Im currwntly running it on my cadian vet commander build where i use exhilherating take down, iron will, the anti supression perk, and covering fire as well as all toughness regen and charasmatic with than the voice of command and regnerating maxed out frags for horde clear and the oh fuck situations.
Honestly is fun as hell to let loose on the hordes knowing how much toughness im regening the group while also giving them a massive dmg boost on top of the bolter shots doing serious horde dmg as i pop heads!
Boltweapons should treat limb shots as body shots and body shots as headshots with the exception of bosses maybe. Would really sell how devestating it is to have a shell explode inside your body.
i agree with the sentiment at the tailend. its wild that the games higher difficulty missions push everyone AWAY from the dark fantasy weapons to just the relatively stone and stick options of knife and revolver
You'd think it would push us toward the brutal futurisic weapons like Bolters and powered weapons that are iconic to 40K in a game with that theme. Imagine if Terminators lumbered around with revolvers and combat knives instead of the Stormbolters and Power Fists or Assault Cannons fitted with chain bayonets? I mean, why do they even exis if they'te not better than a revolver and a knife. Because they're meant to be better according to lore and not just a litte but like super powered in comparison.
The highest difficulty in PvE restricting the weapon and build pool down to a handful of the most meta picks is just how these games work really. It's a little funny the weakest weapons lorewise are the meta but honestly if it wasn't them it'd be something else. Its why IMO the highest difficulty in most PvE games isn't fun and often actually tends to suck.
@@Tk3997 Darktide's meta is not nearly so punitive. You can literally run nothing but grey garbage and no talents and still win if you know what you're doing. Its just that the balance lends the wrong feel to the game. When the balance favors axes and revolvers and not 40k weapons the game lacks a 40k feel to it because people tend to pick what is more meta than not so their games are smoother.
It doesn't work because instead of locking the dude in place like the ogryn gauntlet, it pushes and staggers the target, thereby misaligning the barrel and the target's ass😑
I find it cool how the community is finally acknowledging how the "iconic" weapons are either trash or mid, Boltgun especially. My biggest pet peeve though about the bolter is people trying to justify semi-auto aim is good and worthy of a build when it just becomes a worse revolver, full auto is so much cooler and needs its own variant for the Bolter that is full auto with less recoil.
This is actually been a drum beat of mine a while but I just think that the bolter should just have more single fire damage than the revolver and still be full auto.
@@Reginald-sc9tkat the cost of severe recoil, unless crouched dont want it to outclass everything else and make it feel more powerful. Similar to the thunder hammer stun.
Glad my sentiment on "the bolt pistol while fun is not competitive against the revolvers" is shared here. I was using it and while it was cool and I was having fun I noticed I was actually struggling to kill things more than if I hady revolver.
Yeah. The bolt pistol feels artificially handicapped which makes it very frustrating to use. It’s like having a weight attached to your arm and you’re being forced to throw a punch (just feels sluggish and underpowered instead of say punching with brass knuckles). Bolt weapons by lore have high penetrative powers, so I feel it would be great if they could punch through cover to hit enemies like how the the plasma gun can. A slightly higher ammo capacity and fire rate along with better recoil would make the bolt pistol much more fun.
@@ParryHotter204agreed, i remember playing an older Warhammer game, i forget the name but the bolt pistol was really good in that but here it just feels useless
I'll say this. I think Zealot and maybe veteran should have a perk that helps but most humans cannot use a bolt pistol without alot of training or flat out religious zeal. It makes sense as much as it sucks. @@ParryHotter204
It's just nice to be able to run the iconic Commissar kit, and it's so satisfying to reload with that saucy mag flip and then turn a heretic into shrapnel.
the bolt pistol and bolter both suffer from the same limb damage jank as the plasma gun did at launch. It wasn't noticeable for so long do to the whole stagger power build we all used to run, but after those nerfs last year the limb damage jank ruined the feel of the gun much like the plasma just felt bad for so long.
I played darktide for the first time in a long time last night. Ah, I remember now why I played it non stop for so long. ❤ Also the new weapons are really fun.
@@Reginald-sc9tk well, good news is the crafting system overhaul is looking pretty sweet based on the blog post FS posted yesterday, so that'll be nice.
@@burnin8ableit’s about time the game gets in a state where it’s less janky and barebones and can finally launch I’m tired of this 2 year beta phase (oh wait)
Lethal Proximity and Puncture make it fun and effective in close quarters Surgical helps when you have a build that doesn't rely on movement (momentum) for buffs I agree they need to make it where the Bolt Weapons are even better than a revolver
No more ogryns blocking shots all the time. No more you laying down fire and a teammate stepping right in front of you because go ahead I don't care. :)
@@thunder2434 thing is thats the optimal way to play for a lot of situations! Believe it or not there were people genuinely defending this design choice, citing it would be 'OP' if you could shoot through your teammates. Yeah, totally.
As someone who really likes the revolver... yeah I really wouldn't mind a bodyshot nerf. Like the revolvers feel great to use because whipping out your sidearm and pulling off a crisp one-tap from across the arena requires skill and feels appropriately rewarding. But that reward is kinda diminished when I realised with my skill level and playstyle, it's much safer to go for a two shot in the torso. And half the time I get a crit or something and it doesn't matter anyway.
Your closing thought is exactly how I felt after using it: It's not as good as the revolver but its good enough and it's more fun and interesting to use.
I'm glad I found this video. I was streaming my play for friends and they started to notice other issues that seemed to do more with Darktide's recent instability instead of any balance issues. We noticed that Bolter had a relatively consistent issue of damage registration. The big turning point was when I captured myself shooting an enemy in the face and it dealing seemingly no damage. Just some random lesser melee enemy. This led me to ask a lot of players I saw in game who were using the weapon in my Auric runs if they had noticed an inconsistency with the damage of the weapon. A lot of people I spoke to assumed that they just were having issues aiming, but as you pointed out with break points, there's not really a reason for the game to show a hit marker but not a kill marker for shooting these enemies in the head. The Bolt Pistol actually has the exact same damage mapping as it's larger variant, but without access to full auto mag dump, I find it really struggles to be consistent.
It does struggle to be consistent. I usually don't talk about bugs in my videos because they're subject to change. Hit registration has been an issue for darktide of greater or lesser intensity for a while. It really hurts the thunder hammer for example. Its not always too bad but when servers and netcode are in bad shape its usually pretty rough. It happened to me about 4 (confirmed) times in 3 games last night.
This has been happening to me for months, with every gun. It's especially noticeable with lasguns and autoguns, particularly the single-shot autogun in my one-shot headshot build with it. An enemy standing perfectly still, not moving, you score a perfect headshot, you see the blood splatter, and the enemy is aggroed and starts approaching you, but you did 0 damage and have to shoot him again. Happens sometimes over a dozen times per match. Maybe it happens more when combat is really heated and chaotic and I just don't notice it, but those calm moments where you're sniping an unaware enemy happens far too often and it's aggravating.
@@vahnn0 No its been a long standing problem since the game launched, its waxed and waned in frequency as well. Its a huge bane for the Thunder Hammer too. But in theory its a net-code bug that remains unaddressed and just needs to get fixed.
Revolvers always upset me in this (and many other) games. They're built up to be extremely powerful, which compared to other pistols is fine, but very few would be shooting anything that should be competing with a rifle cartridge.
to be fair, the stub revolver in darktide specifically is definitely shooting rifle sized cartridges. you can tell when you reload, those suckers are long as shit.
They look like magnum rounds to me, maybe .44. Squash head but we'll assume they're super special boolets. Its worth remembering that a short barrel and chamber setup reduces velocity quite a bit. Rifle ballistics only happen in rifles.
@@Reginald-sc9tk ye true, barrel length gives more time to accelerate the boolet. but who cares? it's not like the thing we're comparing the revolver against, the bolt pistol, makes any more sense by comparison lol.
@@burnin8able Not even a hot take but it actually does make a lot more sense. Projectile velocity and Mass are the primary method of loading and dumping kinetic energy into the target in a conventional munition. Revolver rounds aren't going to have the mass or velocity combo required to exceed a rifle round, even an intermediate caliber one, in any modern firearm. A bolt gun is a 2 stage gyrojet with an explosive round. If you go look at the actual gyrojet pistol and rifle their barrels aren't even pressure bearing components. In the bolt pistol there likely is a component of a barrel, however short, that imparts initial spin and allows the bolt's initial primer charge to be expended and kick the bolt out of the barrel. After a short delay the rocket charge is initiated and would increase velocity and likely add more spin for additional stability at range. Thus the short barrel isn't very important on bolt rounds since most of the velocity comes from the rocket not the kicker charge. Same concept as a modern RPG-7 actually. Beyond the massive projectile being pretty damaging on its own, the rocket itself causes cavitation if active while inside a target, and on top of all of that the thing explodes inside a target too. So it really is a different animal for how damage is dealt.
@@Reginald-sc9tkI once had a bug where guns had like half their models missing in the meat grinder. The auto gun rounds and stub revolver are similar in length. But the auto gun rounds are seriously bulky like friggin hell. Those things should be bisecting people.
