What Are Temporary Weapons?
Temporary weapons are single-use items equipped alongside your primary and secondary weapons during combat. Unlike regular weapons, they are consumed after use and must be restocked. They are used strategically to gain an edge in a fight either by dealing extra damage, weakening your opponent, or boosting your own stats.
The Temporary Mastery merit increases the potency and accuracy of damaging temporary weapons but has no effect on non-damaging ones.
Damaging Temporary Weapons
These deal direct damage to your opponent in a single hit. Damaging temporary weapons generally have higher Accuracy than primary, secondary, or melee weapons.
Here are the main ones and their stats:
- Nail Bomb — Damage: 99 | Accuracy: 106 | Best damage temp in the game.
- HEG — Damage: 90 | Accuracy: 116 | High accuracy, budget-friendly everyday option.
- Stick Grenade — Damage: 87 | Accuracy: 97 | Good balance of damage and accuracy.
- Grenade — Damage: 86 | Accuracy: 106 | Entry-level explosive for new players.
- Molotov Cocktail — Damage: 85 | Accuracy: 78 | Applies burning damage over time (DOT) rather than instant damage.
- Claymore Mine — Damage: 83 | Accuracy: 27 | High damage but very low accuracy — inconsistent.
- Throwing Knife — Damage: 69 | Accuracy: 63 | Very high stealth rating (7.9) — good for anonymous attacks.
- Ninja Star — Damage: 67 | Accuracy: 67 | High stealth rating (7.6) — balanced stealth option.
- Fireworks — Damage: 45 | Accuracy: 34 | Low accuracy makes this unreliable.
- Trout — Damage: 35 | Accuracy: 90 | Fun/meme item with decent accuracy but low damage.
- Brick — Damage: 28 | Accuracy: 43 | Cheap and weak — early game only.
- Wrench — Damage: 14 | Accuracy: 53 | Low damage, situational use.
- Book — Damage: 10 | Accuracy: 88 | Very high accuracy but almost no damage.
- Snowball — Damage: 5 | Accuracy: 50 | Seasonal fun item only, no serious combat value.
Special Note — Molotov Cocktail and Damage Over Time (DOT):
Damage over time refers to damage applied gradually over a period rather than all at once. DOT effects last for the full duration of a fight (5 minutes). DOT effects are not personalised to the player that applied them — if a defender is burning during a group fight, any group member who lands a hit while the DOT ticks will receive credit for that damage. The burning effect from the Molotov is non-stackable.
Best Use Cases — Damaging Temps:
- Nail Bomb — Best overall damage. Use when you want maximum impact on a single target or when chasing damage merits.
- HEG — Best budget choice for everyday chaining and mugging. Widely available and cost-effective.
- Grenade — Very early game when your budget is extremely tight.
- Molotov Cocktail — Situational. Useful when you want passive DOT ticking during a long fight, but avoid it on missions that prohibit DOT effects.
- Ninja Star / Throwing Knife — When stealth matters more than raw damage, such as anonymous attacks where you don't want your target to identify you.
Non-Damaging Temporary Weapons
These deal zero direct damage but provide powerful tactical effects. They split into three subcategories which are Debuffing Weapons, Buffing Weapons and Decorative Weapons.
Debuffing Weapons (Enemy Stat Reducers):
These reduce your opponent's battle stats. They have multiplicative effects and if used on the first turn, they also grant you a stealth bonus on top. Multiple debuffs of the same type can stack on one target but each successive application is reduced in effectiveness by 50%.
- Flash Grenade — Accuracy: 200 | Stealth: 10 | Effect: Blinds the opponent, reducing their Speed to 1/5th. Duration: 15–20 seconds.
- Smoke Grenade — Accuracy: 200 | Stealth: 10 | Effect: Smokes the opponent, reducing their Speed to 1/3rd. Duration: 120–180 seconds.
- Pepper Spray — Accuracy: 200 | Stealth: 10 | Effect: Maces the opponent, reducing their Dexterity to 1/5th. Duration: 15–20 seconds.
- Tear Gas — Accuracy: 200 | Stealth: 10 | Effect: Gases the opponent, reducing their Dexterity to 1/3rd. Duration: 120–180 seconds.
- Concussion Grenade — Accuracy: 200 | Stealth: 10 | Effect: Concusses the opponent, reducing their Dexterity to 1/5th. Duration: 15–20 seconds.
- Bolas — Accuracy: 31 | Stealth: 8.2 | Effect: Ensnares the opponent, causing them to miss their next 3 turns.
