Best Starting Weapons (TFTD)
Starting a game in TFTD is outright frightening - especially if you've played the game a few times and know what to expect. Half the time your starting weapons will feel ineffectual and some of them most certainly are. As always, a good mixture of weapon types will always be recommended, but here we'll have a look at the early general weapons that you'll most probably want to arm your aquanauts with to make things easier.
The Weapons
Note: Only the purchasable weapons and the Gauss weapons will be covered in this discussion as they can be accessed from the start prior to attending any missions.
Weapons that are not covered include:
- The Torpedo Launcher
- Grenades
- Thermal Tazer
These are special weapons that are used primarily for support or are not generally used as the main weapons to arm the entire squad (under normal circumstances).
Dart Gun
Probably the most ineffectual weapon in the entire series. It does offer the usual one-handed grip, speed and low cost. It's severely crippled by its low damage rating. It's can be used against Aquatoids, Gillmen and Deep Ones, on the easier difficulty settings, but will deal negligible damage to most terror units. Though lacking as an offensive weapon, it does make for a fair weapon to train reactions or for improving firing accuracy due to the excessive amount of effort it requires you to put in to it.
Jet Harpoon
This weapon is fairly average overall, and would be considered more effective if it had a much larger harpoon magazine. This forces you to compensate by either being more conservative and careful with your attacks, or bringing more ammunition into battle.
Thanks to its good accuracy and auto fire mode, it works well in ranged combat against unarmored enemies likes Aquatoid, Gillmen and Deep Ones. Tougher enemies will need heavier weapons to deal with, such as grenades or the cannons.
Though this weapon appears to be intend as the bread-and-butter starting weapon to arm all your aquanauts with, the increased amour levels and AP resistances in TFTD quickly make this weapon obsolete.
Gas Cannon
Probably one of the more effective starting weapons that you can buy. It can function as a high powered cannon, a grenade launcher or a fire starter. Its balance of moderately high firepower, high accuracy and a variety of ammunition types make it one of the better all-rounder weapons to start with.
It does suffer from being slow, heavy and only has a small 8 ammo magazine. The payoff for this is firepower that is twice as powerful as the Jet Harpoon coupled with generous firing accuracy. The Gas Cannon with HE shells can even rival the Sonic Pistol for taking down Lobstermen - unfortunately it is not as fast nor does it have enough ammo to truly match it. Most importantly, for a heavy weapon it does not suffer from the underwater-only restriction.
The AP and HE shells will be standard every-day ammo, while the Phosphor shells will prove to be the only phosphor shells that can be fired manually when on land. Until you get the Displacer/Sonic, HE shells will be of particular value on land missions, as you will be able to use them to strike targets through the ceiling above you in the event that you cannot access the area by foot.
The Gas Cannon's improved HE damage of 65, and the Torpedo Launcher's nerfed damage of 90, mean that the Torpedo Launcher is now obsolete... back in Xcom, 52 vs 100 damage made the rocket launcher worthwhile, but in TFTD, the fact that you can get 2 shots off with GC makes the 25 point difference no longer worth it, damagewise. And the ammo issues are even more magnified too.
Hydro-Jet Cannon
The Hydro-Jet Cannon is the automatic fire version of the Gas Cannon. Where the Gas Cannon excels at single shot attacks, the Hydro-Jet Cannon excels primarily at automatic fire. Despite being the slowest automatic fire weapon in X-COM's arsenal, it is also its greatest strength thanks to variable ammunition types it can arm. It also has more than twice the ammunition at the cost of stopping power. It is unfortunately straddled with being an underwater-only weapon.
This weapon would have been one of the more effective starting weapons if it did not have the under-water restriction. As a large number of the more difficult missions are on land, this weapon will not be available during these times. As such, the Gas Cannon is effectively superior to the Hydro-Jet Cannon as you can rely on it to be available at all times.
The Hydro-Jet Cannon can be fired via reaction fire while on land, but as one of the slowest weapons in the game, it cannot be relied on nor is it a practical way to operate it.
Since underwater maps don't have as much fuel as land based missions, the large capacity phosphor belts can't be utilized to their fullest as phosphor fires practically burn out in one or two turns in underwater maps.
If the under-water only requirement was not a concern, the weapon would be a good contender for the Gas Cannon as effective mid to long range combat weapons. It would be the dominant of the two for close quarter combat - especially when later combined with better armor.
Gauss Pistol
While only a pistol, it is vastly superior to the Jet Harpoon. It is small, one handed, fast in addition to auto fire, a large 20 round ammo clip and deals much more damage than the Jet Harpoon. It makes a good weapon for scouts to use or for making reaction shots. Up close, it can do high damage with its auto fire mode. As they are quick to manufacture, you can outfit most of your crew with these weapons in a short amount of time.
The main downside to the Gauss Pistol however is that it is not as accurate as the Jet Harpoon, and the ammunition must be manufactured. The increased ammo count and speed make up for the accuracy and price difference.