Great stuff, thank you for putting this out so damn quick. What confused me about your comments though: On one hand, you say "it's fine, except the revolver exists." But even if there wasn't a revolver(which, yes, should be nerfed a touch), the bolt pistol would still be pretty sub-par for the reasons you subsequently articulate. The amount of follow-up shots I find myself doing to confirm a kill is frankly nuts, especially considering the thematics. I don't see myself revisiting the bolt pistol without major changes.
I think its ability to one tap specialists on a quick draw platform is above par of any other weapon except the revolvers and zealot knife, though its hard to achieve. But because of the follow up shot issue it certainly is underpowered for its handling. So its in a weird place in my view where its almost good enough but isn't but still does things few other weapons can do.
I really don't want the revolver nerfed, if it were unable to do what it does right now, the thing would be useless scrap metal. If I have to use two shots for every enemy, it's a waste of resources.
@@102ndsmirnov7 It's gotta be about as strong as the revolver imo, but its tradeoff could just be that it's harder to handle. It's fine that it doesn't get crazy crits, but it's gotta be able to at least kill poxwalkers or regular shooters in one shot lmao
Maybe I'm just a monster but I love bringing the bolt pistol to Aurics, yes everyone still runs around with revolvers in it but I still end up keeping or even doing the best in the team
Like I said, it's fine. I had a blast with mine last night, top scoring too. There's no weapon in darktide so bad you can't bring it. But there are lots of weapons that are obviously inferior choices.
One loadout I have for my bolt pistol is used lethal proximity and execution Having a frag pistol, pretty nice good for staggering hordes of chaff Also had a game where I played as the doom slayer with arc mace they’ve added and the assault shotgun With weapon specialist for my keystone And when swapping to ranged weapons, partial reload to the magazine And got 20 toughness for swapping in general I managed to clutch a game. Everybody died in the room, where you have to break the ice off of the gears. The doom veteran cleared house I also clutched it a second time up above at the Forge because everybody got clapped again by bloody guns and chaff. It was very fun.
Do want to note that when the itemization update hits we'll be able to take weapons to 100%. If it works as advertised, breakpoints and required perks could change.
the bolt pistol need to be better than the revolver, it's an heresy in the game!! I go report this to the inquisition, no joke i hope Fat Shark do something about that...
Honestly found best use with lethal proximity on my Weapon specialist Vet, while using either the combat knife or a power sword. The explosive damage is modest and works for dealing with a horde to give some breathing room, plus it will soften heavier targets, so I suppose it’s more your playstyle that will determine its usefulness, in my case, I’m pushing in with kraks, infiltration and weapon specialist, usually running a power sword of some sort and the bolt pistol, since at max stacks from weapon specialist in melee you get 3 shots back upon killing and immediately swapping. That’s 3 shots that at point blank deal massive damage in bursts.
Yeah the idea of being penalized for not being precise with a bolt weapon seems to completely counteract the entire purpose of the weapon. That is when I shoot something with a bolter that is not a massive or heavily armored target, it should explode.
The reason why boltguns don't do well against infested is they are too squishy for the rounds to be effective. It has even been noted in the lore, which is why Space Marines can struggle with hoards of poxwalkers. Now for unarmored, flak and maniac, yeah, it should do more bodyshot damage. Not going to disagree one bit. I know I've been having a lot of fun with the boltpistol and the mkIII stun maul (Haven't been able to find a good mkIa to try yet) on my support zealot build. I am currently knocking the rust off of my gears and haven't done any Auric Malestrom yet, so my opinion may change. Really like how snappy yet unwieldy the pistol is, such an odd combination of traits. My break had made me forgotten how great the weapon feel of the game has been, how much of a team game it is and such. Really looking forward to getting back to where I was. I absolutely love the lore and tilesets Fatshark does, I just wish they would come out with more maps x.x
Even if we take it from the lore that bolt guns struggle against infested flesh why would non-exploding and smaller caliber revolver rounds be more effective instead of even less? Thats the rub for me.
Don't disagree. I think the revolvers shouldn't have been added and have the shredder as the auto pistol. Would give them more breathing room for the infernus and plasma pistol in the future.
@@CrayssiusYes they have both impact detonation and a timed fuse. Some in lore stories talk of a bolter round embedding in someones extremity to then seconds later explode on timer. This could be incorporated in DT.
The revolvers are fine but they should be limited to needing headshots to deal big damage, and just generally worse penetration than the bolt pistol. They can fill the role of an accuracy sidearm while the bolt pistol is more generalist and can be used for both horde clearing and taking out elites.
I like the bolt pistol because its easier to use than the bolter. That has some insane recoil compaired to the bolt pistol. I use it as a specialist and carapace armored killer.
Maybe I missed it, but did you know about the double-aim trick? When you ADS and shoot, instead of waiting for the recoil to reset or trying to adjust your aim, just release ADS and instantly ADS again and it resets MUCH faster. Just do this between every shot. It still gets too inaccurate after several shots, but it's still much better overall. Works great with the regular Bolter, but with the bolt pistol, I noticed that the aim point snaps up and left if you don't shoot fast enough after re-ADSing, so you either have to aim and shoot before that happens or wait until after the snap and shoot, otherwise you'll miss a ton of shots. It's always up-left. But yeah, I agree, overall it's pretty underwhelming. If the bleed blessing applied to all enemies, it would be phenomenal, but as it stands, it's just okay. However it's still better than almost all the other options. I actually like the close-range explosion one, I use one of the power mauls with the +dmg vs staggered blessing, which pairs great with the Sharpshooter talent that increases weapon damage by 25% after switching weapons. (By the Emperor, I can't remember the names of any of these things anymore!)
I did know about it, after I finished recording and was almost done editing the video someone mentioned it to me. Was too late to go back and add it in but I had heard about it!
Yeaaaaaaah.... revolver seems to accomplish everything a little better and cleaner. Kinda wish the "explosive" aspect was more impactful. Like, lacking the penetration of the gat with the upside of single target damage. I thought that you put it all very well. Good vid!
Mix between revolver and boltgun. I like it, but it's very clumsy compared to revolver + Faster reload + More capacity. + Area stagger. + More damage (I think). + Can hip-fire. + More ammo. - Huge recoil (reduces effective firing rate to below 1 shot / second). - No penetration. - sights hard to acquire, especially after a shot (needs weapon customisation mod for better sights). - Less effective close range. I like it. I don't mind the damage or no penetration. I would prefer better weapon handling characteristics and sights. It is effective if you hit your shots.
I think more damage keep the clumsy is a better delineation. Otherwise everything just becomes "like the revolver but X" Its worth mentioning that the revolver has 1 off reloads which is really useful for special sniping and saves time compared to a full reload animation.
Bolt pistol currently does need some buffs, but currently I'm having a great time using it as a secondary weapon for my zealot. Lethal prox+Run n Gun turns it into a Rumbler that loses some aoe for a magazine. Its damn good for making space and dealing with ranged specials.
what i would do with the bolt pistol: +60% dmg -100% ammo reserve (so basically the magazine inside the weapons and 3 others , 8-24) reduce dmg at very long range. The point is to have a weapons with very high damage at short-medium range to death with elites. But with a vastly lower ammo reserve than a revolver or any other weapons. So the bolt pistol would shine into the hand of someone who rarely use range weapons and can manage his ammo. Those changes would allow the bolt pistol to be used as a reactive weapon (even without the need to aim for the head) and be able to do a full reload quickly. (where the revolver tends to require more space to breath for aim and reload fully.)
First off, love the production quality on this break down. Second, very valid concerns. I agree that the revolver should not suffer for the bolt pistol. Here’s hoping it gets the tweaks it can.
Deadly accurate allows bolt pistol to do significantly more damage to crushers and monsters. On my psyker build for crits using scriers gaze it does perform worse than base revolver on carapace but it does a lot more to bosses than that revolver could hope for. I’m just not sure how the bolt pistol stacks up to the newer revolver variant since that one seems to also be more suited to boss damage
I initially didn't like this gun. (Still don't) But its charms are beginning to grow on me. It's the animations that I'm falling in love with. The reject holds it hip fired with one hand. When a need of precision, they hold the grip with two. They also hold the magazine when sprinting, keeping the gun tucked close to their body. The internal slide reciprocates out the back, which is something you can visually see. It's a nice touch. It's feels how i wanted the auto pistol to feel. It certainly looks better than the auto pistol when in cutscenes or from another person's perspective. The cutscenes, the idle animations, and combat animations all accurately portray how the gun looks in your own hands.
@Reginald-sc9tk It definitely is food for thought. I guess I may have to succumb to lower my mouse sensitivity just for this gun. hip fire first round is quite accurate that I missed the shot. lol
Just the fact that you can get Bleed, Fire AND Explosive rounds on the Bolt pistol makes it more fun for me. I always hated how you have to be reloading 80% of the fights when using any revolver.
Well if anything you've convinced me to at least give it a try. But I will still say the biggest barrier for me is still the ads recoil jank. Additionally I think talking about specialist killing pistols warrants mentioning the las pistol (the Accatran specifically), which I believe is an excellent weapon. I wouldn't consider it above the Zarona, but I would put it above the bolt pistol from what I have seen. Additionally it fits perfectly with the theme and lore of laspistols. Hope to see more DT content in the future.
