Weapons & Equip Unique Ammo Ideas

[Mebybemn]

Pheonix Shot
11 Damage
6 Velocity
3.5 Knockback
Inflicts the On Fire! debuff
100% Chance of returning to the players inventory as a musket ball
Crafting:

x25,

x1

Hex Bullet
4-20 Damage
2 Velocity
5 Knockback
Deals an additional 4 damage for every debuff the target is inflicted by
Crafting:
???

Bubblegum Bullet
0 Damage
10 Velocity
20 Knockback
Bounces off tiles and enemies up ten times
Loses 1 velocity & 2 knockback per bounce
Crafting:

x50,

x1

Tungsten Bullet
9 Damage
2.5 Velocity
10 Knockback
Greatly effected by gravity
Crafting:

x70,

x1

Spoiler: Silver Bullet Change

Silver Bullet
9 Damage
4.5 Velocity
3 Knockback
Penetrates through 2 points of enemy defense
Penetrates through all points of enemy defense when attacking werewolves

Gleaming Bullet
9|18 Damage
9 Velocity
4.5 Knockback
Surrounded by a 'Star Shield' which deals increased damage and pierces. The 'Star Shield' disappears after the bullet hits an enemy. The Star Shield also provides light.
Crafting:

x20,

x1

Sealing Arrow
8 Damage
5 Velocity
3.5 Knockback
Prevents the target from inflicting debuffs (lasts 10 seconds)
Crafting:
Dropped by Skeletron (35-50), found in dungeon & shadow chests (15-20)

Vortex Matter
? Damage
? Velocity
? Knockback
Transforms into whatever ammo is needed (ex. turns into stakes when using a stake launcher)
25% Chance not to be consumed
Crafting:

x1

I am going to be adding more of my ideas, feel free to contribute your own!

Edit: Increased the amount of bullets gotten when crafting bubblegum bullets (20-->50)
Edit: Specified the bouncing effects on bubblegum bullets
Edit: Added Tungsten & Gleaming Bullets. Change the recipie of Phoenix Shots to require less bullets (50-->25)​

 

[TMB50]

First: Try to make proper recipes, rahter than leaving partially-blank recipes.
Bubblegum Bullets are awful, as they deal less damage than Musket Balls and are expensive.

 

[Newblank]

Bubblegum bullets are not a very good idea.
1. Pinky Slimes are very rare
2. You can only craft up to a stack of bubblegum bullets for each Pinky slain
3. what's the point of having velocity and knockback bullets that bounce 10 times if they do no damage?(only the gun the character holding itself will deal damage)
4. Meteor Bullets are way better in my opinion

 

[kilozombie]

You guys are misunderstanding Bubblegun Bullets.

If you're firing with Musket Balls, that's +7 damage to your, say, 80 damage weapon (SDMG). Great. 7 damage.

So it's -7 damage, so now it's only the SDMG damage. Not a huge difference. But. Bullets will bounce ten times, doing potentially 10x the damage.

 

[TMB50]

You guys are misunderstanding Bubblegun Bullets.

If you're firing with Musket Balls, that's +7 damage to your, say, 80 damage weapon (SDMG). Great. 7 damage.

So it's -7 damage, so now it's only the SDMG damage. Not a huge difference. But. Bullets will bounce ten times, doing potentially 10x the damage.

Considering that, from how they are described, they behave like most other bullets upon touching enemies, making them deal damage only once, and that it's VERY difficult to arrange/find a situation in which getting all the bounces reliabily, it still is rather bad.

 

[kilozombie]

Considering that, from how they are described, they behave like most other bullets upon touching enemies, making them deal damage only once, and that it's VERY difficult to arrange/find a situation in which getting all the bounces reliabily, it still is rather bad.

Scenarios where they would do damage more than once:

1. A cave
2. More than one enemy
3. A horde of enemies
4. Firing while inside a big enemy
5. A house
6. A room
7. Literally anywhere there are walls

If you don't get a bounce, who cares? It's just -7 damage total, which doesn't make a huge difference overall, in exchange for the potential of tons of damage.

 

[TMB50]

Scenarios where they would do damage more than once:

1. A cave
2. More than one enemy
3. A horde of enemies
4. Firing while inside a big enemy
5. A house
6. A room
7. Literally anywhere there are walls

If you don't get a bounce, who cares? It's just -7 damage total, which doesn't make a huge difference overall, in exchange for the potential of tons of damage.

1 Depends on the cave.
2 Depends on their position.
3 Same as 2. In both cases, unless they are on opposing sides, the bounce would be difficult to achieve.
4 Due to how it would work to prevent a ridiculous amount of damage (Same as piercing weapons), it wouldn't work.
5 Which shouldn't happen in the first place.
6 Same.
7 Depends on their arrangement.
It is also a waste of a rare material.

