Choosing the right weapon to hunt with can be confusing. This is especially true when you first start playing Entropia Universe. I wanted to take time to be sure you understand how to pick the right weapon. It will save you time and PED so let’s get started!
What Is Efficiency?
A weapons Efficiency is a measure of how well the weapon performs. This is the metric that everyone always focuses on. It’s very important; but it’s not the single factor in determining which weapon is right for you.
The reason efficiency is talked about so much is because it has a large impact on your loot. The higher the efficiency the better the loot. You are also more likely to get loot that contains items instead of just oils, hides and shrapnel.
How Do I Know If A Weapons Efficiency Is Good?
I separate weapon efficiency into four groups. Anything below 50% efficiency is poor. Efficiency of 50%-60% is average. A weapon with 60%-70% efficiency is very good. An efficiency of 70%+ is super rare.
Weapons with an efficiency 70%+ usually cost 10,000 PED or more. There just aren’t many weapons that are that good. These weapons are highly sought after and very hard to come by.
Now that we’ve covered the part everyone talks about let’s get to the really important stuff.
Looking At Your Ability To Use A Weapon
A weapons efficiency doesn’t matter if you don’t have the skills needed to use it. The highest efficiency weapons in the game are designed to be used by the most experienced players in the game.
How do you know if you have the skills to use a weapon? By looking at the various information listed in the Show Detailed Information Tab. This is the information you really need to be able to decide which weapon is right for you.
Let’s look at an example so we can go through it line by line. This is the ArMatrix LR-10(L):
Recommended Profession For Damage
The first info you see is the efficiency followed by the weight and tier. Weight is unimportant and tiers we will cover in another article. After this is the Recommended Profession For Damage. This section has three factors: Name, Recommended Level and Skill Progress.
Name is the Profession the weapon is looking at. In this case the weapon is looking at your Ranged Laser (Dmg) profession.
Recommended level is slightly misleading. This is the level that this profession should generally be at before you start using the weapon. You will soon see that it’s not a good idea to use the weapon just because you reach this level. In this case it’s recommended that your Ranged Laser (Dmg) profession be level 10.
Below this is Skill Progress. This tells you how close you are to reaching the recommended profession level. In this case we are above a Ranged Laser (Dmg) Profession level 10 so it shows 100% of the recommended level has been reached.
Recommended Profession For Hit
This is the exact same information that we just went over but for your Hit related profession. Each weapon will have both sections because one relates to your hit ability and one relates to your damage ability. Hence the (hit) and (dmg) after the profession names.
These two professions are what determines whether or not you have the ability to properly use a weapon. Remember that just because you reach the recommended level does NOT mean that you can use the weapon properly. Let’s look at how we know whether or not we have the skills to use a weapon.
Attacks Per Minute
We can see that the Attacks Per Minute is 48/48. But what does this really mean? The first number is how many attacks per minute the weapon is capable of based on your Hit profession.
The second number is the number of attacks per minute the weapon is capable of by design. In this case our related Hit profession is high enough that we are able to use the weapon 48 times per minute which is also the most attacks per minute the weapon is capable of. This means that our Hit profession for the weapon is maxed.
If attacks per minute is anything other than the same number on both sides your hit profession is not high enough to use the weapon to its full potential. If Attacks per minute was 24/48 we would only be able to use the weapon 24 times per minute even though it’s designed to be used 48 times per minute.
Let’s scroll down on the Show Detailed Information Window and look at more important information for the ArMatrix LR-10(L):
Damage Interval / Max
Under Damage Interval / Max we have another fraction. In this case 17.5-30/17.5-30. Have you ever noticed when you use a weapon it does a range of damage to the creature instead of a consistent amount of damage? Each weapon has a damage range. This is where we can see the damage range we can inflict using the weapon with our skills and the damage range the weapon is capable of by design.
In this case when we use this weapon the damage interval we are able to get is 17.5-30 which is again the same as the damage interval that the weapon is capable of. This is because our (Dmg) profession is high enough that we are maxed out on the weapon.
