Weapons

There are eight weapons in the game. All of them have various stats, and are your primary tools in purging the enemies of Mankind. There is also the Chainsword, useful for finishing weakened enemies.

Each weapon has a Strength, or Str value associated with it, although this does not fully correlate with its damage per shot or output per minute. Rather, it is a quick metric to determine its effectiveness against an enemy's Toughness value.

### Boltgun

The first weapon acquired by Malum Caedo. A boltgun, or bolter, is the primary and iconic weapon of a Space Marine. A large caliber automatic weapon, these fire the eponymous bolts, which are large .75 caliber rocket propelled rounds that can penetrate targets and carry an explosive charge. The Boltgun carries 25 rounds in a magazine, and can carry up to 150 rounds in reserve.

The boltgun has a Strength value of 4, and is consequently a good all-round weapon. It has minimal spread at range and a quick rate of fire. On Hard difficulty, it can kill most cultists, Nurglings, and Blue Horrors with a single shot.

With a machine spirit blessing, the weapon can hold 45 rounds in its magazine, and gains an increase to damage, leaving it with a Strength value of 5.

There are also various specialty magazines to be found, in the form of Kraken rounds, Dragonfire rounds and Vengeance rounds. It is not very obvious what each of these do, short of increasing the damage done by each bolt. They add to the overall ammunition pool, and do not draw from normal bolts.

### Shotgun

The shotgun is modeled after an Astartes, or Space Marine assault shotgun. It is a large bore pump action shotgun, firing a spread of pellets and with a short effective range. The shotgun can carry eight rounds in its magazine, with 24 rounds in reserve. Malum Caedo can feed shells very quickly, however, it still takes some time to fully reload. The shotgun has a strength value of 3, however, it is effective at dispatching Lesser Plague Toads and Chaos Space Marines with two-three shots at very close range, provided all the pellets hit.

The Machine Spirit blessing appears to make each projectile shot bounce or ricochet.

### Plasma Gun

The plasma gun fires balls of superheated matter. Unlike in the tabletop game and other depictions, there is no charge mechanic. There is also no overheat and explode mechanic, either, thankfully. The plasma gun has a strength value of 7, making it very useful at dealing with enemies with more health earlier on in the game, but is quickly superseded by other weapons. It also has a short cooldown phase after each shot, during which the player cannot switch weapons, making it unwieldy in close quarters, and there is splash damage done on impact, which can lead to self-damage.

The plasma gun has 12 rounds per "magazine" and can hold 24 extra rounds in reserve. The Machine Spirit blessing drastically improves rate of fire, all but removing the cooldown period, as well as removing self-damage as well as seemingly increasing its damage.

### Heavy Bolter

An enlarged variant of the mighty Boltgun, a heavy bolter is used by fire support infantry in Warhammer 40,000. The heavy bolter here reflects this. It does not have to reload, carrying up to 250 heavy .998 caliber bolts in its ammunition supply. There is a very short ready phase where once the player pulls the trigger, the weapon does not immediately fire, rendering it less useful in frantic situations. However, it's very easy to also jump out of cover while pulling the trigger and begin firing as soon as one has line of sight.

While firing, the heavy bolter slows the player's movement speed significantly, making them also an easier target. Like the original Doom game in 1993, each heavy bolt may not do much damage, but its high rate of fire adds up over time and makes it a very useful weapon against all sorts of targets. It also seems to stagger them, limiting their ability to attack the player in return.

The heavy bolter has a strength value of 5. It also has a wonderful firing sound. The machine spirit blessing removes the movement speed penalty, allowing the player to move at full speed while firing.

### Vengeance Launcher

A revolving cylinder fed grenade launcher, the Vengeance Launcher fires sticky grenades in a more or less straight line. These will impact targets or the environment, dealing minor damage, and then explode shortly thereafter, dealing a much larger amount of damage over a considerable area. There is no way for the player to manually detonate the grenades.

It carries six rounds in a cylinder and 18 rounds in reserve. It is notably useful against larger targets despite its low strength value of 3, given the detonation and even the damage upon initial impact. It also trivializes fights against Aspiring Champions given that it staggers them, stopping them in their tracks. Holding down the fire button also fires the weapon in rapid succession. The explosions also gib the Aspiring Champion, preventing resurrection.

There seems to be a slight bug where if the player aims close to their feet, the grenades will fly wildly off to the left. Perhaps this is an intentional mechanic to prevent self-damage.

### Volkite Caliver

Volkite weapons were the primary weapons used by the Space Marines before the current era, some 10,000 years ago. They are extremely powerful thermal rays, but were supplanted due to their difficulty to manufacture. In the game, the Volkite Caliver is a sustained fire weapon. Pulling the trigger will unleash an orange beam that rips through enemies over time.

It has a "magazine" capacity of 60, which lasts about twenty seconds of sustained firing and a reserve of 120, allowing for three complete reloads. The Caliver has a strength value of 6, but given its damage over time mechanic, can quickly cut down targets compared to the Plasma Gun.

### Meltagun

Meltaguns are essentially plasma guns, but instead of a concentrated projectile, it's more akin to perhaps a fusion reaction with a shutter. The meltagun in the game fires a large round blast of heat energy that can pass through multiple targets. It has a magazine capacity of 10, with 30 in reserve, however each pull of the trigger consumes 5 fuel, so functionally it only has two shots before reloading. The reload is incredibly short, however and it is very easy to burn through (heh) all of its ammunition in short order.

With a strength value of 7, it also seems to do notably more damage than the plasma gun, especially given its projectile will pass through enemies until it hits terrain.

### Grav Cannon

The grav cannon uses gravity to destroy its targets. A loading screen tip implies it does more damage to larger enemies, using their own mass against them. It has a strength value of 8 and has similar mechanics to the Volkite Caliver and Heavy Bolter. Essentially upon pulling the trigger, it fires a large beam which ends in a ball reminiscent of a black hole or gravitational singularity. The ball will stop on anything solid, so closer targets will essentially make the ball terminate closer to the weapon.

In terms of gameplay, it's more or less encouraging the player to wave their mouse over enemies. The beam's end has a large area of effect, so for example, targeting a Great Unclean One that constantly spawns Nurglings will kill the Nurglings near it, and indeed most of the weaker enemies in a considerable radius.

The grav cannon can carry 150 ammo units, which it burns through at a rapid rate.