Unknown Herald

* Item

12 (Nano)

14 (Firestorm)

32 (Sharpshooter)

56 (Sharpshooter + Power)

## Class Perks

**Sharpshooter (Scout)**Deals 4x base damage per shot

**Scavenger (Technician)**Convert weapon to a modpack

## In-game Description

*For every rocket it uses, the Unknown Herald pistol fires a cluster of mini-missiles in a horizontal spread.*

*Closer examination of the firearm reveals no United Aerospace Corporation insignia, and the UAC has categorically denied ever creating such a weapon.*

*Perhaps the doom it brings to its enemies is a sign of things to come?*

## Tactical Analysis

The **Unknown Herald** is a unique pistol that shoots multiple mini-missiles per shot, it is a stronger version of the **Mini-missile Pistol**, an advance-tier assembly weapon.

The **Unknown Herald** fires out 7 mini-missiles in a fixed spread pattern, each of these mini-missiles deals smaller base damage at 8 compared to a Mini-missile Pistol which deals 20 points of damage per projectile. The mini-missile is of fire element and would make a short work against most enemies with the exception of some with overt fire resistance such as the **Magmabus** or the **Nightmare Arch-vile**. And as with all explosive firearms, the mini-missile is capable of self-harm, but due to having an extremely tiny area-of-effect, A player actually has to fire the Unknown Herald at point-blank range to injure themselves.

Unlike the **Mini-Missile Pistol** where 6 mini-missiles can be fired out of one rocket, Each mini-missile salvo from the Unknown Herald is worth one full rocket, making it somewhat of a costly upgrade compared to the weapon it is based on, the damage gain from the Unknown Herald still outweights this shortcoming fortunately.

The Unknown Herald also has an odd spreading pattern which might take some time getting used to. After firing a shot, a single mini-missile will be propel forward for a short but very specific distance before spreading out into 7 projectiles in a completely horizontal fan pattern. This initial mini-missile is really a single projectile, not a tight group of projectiles that will later spread out. As such, firing at an enemy below this optimum range is not recommended even if the player is immuned to the explosion, as the Unknown Herald will deal very little damage to the enemy before another 6 projectiles could spawn, greatly diminishing the power of the weapon.

Being classified as a pistol, The Unknown Herald fills in the explosive niche in the **Scout**'s arsenal nicely, as his **Sharpshooter** perk multiplies damage from all pistols, including the Unknown Herald. Each mini-missile fired from the Scout will deal 32 point of base damage or 4 times the amount of damage when used by other classes.

The **Demolitionist** and his **Fireangel** perk as usual, will be completely immuned to the explosion radius of the Unknown Herald. Allowing this pistol to be used against fast, always in-your-face style monsters such as the **Pinkies** and its families.

The Unknown Herald has one mod slot and being a unique weapon, all 3 exotic modpacks will have a different, much stronger effect than usual. As of 1.1.4 all normal modpacks can be applied as well.

## Modpack Analysis

### Bulk

Increases the Unknown Herald's magazine size to 12.

### Power

Increase base damage from 8 to 14. If playing as the **Scout** however, the already quadrupled base damage of 32 will be increased further to 56, making a Power-modded Unknown Herald an actual, viable upgrade for a unique weapon without having to use an exotic modpack, as it is cheaper/easier to find and is a very decent direct damage upgrade.

### Agility

Increase projectile speed from 20 map units per tic (same as the classic **Rocket Launcher**) to 50.

### Sniper

Tightened the spread to a pinpoint acccuracy and maximized the amount of damage done to a single enemy per shot. The spread is still exists however and can be seen in a very large map where the clump of mini-missiles slowly spread out in a **Shotgun**-like fashion, function-wise the weapon is still considered extremely accurate. An important note that the Sniper-modded Unknown Herald still follow the same firing mechanism in which the extra 6 projectiles will not appear if the main mini-missile is detonated prematurely before certain range is reached.

### Firestorm

Each shot from the Unknown Herald now have a second salvo of 7 mini-missiles that follows the exact same trajectory as the first but with a tiny delay. A straight damage multiplier, no further explanation is needed.

### Nano

Increase the amount of mini-missiles from 7 to 12 along with an even wider, but still fixed spread. One of a harder upgrade to use effectively, mainly due to the larger spread on top of the minimum range requirement. These handicap to both minimum and maximum range limits the Nano-modded Unknown Herald's role to big room clearing and nothing else.