Buy Smarter Than a Top 100 Player
There's a lot of trash being sold out there. Most traders don't know/care about selling good weapons or are happy to try to sell bad stuff with a premium first. Most weapons should be headed straight for recycling at the Bunker, but that makes the least amount of cash. Tricking someone to buy a useless weapon makes more money so that stuff will always be on the market.
As an RW trader, I've repeatedly been contacted by people who bought fancy coloured weapons for high prices that are weaker than a 250k Enfield. It's an unpleasant job to have to break it to people that they are in fact holding a Bunker Bucks (trash) weapon and their best bet is to either take the loss or try to find a bigger fool to pass it on to - and use the money to get something good instead. But what is good?
Ched has made Torn's weapons and bonuses extremely unequal, with a small handful that's good and the rest so weak as to have no use whatsoever (other than roleplaying?). Following the advice below will help you build the strongest competitive warring-oriented loadout for your budget and not be the bigger fool yourself.
Summary
Primary
Use: Dealing most/all of your damage
The best weapons: Armalite / Enfield (best), SIG 552 (5% weaker), Tavor (8% weaker)
Acceptable alternatives: Stoner 96 (2% weaker, unusable with special ammo), PKM / AK-47 / Steyr / M16 (only as additional budget warlords, for farming only, ideally owned by the faction, 17-22% weaker), MP5 Navy (as revit only)
The best bonuses: Powerful, Penetrate, Deadeye, Expose, Puncture, Specialist (only on Enfield or Stoner)
Mods: Recoil + best laser you have
Don't buy other bases and bonuses no matter the price or colour. 99.9% of the time you'll end up with something that sucks.
Secondary
Use: A few rounds of extra damage, or special functions
The best weapons + bonuses: Assassinate Cobra, Specialist USP / Beretta 92, Execute USP / Springfield 1911 / Ruger
Alternative bases: Warlord/Revit BT MP9 (non-special ammo), Specialist/Warlord/Revit Skorpion (weaker than BT MP9 but more than double shots per mag, weaker than Beretta 92/USP but more shots and lower ammo use)
Alternative bonuses for special use: Disarm (assisting), Warlord/Revit (e or rep boosting), Stricken (mercing/hosping, should be faction owned), other non-RW uses (Proficience for xp gain, Finale/Deadly for max damage merits etc.)
Mods: Assassinate: 2nd best laser + trigger; Specialist: 2nd best laser + sights; Execute: trigger + sights
Melee
Use: Special functions, defending with to save ammo, assisting, weapon of last resort for low ammo loadouts
The best weapons: Kodachi (with edu), DBK, Macana, Metal Nunchaku, Yasukuni Sword (with edu)
Acceptable alternatives: Samurai Sword (with edu), Naval Cutlass, Katana (with edu)
The best bonuses: Eviscerate / Disarm / Bleed (defending and assisting in RWs), Backstab (assisting in RWs), and non-RW uses like Parry (mission winner), Plunder etc.
Mods: N/A
Filling Your Slots Responsibly
The Powerful Arma is the most recognised - and usually the best - base and damage combo.
The primary slot is your main damage dealer. Primary weapons (and in particular damage rifles) combine good base stats with good mods (unavailable in melee), and good mag size (a problem with secondaries). This makes them the damage dealing workhorse - able to inflict a high rate of pain for many turns. Your primary weapon will make the biggest difference in your combat outcomes.
The only time the primary slot should be used for anything else is if maximum damage is not crucial - such as hitting low HP/weak offline enemies during RWs with warlord or revit weapons (known as farming). Warlord rifles in particular will benefit from the same weapon specialisation merits that your primary damage dealer does, so it can be worth switching to them instead of carrying a warlord secondary at all times.
The Assassinate Cobra delivers a devastating first turn punch.
The secondary slot can give you a few rounds of extra damage, or fulfil special functions. Damage-oriented secondaries (Assassinate/Specialist) can boost your performance on opening/early rounds - they run out of ammo quickly but are much cheaper than an equivalent primary (you can get the pistol equivalent of a rifle for as little as 10-20% of the price). They also extend the number of turns you can do good damage with if you're using a smaller mag primary like the Arma.
Secondaries can also be carried for special functions: farming/assisting (Execute / Disarm), rep/e boosting (Warlord / Revit), mercing/hosping (Stricken) plus non-RW uses (Proficience, Finale, Deadly etc.). Secondaries are nice-to-have, and can give you an edge in very close run encounters or assist the overall war effort.