Las pistol is excellent but I kinda think of it more as a do-everything over a sniping tool because of the required refiring on most specialists. Its not whip out and remove problem exactly. Still really good though.
@Reginald-sc9tk fair enough. If the newer variant of the Las Pistol was better (kantrael I believe?) perhaps we could have that conversation, but it still needs a but if work.
It feels so strange they put all this work into it and its effectively just an even more limited bolter. I want to love this game but they make it harder and harder every day. I would prefer this to be solved by making the more fantastical iconic weapons spectacular rather than just nerfing the more pedestrian meta ones but I know that won't happen.
One more thing about Revolvers.. the hitbox of revolvers are larger.. it is easier to HIT with revolvers, and it's easier to MISS with the new Bolt Pistol - for not only that but many other reasons.. try it at the shooting range, you'll see that you still hit even when aiming off the target with revolvers, but that doesn't happen with the new Bolt Pistol.. And i think it makes no sense because if you see, the revolver calliber is way lesser than the Bolt Pistol..
3:30 this has been a bug as long as I've played this damn game on the normal bolter. How it could've possibly made it's way to the new bolt pistol is a friggen mystery to everyone
The devs seriously fumbled it with their slow pace of change and numerous bad decisions. Compare DT to Helldivers for update pace and reactivity to feedback and it really is just a world away from good. But nothing compares to darktide for straight combat.
@@Reginald-sc9tk yeah I come back for the funny magic man and the great melee. But other then that liberty gots my number. Although I find it funny that dark tide tried to gaslight us that the Spanish leak wasn't real, then should it off.
Yep, I had same thoughts exactly. Generally, it's an OK weapon that has great esthetics but somewhat bad aiming - especially in ADS. You can definitely use it and succeed on highest difficulties, but if we talk efficiency, I would take revolver over it every time in every situation.
Honestly if the splash damage from the bolt pistol hit the original target a couple of times, say calculated to assume hit's to 3 body locations, or one to two but without armor, then it would both probably balance it against the pistol and help it fulfill the action movie fantasy of shooting someone with an under slung grenade launcher having them survive and then explode a second or two later. Also if it's not going to kill someone in one shot I'm fine with the they die from bleeding out thing because legitimately if you blow apart someones limb or put a big hole in their torso and they don't die instantly they would bleed out in very short order.
i think it is subpar because the bolter was so overpowered at launch so the boltgun came pre nerfed. the boltgun really needs a buff. the primary reason the bolter was op was the full auto mag dumping
100% felt the same before considering stats or situation stuff. I've been using the vanilla revolver and combat blade since i first touched the zealot and I'm just waiting for any reason to swap out. The shock maul is nice as an option to change up some things but doesn't make me want to replace the knife. The bolt pistol feels like it *should* convince me to swap out the revolver but it just doesn't have any reason for me to use it yet. Why would I want a gun with 10 single fire rounds that is hard to aim, mostly low-damage compared to my revolver, and to get the best from it, needs to be spammed at close range? I have melee for close range enemy clearing without consequence because I built into that, so that my gun can be a near-instant reload 1 bullet and delete any ranged enemy. So disappointed by the bolt pistol because I'm yearning for anything to convince me to use a new loadout/build.
while I get what you mean, I feel like the revolver is just the best for zealot specifically because it so neatly fits into a niche that zealot's other tools struggle to fit. anti-ranged specialist and shooter is something that most of zealot's kit doesn't deal with very well, so the fact that the revolver can just do that out of the box with no additional support is massive. I feel like bolt pistol with lethal proximity and point blank on a weapon specialist vet would be REALLY fun for stun locking hordes.
It would be cool if they buffed the damage of the bolt pistol, made it harder to wield, then make the revolvers weaker but akimbo. No one would complain if you have the option to go full space cowboy.
"Akimbo" is standing with your hands on your hips in the stereotypical "grumpy parent" look. What did you mean to say? To make them all hip-shooters? The Agripinaa already does that.
for the the proposed fixes no the Revolver should be better against soft unarmored enemies while the boltpistol which is firing these massive rounds should absolutely body carapace and flak.
With Puncture, does the explosion apply bleed, or only direct hits? A few stacks of bleed into a crowd sounds cool (even if it's actually not all that effective with bolt splash damage being fairly low/practically non-existent).
Yeah I agree on the Bolt-Pistol (and the regular Bolter, too!) needing a damage boost (and BETTER SIGHTS that are on TARGET if you ASD!)...seriously, the sights and the bolter are bad enough, but those on the Bolt-Pistol are worse! Yeah, over all the revolver is stronger (sadly)...I played with the revolver for a long time and yeah, it is the "sniper-rifle" in this game...especially since most other weapons have crappy sights! Seriously, they should give us the option to mount sights (the Imperium is not so primitive that they have forgotten how to mount an optic!)! That said: It is a fun weapon and iconic! Will be using it a lot :)
I hate how slow the Zerona revolver reloads. Same with the bolter. The Bolt Pistol gives me the best of both worlds, if not necessarily doing the job of either better.
it's just a matter of having more reload speed and better positioning.. the gun is strong as hell.. one of the strongest, you kill a Crusher with 2 shots to the head.
I'm certainly interested in doing so but it may take me more time and I have a lot of irons in the fire. This video was a big lift. I guess it depends on how well this video performs and what interests grab my attention. Interest is my primary motivator for my video production selection.
From a pure gameplay standpoint, there's too much value in being able to Marty Robbins a special through a crowd in a complete shitstorm, plink a special at 100 yards without batting an eyelid, or do a Veteran's job of wiping out packs of Scabs down a tin can alley. Far too many situations in games where I've tried to use another gun and ended up thinking "really needed my revolver there", certainly not seeing the bolt pistol taking that spot even if it is buffed as you suggest. Very fair points though. Have been trying the Hacker shotgun too. It's fun to use and sounds great, but feels like it needs minmaxxing with the Zealot's talents for guns and doing an alternating pattern with melée to even feel worth it, and still it doesn't seem to perform right. Other than doing the mad build Milk&Cookies showed on his Veteran with it, on a Zealot at least the Agripinna shotgun with the armour-pen alt slug feels consistently more situationally appropriate. What the Hacker can do to big (non-armoured) targets at point-blank I can do cleaner with either my chainaxe or Turt6.
Cheers Reginald, long time Fan here ;) guess I watched all your build and theory Vids, GREAT Information given and I am glad to see you back. QUESTION : did you test Lethal Proximity with Puncture? Maybe the increased explosion radius triggers the bleed and would make it ( great? ) vs Hordes. Also what does NEAR SHOTS mean? Does is trigger the Explosion INSIDE the 5m arming range...? I will test it myself when I got the Blessings...need to do some more mats farming though :P
Near shots are within 5 meters, which is the priming distance of the bolt round. Lethal and puncture have no interaction. Sadly. Thanks for coming to visit! Glad you like my work.
It just feels right I love the bolter but it’s just too slow sometimes this is just perfect lil pocket fuck you for my zealot to pullout when something’s just outta stabbing or mashin range
I might have mine set up wrong but i was underwhelmed with the bolt pistol. I got a top tier revolver with surgical4 and handcannon4 that takes a crusher down in 3 hits very reliably but the bolt pistol takes the whole clip at best and usually needed a few shots on top of that Then theres my bolter(proper bolter) and i have had that thing take up to three crushers out in one mag dump and that one also lets you chose if you want semi or full auto
Felt pretty similarly, really wanted it to be good but there really is no reason to use it over the revolver in its current implementation. Honestly I'd even be down with something like increasing the explosion radius or something to make it more versatile, then at least it would be a choice of do you want the gun that's absolutely the best for snipping elites, or do you want something that's still pretty good for that but can also deal with hordes better
Well the explosion radius blessing does that and all it is is stagger. It needs real damage but IMO thats not the kind of thing a bolter is for. Its not an AOE grenade launcher its a single target annihilator.
Pistol looks awesome, but the feel of playing is awful because of random "skips" between shots that makes you miss everytime, the pistol randomly jumps while you're aiming for no reason.. and also it is weak on damage, many times you're wasting time shooting a target twice that other guns kill in one shot... i think they should change Bleeding for Penetration and fix those random leaps between shots while aiming.
My view on the Bolt Pistol is that it needs the Shatter blessing that's missing to work more similar to the Boltgun. I was thinking Puncture might be a stand-in for it but haven't had time to test that so this video is just so great! It shows I was on to something there. Not exactly equivalent but it is one of the best few blessings to pick from to optimize the gun. Do the bleed stacks add just damage over time or also increase crit chance? It doesn't say in the description but knowing how the bleed inducing skills work it might also add stacks of crit chance? As for running the weapon regardless of it not being top tier I'll be doing that too, at least some of the time. Just for the 40K iconic immersion.
No increased crit chance that I know of as those talents on zealot are for melee so puncture is just a dot. The problem I have with rending blessings, besides that they ruin armored enemies as a fun part of the game, is that they don't solve the priority target 1 tap problem.
@@Reginald-sc9tk So the damage profile is the core issue in need of change then, as you said in the video. But will FS do it, how much of a ruckus do we need for them to do it? ;)
thats was my thought bolt pistol needs a buff, it felt like a bad revolver. the bolt pistol should be destroying people on contact, and the boltgun also feels off. but it was nerfed a bunch of times for making one shot boss. nerfing our toys shouldn't be the option buff the agression system.
