The Truth About Gun Stats? An in-depth Gun/Stat guide
So let's get real
There are many guns in iEra, and unfortunately too many people simply don't understand them. This guide will explain what each stat affects, how to choose a suitable gun, as well as some clarifications for specific guns, and stats in general. A lot of research has gone into this guide, and I encourage you to ask any questions you have, and point out any errors you see.
The Stats
You could probably find all of this information in separate threads, but I'm here to bring it all together, as well as explain them with a little more detail. Clear things up, ya know..? Throughout this guide, keep in mind that you can't argue with stats. Many people suffer from a strong placebo effect while judging the strength of a gun. This guide, however, is based solely on stats.
There are 8 stats which affect the functionality of a gun: Damage, Freeze rate, Fire rate(rof), Spread, Reload freeze, Reload sleep, Bullet placement, and Clip size.
Stats are represented through small numbers. Stats referring to a duration of time(: freeze rate) are in milliseconds.
Damage- Had to start off with the obvious one. Whether a gun has "good damage" is heavily dependent on all the other stats.
•A gun's description will tell you its damage in "good" shape.
•The gun always deals 1 more damage in perfect shape than in good shape.
Freeze rate- After firing a gun, your character is unable to move for a brief period of time. This is called "Freeze rate"
•Lower freeze is obviously better
•Low freeze is from around 0.085 to 0.14
•Moderate freeze is from around 0.14 to 0.2
•High freeze is 0.2 +
For example, M4 has 0.185 freeze while vector has 0.15. This is a rather large difference when referring to freeze rate.
Fire rate- After firing a gun, there is a short period of time before you are able to fire again. "rof" stands for "rate of fire".
•If a gun has higher freeze than fire rate, you are unable to move at all while firing(example: ak47, AA-12)
•Fast rof is from around 0.13 to 0.2
•Moderate rof is from around 0.2 to 0.27
•Low rof is from 0.27 +
•Automatic guns generally fire slower while holding the fire key down, as opposed to tap firing.(you can shoot a bar faster by tapping than by holding the fire key)
For example, dual P2K has 0.19 rof while mp5 has 0.26 rof. This is a notable difference, yet not major. Flamethrower has 0.138 rof, which is significantly faster than mp5.
Spread- This refers to the accuracy of the gun. Higher spread means less accurate, and the bullet is more likely to shoot at a higher angle.
•High/low spread is neither and advantage, nor a disadvantage. It is usually down to the preference of the user.
•A spread value of 0 indicates that the gun is 100% accurate, and shoots completely straight (example: M107)
•High spread is generally good for spar, while low spread is generally good for pk(but not always, ex: pbp shotgun)
•Spread is a very sensitive stat: 0.15 spread is massive while 0.09 spread is moderate.
For example, Vector has 0.09 spread while ion carbine has 0.01 spread.
Advantages of High spread
•Complicates dodging for opponents
•Makes it easier to break out of top half of spar arena
•Requires less emphasis/focus on aiming
•Bullets cover a larger area, useful for pk
Advantages of Low spread
•Able to accurately hit far away opponents
•Bullets won't accidentally hit walls
•Easier to plan and hit opponents
•Experienced opponents know how to dodge spread, which may make it more of a disadvantage
Reload Freeze- After reloading, there is a period of time before you are able to move again.
•An example reload stat is 0.4-0.45, the first number(0.4) is the reload freeze.
•Low reload freeze is 0.1 to 0.3
•Moderate reload freeze is 0.3 to 0.4
•High reload freeze is 0.4 +
For example, M9 pistol has 0.1 reload freeze, while mp5 has 0.4 reload freeze.
Reload Sleep- After reloading, there is a period of time before you are able to fire again. DO NOT mistake this with reload freeze.
•An example reload stat is 0.4-0.45, the second number(0.45) is the reload sleep.
•For some it is less confusing to look at this stat as "after reloading, the period of time after being able to move before you can fire"
Some guns do not have reload sleep, because the reload sleep is equal to the reload freeze. For example, the M9 pistol's reload stat is 0.1-0.1; notice how the two numbers are equal. You would be able to fire immediately after being able to move. This is /very/ uncommon though.