An Eviscerate melee on defensive settings will make your attackers more vulnerable while saving you ammo
The melee slot is for special functions, defending with to save ammo on your primary, and the fall back option when out of ammo. While their damage is always unimpressive relative to primaries, Eviscerate / Bleed / Disarm / Backstab melee can be very useful in RWs in assisting the team effort and as a defensive option to save (special) ammo. Your melee will primarily make a difference in terms of the faction's overall effort as well as your defence against incoming attacks. Overall it is the least important of the three slots.
What makes melee weak as a damage dealer? There are a handful of melee weapons that have good stats on paper and benefit from edu, like the Kodachi. There are damage-oriented bonuses on melee (same as the rifle ones plus Fury etc.) and not needing to reload is a performance boost as well. What makes melee unsuited for damage dealing is the lack of mods and of special ammo - these two things make such a huge difference that melee just can't catch up.
Melee can also be used outside of RWs, with Parry with a decent base being an almost guaranteed mission winner, Plunder useful for habitual muggers etc. One might think bonuses like Empower might be useful, but they only boost while the weapon is in use, making it basically a second rate damage bonus only.
Spending Your Money Wisely
Most of us are on a limited budget so spending your gear money well is crucial. Not all equipment is equally important and there is a logical order of buying things in that gives you the best performance for your money. You'll get the most value from a damage primary and armour as the bulk of your spend. Your primary will be doing most of your damage in almost every fight and your armour will be protecting you in every fight. Your secondary is a nice-to-have rather than a game changer, and your melee will almost never decide a 1-v-1 fight.
A balanced loadout for around 2b
That being said, the cost of equipment scales aggressively upwards. My observation is that every 5-7% of extra performance doubles the price. You shouldn't wait to spend 65b on a full EOD and red Arma before buying a 300m yellow secondary or melee when those could actually be useful for you.
A good upgrade path is primary -> armour -> secondary -> melee and then shifting to the next tier of rifle, secondary etc. For a rule of thumb spend 30-35% on a rifle, 40-50% on armour, 10-15% on a secondary, 10% on a melee of your overall budget - adapt this liberally to your needs and market conditions.
A reasonable upgrade plan might look something like this, moving from left to right in each row:
| |
Primary |
Armour |
Secondary |
Melee |
| Tier 1 |
budget yellow rifle |
moto + combat |
doesn't matter |
grey macana/DBK |
| Tier 2 |
mid-range yellow rifle |
full Riot |
budget Execute/Specialist (or skip) |
budget Eviscerate/Disarm (or skip) |
| Tier 3 |
high-end yellow Arma |
budget full Assault |
orange Specialist/Execute or yellow Assassinate Cobra |
mid-range yellow Eviscerate/Disarm or Parry |
| Tier 4 |
mid-range orange rifle |
premium full Assault |
double bonus orange pistol |
premium yellow Eviscerate + additional yellow Parry |
| Tier 5 |
high-end orange rifle |
budget full Marauder/Vanguard/Sentinel |
red Specialist/Execute or orange Assassinate Cobra |
mid-range orange Eviscerate |
| and so on... |
|
|
|
|
Dodging Bad Bonuses
When you first look at the list of bonuses on the item market or wiki, you might think 'Wow, what a wide range of interesting bonuses, surely they enable a host of interesting and varied playstyles with different strengths and weaknesses!'.
If you still think that, you clearly haven't been paying attention. As with bases, most bonuses are either totally useless or not useful enough to not get a weapon with the handful of meta bonuses instead. When it comes to dealing damage and/or being useful in RWs, the following are the best options:
Primary
Some meta primaries
* Powerful (Increased Damage by x%): A straight-up damage multiplier. Powerful + Piercing is the most devastating bonus & special ammo combo in the game.
* Penetrate (Ignores (%) of enemy armor mitigation): Gets more valuable as the opponent's armour gets better. Against half-decent armour or better it's the best bonus - if not using special ammo. Penetrate + Incendiary is the second best bonus & special ammo combo.
* Deadeye / Expose (Increased Critical hit damage (%); Increased critical hit rate (%)): Slightly lower damage than the above on average, but typically cheaper. On the same colour, max Deadeye is stronger than max Expose simply due to the numbers on Expose not going so high.