Well since half of the people in these comments saying it's trash i never had any problems with mine & plus im always having plenty of fun using the boltgun....now with other people that's just gotta be a skill issue with them 🤷🏾♂️💯
@@Reginald-sc9tk I found out why it looked better to me, you have the camera sway all the way up. I had mine down but I changed it. Ik it probably wasn't your intention but thank you!! (Great vid btw)
I dunno the 100% increase weakpoint damage makes quit a difference when getting head shots and taking out ogryn and boss enemies I find unless running a crit build the crit chance isn't a enough to make a difference
100% weakpoint on crit really only takes you over lines you would have crossed when critting already for most targets. Id rather use other weapons for monstrosities and ogryn than the BP
@Reginald-sc9tk it says critical weak spot damage ie how much damage you do to weak points unless I'm confused and obviously theirs better weapons plbut the perks turn 5 Headshots on a crusher to 3 atleast that's what I've found with my build
@@Reginald-sc9tk I dunno, i can kill more with the columnus mkV and quicker than with the revolver because of the crit chance, the revolver is more ammo efficient though.
@@Jono_93 Its a time bias thing. If I can onetap a key trapper instantly through a horde with quickdraw then that's less time spent shooting and more in melee when playing zealot. Whereas the columnus takes a bit more time to chew through things. But its the better weapon for veteran.
Joe The Pub won't like it, but Zarona needs a massive cleave nerf and somewhat pen nerf before we can start to accommodate the bolt pistol. This was long time coming.
I use Tier IV glory hunter on my plasma gun and since i play aggressively it keeps me alive while still wiping hordes of maniacs and ogryns quite easily- how come it's an automatic no on this?
Toughness generation blessings are fundamentally fine but are the kind of thing simply playing better and killing harder can circumvent the value of. Darktide, and tide games, have incredibly high skill ceilings. Toughness generating blessings are tools you simply don't need at higher levels of play. There's certainly nothing wrong with using them if you like them or find they help you win more. But if you take them off you will learn to play without them and instead maximize for damage output while still not dying.
the problem with the revolver and even the columnus mk5 is that when the game released those weapons were mediocre to bad, memory is a bit iffy so I don't know the exact state of them at the time. So as a result fatshark decided to buff the hell out of them until we got the powerhouses we have today. Now that we have new weapons rolling out literally everything is just competing with these meta weapons. Back then, not many people cared because we didn't have a lot of options (still true today) and we don't have a lot of the iconic weapons in the game (still true today). imo, I think the damage profiles of the bolt pistol and revolver should be swapped and maybe give the the revolver a reload buff. Cause the recoil and time on target, alongside the slightly slower draw spead, of the bolt pistol would be a much better balance to such insane dmg. Meanwhile the snappiness of the revolver would make it easier to double tap a target or get a headshot, and perhaps give people a reason to use the aggripina revolver too. In fact, I think the sheer unyielding damage of the aggripina revolver could serve as a decent balance reference for the Zarona. Have the Zarona be specialized in carapace or something, like 3 tap a crusher with no buffs and blessings.
@@Reginald-sc9tk Actually, it was noted during the Horus Heresy that the Bolter was specialized in flesh, especially Xenos, as that was what the Imperium was mainly fighting during the Great Crusade. However before Horus did his Heresy, he had special bolter rounds with AP capabilities sent to the traitor legions since he knew he would be fighting Space Marines. It could go both ways really, I'll admit that.
Personally I think that the Bolter and Bolt pistol should do about 25% more damage in general to unarmoured, 35% extra maniac weakspot damage but less to carapace by around 10-15%. Reduce bolter reserve from 100 to 60 but in return it does not suffer from damage reduction from hitting limbs. So many 2 shots on ad gunmen at long range makes me frustrated even though i have extra flak damage.
Speaking of breakpoints deadly accurate provides to a bolt pistol. On my vet I rolled almost max damage, penetration, deadly accurate 3 and added carapace damage. With focus target it's able to kill crusher and mauler with 2 crit headshots. I have no idea if they'll die without focus target if deadly accurate will be 4, still with some external buffs you can make a difference. Am I satisfied with it? Fkin no. It's worse revolver when it comes to killing carapace. When it comes to killing squishy specialists/elites, it's still worse than revolver. Not only revolver, bunch of other guns. I have no problem with its poor handling, it's a bolter. I do have a problem that it requires much more effort to achieve the same result other guns do without problems. About possible buffs, I don't care about the bodyshot damage. There's no interest for me to shoot nipples when I can go for the head. I think there's no problem making it a high skill weapon. I want a slightly higher headshot damage to reach breakpoints of: 1)2 crit headshots for maulers and crushers with carapace perk and deadly accurate without external buffs (at least for vet, didn't craft the same shit on my psyker nor zealot) 2)Oneshot squishy priority targets like flamers without maniac perk. Like, they have to die as quick as possible. It's harsh to spend a whole perk slot just to not to throw the game Also penetration would be nice. Like, the "explosion" barely tickles everyobody around. And I don't care about exploding already dead sucka. It just doesn't come to my mind how in the hells fkin regular stub bullet penetrates targets much better than a bolt that's designed to accelerate. Of course, it's designed to explode, still why not to postpone the explosion to the target bolt's can't kill by itself? Like, high rank soldiers and sisters of battle kill space marines with this shit, you want to tell me that they could just use a revolver for better result?
Please send this video to the Fatshark weapons design team and maybe they will fix the bolt weapons. I really can't fathom why they will not allow players in a PvE game to have fun with the iconic 40k weapons.😞
Dump stat is mobility.
Im currwntly running it on my cadian vet commander build where i use exhilherating take down, iron will, the anti supression perk, and covering fire as well as all toughness regen and charasmatic with than the voice of command and regnerating maxed out frags for horde clear and the oh fuck situations.
Honestly is fun as hell to let loose on the hordes knowing how much toughness im regening the group while also giving them a massive dmg boost on top of the bolter shots doing serious horde dmg as i pop heads!
Boltweapons should treat limb shots as body shots and body shots as headshots with the exception of bosses maybe. Would really sell how devestating it is to have a shell explode inside your body.
EXACTLY
Bingo.
They are the next level up from auto & slug weapons
i agree with the sentiment at the tailend. its wild that the games higher difficulty missions push everyone AWAY from the dark fantasy weapons to just the relatively stone and stick options of knife and revolver
It really is so frustrating.
You'd think it would push us toward the brutal futurisic weapons like Bolters and powered weapons that are iconic to 40K in a game with that theme.
Imagine if Terminators lumbered around with revolvers and combat knives instead of the Stormbolters and Power Fists or Assault Cannons fitted with chain bayonets?
I mean, why do they even exis if they'te not better than a revolver and a knife. Because they're meant to be better according to lore and not just a litte but like super powered in comparison.
Einstein: It always comes down to sticks and stones ;p
The highest difficulty in PvE restricting the weapon and build pool down to a handful of the most meta picks is just how these games work really. It's a little funny the weakest weapons lorewise are the meta but honestly if it wasn't them it'd be something else. Its why IMO the highest difficulty in most PvE games isn't fun and often actually tends to suck.
@@Tk3997 Darktide's meta is not nearly so punitive. You can literally run nothing but grey garbage and no talents and still win if you know what you're doing. Its just that the balance lends the wrong feel to the game. When the balance favors axes and revolvers and not 40k weapons the game lacks a 40k feel to it because people tend to pick what is more meta than not so their games are smoother.
The craftsmen behind the make of that revolver must be absolutely astounded to hear how much more effective their weapon is than bolt guns.
Lmao, and it's probably just some back alley black market wordsmith using hand tools
He must be the decadent of Smith a cowboy or something.
@@Reginald-sc9tk Tbf there are back alley gangs on necromunda that are better armed than space marines lmao
@@bajscast such is the imperium
That special hip fire is great, because it's cool. What's not cool is hitting the bash and then somehow missing the special shot.
Seconded
@@Reginald-sc9tk just remember that the bash follow up hipfire shot has no spread, so if you missed...
It should work like the special attack of the Ogryns gauntlet.
It doesn't work because instead of locking the dude in place like the ogryn gauntlet, it pushes and staggers the target, thereby misaligning the barrel and the target's ass😑
I find it cool how the community is finally acknowledging how the "iconic" weapons are either trash or mid, Boltgun especially.
My biggest pet peeve though about the bolter is people trying to justify semi-auto aim is good and worthy of a build when it just becomes a worse revolver, full auto is so much cooler and needs its own variant for the Bolter that is full auto with less recoil.
This is actually been a drum beat of mine a while but I just think that the bolter should just have more single fire damage than the revolver and still be full auto.
Well, tbh they are being used by just regular people except for the Ogryn. That shits kickback would hurt like a bitch to fire.
@@Reginald-sc9tkat the cost of severe recoil, unless crouched dont want it to outclass everything else and make it feel more powerful. Similar to the thunder hammer stun.
Glad my sentiment on "the bolt pistol while fun is not competitive against the revolvers" is shared here. I was using it and while it was cool and I was having fun I noticed I was actually struggling to kill things more than if I hady revolver.