Bullet Placement- Ah, this one is very confusing. Basically, this refers to the point of origin of the bullet(where does the bullet start?). This stat is in the form of (X,Y). X being the horizontal distance from the center of the player, and Y being the vertical distance from the center of the player. So what does this actually do?
Take sniper rifles for example, if you stand next to a wall you are able to shoot through it. This is because the bullet originates on the other side of the wall.
•In pk, this stat is useful for hiding behind barriers and shooting through them, but only with sniper rifles
•Interestingly, vector and m4a3 each have highly disjointed bullet placement, meaning they are similar to sniper rifles. Gives a slight edge in spar
•Bullet placement is also known as right/left wielding. A gun that right wields will have an advantage on the bottom left corner of the spar arena.
•Guns like m4a3 can change their bullet placement through the wield flip perk
•Dual wield weapons have two bullet placement stats, one for each bullet. These guns have the advantage on both sides of the spar arena
Clip size- Not much to say about this.
•Whether a gun has a good or bad clip size is generally dictated by the reload stats.
For example, a gun with a clip size of 12 is good with a reload stat of 0.1-0.2, but bad with a reload stat of 0.7-0.75
Well.. Which gun?
To know which gun to use, you need to ask yourself some questions first. To be honest, this is mostly just my recommendation. I consider myself qualified though.
1. What will I be using the gun for?
If you plan on sparring
•Low freeze, this is the main stat to look for
•Moderate Damage
•Moderate to high spread. This makes it difficult for your opponents to dodge
•Moderate to high Fire rate, however this does not always matter.
•Low/Moderate Reload. Avoid high reload like the plague
If you plan on pking
•Freeze does not matter
•High damage per second, whether it be low damage and high rof, or high damage and low/moderate rof
•Reload does not matter
If you want a versatile gun, go with all moderate stats(example: M4, BAR)
2. How much am I willing to spend?
We aren't all made of money. So I recommend you check out the stats for the guns you are interested in after question 1, and then narrow it down till you find the gun that personally suits you best. Don't go along with "well the most expensive gun is obviously the best for me"
I get more wins with my tar21, which costs 35k, than I do with my GM4.
Sadly, this game is unbalanced. The PBP shotgun outperforms the minigun by far for pking(except in fort killer). The AA-12 shotgun is debatably better than the pbp shotgun
Minigun: $200,000
PBP Shotgun: $125,000
AA-12 Shotgun: $60,000
Do not automatically assume the most expensive guns are the best for you.
3. Regular guns? Auction guns? EC guns??
Think of it like this, the harder a gun is to get- the stronger it is. When people say "blahh this game is pay 2 win", they are only half correct. It is true that a $200,000 gun is stronger than a $8,000 gun.. but statistically event guns and auction guns are /much/ stronger than their regular gun counterparts. I include reward guns with auction and ec guns, because they are also much stronger than their price tags.
I'll elaborate on this more later.
Personally, i would recommend you just get a bar. It's great for sparring, pking, and basing. Contrary to popular belief, i believe it's better than a gm4 for sparring. This is merely my personal opinion, but I've never met someone to regret buying their bar, unlike the many many people who regret their Gm4s and Miniguns(including myself). Call it biased, yep.
Please merge this with the OP, i exceeded the character limit
The Truth
I had to break up this guide into two sections, because it exceeded the character limit. As I said earlier, the stats don't lie. In this final section I will cover the various myths about guns, both specific and broad misconceptions. They will be backed with stats. Keep yourself informed. Misconceptions will be labeled in bold and red
The BAR has high freeze
This is a common example of the placebo effect. People believe that the BAR has high freeze because all of its other stats are so good, they need to think that it has something weak about it. When in reality, the BAR actually has the same freeze as M16.
BAR
Freeze: 0.2
Due to the BAR's high rof, the gun also /appears/ to have very high freeze. Obviously, the faster you shoot a gun, the less you will be able to move.