Key distinctions to remember:
- Flash Grenade and Smoke Grenade target your opponent's Speed — reducing how often they hit you.
- Pepper Spray, Tear Gas, and Concussion Grenade target your opponent's Dexterity — reducing their ability to dodge your hits.
- Short duration debuffs (15–20 seconds): Flash Grenade, Pepper Spray, Concussion Grenade — best for quick fights.
- Long duration debuffs (120–180 seconds): Smoke Grenade, Tear Gas — best when fights drag on or for group attacks.
Buffing Weapons (Needles / Injectables):
- Needles require you to complete the education module BIO3420: Bachelor of Biology before you can use them. Completing SPT2480: Sports Medicine increases their effect by an additional 10%.
- Needles have additive effects, stack with each other, and are lost if you are hospitalised. They are purchased from the Pharmacy.
- Epinephrine — Effect: Increases your Strength by 500% (Strengthened). Duration: 120 seconds.
- Melatonin — Effect: Increases your Speed by 500% (Hastened). Duration: 120 seconds.
- Serotonin — Effect: Increases your Defense by 300% and restores 25% of your life (Hardened). Duration: 120 seconds.
- Tyrosine — Effect: Increases your Dexterity by 500% (Sharpened). Duration: 120 seconds.
Important rules for needles:
- You cannot stack the same needle twice — using it again only resets the timer, not the potency.
- Effects are lost immediately if you are hospitalised.
- All four different needles stack with each other additively, so running all four simultaneously gives you +500% Strength, +500% Speed, +300% Defense, and +500% Dexterity at the same time.
Decorative Weapons:
Party Popper and Glitter Bomb fall into this category. They create visual splash effects on screen but have absolutely no combat value. Ignore these for serious play.
Strategies
Solo Attacks
Budget Chaining (low cost):
Use HEG as your damage temp and pair it with a Flash Grenade. The Flash blinds your opponent and reduces their Speed significantly, making it easier to land hits. This is ideal for quickly working through a list of chain targets without spending heavily.
High Damage Single Target:
Use a Nail Bomb for maximum damage output. Pair it with Tear Gas which has a long duration (up to 3 minutes) and reduces your opponent's Dexterity throughout the fight, increasing your hit chance significantly. Best when you need to hospitalise a tough target quickly.
Stealth Attacks:
Use a Ninja Star or Throwing Knife as your damaging temp. Both have very high stealth ratings. Use a debuffing temp on turn 1 to trigger the additional stealth bonus. This setup is ideal when you don't want your target to know who attacked them.
Needle Stacking — Trojan Horse Attack Strategy (THAS):
This involves using injectable needles on weaker pre-targets before attacking your main target. The buffs carry over into the next fight, making you appear far stronger than you are. You can stack all four different needles for a massive combined boost. This takes up no drug, booster, or medical cooldown, so you can repeat it as often as your budget and energy allow. It is expensive but extremely powerful for taking down much stronger targets.
Group / Faction Attacks
Softening the Target:
Have one faction member open the fight with a Smoke Grenade or Tear Gas. Both have long durations (up to 3 minutes), meaning the debuff stays active for every group member who attacks the same target afterward. The whole group benefits from one person's investment.
Stacking Debuffs Across Members:
Multiple members can apply the same debuff on one target but with diminishing returns — each additional application reduces the remaining stat by 50% less than the previous one. For best results, combine a Speed debuff (Smoke Grenade) from one member and a Dexterity debuff (Tear Gas) from another on the same target simultaneously.
DOT in Group Fights:
One member applies a Molotov to start burning DOT on the target. Since DOT damage is credited to whoever lands the hit that triggers the burn tick, any group member can pick up kill credit or damage credit from the ongoing effect. Useful for coordinated hospital attacks.
Defensive Group Play:
Members who are being attacked can inject Serotonin for +300% Defense and a life top-up, making them significantly harder to hospitalise while faction members provide backup hits.
General Tips
- Always use debuffing temps on turn 1 — doing so grants a stealth bonus on top of the debuff effect.
- Flash Grenade is considered one of the best budget options for everyday attacking due to its perfect accuracy (200) and strong Speed reduction.
- Nail Bomb is the undisputed best damaging temp for raw damage output.
- Prices fluctuate on the item market — check current prices before buying in bulk.
- You can carry a second temp using the Handbag item, allowing you to bring both a damaging and a non-damaging temp into the same fight simultaneously.