Yep. Bullseye.
Yeah. The bolt pistol feels artificially handicapped which makes it very frustrating to use. It’s like having a weight attached to your arm and you’re being forced to throw a punch (just feels sluggish and underpowered instead of say punching with brass knuckles).
Bolt weapons by lore have high penetrative powers, so I feel it would be great if they could punch through cover to hit enemies like how the the plasma gun can.
A slightly higher ammo capacity and fire rate along with better recoil would make the bolt pistol much more fun.
@@ParryHotter204agreed, i remember playing an older Warhammer game, i forget the name but the bolt pistol was really good in that but here it just feels useless
I'll say this. I think Zealot and maybe veteran should have a perk that helps but most humans cannot use a bolt pistol without alot of training or flat out religious zeal. It makes sense as much as it sucks. @@ParryHotter204
It's just nice to be able to run the iconic Commissar kit, and it's so satisfying to reload with that saucy mag flip and then turn a heretic into shrapnel.
It just makes the revolver look even more nuts
the bolt pistol and bolter both suffer from the same limb damage jank as the plasma gun did at launch. It wasn't noticeable for so long do to the whole stagger power build we all used to run, but after those nerfs last year the limb damage jank ruined the feel of the gun much like the plasma just felt bad for so long.
Yeah super true. Its a tragedy as weapons go.
I played darktide for the first time in a long time last night. Ah, I remember now why I played it non stop for so long. ❤
Also the new weapons are really fun.
Its just such an addicting combat loop. Even if everything else makes me want to smash my head into a table.
@@Reginald-sc9tk omg. That is a vibe. 😆
@@Reginald-sc9tk well, good news is the crafting system overhaul is looking pretty sweet based on the blog post FS posted yesterday, so that'll be nice.
@@burnin8ableit’s about time the game gets in a state where it’s less janky and barebones and can finally launch I’m tired of this 2 year beta phase (oh wait)
@@EASY7356 just keep repeating it and it will come true: one day the beta will end.
Lethal Proximity and Puncture make it fun and effective in close quarters
Surgical helps when you have a build that doesn't rely on movement (momentum) for buffs
I agree they need to make it where the Bolt Weapons are even better than a revolver
Ok but did you see that friendly fire removal? Been asking for this for almost a year and a half now - finally, headhunter autoguns chads we rise!
No more ogryns blocking shots all the time. No more you laying down fire and a teammate stepping right in front of you because go ahead I don't care. :)
@@thunder2434 thing is thats the optimal way to play for a lot of situations! Believe it or not there were people genuinely defending this design choice, citing it would be 'OP' if you could shoot through your teammates. Yeah, totally.
@@sturmmagnunstein1008 I've always felt there was no reason to keep it but it never bothered me that much either.
As someone who really likes the revolver... yeah I really wouldn't mind a bodyshot nerf. Like the revolvers feel great to use because whipping out your sidearm and pulling off a crisp one-tap from across the arena requires skill and feels appropriately rewarding. But that reward is kinda diminished when I realised with my skill level and playstyle, it's much safer to go for a two shot in the torso. And half the time I get a crit or something and it doesn't matter anyway.
My only gripe about the bolt gun was the mobility everything was so sluggish, the bolt pistol just feels a lot better in my opinion.
Both guns are too weak
@@Reginald-sc9tk being honest, I could understand why they both are.
Your closing thought is exactly how I felt after using it:
It's not as good as the revolver but its good enough and it's more fun and interesting to use.
I'm glad I found this video. I was streaming my play for friends and they started to notice other issues that seemed to do more with Darktide's recent instability instead of any balance issues. We noticed that Bolter had a relatively consistent issue of damage registration. The big turning point was when I captured myself shooting an enemy in the face and it dealing seemingly no damage. Just some random lesser melee enemy. This led me to ask a lot of players I saw in game who were using the weapon in my Auric runs if they had noticed an inconsistency with the damage of the weapon. A lot of people I spoke to assumed that they just were having issues aiming, but as you pointed out with break points, there's not really a reason for the game to show a hit marker but not a kill marker for shooting these enemies in the head.
The Bolt Pistol actually has the exact same damage mapping as it's larger variant, but without access to full auto mag dump, I find it really struggles to be consistent.
It does struggle to be consistent. I usually don't talk about bugs in my videos because they're subject to change. Hit registration has been an issue for darktide of greater or lesser intensity for a while. It really hurts the thunder hammer for example. Its not always too bad but when servers and netcode are in bad shape its usually pretty rough. It happened to me about 4 (confirmed) times in 3 games last night.
This has been happening to me for months, with every gun. It's especially noticeable with lasguns and autoguns, particularly the single-shot autogun in my one-shot headshot build with it. An enemy standing perfectly still, not moving, you score a perfect headshot, you see the blood splatter, and the enemy is aggroed and starts approaching you, but you did 0 damage and have to shoot him again. Happens sometimes over a dozen times per match. Maybe it happens more when combat is really heated and chaotic and I just don't notice it, but those calm moments where you're sniping an unaware enemy happens far too often and it's aggravating.
@@vahnn0 No its been a long standing problem since the game launched, its waxed and waned in frequency as well. Its a huge bane for the Thunder Hammer too. But in theory its a net-code bug that remains unaddressed and just needs to get fixed.
Revolvers always upset me in this (and many other) games. They're built up to be extremely powerful, which compared to other pistols is fine, but very few would be shooting anything that should be competing with a rifle cartridge.
to be fair, the stub revolver in darktide specifically is definitely shooting rifle sized cartridges. you can tell when you reload, those suckers are long as shit.
They look like magnum rounds to me, maybe .44. Squash head but we'll assume they're super special boolets.
Its worth remembering that a short barrel and chamber setup reduces velocity quite a bit. Rifle ballistics only happen in rifles.
@@Reginald-sc9tk ye true, barrel length gives more time to accelerate the boolet. but who cares? it's not like the thing we're comparing the revolver against, the bolt pistol, makes any more sense by comparison lol.
@@burnin8able Not even a hot take but it actually does make a lot more sense. Projectile velocity and Mass are the primary method of loading and dumping kinetic energy into the target in a conventional munition. Revolver rounds aren't going to have the mass or velocity combo required to exceed a rifle round, even an intermediate caliber one, in any modern firearm. A bolt gun is a 2 stage gyrojet with an explosive round. If you go look at the actual gyrojet pistol and rifle their barrels aren't even pressure bearing components. In the bolt pistol there likely is a component of a barrel, however short, that imparts initial spin and allows the bolt's initial primer charge to be expended and kick the bolt out of the barrel. After a short delay the rocket charge is initiated and would increase velocity and likely add more spin for additional stability at range. Thus the short barrel isn't very important on bolt rounds since most of the velocity comes from the rocket not the kicker charge. Same concept as a modern RPG-7 actually. Beyond the massive projectile being pretty damaging on its own, the rocket itself causes cavitation if active while inside a target, and on top of all of that the thing explodes inside a target too. So it really is a different animal for how damage is dealt.
@@Reginald-sc9tkI once had a bug where guns had like half their models missing in the meat grinder. The auto gun rounds and stub revolver are similar in length. But the auto gun rounds are seriously bulky like friggin hell. Those things should be bisecting people.
THE BELOVED RETURN
Its fun to be back!
Great stuff, thank you for putting this out so damn quick. What confused me about your comments though: On one hand, you say "it's fine, except the revolver exists." But even if there wasn't a revolver(which, yes, should be nerfed a touch), the bolt pistol would still be pretty sub-par for the reasons you subsequently articulate. The amount of follow-up shots I find myself doing to confirm a kill is frankly nuts, especially considering the thematics. I don't see myself revisiting the bolt pistol without major changes.
I think its ability to one tap specialists on a quick draw platform is above par of any other weapon except the revolvers and zealot knife, though its hard to achieve. But because of the follow up shot issue it certainly is underpowered for its handling. So its in a weird place in my view where its almost good enough but isn't but still does things few other weapons can do.
I really don't want the revolver nerfed, if it were unable to do what it does right now, the thing would be useless scrap metal. If I have to use two shots for every enemy, it's a waste of resources.
@@FarremShamist ye, the Bolt pistol should just be buffed
@@102ndsmirnov7 It's gotta be about as strong as the revolver imo, but its tradeoff could just be that it's harder to handle. It's fine that it doesn't get crazy crits, but it's gotta be able to at least kill poxwalkers or regular shooters in one shot lmao
Maybe I'm just a monster but I love bringing the bolt pistol to Aurics, yes everyone still runs around with revolvers in it but I still end up keeping or even doing the best in the team
Like I said, it's fine. I had a blast with mine last night, top scoring too. There's no weapon in darktide so bad you can't bring it. But there are lots of weapons that are obviously inferior choices.
One loadout I have for my bolt pistol is used lethal proximity and execution
Having a frag pistol, pretty nice good for staggering hordes of chaff
Also had a game where I played as the doom slayer with arc mace they’ve added and the assault shotgun
With weapon specialist for my keystone
And when swapping to ranged weapons, partial reload to the magazine
And got 20 toughness for swapping in general
I managed to clutch a game. Everybody died in the room, where you have to break the ice off of the gears.