* Puncture (Chance (%) of ignoring armor): Used to be the RNG twin of Penetrate but they way it works was recently changed. Now it's the low-budget cousin from out of town of Penetrate with lower base bonuses but the ability to bypass some armour effects (most notably Assault and EOD). A budget anti-armour option for most, a must-have EOD counter for top end fighting the strongest HoF factions, especially in orange/red variants.
* Specialist (Increased Damage (%), weapon is limited to a single clip): Like a Powerful but on a single mag. Only viable on an Enfield or Stoner unless going for a super specialised loadout. The recoil pad is a must, add in the Mathematics edu too (which reduces ammo use) and it's an excellent gun if you're not under (literally) constant attack. Very heavily targeted fighters (like top end in competitive wars) will struggle because ammo only replenishes when you aren't under attack.
* Revit / Warlord (reduces energy used; increases respect): A big decrease in damage but using a revit / warlord as a second primary during farming helps the faction. Warlord primaries are stronger than warlord secondaries plus benefit from rifle merits. The MP5 Navy is the best revit primary - it's weaker than the BT MP9 but has twice the shots and usually half the price.
Secondary
Murderer's row
* Specialist (Increased Damage (%), weapon is limited to a single clip): The limited mag size is less of a problem for a secondary as we have the primary to fall back on. The basic idea is to get a Specialist secondary that outputs more damage than your rifle, use it until the ammo runs out and then switch. Specialist secondaries are much cheaper than the equivalent rifle so you can buy a few shots of premium performance on the cheap.
* Assassinate (% increase damage on first turn only): The same as above but only on the opening turn, with a higher damage spike.
* Execute (Instantly defeats a target if they are under x% of life): This bonus is very useful for farming low HP offline targets as they leave hosp, and for assisting against significantly stronger targets in group attacks (as long as you can still land a hit). A very fun option for punching up and stealing kills. The average player in a good faction will have 10% regen per tick (5% base + 1% from PI + 4% from faction perks) so 20%+ is recommended to have a chance at a single shot kill while farming. Lower % bonuses are still useful in assisting.
* Disarm (disable opponent's weapon on hand or arm hit for X turns): Better as a faction armoury staple than an individually owned, it can still be fun to assist against strong opponents with this bonus or to have it on defensive settings with no special ammo. The odds of disarming are about one in six hits. Better on a melee.
* Revit/Warlord (reduces energy used; increases respect): the secondary slot can be used to fulfil these functions for a single loadout build that doesn't require switching between pushes and farming. It usually costs more for less performance and sacrifices the bonuses above but can be an option for very strong top end.
Melee
* Eviscerate (% extra damage after the first hit): Potent in both defending and assisting because it makes it easier for your faction mates to take down the eviscerated target. Great for mid to low end roster because the effect is applied as long as you land a hit, even if it didn't do much damage.
* Bleed (% chance of applying 225% damage over 9 turns): A strong Eviscerate alternative for top end players. If you are likely to actually cause serious damage to your attacker, the Bleed effect will last after your death and apply on the attacks of weaker faction mates, potentially killing your attacker even after you are dead. If you can only land a small amount of damage, Eviscerate/Disarm is better.
* Disarm (disable opponent's weapon on hand or arm hit for X turns): Not as good as Eviscerate individually, but a faction running a roster of Eviscerate + Disarm on defends and assists is an absolute gauntlet to push against. Eviscerate doesn't stack on additional hits so having some people with Disarms is useful.
* Backstab (% chance to do double damage if opponent is distracted): With ongoing distraction (ie. while assisting a group attack) a macana or DBK with this bonus can more or less match a decent yellow rifle without spec ammo in damage output. Reports say that this works on defends too if the attacker is already being attacked themselves. Not a bad option for defending/assisting without burning precious primary ammo.
* Parry (% chance to completely neglect incoming melee attacks): Melee is not used offensively by anyone competent in RWs but having a Parry defend can be be useful against less knowledgeable opponents. The main use of Parry is to do with missions - a good yellow Parry with full Riot will win missions easily because inactive targets usually attack with melee, having ran out of ammo.
Bonuses that look good but aren't
Why stat debuffs bonuses don't work
* Body part damage boost (Achilles/Throttle/Cupid etc.): They do boost overall damage just not as much as the better bonuses. No point picking them when better options are available.
