Anyone else finding the science weapons a bit disappointing?

[Duskmare]

Seems like every single one is much weaker than most other weapons. Even with the damage perks giving it 120% extra damage. The effects weren't particularly amazing either. Probably the best one in my opinion was the mind control gun. Except you had to continuously fire it at an enemy to keep them mind controlled. More often than not this meant that you'd usually kill the enemy before they could begin fighting their allies or that their allies would just run past them and maul you while you were defenceless.

Most weren't even that special. Like the gloop gun was just an elemental grenade launcher...  

Did anyone have any really fun moments with science weapons? Did anyone find them better than normal weapons? If so then share below please! 

[Devilangel58]

I'll go one at a time here, though I think I only have 4 of 5. Still gotta grab the 5th.

 

Shrink Ray:

Okay so, this game did come quite useful for me. Playing on Supernova and wanting my companions to deal more ludicrous damage, I can focus fire on a strong enemy and have them melted in seconds, to which all the weaker foes around are quickly disposed of. I find this gun quite fun and enjoyable, but only under certain circumstances, not a daily use weapon.

 

Prismatic Hammer:

I'm a bit mixed by this one because I can not fully see the effects when fighting. I do enjoy the varying damage types it produces, but how combat works in this game, to be honest that makes this hammer quite horrible. Up until science 100 where you can constantly upgrade this without doubling the cost to ludicrous levels of bits (unless you exploit for unlimited bits). Though bits are not too difficulty to come by. I haven't found any differences to any weapons whatsoever. The only thing that matters is how much damage it does outright or the DPS. Nothing else matters, literally. I am saying this by having less than 20 offense skill abilities. For instance, skill 8 in long guns yet I can snipe a lot of enemies easily and do ludicrous amounts of damage flat.
This hammer at least adds variety and is fun to use for two-handed. I really like it, but combat is worthless in the game.

 

Mandibular Rearranger:

Okay, so this one did help out on certain occasions because it has the odd "freeze enemy" ability. This is valuable as this means you can focus fire and melt any enemy that is frozen, or use TTD to focus fire another enemy as you wale on the frozen enemy until death. Imagine fighting the last boss and this effect happens. You literally reduced the final boss to be utterly useless until you finish it off while your companions can cover you and melt all the useless enemies around.

 

Gloop Gun:

I just got this one, but had a little play with it. I say, best used indoors and crowded groups. This gun has a chance to render multiple enemies hit by it to float (it's AoE), rendering less enemies dealing damage to you and companions, increasing your survivability as well as your companions. When playing on Supernova, this is quite nice not needing to spam heal to keep alive. In open areas, however, this is not a weapon of choice.

 

EDIT:

Mind Control Ray:

I just got this gun yesterday, been a while since I last started up the game. I B-lined for this after finishing up almost all of Monarch. I didn't have time to test in an actual fight, so I slaughtered Fallbrook with it. It was amazing to be able to get anyone dangerous to stop shooting at me and fight his own allies. Since the town was actually weak, relative to me, the mind control ray actually killed them quicker to be useful. I could imagine using this on tankier enemies would be better. Too bad I killed off possibly all the most deadly enemies on Monarch, on accident mind you. If you wanted 'OP', then take this gun and have fun.

Note: I have 100 Science, and 1 (of two) perks giving me 50% increased Science weapon damage. Turned level 21 and have 2 flaws, so perks were easier to obtain. Now I am a drug addicted captain afraid of heights... Wait, this sounds bad.

 

In general, anything that will cause enemies to not hurt you is good. The majority of the science weapons do just that. It's a good way to quickly pick off enemies as your companions do all the DPS for you. If you solo though, best to leave these weapons alone. They won't meet up to the standard of a solo-sniper who can kill anything in one hit no matter the difficulty. With maybe anything with 3k health or higher being the exception.

Edited November 4, 2019 by Devilangel58

[Derf360]

Devil nailed this..

I like the gloop gun, just to watch enemies float around, i switch to a shotgun and shoot at them like birds... its entertaining..

[SmilesALot]

The mind control ray is pretty useful.  I agree many of them are underwhelming even with a high science skill.

[Mister Holdout]

Science weapons are actually very strong. Keep in mind that you can level them up five levels higher than your own character level. Which means you can level them up into the 30s. Also, you can give them to your companions.

When I beat the last mission, I did so with the mind control ray without leveling it up. All my enemies killed each other so there wasn't much effort on my end. 

I also used the shrink ray to clear out the sulfur pits on Monarch.

And if I remember correctly, FudgeMuppet did a video where he showed how the hammer weapon is one of the highest damage dealing weapons in the game. Meaning, you could just smash all your enemies with relative ease. 

So yeah, the science weapons are definitely fun and helpful. Although, you might argue that they are overpowered when utilized to their full potential. 

[Merzhinhudour]

Found them fun, and not overpowered, just unusual weapons made by weird scientists. I would have loved more use to them.

Like, for example, you could shrink someone to kidnap him / her without being noticed. Or, we could use the gloop gun on a door to unlock it, things like that.

One of the things I loved about the skills in the game, was they were efficient in dialogues, in exploration, in combat, everywhere.