If our skills were below the amount needed to use the weapon as designed we may only be able to do 7.5-15 damage even though the weapon is capable of 17.5-30 damage. In that case we would see a damage interval/ max of 7.5-15/17.5-30. If that was true we would definitely not want to use this weapon.
Range
This is a less important fraction but it works like the others. The first number is the range you will have with the weapon based on the skills you have. The second number is the max range the weapon can have if you have more than enough skills to use it.
Since we have plenty of skills to use this weapon we see that we can use it to hit targets up to 85.8 meters away which is also the max range the weapon is capable of. If it read 40/85.8 then we would only be able to hit targets 40 meters away when the weapons capable of hitting targets 85.8 meters away.
Hit Ability/ Max & Critical Hit Ability/ Max The Deceptive Fractions
People who are lazy or who may not know any better will tell you this is all you need to look at. They couldn’t be more wrong. The last two fractions you will see on the Show Detailed Information page are Hit Ability/ Max and Critical Hit Ability/ Max.
These fractions are both always in the form of 10.0/10.0. Again when the numbers match it means we have the skills to hit to the best of the weapons ability and provide critical hits to the best of the weapons ability.
When the first number is anything below 10.0 then we do not have the skills needed to hit a target or provide critical hits to a target to the best of the weapons ability.
Being able to hit a target and being able to provide a critical hit to a target are indeed important. Every time you use a weapon the weapon decays a small amount. If the weapon uses ammo the ammo is burned every time the weapon is used. This is true whether you hit the target or not. You want to be sure you hit the target to the best of your ability so having a Hit Ability/ Max which are both the best the weapon can provide is ideal.
The same is true with Critical Hit Ability/ Max. Being sure you can use the weapon to it’s full potential to inflict critical hits is very important. The problem is that these last two fractions can be very deceiving. Having 10.0/10.0 in these areas does not necessarily mean you are maxed on the weapon or that you will have a perfect damage interval or attacks per minute stat.
How To Know When You Are Maxed On A Weapon
If you are truly maxed on a weapon all of these values will be the same as the max amount the weapon was designed for. As you can see we are maxed on all the variables the ArMatrix LR-10(L) offers. We are able to do the full Attacks Per Minute 48/48, have the max damage interval of 17.5-30/17.5-30, use it to its full range 85.8/85.8 meters and we have the ability to hit and provide critical hits that are both 10.0/10.0.
This means that we are completely maxed on the ArMatrix LR-10(L). We can use it to it’s full potential. This is what you want in a weapon and this is how you need to decide if a weapon is right for you.
Wasting PED With Un-Maxed Weapons
When you use un-maxed weapons you are wasting PED. It’s that simple. More importantly there’s no need to use un-maxed weapons. There is either a weapon you are maxed on which will work or you are trying to do something that is beyond your skill level.
If you can’t use the weapon to it’ full potential you’re wasting money with every shot. The weapon is going to have the same amount of decay with every use. It’s going to have the same amount of ammo burn with every use. Why would you spend the money on decay and ammo if you can’t use the weapon properly?
If your damage interval is 7.5-15/17.5-30 then you are paying for ammo which should be inflicting 17.5 – 30 damage per shot but because it’s beyond your skill level you’re only inflicting 7.5-15 damage per shot. That’s a very expensive way to hunt.
You can have the highest efficiency weapons in the game but if you don’t have the skills to use them to their full potential you are going to lose a LOT of PED.
Take Time To Select The Right Weapon
Be sure and take the time to select the right weapon. The right weapon isn’t the weapon that does the most damage. It’s not the weapon with the highest efficiency. The right weapon is a weapon you have the skills to use that will do the job you need done.
In future articles we will talk about skill bonuses, tiering, enhancers and more. For now we hope that you are able to better understand how to select the right weapon and have a bit more information on how your profession levels relate to your ability to use a weapon.
Nothing makes weapon selection easier than having enough PED to get the weapons you want. As always you are welcome to Join Us and use our Offers and Videos to earn some extra PED. Weapons wear out and need to be repaired or replaced so a bigger PEDCard is always a good thing!