* Buff/Debuff (Motivate/Empower/Quicken/Slow/Wither etc.): These bonuses are very sensitive to having exactly the same stats as the opponent (for example equal opponent defence to your strength for Empower, opponent speed vs your dexterity for Slow etc.). Any opponent that is not perfectly aligned, the already not amazing effect gets even lower. Unlike Eviscerate which triggers on any successful hit, debuffs also have a pretty low chance to trigger per hit. A full Motivate stack is very hard to maintain in a competitive RWs (you lose it on death). And finally, anything to do with boosting stats becomes obsolete once needles are in play - they are additive to the stat boost of the needle, not multiplicative.
* Damage bonuses on melee (Fury/Rage etc.): Melee can never become your best damage dealer irrespective of the bonus, so it's better used for the functions above.
* Non-meta bonuses on primary (Assassinate/Specialist/Eviscerate etc.): Your primary is meant to be able to last many turns dealing good damage. Assassinate's damage spike is outdone by consistent extra damage in a few turns, and Specialist doesn't last long enough with most bases. Eviscerate is a great bonus on paper but only comes on shotguns which have very few shots, making them unfit for the primary role.
For a more complete analysis and tier list of bonuses, see mug's guide (caveat: the guide assumes long fights with unlimited time such as you'd see in missions, unlike this one which is focused on shorter, rapid competitive RW-style ones. Some bonuses that are good in one scenario aren't in the other.)
Reloads Bad, Special Ammo Good
Base stats aren't everything when it comes to weapons, sometimes mag size and ammo use can make or break a gun.
Having to reload often can be a major drag on a weapon's performance. If I have two weapons with the same stats but one needs to be reloaded after every shot and the other one never needs to be reloaded, the second one will output double the damage overall. Reload turns are wasted turns - you still take damage while dealing none of it yourself and adding no distraction. In addition to adding lots of reloads, using all your mag in a couple shots means that your weapon won't last very long in a fight (looking at you, shotguns).
The other thing you want to think of when comparing weapons is: 'Can I consistently use special ammo with this?'. Special ammo like incendiary (+40% damage) or piercing (+50% armour mitigation) adds a massive boost to your damage output. A yellow rifle with special ammo can match its own red version used without special ammo many times, a 100x times more expensive weapon. It can not be overstated how important special ammo is to maximising RW performance.
For someone who fights competitive RWs often, special ammo will be a limited resource to be used carefully and gathered constantly. The earliest source of special ammo is shoplifting with security down from Big Als, followed by the BAG stock and finally buying it from the mission shop once mods and books are done. Unless you are extremely wealthy and can hold loads of BAG stock or work in a Gun Shop, you will need to be very careful about your special ammo use to make it last. Weapons that burn lots of ammo will deplete your stocks quickly, leaving you back to using regular ammo. Any weapon that you can't afford to consistently feed with special ammo is not a good RW weapon.
This it the reason why I disagree, for example, with the popular wisdom of using BT MP9 as a secondary. It has the best damage output in its class even with reloads but it chews through ammo like there's no tomorrow and has few shots per mag. Another interesting example is the Stoner 96 - it has great stats, and can last as a long as as an Enfield on a single mag but uses almost four times the ammo. This makes it an acceptable option before one starts using special ammo, but immediately obsolete after.
The Weapons That Don't Suck
There's only a small handful of weapon bases that are good amidst an ocean of trash.
Primary
* Arma / Enfield: The cream of the crop. In an infinite fight, these two perform the same. The Arma has better stats but needs to be reloaded more often. In a short fight the Arma is stronger, then once it needs to be reloaded the Enfield gains the upper hand until it too runs out of ammo. Most RW fights are short so the Arma tends to have an advantage there, leading to an 'Arma tax', Armas costing more than comparable Enfields.
* SIG 552: A bit weaker and a bit more ammo hungry, but still a very good rifle. It's balanced towards more damage and lower accuracy, making it better than Arma / Enfield for top-end players who hit down a lot. Having extra damage ends fights faster, and the accuracy doesn't matter very much in this scenario.
* Tavor: Weaker than the rifles above but viable. A high quality and bonus Tavor can sometimes outperform a better rifle with worse rolls and be cheaper, it can be a great budget rifle or a faction armoury filler that's actually useful.
