Weapons – The Pointer and Basics

At the start of most matches your first objective will be to find and equip a weapon.

Okay so your SuperAnimal has picked up a weapon. Very good.

This is a good time to draw a player’s attention to the pointer or cursor.

On a PC this is normally controlled by the player’s mouse and as as player moves the cursor around they will also notice that the weapon that the player’s SuperAnimal is holding also points in that general direction.

Pressing the left mouse button, a super animal can attack using whatever weapon that they have equipped.

That goes for melee weapons or anything with a melee attack.

That goes for guns or other weapon slot holders. And that goes for equipped throwables too.

When firing a weapon, its projectile(s) will travel in the general direction of where one’s crosshair is and, if one presses that which is the ‘F6’ key by default, then one will also gain additional indicators of by how much one’s projectiles might deviate in course.

As a general rule, the first shot is always very accurate. Subsequent shots can be less so.

Let’s get back to guns.

Reloading

Most weapons do not just draw directly from one’s ammunition pool. Instead, they have a clip of ammunition that can be drawn from. Once the clip is empty, attempting to fire again will result in the SuperAnimal scrambling to reload the weapon that was thought to not be empty.

This takes a little longer than if one manually reloads at any point, so do keep this in mind.

By default, one can manually reload using the ‘R’ key.

Switching Weapons

Another option that one has with weapons is to switch between them, and there are two ways that this can be done.

One is to use the fixed numerical key-binds, with the one and two keys linked to the first and second weapon slots, the three key linked to the melee weapon and the four key linked to the throwables slot. So:

• ‘1’ – Weapon 1
• ‘2’ – Weapon 2
• ‘3’ – Melee
• ‘4’ – Throwables

Another way to switch weapons is to cycle through them with the ‘mouse wheel’. This is generally sufficient but in certain circumstances it can be slightly more finicky, depending on sensitivity settings, and the overall condition or design of the mouse in question.

Picking up weapons off the ground

Yet another possibility is to pick up another weapon from the ground. Doing this exchanges and drops the weapon that is currently equipped, or the weapon in the number one slot if the player has a non-gun weapon slot equipped.

Any ammunition that there is in the clip of the weapon dropped stays in the clip and likewise any ammunition in the weapon that is picked up is there and ready for use. Weapons tend to be filled up on ammunition but it is plausible that another player already used up some or all of the ammunition in the weapon without reloading. So be aware that this can happen.

Basic weapon and ammunition management

Let’s go over the basics. Consider the below image (which illustrated part of the user interface at the bottom right of the player’s screen).

Weapon selected: In this image one sees that there are two different kinds of gun. There is a sub-machine gun (or SMG) in the left slot, and a hand gun (or Magnum) in the right slot.

These are the weapon 1 and weapon 2 slots, respectively. Below each weapon is a number indicating how much compatible ammunition that weapon has – inclusive of what is loaded in the weapon’s clip.

The slot on the left is slightly larger and has a white border. This indicates that this is the active weapon slot.

Clip and Reserve ammunition: To the left, you will notice two numbers separated by a line – ’20 I 120′ in this case. Further left is a pictured icon of the kind of ammunition that the active weapon is using.

What this tells us is that the SMG is the active weapon selected, we have 120 ammunition of the ‘little bullet’ variety in reserve ‘and’ we have 20 bullets in the weapon’s clip (out of its maximum of 25 – which is not stated). So, a total of 140 ‘little bullet’ ammunition – which is indicated below the weapon’s picture.

Further up you will also notice that there is a row of semi-transparent ammunition symbols with numbers next to them. These are the kinds of ammunition that you have in reserve. As in, not accounting for any ammunition currently loaded into the clips of your weapons in inventory.

To the far right there is a symbol of what armour is being worn – but that’s for another topic.

Now let’s shift our focus to the various weapon types in Super Animal World.