 

[kilozombie]

1 Depends on the cave.
2 Depends on their position.
3 Same as 2. In both cases, unless they are on opposing sides, the bounce would be difficult to achieve.
4 Due to how it would work to prevent a ridiculous amount of damage (Same as piercing weapons), it wouldn't work.
5 Which shouldn't happen in the first place.
6 Same.
7 Depends on their arrangement.
It is also a waste of a rare material.

It's not like you're using Pink Gel for anything better.

1: Unless your cave does not have walls, it shouldn't matter. You're firing lots of bullets that all bounce lots of times.
3: I'm guessing at least once in your life you have seen an enemy next to another enemy. Instantly, Bubblegum Bullets become effective. Imagine having more than one enemy next to another enemy. (Goblins, Pirates, Martians, Solar Eclipse, Frost Moon, Pumpkin Moon)
4: 'how it would work'. Are you the creator of the item, the suggester? There's no good reason to reason otherwise.
5-6: yes it should. Ever heard of building an arena?
7: See 1.

 

[TMB50]

It's not like you're using Pink Gel for anything better.

1: Unless your cave does not have walls, it shouldn't matter. You're firing lots of bullets that all bounce lots of times.
3: I'm guessing at least once in your life you have seen an enemy next to another enemy. Instantly, Bubblegum Bullets become effective. Imagine having more than one enemy next to another enemy. (Goblins, Pirates, Martians, Solar Eclipse, Frost Moon, Pumpkin Moon)
4: 'how it would work'. Are you the creator of the item, the suggester? There's no good reason to reason otherwise.
5-6: yes it should. Ever heard of building an arena?
7: See 1.

1 Usually, the walls are irregular, so it would be easy for the bullets to not bounce towards enemies.
3Not much more than using normal Meteor Bullets, which would get more DPS without risking getting flanked.
4 I'm basing myself on what mechanics would be used, as that particular scenario is exactly that of why piercing attacks only deal damage 6 times per second.
5-6 And an arena that were intended to exploit that behavior would remove a lot of mobility, making the bullets difficult to use.
7 And, in a lot of cases, they wouldn't be able to do much more than, say, using musket balls directly, which would get more damage per second and per hit.

 

[kilozombie]

1 Usually, the walls are irregular, so it would be easy for the bullets to not bounce towards enemies.
3Not much more than using normal Meteor Bullets, which would get more DPS without risking getting flanked.
4 I'm basing myself on what mechanics would be used, as that particular scenario is exactly that of why piercing attacks only deal damage 6 times per second.
5-6 And an arena that were intended to exploit that behavior would remove a lot of mobility, making the bullets difficult to use.
7 And, in a lot of cases, they wouldn't be able to do much more than, say, using musket balls directly, which would get more damage per second and per hit.

Let's say you're using the SDMG.

It does 77 damage base.

Musket Ball + SDMG = 84 damage.
Bubblegun Bullet + SDMG = 77 damage.

So it seems that it's UP. But watch this:

Bubblegun Bullet + SDMG + 2 bounces = 154 damage.
Bubblegun Bullet + SDMG + 3 bounces = 231 damage.

And so on.

Yes, there is a chance it won't bounce. But if it doesn't bounce, you're only losing 7 damage.

If it does bounce and hit again, you are doing DOUBLE DAMAGE.

2x DAMAGE.

I don't know how to spell it out more clearly than that.

 

[TMB50]

Let's say you're using the SDMG.

It does 77 damage base.

Musket Ball + SDMG = 84 damage.
Bubblegun Bullet + SDMG = 77 damage.

So it seems that it's UP. But watch this:

Bubblegun Bullet + SDMG + 2 bounces = 154 damage.
Bubblegun Bullet + SDMG + 3 bounces = 231 damage.

And so on.

Yes, there is a chance it won't bounce. But if it doesn't bounce, you're only losing 7 damage.

If it does bounce and hit again, you are doing DOUBLE DAMAGE.

Considering that, if compared with the SDMG, it's even worse as that DPS (Which is usually more important than damage per shot) would be also obtainable with Luminite bullets, which are a lot easier to use, that in itself isn't helping it, and, as musket balls are cheaper and deal more damage, and the time between hits due to the bounces is variable, the result is that, overall, all it does is unreliabily save up a bit of ammo, which doesn't compensate it's rarity and lack of base damage, it's of rather questionable usefulness to use Bubblegum Bullets.
2x DAMAGE.

I don't know how to spell it out more clearly than that.

 

[kilozombie]

Okay lol. Originally this argument was vs Musket Balls but it's clear you don't actually want to listen to reason.

 

[Newblank]

After reading the argument, I guess the only downsides are not having a confined area for the bullets to bounce, and a stack of bullets per pinky..