For example, if you hold down the fire key for flamethrower, your character will move very slowly. But if you tap fire, you will see that the freeze is actually very very low for it. This applies to all guns, including BAR.
The faster you shoot, the higher the freeze appears to be. If you were to tap fire with the bar, you would see that it actually has moderate freeze rate.
GM4 Is better than P2Ks (in spar)because of its lower freeze rate
This one has always been amusing to me.
GM4
Freeze: 0.145
P2K
Freeze: 0.1457
there is only a difference of .0007 in their freeze. This is completely negligible, the only reason that the 7 is even there is so that GUNs Admins and players can say "well the gm4 has less freeze".
FURTHERMORE, single wield P2K has a freeze rate of .125, which is /very/ low.
hilariously, Single Wield P2K is actually /better/ than a gm4 in all of its stats, except rof which is the same(*and 1 less clip)
Ghost M4: $187000
Damage: 8
Spread: 0.085
Freeze: 0.145
Fire Rate: 0.265
Reload Freeze: 0.40-0.45
Clip: 17
P2K: $100000 (single wield)
Damage: 8
Spread: 0
Freeze: 0.125
Fire Rate: 0.265
Reload Freeze: 0.15-0.3
Clip: 16
The solo P2K, which costs $87,000 less than GM4, is actually significantly better than GM4. Much lower freeze, and //vastly// lower reload freeze.
This goes back to my point earlier about reward guns being stronger than regular guns.
Ion carbine is a GM4 without any spread
I'll let the stats talk(look up for GM4 stats)
Ion Carbine:
-Default Fire Mode
Damage: 8
Spread: 0.01
Freeze: 0.14
Fire Rate: 0.24
Reload Freeze: 0.20-0.40
Auto: Yes
Clip: 20
Much better reload, slightly better freeze, and better fire rate.
Ion carbine is more comparably, and almost identical to a m4a3
Spar reward guns take more skill than regular guns
This is a huge one. A lot of people talk down to gm4 users, saying they're using a "noob gun" or "spamming" orrr "no skill gun".
"no skill gun"
interestingly, M4a3 is better than a GM4 in /all of its stats/(*except one less clip).
yes, its better than a gm4, not even including the wield switch perk.
M4a3: $100000 (Must have 22,500 spar wins)
-Default Fire Mode
Damage: 8
Spread: 0.04
Freeze: 0.136
Fire Rate: 0.245
Reload Freeze: 0.20-0.25
Clip: 16
Yeah, a GM4 is actually harder to use than a M4a3.
Let's look at vector now..
Vector: $40000 (Must have 15,000 spar wins)
Damage: 8
Spread: 0.09
Freeze: 0.15
Fire Rate: 0.29
Reload Freeze: 0.30-0.35
Clip: 14
Compared to a M4...
M4*: $55000
Damage: 8
Spread: 0.1
Freeze: 0.1945
ROF: 0.30
Reload Freeze: 0.30-0.35
Auto: No
Clip: 16
Although that M4 stat is pasted from Jeni's gun stat guide, I'm pretty sure it's a bit outdated. So if anybody wants to share the current stats, yeah, that'd be great.
Going with it though, as you can see, the vector has .0445 less freeze(huge difference), as well as slightly higher stats all around. Yet it costs 15k less..?
Souizen is stronger than BAG
They actually have /identical/ stats(except souizen is right wield). It is merely a placebo. People think that because the bag is more common, and doesn't look as cool, that it is weaker.
FMG9 also has identical stats to them. They are statistically the strongest of auction guns, except Mtarx(and debatably Ghost Ripper)
Mtar X is currently the best gun in game. After testing by duke, it actually kills faster than a BAR.
Hit timer
Thought I'd quickly explain hit timer. In some areas of the game, after taking damage you are unable to deal nor receive any damage for a short period of time. This is called "hit timer"
The green room in spar complex has hit timer, while the grey room does not.
My current understanding of hit timer is that it exists to prevent spamming, or at least make it less effective.
Players often confuse hit timer with eating.
Thank you for reading! I will try to add anything if i see fit, as well as fix errors along the way.