The doom veteran cleared house
I also clutched it a second time up above at the Forge because everybody got clapped again by bloody guns and chaff. It was very fun.
Do want to note that when the itemization update hits we'll be able to take weapons to 100%. If it works as advertised, breakpoints and required perks could change.
aim 2, aim harder.
also i really like the roadmap approach to videos.
I know there are timestamps but it helps to just have something on screen I think.
@@Reginald-sc9tk better road map than Fatshark has
the bolt pistol need to be better than the revolver, it's an heresy in the game!! I go report this to the inquisition, no joke i hope Fat Shark do something about that...
3 shots on a doggo is feels so embarrassing everytime.
For the Emperor!
For the Emperor!
@@Reginald-sc9tk Indeed. For the Emperor. May his light guide us.
Blood for the Emperor, Skulls for the golden Throne!!!
Honestly found best use with lethal proximity on my Weapon specialist Vet, while using either the combat knife or a power sword. The explosive damage is modest and works for dealing with a horde to give some breathing room, plus it will soften heavier targets, so I suppose it’s more your playstyle that will determine its usefulness, in my case, I’m pushing in with kraks, infiltration and weapon specialist, usually running a power sword of some sort and the bolt pistol, since at max stacks from weapon specialist in melee you get 3 shots back upon killing and immediately swapping. That’s 3 shots that at point blank deal massive damage in bursts.
Yeah the idea of being penalized for not being precise with a bolt weapon seems to completely counteract the entire purpose of the weapon. That is when I shoot something with a bolter that is not a massive or heavily armored target, it should explode.
EXACTLY
The reason why boltguns don't do well against infested is they are too squishy for the rounds to be effective. It has even been noted in the lore, which is why Space Marines can struggle with hoards of poxwalkers.
Now for unarmored, flak and maniac, yeah, it should do more bodyshot damage. Not going to disagree one bit.
I know I've been having a lot of fun with the boltpistol and the mkIII stun maul (Haven't been able to find a good mkIa to try yet) on my support zealot build.
I am currently knocking the rust off of my gears and haven't done any Auric Malestrom yet, so my opinion may change.
Really like how snappy yet unwieldy the pistol is, such an odd combination of traits.
My break had made me forgotten how great the weapon feel of the game has been, how much of a team game it is and such. Really looking forward to getting back to where I was. I absolutely love the lore and tilesets Fatshark does, I just wish they would come out with more maps x.x
Even if we take it from the lore that bolt guns struggle against infested flesh why would non-exploding and smaller caliber revolver rounds be more effective instead of even less? Thats the rub for me.
Don't disagree.
I think the revolvers shouldn't have been added and have the shredder as the auto pistol.
Would give them more breathing room for the infernus and plasma pistol in the future.
So does that mean Bolt rounds are more like Tank APHE rounds, and have a fuse? So poxwalkers prevent the detonation?
@@CrayssiusYes they have both impact detonation and a timed fuse. Some in lore stories talk of a bolter round embedding in someones extremity to then seconds later explode on timer.
This could be incorporated in DT.
The revolvers are fine but they should be limited to needing headshots to deal big damage, and just generally worse penetration than the bolt pistol. They can fill the role of an accuracy sidearm while the bolt pistol is more generalist and can be used for both horde clearing and taking out elites.
I like the bolt pistol because its easier to use than the bolter. That has some insane recoil compaired to the bolt pistol. I use it as a specialist and carapace armored killer.
Maybe I missed it, but did you know about the double-aim trick? When you ADS and shoot, instead of waiting for the recoil to reset or trying to adjust your aim, just release ADS and instantly ADS again and it resets MUCH faster. Just do this between every shot. It still gets too inaccurate after several shots, but it's still much better overall. Works great with the regular Bolter, but with the bolt pistol, I noticed that the aim point snaps up and left if you don't shoot fast enough after re-ADSing, so you either have to aim and shoot before that happens or wait until after the snap and shoot, otherwise you'll miss a ton of shots. It's always up-left.
But yeah, I agree, overall it's pretty underwhelming. If the bleed blessing applied to all enemies, it would be phenomenal, but as it stands, it's just okay. However it's still better than almost all the other options. I actually like the close-range explosion one, I use one of the power mauls with the +dmg vs staggered blessing, which pairs great with the Sharpshooter talent that increases weapon damage by 25% after switching weapons. (By the Emperor, I can't remember the names of any of these things anymore!)
I did know about it, after I finished recording and was almost done editing the video someone mentioned it to me. Was too late to go back and add it in but I had heard about it!
Yeaaaaaaah.... revolver seems to accomplish everything a little better and cleaner. Kinda wish the "explosive" aspect was more impactful. Like, lacking the penetration of the gat with the upside of single target damage. I thought that you put it all very well. Good vid!
Thanks very much!
Nailed it, thanks dude.
Happy to do it!
Mix between revolver and boltgun.
I like it, but it's very clumsy compared to revolver
+ Faster reload
+ More capacity.
+ Area stagger.
+ More damage (I think).
+ Can hip-fire.
+ More ammo.
- Huge recoil (reduces effective firing rate to below 1 shot / second).
- No penetration.
- sights hard to acquire, especially after a shot (needs weapon customisation mod for better sights).
- Less effective close range.
I like it. I don't mind the damage or no penetration. I would prefer better weapon handling characteristics and sights. It is effective if you hit your shots.
I think more damage keep the clumsy is a better delineation. Otherwise everything just becomes "like the revolver but X"
Its worth mentioning that the revolver has 1 off reloads which is really useful for special sniping and saves time compared to a full reload animation.
So your saying they should nerf the revolver to keep it in line to the other weapons.
Bolt pistol currently does need some buffs, but currently I'm having a great time using it as a secondary weapon for my zealot. Lethal prox+Run n Gun turns it into a Rumbler that loses some aoe for a magazine. Its damn good for making space and dealing with ranged specials.
what i would do with the bolt pistol:
+60% dmg
-100% ammo reserve (so basically the magazine inside the weapons and 3 others , 8-24)
reduce dmg at very long range.
The point is to have a weapons with very high damage at short-medium range to death with elites. But with a vastly lower ammo reserve than a revolver or any other weapons.
So the bolt pistol would shine into the hand of someone who rarely use range weapons and can manage his ammo. Those changes would allow the bolt pistol to be used as a reactive weapon (even without the need to aim for the head) and be able to do a full reload quickly. (where the revolver tends to require more space to breath for aim and reload fully.)
I kinda like it but I would say the revolver currently doesn't need any space to aim due to its log sized projectiles.
First off, love the production quality on this break down. Second, very valid concerns. I agree that the revolver should not suffer for the bolt pistol. Here’s hoping it gets the tweaks it can.
Thanks much! I've taken a lot of feedback from my comments to heart to make these videos as tightly produced as I can.
Thanks Reg!
Happy to do it!
Deadly accurate allows bolt pistol to do significantly more damage to crushers and monsters. On my psyker build for crits using scriers gaze it does perform worse than base revolver on carapace but it does a lot more to bosses than that revolver could hope for. I’m just not sure how the bolt pistol stacks up to the newer revolver variant since that one seems to also be more suited to boss damage
Good to note
you shoot faster when you ADS, love you reg
Yeah, but recoil and sway is much worse when rapid firing while ads. It's a trade off that isn't worth it.
I think I mention that in here when discussing ADS. Cheers!
@@Reginald-sc9tk i must have missed it then, i like to do that to mimic the full auto magdump with the boltgun, effective against armor and bosses
I initially didn't like this gun. (Still don't)
But its charms are beginning to grow on me.
It's the animations that I'm falling in love with.
The reject holds it hip fired with one hand. When a need of precision, they hold the grip with two. They also hold the magazine when sprinting, keeping the gun tucked close to their body.
The internal slide reciprocates out the back, which is something you can visually see. It's a nice touch.
It's feels how i wanted the auto pistol to feel. It certainly looks better than the auto pistol when in cutscenes or from another person's perspective.
The cutscenes, the idle animations, and combat animations all accurately portray how the gun looks in your own hands.
great break down. Absolutely agree the bolt pistol should shred unarmored. Good balance suggestions.
I am still getting used to the BP. Your video is a good training guide ✨️ thanks brother!
Glad it was helpful!
@Reginald-sc9tk It definitely is food for thought. I guess I may have to succumb to lower my mouse sensitivity just for this gun. hip fire first round is quite accurate that I missed the shot. lol
Just the fact that you can get Bleed, Fire AND Explosive rounds on the Bolt pistol makes it more fun for me. I always hated how you have to be reloading 80% of the fights when using any revolver.
I see 1 by 1 reload as a strength since I mostly want to shoot 1 thing then go back to melee.
Well if anything you've convinced me to at least give it a try. But I will still say the biggest barrier for me is still the ads recoil jank.
Additionally I think talking about specialist killing pistols warrants mentioning the las pistol (the Accatran specifically), which I believe is an excellent weapon. I wouldn't consider it above the Zarona, but I would put it above the bolt pistol from what I have seen. Additionally it fits perfectly with the theme and lore of laspistols.
Hope to see more DT content in the future.
Las pistol is excellent but I kinda think of it more as a do-everything over a sniping tool because of the required refiring on most specialists. Its not whip out and remove problem exactly. Still really good though.
