilty to hurt enemies close to your actual target by letting the lightning "hop" onto them. This is best used in situations where enemies are likely to crowd together or to destroy enemy shields and turrets in a jiffy, but otherwise are too weak to compete against the other Payloads.

Pyro: Burn baby, BURN! Just as it says on the tin, the Pyro Payload will coat your foes in flames and leave them burning for several seconds before running out and combining the initial damage with the damage done over time it does the most damage of all Loadouts. Additionally, burning enemies that bump into teammates (or your firends bumping into you and vice versa) ignite their buddies too, so punish people for hugging close together and avoid being lit up by a friend yourself! On the top of that, if the burning player carries a beam weapon it will start to overheat! The only downside is that the fire can be put by rolling across the floor into any direction, limiting the effect if your enemy has fast reflexes. This game might be very silly sometimes, but "stop drop n' roll" works pretty fine in this game.

Health: This Payload is not about damaging the enemy, it's putting you (or rather the gun) in a supportive role rather than an offensive one. Your deadly ammunition is replaced with syringes full of healing liquid that can boost BOTH friend and foe, so watch your aiming! Like in Team Fortress 2, the players can be overhealed up to 150% of their life, which wears off after some time has passed, though overhealing often raises the survivability enormously. When wiedling a Health weapon your own health regenerates on its own too, so when you have one in your Loadout you should switch to it when retreating or changing places to heal yourself to some degree while on the move.

The Juice Juice is healthy and works wonders for the body they say, but THIS kind of Juice packs a real punch in quite the literal sense. Similar to the Health Payload, the Juice lets you fire syringes, albeit with a liquid that gives your teammates a buff that increases their speed, melee and weapon damage depending how much you pumped into them. The effect wears off like overheal, but does not actually heal them and instead makes them faster and deadlier. Also, instead of healing yourself when wielding a weapon with Juice loaded, you are faster and stronger too (albeit not as much as when buffed by others).



Weapon assembled, Payload checked: Let's look at the stats!

Even though you might lose track what part does what or what each part does, the stats and how they change give a direct input how your weapon will fare in battle. Six stats are there and if you check on these you can always make a quick check what your weapon can do and what not.

Damage: Self-explanatory, this shows your maximum damage with the weapon, though the actual damage dealt is also set by the effective range of the weapon.

Range: The effective range of your weapon. This is ONLY affected by the choice of the barrel and shows where it will operate at full power. The general rule is the closer you are the more damage you do, but the distance at which your shot gets weaker varies with the effective range, so don't try to snipe at someone right in front of them.

Rate of Fire (RoF): Maximum amount of projectiles fired per second. IMPORTANT: This value shows your POSSIBLE maximum rate of fire while the Trigger you choose sets the ACTUAL rate of fire. For example the gatling Barrel of the rifle can achieve a whopping 30 bullets per second with a spooling trigger, but only 8 with 2-round burst.

Hip Accuracy: Your accuracy (as in the spread of the weapon) when firing your weapon while not zooming. Again the barrel sets most of this value while the Stock can give a minor adjustment to this. Independent of Aim Accuracy.

Aim Accuracy: Aim accuracy shows the spread when aiming through the scope or irons. Independent of Hip Accuracy and mostly set by the scope you use and somewhat by the barrel.

Reload Time: Self-Explanatory, though remind that the Beam weapon does not really "reload" but cool down at a certain pace. Mostly set by the magazine, though the Launcher Chassis defines it through the barrel.

Clip Size: Again pretty simple, it shows the number of bullets that can be in your weapon at once. Set by the Magazine Part for Rifle and Pulse Chassis, the Beam Chassis needs none and the Launcher gains bigger clips through different Barrels.

Stability: This shows how strong your weapon will "jitter" around due to recoil when firing. The value is set by the the Trigger, Magazine (For Rifle and Pulse), Barrel, Scope and Stock.

Alright then! After learning every nook and cranny of the guns let's talk about the stuff you came here for: Assembling the parts into the gun you want! I'll give no specific facts here, just a few tips and tricks to use when thinking of interesting combinations:


This is probably the most important thing: What do you like to do when playing shooters? Are you new to shooters or not used to multiplayer shooters of this kind? Want a lot of damage or rather speed and agility? This is the first thing to regard if you want to succeed here and it's not an easy one, thus do not fear to dabble with the testing function or test-play some matches with your loadouts and weapons. You can always disassemble guns to regain all parts you used (or bought) to build it and thus can recombine them anew later on.



If you know where you belong, remember what kind of set-up can aid your goal. Snipers do not need to rely on the Sniper Barrel if they want, you can also use an Assault or even Silencer Barrel in combination with Shell Loading or Bolt-Action Magazines to play a more versatile sniper, or if you fancy it close-up why not take a shotgun with either Pyro or Tesla to damage players over time or in groups?

Launchers do not need to be "rocket" launchers as they can be amplified with several features, like being lobbed, having bouncy projectiles or even ones that stick to the ground they land on to act as mines! Sticky mines that can be triggered remotely make GREAT for luring the unexpecting into traps and Tesla launchers bring death to groups.

Healing others is also an option, but NEVER wield both a Health and Juice weapon at once unless you have teammates you can rely on. If you wield both at once you have little to not offensive capabilities aside your melee attack and your support item, making you a sitting duck when alone.



This game is not only about building "awesome" guns that do a lot of damage, but also to built some really whacky ones! Why not build a sniper rifle with Health or Juice Payload? Buff your mates fom afar and from safety while keeping a weapon for those that come close! Lay mines and lure for prey and guard Control Points or use remote controlled Rockets to steer around corners for a nasty surprise, or use the health payload to ensure a big, healthy rocket lands right in front of your buddie's feet!

The possibilities are neigh endless and even "stupid" or "iditotic" guns can affect the gameplay if used accordingly, even if it is a silenced single-bolt healing rifle with Long Range scope! As you unlock more parts you can make even better weapons, suiting your personal playstyle as you want it to, though keep in mind that you SHOULD have some "plain" weapons in store when functionality has priority.



As if the weapon alone was not enough, a complete Loadout includes to weapons, an outfit and a support item you unlock as you progress levels. Pairing weapons can be as important as making a single gun, for the symbiosis of the guns you choose may let you alternate between two playstyles or even out the drawbacks of the other weapon. In any case a good match of weapons and item can make a huge difference.

For example a deployable turret can help defend Control points or make up for the lack of firepower when playing supportive and a deployable health station can be used as support for teammates at the frontline or be hidden as a method to recover wounds rapidly while defending yourself with massive firepower. If you combine weapons and item you can further enhance the playstyle a single weapon would give you!

Finally, I thank you for reading my guide which I wrote in hopes to help people understand the game's most awesome feature and have something to always check on and to refer to others to give them a brief overview about the details of the weaponcrafting in Loadout.

Many thanks for reading and please leave a comment if you like it and perhaps some advice or constructive criticism on how to improve my guide or on what I missed. As a final note, this guide was written on the 25th and 26th of Mai 2013, when the game was still in Beta Phase, so it is still prone to changes, additions and similar as the gameplay may change.

Sincerely
Gin-German