What's your rule of thumb for equipping weapons?

[Draconicrose]

I hate having to go through my weapons and manually compare the accuracy and damage stats, so I usually just give everyone the best great bows, assault and bolt-action rifles I get. Best sniper rifles for anyone above shooting 10. Gladius for the brawlers. I have a mod in my A16 series that helps with this but it hasn't been updated for A17 yet.


I'm interested in how other players eyeball their weapons though! So let me know.

[Toast]

Crappy shooters I'm trying to "train" get pistols because apparently you gain shooting XP fastest with them.

Only Careful Shooters ever get a sniper rifle unless there's a crisis demanding more.

Trigger Happies get LMGs or miniguns or grenades, depending on the situation.

Among the best shooters, the fastest walkers get the closer-range guns: shotgun and charge rifles. So if the enemy makes it past their barrage they can back out of danger quickly. Slower walkers get bolt-action rifle or assault rifle.

As for melee, I rarely prioritize building a smithy so they use whatever they can get their hands on. A good brawler can be effective at what I need them to do (protect the gunners, block doorways) with just about any weapon--their armor matters more.

Different types of danger and terrain get different group loadouts but I find this basic setup is generally sound. I have never really found a reason to use an SMG or assault pistol except when I have nothing else to equip.

[Nainara]

I try to minimize colonist exposure to danger, even at the cost of expendable animals and material resources like turrets and IEDs. Anyone who can pull a trigger eventually gets a sniper rifle, with preference to high shooter skills. Brawlers get maces, shield belts, and a swarm of muffalos, huskies, or hauler-animal-du-jour. Sniper colonists stay far back from the turret line.

[Draconicrose]

What about early game when you're getting better weapons through raiders and have to decide between damaged and variable qualities? What do you go for?

[Toast]

In the very early game the guns that raiders drop are such junk that it's probably not worth agonizing too much over which piece of trash is better than the other.    If they're over 50% durability, I hang on to them, if not then they rot in the field. Eventually I try to assemble the least terrible of them into a mix of short- and long-range weapons for my colonists while I work to get my machining table up. I use the long-range ones to take potshots at raiders as they approach, then hide my colonists inside as they get close enough to shoot back, then pop out from behind doorways and use short-range and melee to engage them by surprise when they try to loot the place.

So: durability and range, I guess. You can't afford to be too picky in the beginning.

[Thraxon]

-Generally i if i have wood on the map, i try to get good stock of superior longbow as defaults weapons.
-A few heavy LMG for trigger happy (or great pilla if good skilled )
-I kept good+ sniper rifle for good shot skilled pawns but don't craft any
-Assault rifle medium+ for low skilled

And i craft tons of charge rifles for everyone. Careful shooter don't get the best, they don't miss shot with normal one.

I try to keep in stock some genades, emp and basooka for specific situations.

[SpaceDorf]

Shotguns.

Everybody underestimates them. Best hunting and one-hit weapon in the game.
My Trigger Happy's get Shotguns or EMP-Grenades, Miniguns later, but only when needed. I don't like LMG's ..
Pilas make good starting hunting weapons, for the same reason shotguns do. Powerfull first strike and low range : less likely somebody walks between the pawn and their target, less walking to get the body.
A Trigger Happy Shotgunner can pop and shoot without getting hit.
Salvo Weapons leave you exposed for to long. They can backup the shotgunner from the sides.

Sharpshooters Sniper Rifles and a PDW as backup, poor mans minigun which really hurts in the right hands.

[Draconicrose]

I can see the logic in everyone's approaches. I'll keep everything in mind, thank you so much for the help! <3