 

[TMB50]

Okay lol. Originally this argument was vs Musket Balls but it's clear you don't actually want to listen to reason.

No, it's that I'm prioritizing DPS over damage per hit, and taking into account that musket balls usually stop being used as ammo after Hardmode begins.

 

[kilozombie]

No, it's that I'm prioritizing DPS over damage per hit, and taking into account that musket balls usually stop being used as ammo after Hardmode begins.

If all bullets have a chance to multiply total damage by anywhere from 2-10x, I'd say that's improving DPS.

 

[TMB50]

If all bullets have a chance to multiply total damage by anywhere from 2-10x, I'd say that's improving DPS.

But another problem they have is that they take a massive hit against enemies with a high defence, so a way to make them actually worthwhile would be to make them deal as much damage as Musket Balls AND make them crafted with regular gel so that they can be regularily used.

 

[kilozombie]

But another problem they have is that they take a massive hit against enemies with a high defence,

Why?

Yes, you are gaining damage with higher-level bullets. If your gun sucks it would help to have higher-tier bullets so that you can get through armor, but if you're already using the SDMG (which has no real trouble with armor if you're a Ranger) then the additive effect is not as noticable as literally doubling or tripling your damage output.

 

[TMB50]

Why?

Yes, you are gaining damage with higher-level bullets. If your gun sucks it would help to have higher-tier bullets so that you can get through armor, but if you're already using the SDMG (which has no real trouble with armor if you're a Ranger) then the additive effect is not as noticable as literally doubling or tripling your damage output.

An item that is available early-game shouldn't be balanced according to an endgame weapon, specially if it's dropped by something which drops ammo that can easily give more damage.

 

[kilozombie]

An item that is available early-game shouldn't be balanced according to an endgame weapon, specially if it's dropped by something which drops ammo that can easily give more damage.

What I'm saying is, it's a good endgame ammo, but also probably a good earlygame ammo, so long as you don't use it on high-defense enemies before you have a high-damage weapon.

 

[KalvinHobbez]

I've always felt like I've neglected the Ranger too often but after 1.3 recently did a run and damn do I like what they have capable, I would definitely enjoy seeing more bullet variations available, especially for pre-hardmode. The Phoenix Bullet coming back into your inventory might be a bit odd as a mechanic, but maybe if its a hardmode only bullet it could work. Like maybe combine it with Living Fire blocks, I don't think that thing is used too much and I believe it's hardmode exclusive in hell.

Hex Bullet is definitely interesting, but a bit difficult to know the effectiveness of it when it comes to team fights where all kinds of debuffs are being thrown everywhere. Despite that, you still at least get a result regardless of what debuff. Another new kind of mechanic so gotta be careful with those as the game might not support something like that, but I'd like to see something with that Hex mechanic at least. The bullet could possibly be crafted with Ectoplasm and make the bullets have much higher damage to make up for being so late game.

Now for the supposed controversial one, the Bubblegum bullets. I've always enjoyed weapons that can spam enclosed spaces and just wreak havoc, but of course this has primarily been a magic exclusive mechanic. So giving Ranged this capability as an escape kind of mechanism if stuff gets too hectic in a small area can be really nice. As for the damage thing, yeah the gun's base damage adds to the bullet damage so I'm alright with it dealing 0 damage, would be interesting to see a bullet that does that. My two issues with it is 1: Make more bullets crafted from each gel and 2: Make them pierce, lower knockback or even remove it. Without the pierce, they are kind of like cave exclusive Chlorophyte bullets pre-hardmode, as once a bullet is fired it is very likely it will eventually hit something. Even with that in mind, I'd personally love to see them pierce just take groups out like nothing with late game weapons.

Now Sealing Arrow is neat, but I don't see it was an ability an arrow should just have. Maybe an accessory that gives ranged and melee attacks this ability or a potion buff or something, but an arrow just feels odd. With that said, the ability can be very nice if it were restricted. Like Moon Bite I'm assuming the devs don't want you to be able to avoid that, it's there to specifically avoid cheap tactics with life steal. I'd say they will be nice early game for a lot of stuff that can give you annoying debuffs, but by the time you get to hardmode you'd be wanting to get the Ankh Shield which covers pretty much everything you'd need to negate. So Sealing Arrow has potential.

Vortex Matter is definitely my favorite, I had an idea like this not too long ago but couldn't think of how to go about it, but Vortex definitely makes this work better. Without needing to give new ammo to the oddities of guns its nice to just give every gun the Vortex Ammo as their upgrade. With that being a pretty nice addition, I'd like to see a new craftable item alike it for each pillar element. Solar could have a buff potion that gives defense and melee damage, Nebula could craft special end game mana potions, and Stardust could craft an accessory that affects minion damage or something of the like.

Long post, but yeah I do like the ideas, a lot of unique projectiles in the game but I'd still enjoy seeing more.