* Stoner 96: Performs almost as well as an Arma/Enfield but burns through too much ammo to be a long-term choice. Has a magazine big enough to be used as a Specialist. An okay choice if found cheaply (or loaned from the faction armoury) for new players but ultimately a dead end for a serious RW fighter.
Secondary
* Assassinate Cobra: Good base stats and ridiculously low special ammo use (1-2). The cheapest secondary to run. The super small mag size (2) is normally a liability but on this base it means that it can be set on defensive settings (with no reloads) without bankrupting your special ammo store during RWs, which is unique amongst all guns. It's a roll of the die on the first turn - it won't always land on a good body part or at all, but once you take a stronger opponent out with a single PI or IN ammo headshot, they'll be sweating every time they attack you after. Other pistols can be used as Assassinate if they have good stats and low ammo use (like the USP and Beretta 92), but they won't be viable to defend with like the Cobra because of their larger mags.
* Execute USP / SP11 / Ruger : The main thing you want in an Execute is high accuracy and low enough ammo use to consistently put tracer ammo on your attacks. These three guns fit the bill the best, but anything with 60+ accuracy is viable, if it can use tracer ammo.
* Specialist USP / Beretta 92 / Skorpion : A viable Specialist needs to have low ammo use, good stats and a decent number of shots per magazine. USP and Beretta 92 excel in these areas, the Skorpion is slightly weaker but uses a bit less ammo and has slightly more shots.
* Revit / Warlord BT MP9 / Skorpion: The BT MP9 is commonly highlighted as the best secondary, but it is only viable for someone who has lots of special ammo coming in or fights only occasionally. The base stats are best in class but not good enough to compete with special ammo alternatives while on regular ammo. For punching down with Revit and Warlord, this might not be an issue. The Skorpion is quite a bit weaker but has more than twice the shots per mag and is much cheaper.
* Stricken Milkor / China Lake: Not good as damage dealers but the best Stricken bases because of their larger mag sizes. The single-shot heavy artillery is a pain to use and will lead to lots of non-Stricken finishing hits.
Melee
A melee weapon's overall damage output is the main factor to consider, plus whether they carry the right bonuses.
* Tier 1: Kodachi, DBK, Macana, Metal Nunchaku, Yasukuni Sword
* Tier 2: Samurai Sword, Naval Cutlass, Katana
* Eviscerate / Bleed is available on all the above bases except the Metal Nunchaku, Backstab is on DBK / Macana only, Disarm is on all, and Parry is on all except the DBK, Macana, and Nunchaku
Ancient Japanese History edu is needed to get full damage from the Kodachi, Yasukuni Sword, Samurai Sword and Katana.
Mods, Merits, Education
Mods
Mods are not as impactful as special ammo but still make a big difference in combat performance. A regular RW fighter should do missions daily to unlock all the good mods ASAP.
* Recoil Pad: The best value / performance mod. Reducing ammo use reduces reloads and makes your weapon's spec ammo footprint lower. Goes on most primaries.
* Lasers: Expensive but the increase in crit rate is very impactful. Your best one should go on your primary and your second best one on your secondary.
* Triggers: Only useful on Assassinate secondaries but super effective there, adding a lot of accuracy on the first turn.
* Sights: Expensive but useful on Specialist secondaries, adding very valuable accuracy.
The other mods have fairly niche uses, if any, and are not crucial for winning RWs.
Merits
From a combat perspective, the order of merits to invest in is Life -> Crits -> Rifle Mastery -> Pistol Mastery -> Passive Stats.
10 crit merits are needed to take full advantage of Deadeye (but not of Expose). Passive Stats and Pistol Mastery can be swapped around or raised together. Pistol is most important if using Specialist as it will be used for multiple turns in each fight. Passive stats are nice to have but become less valuable once needles and stat enhancers (SE) are in play.
Education
The combat bachelor (weapon XP) and maths bachelor (25% ammo use reduction) are the most impactful for an RW fighter. Both are very significant boosts to overall damage output. Biology is important for crit increases and needles down the line. History adds bonuses to melee in general and Japanese blades in particular. Gym and passive stats boost edus have a relatively small impact on combat.
Further Reading
BoonieRating Explained - A Single Index for All Weapons
Table of the Damage Output of Different Weapons
mug's buying advice - the inspiration for this guide
mug's bonus tier list
cake's RW weapon guide
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