@Reginald-sc9tk fair enough. If the newer variant of the Las Pistol was better (kantrael I believe?) perhaps we could have that conversation, but it still needs a but if work.
I absolutely love how we handle it while it is probably like, the lightest gun a space marine would have lmao
Definitely, and it's human scale to boot.
It's kinda funny that strongest range weapons are autopistol (if you remember that times) and revolver while boltguns are just ok.
Bolt gun was briefly best in class for about 6 months on launch. Its been just ok ever since.
@@Reginald-sc9tk at launch maybe. But then i remember times when all (except ogryns) used autopistol with pinning fire blessing.
It feels so strange they put all this work into it and its effectively just an even more limited bolter. I want to love this game but they make it harder and harder every day. I would prefer this to be solved by making the more fantastical iconic weapons spectacular rather than just nerfing the more pedestrian meta ones but I know that won't happen.
One more thing about Revolvers.. the hitbox of revolvers are larger.. it is easier to HIT with revolvers, and it's easier to MISS with the new Bolt Pistol - for not only that but many other reasons.. try it at the shooting range, you'll see that you still hit even when aiming off the target with revolvers, but that doesn't happen with the new Bolt Pistol..
And i think it makes no sense because if you see, the revolver calliber is way lesser than the Bolt Pistol..
Yea, the revolver shoots logs.
3:30 this has been a bug as long as I've played this damn game on the normal bolter. How it could've possibly made it's way to the new bolt pistol is a friggen mystery to everyone
Its crazy, really.
Good to seeing you back.
Great video, nice to see you back. What are your thoughts on darktide overall? I feel like the devs have fumbled it a bit.
The devs seriously fumbled it with their slow pace of change and numerous bad decisions. Compare DT to Helldivers for update pace and reactivity to feedback and it really is just a world away from good.
But nothing compares to darktide for straight combat.
@@Reginald-sc9tk yeah I come back for the funny magic man and the great melee. But other then that liberty gots my number. Although I find it funny that dark tide tried to gaslight us that the Spanish leak wasn't real, then should it off.
Yep, I had same thoughts exactly. Generally, it's an OK weapon that has great esthetics but somewhat bad aiming - especially in ADS. You can definitely use it and succeed on highest difficulties, but if we talk efficiency, I would take revolver over it every time in every situation.
Yup, and thats the key problem.
@@Reginald-sc9tk I really hope they don't nerf the revolver though) I would much prefer a buff to the bolt pistol.
Honestly if the splash damage from the bolt pistol hit the original target a couple of times, say calculated to assume hit's to 3 body locations, or one to two but without armor, then it would both probably balance it against the pistol and help it fulfill the action movie fantasy of shooting someone with an under slung grenade launcher having them survive and then explode a second or two later. Also if it's not going to kill someone in one shot I'm fine with the they die from bleeding out thing because legitimately if you blow apart someones limb or put a big hole in their torso and they don't die instantly they would bleed out in very short order.
I just think the effect is cooler when they explode than when they keel over.
i think it is subpar because the bolter was so overpowered at launch so the boltgun came pre nerfed. the boltgun really needs a buff. the primary reason the bolter was op was the full auto mag dumping
It was also the free reload which is gone.
The Reginald returns in our moment of greatest need! Emperor be praised!
I would not forsake the faithful!
100% felt the same before considering stats or situation stuff. I've been using the vanilla revolver and combat blade since i first touched the zealot and I'm just waiting for any reason to swap out. The shock maul is nice as an option to change up some things but doesn't make me want to replace the knife. The bolt pistol feels like it *should* convince me to swap out the revolver but it just doesn't have any reason for me to use it yet. Why would I want a gun with 10 single fire rounds that is hard to aim, mostly low-damage compared to my revolver, and to get the best from it, needs to be spammed at close range? I have melee for close range enemy clearing without consequence because I built into that, so that my gun can be a near-instant reload 1 bullet and delete any ranged enemy. So disappointed by the bolt pistol because I'm yearning for anything to convince me to use a new loadout/build.
Pretty much yeah. I'm only using it just for a change of pace. Otherwise it's entirely out classed.
while I get what you mean, I feel like the revolver is just the best for zealot specifically because it so neatly fits into a niche that zealot's other tools struggle to fit. anti-ranged specialist and shooter is something that most of zealot's kit doesn't deal with very well, so the fact that the revolver can just do that out of the box with no additional support is massive. I feel like bolt pistol with lethal proximity and point blank on a weapon specialist vet would be REALLY fun for stun locking hordes.
It would be cool if they buffed the damage of the bolt pistol, made it harder to wield, then make the revolvers weaker but akimbo. No one would complain if you have the option to go full space cowboy.
"Akimbo" is standing with your hands on your hips in the stereotypical "grumpy parent" look.
What did you mean to say? To make them all hip-shooters? The Agripinaa already does that.
@@christianclark347 They meant dual wielding
for the the proposed fixes no the Revolver should be better against soft unarmored enemies while the boltpistol which is firing these massive rounds should absolutely body carapace and flak.
I love the bolt pistol more than the bolter just because it fires semiautomatic and not in a two shot burst.
With Puncture, does the explosion apply bleed, or only direct hits? A few stacks of bleed into a crowd sounds cool (even if it's actually not all that effective with bolt splash damage being fairly low/practically non-existent).
No such luck. Its just direct hits.
Yeah I agree on the Bolt-Pistol (and the regular Bolter, too!) needing a damage boost (and BETTER SIGHTS that are on TARGET if you ASD!)...seriously, the sights and the bolter are bad enough, but those on the Bolt-Pistol are worse! Yeah, over all the revolver is stronger (sadly)...I played with the revolver for a long time and yeah, it is the "sniper-rifle" in this game...especially since most other weapons have crappy sights! Seriously, they should give us the option to mount sights (the Imperium is not so primitive that they have forgotten how to mount an optic!)!
That said: It is a fun weapon and iconic! Will be using it a lot :)
I hate how slow the Zerona revolver reloads. Same with the bolter. The Bolt Pistol gives me the best of both worlds, if not necessarily doing the job of either better.
it's just a matter of having more reload speed and better positioning.. the gun is strong as hell.. one of the strongest, you kill a Crusher with 2 shots to the head.
I'm agree that other weapon are far superior than bolt pistol in almost every way (except pocket sand)
Dump stat is the weapon itself
Tru
Somebody wake me up when zealots get a vindictor.
great video!
will you also cover the other new weapons?
I'm certainly interested in doing so but it may take me more time and I have a lot of irons in the fire. This video was a big lift. I guess it depends on how well this video performs and what interests grab my attention. Interest is my primary motivator for my video production selection.
From a pure gameplay standpoint, there's too much value in being able to Marty Robbins a special through a crowd in a complete shitstorm, plink a special at 100 yards without batting an eyelid, or do a Veteran's job of wiping out packs of Scabs down a tin can alley.
Far too many situations in games where I've tried to use another gun and ended up thinking "really needed my revolver there", certainly not seeing the bolt pistol taking that spot even if it is buffed as you suggest. Very fair points though.
Have been trying the Hacker shotgun too. It's fun to use and sounds great, but feels like it needs minmaxxing with the Zealot's talents for guns and doing an alternating pattern with melée to even feel worth it, and still it doesn't seem to perform right.
Other than doing the mad build Milk&Cookies showed on his Veteran with it, on a Zealot at least the Agripinna shotgun with the armour-pen alt slug feels consistently more situationally appropriate.
What the Hacker can do to big (non-armoured) targets at point-blank I can do cleaner with either my chainaxe or Turt6.
I look forward to even playing with the new shotgun. I haven't yet. I played with the two power mauls and spent all of my time on the BP.
@@Reginald-sc9tk Can't deny it's fun to use. Being able to blast both barrels at once into an abomination's face is Peak 🤌
Cheers Reginald, long time Fan here ;) guess I watched all your build and theory Vids, GREAT Information given and I am glad to see you back.
QUESTION : did you test Lethal Proximity with Puncture? Maybe the increased explosion radius triggers the bleed and would make it ( great? ) vs Hordes. Also what does NEAR SHOTS mean? Does is trigger the Explosion INSIDE the 5m arming range...? I will test it myself when I got the Blessings...need to do some more mats farming though :P
Near shots are within 5 meters, which is the priming distance of the bolt round. Lethal and puncture have no interaction. Sadly.
Thanks for coming to visit! Glad you like my work.
It just feels right I love the bolter but it’s just too slow sometimes this is just perfect lil pocket fuck you for my zealot to pullout when something’s just outta stabbing or mashin range
Exactly the video I needed, thanks!
Wonder if they are going to buff it or just forget about it.
I expect a bolter touch up around the launch of itemization in (my guess) fall.
pistol + melee stance/slot whennnn its way past due.
Some day, we all cling to hope.
I might have mine set up wrong but i was underwhelmed with the bolt pistol. I got a top tier revolver with surgical4 and handcannon4 that takes a crusher down in 3 hits very reliably but the bolt pistol takes the whole clip at best and usually needed a few shots on top of that
Then theres my bolter(proper bolter) and i have had that thing take up to three crushers out in one mag dump and that one also lets you chose if you want semi or full auto
The bolt pistol does not impress compared to the revolver on any target. The bolter itself is under powered. Its a shame.