The Gauss Pistol, while more powerful than the harpoons, is still limited to fighting enemies with low external armor protection. This means it is for the most part useless against the more powerful terror units. Primary enemies, the Lobstermen are 70% resistant to the damage while Tasoth are 30% resistant. It is best complimented with other high powered weapons such as grenades or (much later) drills.
Gauss Rifle
Similar to the Gauss Pistol in overall usefulness, but is two-handed, larger, a little slower and only has 15 round clips. In return, it is balanced by having more firepower and better accuracy than the Gauss Pistol. It is the best replacement for the Jet Harpoon.
Of particular note is that it rivals the Gas Cannon's AP shell in raw power - both deal 60 points of damage of their respective types. Alien resistances to the damage types will be the ultimate decider which type is better, though the Gauss Rifle will generally deal more damage thanks to its speed.
Compared to X-COM UFO where its counterpart the Laser Rifle could easily rival the alien's top weapon, the Gauss Rifle does not survive well in the long run. It is best thought of as stepping stone or interim weapon before transitioning over to the Sonic weapons.
Despite this, it is still one of the most powerful auto fire weapons in the game, and is faster than the sonic weapons. This may very well keep it seeing service later into the game against soft targets.
Heavy Gauss
The Heavy Gauss is a poor third tier weapon for the Gauss family because it is severely outclassed by the Sonic Pistol in almost every aspect except a more accurate aimed mode and is cheaper to mass produce. Nevertheless it is a heavy hitting weapon for its damage class, but may not necessarily make for a good weapon to arm the entire squad with - at least in comparison to the other starting weapons that are available.
Against standard and Gauss weaponry, the Heavy Gauss is one of the most powerful solid round projectile weapons available. If you regularly use the Gas Cannon with AP shells, the Heavy Gauss can make a reasonable replacement by way of a strength for speed trade off. The ammo packs away better than Gas Cannon shells and has a few more rounds. Note that damage resistance of some of the aliens will play a big role in determining whether AP or Gauss is the better choice.
Due to the amount of research time it takes to get this, and the fact that its earlier prerequisites perform better in combat, it is highly questionable if you should invest your research power and time to devlop this weapon, or start on the Sonic weapons. The only argument for this is if you wish to obtain the craft Gauss Cannon, for an economic advantage. One good reason against this is that it further delays getting the progress on the Sonic Oscillator, for a tactical advantage. There are also the related SWS associated with the craft weapons. In this instance, the Displacer/Sonic is hands down the best of the pairing due to the severe economic implications caused by the ammunition errors that plague the Coelacanth/Gauss.
Summary
Because there is an assortment of weapons to work with, and various players having completely different philosophies towards combat, there can not be one ultimate weapon as all the weapons vary in performance and functionality.
In most cases a mixture of weapons often outweighs the benefit of arming the entire squad with just one type of weapon.
However, amongst them, three of the more outstanding starting weapons that you can start your campaigns with include the Gas Cannon, Gauss Pistol and Gauss Rifle.
Gas Cannon
For stronger Aquanauts, the Gas Cannon is the great all-rounder and is the best weapon that can be purchased from the very start of the game and does not require any research to obtain.
While not the most powerful weapon, it is strong enough to kill absolutely every evil alien you may come across. Even the Lobstermen, however they require a significant amount of of patience and an equally large amount of ammunition.
It also more or less makes the Torpedo Launcher redundant.
Even towards the end of the game, it may no longer be useful as a squad-level weapon, but may continue to see limited use for its ability to strike targets through the floor above it on land missions where you may not be able to access some upper level areas by foot.
Much of the Gas Cannon's prominence unfortunately comes from the fact most of the other heavy weapons are limited by their underwater-only status - though it is respectably formidable as it is. Without the under-water restrictions, it would be easily rivaled by the Hydro-Jet Cannon.
As soon as you begin a game of TFTD, it is possible to equip the entier squad primarily with Gas Cannons and HE shells, with AP rounds as back ups. Hydro-Jet Cannons and similar mixture of ammo can be added to supplement the cannons during situational parts of missions. Gas Cannons can easily be your bread-and-butter weaponry before obtaining any of the more advanced weapons.
Gauss Pistol, Gauss Rifle
For weak or nimble Aquanauts: The two gauss weapons listed are highly recommend as complete replacements for the Jet Harpoons. Though these weapons will not available for use the very minute that you start the game, their research path can be started immediately.
The two gauss weapons combine moderate firepower, high speed and generous ammunition supplies that most purchasable weapons are not able to offer (all at the same time). The Gauss Rifle is the most popular of the pairing thanks to its overall balance of firepower, speed and high accuracy. The pistol is favoured for its high ammunition capacity, speed and all the inherent qualities associated with one-handed firearms. In the end, the choice of either weapon is heavily preferential or role dependent.
In contrast to the lasers, their First Alien War counterparts, these weapons can not last all the way through the game. Their primary role is to act as temporary improvements over your initial assault weaponry, the Jet Harpoon and Dart Gun until Sonic Weapons are developed.
As using Gauss Weapons is entirely an elective choice on the player's part, please refer to Skipping Gauss Weapons for a differing view.