Match Your Gun to the Fight
Use an upgraded handgun for routine early fights, a shotgun for close targets and the hospital boss's lamps, an SMG for approaching threats or boss projectiles, and a sniper rifle for deliberate distant shots. Improve your loadout with Workshop upgrades and attachments, equip stat-boosting Artifacts, and land gunfire to recover the MP used by your combat skills.
Choose Your Early Weapons
| Weapon | When to Choose It |
|---|---|
| Starting handgun | A practical choice for routine early combat. Prioritize its attack upgrade to improve the weapon you can use from the start. |
| Old submachine gun | A starting rapid-fire option for approaching threats and incoming boss projectiles. Check its ammunition before relying on it. |
| Revolver | Developable at research level 2. Consider it when reviewing alternatives to your starting handgun and deciding where to invest materials. |
| Improved submachine gun | Developable at research level 2. Consider it for the SMG role against approaching threats and boss projectiles. |
| Sniper rifle | The level-2 sniper rifle suits deliberate long-range shots. Choose it when you want to take careful aim at distant targets. |
| Hospital shotgun | Recovered during the hospital mission. Useful for close-range fighting and concentrated weak-point attacks, especially against the hospital boss's lamps. |
Assault rifles are another weapon category. For any new gun, compare its details with your current weapons and available ammunition before making room for it. Give each weapon a purpose in the encounters ahead instead of carrying it simply because it is new.
Collect the Hospital Shotgun
- During the hospital encounter with the enemy whose body has orange glowing areas, aim at the weak points on its left shoulder and right knee. Focus on those areas while moving rather than firing continuously into its front.
- Search the back of the room after that fight to collect the shotgun before following the next objective.
- Check your shotgun ammunition before continuing so you can alternate it with the handgun according to the fight and your supplies.
Improve Your Loadout at the Workshop
- Upgrade the starting handgun's attack power early to make routine encounters easier. This gives your initial material investment a clear purpose before you spread upgrades across other weapons.
- Choose a muzzle device for the result you want: a compensator improves recoil control, while a suppressor reduces firing noise at the cost of some handling. Weigh that tradeoff against the problem you are trying to solve.
- Review the available foregrips, stocks, magazines, sights and laser sights when customizing a firearm. Choose parts around your preferred combat style, and change them deliberately so you can judge whether the setup feels more comfortable.
- Select ammunition alongside your weapons before leaving Base. If you cannot keep your preferred gun supplied, plan to use another weapon rather than basing the whole Dive on ammunition you do not have.
- Equip Artifacts that support your intended fighting style. Use their stat benefits to reinforce your gunfire, skill use or exploration priorities, and make use of what you collect while progressing through missions.
Turn Accurate Gunfire Into Skill Opportunities
- Aim your gunfire at enemy weak spots to recover MP and create openings. Choose a weapon that lets you place those shots reliably rather than spending ammunition on poorly aimed fire.
- Time a parry to the enemy's attack cue to block the hit and create a counterattack opportunity. Avoid repeated speculative parries, because they consume MP that you may need for an Anomalization Skill.
- Use an offensive Anomalization Skill after a successful parry creates an opening. Practicing that response gives your shooting, defense and skill use a clear rhythm instead of spending MP without a plan.
- Take a Brutal Raid opportunity when focused weak-point fire creates one. Against the hospital boss, destroying its glowing back lamps brings it to its knees and enables that follow-up.
Keep Your Weapons Supplied During a Dive
- Use the indicator to search nearby areas for supplies before leaving a section. Ammunition supports the current Dive, while recovered materials support later Workshop development and upgrades.
- Rearrange or rotate inventory items when space becomes tight. This can help you fit the weapons, ammunition and recovery supplies you need without immediately giving up useful equipment.
- Transfer extra development materials into storage through an available portal to free inventory space. Keep the ammunition and recovery items you still need for the rest of the investigation.
- Switch to another weapon when your preferred gun's ammunition runs low. Reassess the next encounter using both the weapon's role and the supplies you can actually use.