Felt pretty similarly, really wanted it to be good but there really is no reason to use it over the revolver in its current implementation. Honestly I'd even be down with something like increasing the explosion radius or something to make it more versatile, then at least it would be a choice of do you want the gun that's absolutely the best for snipping elites, or do you want something that's still pretty good for that but can also deal with hordes better
Well the explosion radius blessing does that and all it is is stagger. It needs real damage but IMO thats not the kind of thing a bolter is for. Its not an AOE grenade launcher its a single target annihilator.
Pistol looks awesome, but the feel of playing is awful because of random "skips" between shots that makes you miss everytime, the pistol randomly jumps while you're aiming for no reason.. and also it is weak on damage, many times you're wasting time shooting a target twice that other guns kill in one shot... i think they should change Bleeding for Penetration and fix those random leaps between shots while aiming.
My view on the Bolt Pistol is that it needs the Shatter blessing that's missing to work more similar to the Boltgun.
I was thinking Puncture might be a stand-in for it but haven't had time to test that so this video is just so great! It shows I was on to something there. Not exactly equivalent but it is one of the best few blessings to pick from to optimize the gun.
Do the bleed stacks add just damage over time or also increase crit chance? It doesn't say in the description but knowing how the bleed inducing skills work it might also add stacks of crit chance?
As for running the weapon regardless of it not being top tier I'll be doing that too, at least some of the time. Just for the 40K iconic immersion.
No increased crit chance that I know of as those talents on zealot are for melee so puncture is just a dot.
The problem I have with rending blessings, besides that they ruin armored enemies as a fun part of the game, is that they don't solve the priority target 1 tap problem.
@@Reginald-sc9tk So the damage profile is the core issue in need of change then, as you said in the video.
But will FS do it, how much of a ruckus do we need for them to do it? ;)
thats was my thought bolt pistol needs a buff, it felt like a bad revolver. the bolt pistol should be destroying people on contact, and the boltgun also feels off. but it was nerfed a bunch of times for making one shot boss. nerfing our toys shouldn't be the option buff the agression system.
The bolt pistol is for the ungentlemanly officer and SoB larper.
Well since half of the people in these comments saying it's trash i never had any problems with mine & plus im always having plenty of fun using the boltgun....now with other people that's just gotta be a skill issue with them 🤷🏾♂️💯
I think i showed why its the inferior choice despite being "fine"
I've had no problem in my aurics with it but its noticeably worse than a revolver.
@@Reginald-sc9tk well that's your opinion homie, not mine 🤷🏾♂️
How do you get your game to look so good and cinematic? Any mods or do you have all the graphics settings at max?
Just max settings. DT is a very aesthetic game if you have a great rig and don't mind small fires.
@@Reginald-sc9tk I found out why it looked better to me, you have the camera sway all the way up. I had mine down but I changed it. Ik it probably wasn't your intention but thank you!! (Great vid btw)
I dunno the 100% increase weakpoint damage makes quit a difference when getting head shots and taking out ogryn and boss enemies I find unless running a crit build the crit chance isn't a enough to make a difference
100% weakpoint on crit really only takes you over lines you would have crossed when critting already for most targets. Id rather use other weapons for monstrosities and ogryn than the BP
@Reginald-sc9tk it says critical weak spot damage ie how much damage you do to weak points unless I'm confused and obviously theirs better weapons plbut the perks turn 5 Headshots on a crusher to 3 atleast that's what I've found with my build
Ive been waiting for you to come back.
I've been waiting for fathshark to come back so I have something to talk about lol.
@@Reginald-sc9tk Your HD2 stuff was good
I wonder when they'll add a rifle that's better than columnus mkV.
There's no reason in using anything else on 3 of the 4 classes.
The revolver is the best weapon on Zealot
@@Reginald-sc9tk
I dunno, i can kill more with the columnus mkV and quicker than with the revolver because of the crit chance, the revolver is more ammo efficient though.
@@Jono_93 Its a time bias thing. If I can onetap a key trapper instantly through a horde with quickdraw then that's less time spent shooting and more in melee when playing zealot. Whereas the columnus takes a bit more time to chew through things. But its the better weapon for veteran.
Are you gonna do a video on the double barrel ?
Working on it right now
Joe The Pub won't like it, but Zarona needs a massive cleave nerf and somewhat pen nerf before we can start to accommodate the bolt pistol. This was long time coming.
I actually agree with you. But I figured I'd focus on the BP instead.
I use Tier IV glory hunter on my plasma gun and since i play aggressively it keeps me alive while still wiping hordes of maniacs and ogryns quite easily- how come it's an automatic no on this?
Toughness generation blessings are fundamentally fine but are the kind of thing simply playing better and killing harder can circumvent the value of. Darktide, and tide games, have incredibly high skill ceilings. Toughness generating blessings are tools you simply don't need at higher levels of play. There's certainly nothing wrong with using them if you like them or find they help you win more. But if you take them off you will learn to play without them and instead maximize for damage output while still not dying.
@@Reginald-sc9tk Most polite "git gud" I've ever seen, fair play.
waiting on plasma pistol
MELTA GUN MY BELOVED WHERE ARE YOU?
@@Reginald-sc9tk i remember seeing the item card of the melta all the way back in the beta ;_; one day fatshark will bless us with them
the problem with the revolver and even the columnus mk5 is that when the game released those weapons were mediocre to bad, memory is a bit iffy so I don't know the exact state of them at the time. So as a result fatshark decided to buff the hell out of them until we got the powerhouses we have today. Now that we have new weapons rolling out literally everything is just competing with these meta weapons. Back then, not many people cared because we didn't have a lot of options (still true today) and we don't have a lot of the iconic weapons in the game (still true today).
imo, I think the damage profiles of the bolt pistol and revolver should be swapped and maybe give the the revolver a reload buff. Cause the recoil and time on target, alongside the slightly slower draw spead, of the bolt pistol would be a much better balance to such insane dmg. Meanwhile the snappiness of the revolver would make it easier to double tap a target or get a headshot, and perhaps give people a reason to use the aggripina revolver too. In fact, I think the sheer unyielding damage of the aggripina revolver could serve as a decent balance reference for the Zarona. Have the Zarona be specialized in carapace or something, like 3 tap a crusher with no buffs and blessings.
I agree with everything other than giving a 40k revolver AP for carapace over a bolter. Lore wise it should work the other way.
@@Reginald-sc9tk Actually, it was noted during the Horus Heresy that the Bolter was specialized in flesh, especially Xenos, as that was what the Imperium was mainly fighting during the Great Crusade.
However before Horus did his Heresy, he had special bolter rounds with AP capabilities sent to the traitor legions since he knew he would be fighting Space Marines.
It could go both ways really, I'll admit that.
Going double-barrel though ❤
Personally I think that the Bolter and Bolt pistol should do about 25% more damage in general to unarmoured, 35% extra maniac weakspot damage but less to carapace by around 10-15%. Reduce bolter reserve from 100 to 60 but in return it does not suffer from damage reduction from hitting limbs. So many 2 shots on ad gunmen at long range makes me frustrated even though i have extra flak damage.
Yes!
The bolt pistol is awful and janky and I love it.
This is the best gun. Source: I made it the fuck up.
Chad
I like it but definitely needs a buff on damage
The will nerf revolver once again, just check it.
Speaking of breakpoints deadly accurate provides to a bolt pistol. On my vet I rolled almost max damage, penetration, deadly accurate 3 and added carapace damage. With focus target it's able to kill crusher and mauler with 2 crit headshots. I have no idea if they'll die without focus target if deadly accurate will be 4, still with some external buffs you can make a difference.
Am I satisfied with it? Fkin no. It's worse revolver when it comes to killing carapace. When it comes to killing squishy specialists/elites, it's still worse than revolver. Not only revolver, bunch of other guns. I have no problem with its poor handling, it's a bolter. I do have a problem that it requires much more effort to achieve the same result other guns do without problems.
About possible buffs, I don't care about the bodyshot damage. There's no interest for me to shoot nipples when I can go for the head. I think there's no problem making it a high skill weapon. I want a slightly higher headshot damage to reach breakpoints of:
1)2 crit headshots for maulers and crushers with carapace perk and deadly accurate without external buffs (at least for vet, didn't craft the same shit on my psyker nor zealot)
2)Oneshot squishy priority targets like flamers without maniac perk. Like, they have to die as quick as possible. It's harsh to spend a whole perk slot just to not to throw the game
Also penetration would be nice. Like, the "explosion" barely tickles everyobody around. And I don't care about exploding already dead sucka. It just doesn't come to my mind how in the hells fkin regular stub bullet penetrates targets much better than a bolt that's designed to accelerate. Of course, it's designed to explode, still why not to postpone the explosion to the target bolt's can't kill by itself? Like, high rank soldiers and sisters of battle kill space marines with this shit, you want to tell me that they could just use a revolver for better result?
Lethal Proximity and Puncture synergy? or does the explosions not trigger puncture?
No synergy.
Stop resisting stick is bae
Please send this video to the Fatshark weapons design team and maybe they will fix the bolt weapons. I really can't fathom why they will not allow players in a PvE game to have fun with the iconic 40k weapons.😞
Me either man.