Weapon Types – The Basics

For the moment I shall be describing guns more generally in terms of what traits set them apart from each other. It is to be noted that this game does a pretty good job balancing weapons, overall, although some weapons are easier to use than others, a first thing that sets them apart. 

Rarities

In the Royale, one can find five rarity levels of the different weapons, although most of the individual weapon types generally only exist at two or three rarity levels. A couple of outliers exist.

The rarity of a weapon does translate to an overall superior performance – typically in damage dealt and sometimes also performance over range.

Ammunition types

The ammunition that a weapon uses. To this end there are presently six kinds of ammunition in the game:

• Little bullets
• Heavy bullets
• Sniper bullets
• Shotgun shells
• Special rounds, and
• Superite rounds

While there are significant outliers, it can be the case that weapons of similar ammunition types will tend to behave in a similar manner to each other.

SuperAnimals have a maximum ammunition carry capacity on a per-ammunition type basis.

What this means is that if you pick up two weapons that use the same ammunition type then, aside from the two weapons each having their own independent weapon clip capacities, they will end up sharing the same maximum reserve ammo capacity – which means that they are both more likely to run out of ammunition.

For this reason it is often true that it is advisable to choose weapons that draw from different ammunition pools from each other, independent of all other considerations.

Weapon core functionalities (to be reconfigured – not happy with the below)

Single action (manual) versus Automatic Fire – Some weapons fire manually and require the fire button to be pressed for each time that one wishes to fire them, while others are automatic fire weapons and will continue firing while the fire button is pressed, and there are bullets left in the clip.

SuperAnimal Movement Speed – Some weapons are lighter on the SuperAnimal while equipped, and can impact how fast the SuperAnimal’s movement is. A melee weapon is the weapon in the game that allows for the fastest movement speed – and the game’s physics doesn’t care what else a SuperAnimal is carrying.

Noise – Some weapons are quieter than others.

Weapon Charge – A couple of weapons charge up for damage and/ or range.

Ramp-up Time – A couple of weapons spin-up to begin firing.

Target Tracking – A couple of weapons mark targets for tracking for a period of time.

Wall Bounce – A couple of weapons can bounce off of walls and have a blast radius.

Damage Drop-Off – Some weapons’ projectiles deal significantly less damage at range than they would up close, while others are hardly affected at all. A few weapons have a shorter range.

Armour Interactions – Some weapons are better at messing up armour while other weapons are better at partially or completely bypassing armour. Most weapons deal their damage instantly while other weapons deal their damage over time.

Scoping – Some weapons add a scope feature to crouching, allowing a super animal to both see and shoot further than they otherwise would.

Oh yes, there are a fair number of types of weapons.

This serves as an introduction to guns, but guns and similar aren’t the only kinds of weapons that one can use.

Melee Weapons

Of course, superanimals have their trusty melee weapons.

Striking out with a melee weapon deals damage in a very limited range arc in the direction of the pointer or cursor, and it can be chained into further attacks that allow forward movement for some degree of follow-through.

A further utility of equipping one’s melee weapon is that a SuperAnimal is able to move fastest when carrying a melee weapon, and this can have benefits, both in terms of survivability as well as in terms of closing distance for combat.

It is a valid fall-back, not to be forgotten.

Throwables

A SuperAnimal can also carry and use throwables. As the description suggests, these are devices that are thrown.

Using the fire button throws or deploys a throwable towards where the cursor exists on screen.

What they do varies depending on the kind of throwable concerned.

A couple explode. A couple make an area unpleasant or hazardous to be within. A couple impede or promote movement.

A super animal can collect a single set of throwables at one go, Once one has a set in inventory, the super animal will automatically collect any compatible throwables up until the carry limit is reached. It can sometimes be desirable to manually pick up a different throwable, if one prefers it to the throwables currently being stockpiled.

That generally covers how to use equipables. Let us ‘next’ go over the SuperAnimal’s health, armour and recovery.