Science weapons, as special weapons, should also allow more interactions with the universe, to unlock secret passages, or scare people.

Like, you're in the office of any important person, want to threaten and scare him / her, and you shrink one of the employees to show you're not joking.

Or, you could use the prismatic hammer to deactivate electric force fields, things like that.

 

[Mikeymoonshine]

The prismatic Hammer's charged attack does a lot of damage if you have a lot of points in science.

 Shrink ray is sometimes useful though not often it weakens a single target so could be used on a beefier target to help the team take them down.

The mandibular rearranger can freeze enemies, that can be useful though I think this one is probably the least useful it the science weapons. 

Mind control Ray can be used to take out groups of enemies by using it on the leader or biggest one.

Gloop Gun is useful if you get ganged up on as it levitates enemies though I really only use it if I have to fight a whole load of mechanicals.

They aren't the most powerful weapons but they all do something other weapons don't do that can be useful in specific situations. 

[Ommamar]

They seem similar to companions in that if you don't invest in the ways to make them better they are weaker then the other equipment you find but if you build for them and put bits into tinkering they become very powerful.  They also give another way to play other then just blast through things, and if you aren't interested they do sell for a good amount of bits, also there is the experience for finding them.

[ElderSpacer]

I'm on two fences with them. They look neat BUT you get them with crazy low stats usually most of the time(I've only got 4 so far). I've kinda got them stashed trying to decide if I want pay a ton to upgrade them(and how if you can't the traditional way)...plus there is the Wild Science perk that increases damage by 50%. I've got one more perk I want to get first then grab that perk to see if these science weapons are worth all hooplaa.

The first one I got was the shrink ray and I found it VERY underwhelming. And I've wanted a shrink ray since I was kid watching science fiction and my mouth hung open when I saw in a preview.  But then I got it and tried it. It shrinks them down for 1/2 to 1 second. Not really quick enough for you switch a weapon do anything so tried shrinking bigger enemies down for my companions, but really, just going after them hard with great weapons, starting with good sniper round to do some damage and blind them hitting them with companions abilities just feel great.  Probably a way to increase that(hopefully), but I'm still coming to terms with a lot of the other aspects of the game that I just 'back-burnered' them when I saw they at a crummy low level.  I'm just starting to feel I've got myself and companions sorted and kicking butt, so as I say I'll probably get hat perk and I've already been putting points in science.

I just think, for me, there could me more done when you get these to make you excited about getting them right off the bat. I dunno, have them adjust to your level or just below when your find them.  It a feel like they dropped the ball somehow with these. I'm sure they will rebalance etc etc. But I'll be on to other games by then. Could game back if there's a lull.

I like a game with a lot going on, but what comes to mind for me in trying to compare what I'm talking about is Red Dead Redemption 2 I got a year ago on the PS4. When you got a special weapon, it looked great and kicked butt damage-wise right out of gate. It was exciting to find/get them! I just don't know why I'm so....MEH....about the special weapons in this game.

[Devilangel58]

9 hours ago, ElderSpacer said:

I'm on two fences with them...

The first one I got was the shrink ray and I found it VERY underwhelming. And I've wanted a shrink ray since I was kid watching science fiction and my mouth hung open when I saw in a preview.  But then I got it and tried it. It shrinks them down for 1/2 to 1 second. Not really quick enough for you switch a weapon do anything so tried shrinking bigger enemies down for my companions, but really, just going after them hard with great weapons, starting with good sniper round to do some damage and blind them hitting them with companions abilities just feel great.  Probably a way to increase that(hopefully)...

Specified Quote of the above.

 

I believe it was FudgeMuppet on YouTube that made a video about science weapons. It isn't too long, but when you sit around with science weapons and play with them, they become the most ludicrous OP weapons in the game. I didn't know this at the time of writing my post, but I started to see this as I played, then saw his video.

 

Prismatic Hammer power attack is quite possibly the strongest one-hit everything weapon in the game. I don't think anything can out-damage it. Considering how many times you can power attack, it may even have the highest DPS at that point too... Spec your character just right and I'm sure any science weapon is the strongest weapon in the game, it's crazy. Well, the shock stick weapon vs. prismatic hammer, the hammer is more powerful. The shock stick science weapon is fun to use and freeze your enemies!

[ElderSpacer]

14 hours ago, Devilangel58 said:

Specified Quote of the above.

 

I believe it was FudgeMuppet on YouTube that made a video about science weapons. It isn't too long, but when you sit around with science weapons and play with them, they become the most ludicrous OP weapons in the game. I didn't know this at the time of writing my post, but I started to see this as I played, then saw his video.

 

Prismatic Hammer power attack is quite possibly the strongest one-hit everything weapon in the game. I don't think anything can out-damage it. Considering how many times you can power attack, it may even have the highest DPS at that point too... Spec your character just right and I'm sure any science weapon is the strongest weapon in the game, it's crazy. Well, the shock stick weapon vs. prismatic hammer, the hammer is more powerful. The shock stick science weapon is fun to use and freeze your enemies!

I'll take a look for his video.