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Weapons
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Weapon Background
Common weaponry is ineffective against the demons. Heroes don't use M-16s or AK-47s to fight the forces of Hell, but instead use exotic super-science weapons like the Arc Lasher or the HARP rifle. As opposed to bullets, projectile weapons fire sharpened spikes made from Palladium that have been ionized with holy water. Even more mundane weapons such as Flame Throwers use alchemical solutions – such as the long forgotten Greek Fire – as opposed to simple napalm. Energy weapons use the works of Tesla as a basis from which to generate electrical charges, unleash streams of intensified light.
Those aren't guns you're firing, for one thing. The weapons in Hellgate: London are more like "spell delivery systems" than conventional weapons. You're fighting demons, and you need magic for that, whether it comes from your weapon, your character's special powers, or both.
Weapon Quality
All weapons will be found in two or three qualities, and most weapons you find will have various random magical properties on them.
Besides the magical modifiers, there are mods to insert into your weapons and up their stats, legendary weapons of various types, weapons to use in concert with other special equipment for bigger bonuses.
First Person Perspective
You can play a lot of the game from the classic first person shooting perspective. You can use the mouse wheel to scroll your point of view up or down, or even around in a circle, to give you a different perspective on the battle. This option was initially added to allow more accurate combat with a melee weapon, but it proved so popular with the fans that it's been made a full time option.
Magical Weapons
The different weapons aren't just a fetish. As the game's storyline relates, you're not fighting terrorists here; you're battling demons, creatures that were able to overrun the Earth because they were largely immune to conventional human weaponry. Bullets and bombs didn't work on them; magic was required, and because humanity had grown too dependent upon technology and there were too few Templars left to battle with the old sorcery, the demons triumphed. Fortunately for the continued survival of our species, magic has been rediscovered and magical weapons have been mass-produced, and you'll find no shortage of them during your adventures in Hellgate: London.
As "spell delivery systems," the weapons in Hellgate: London are varied and creative. There are five types of damage in Hellgate: London; physical, fire, electrical, spectral, and toxic, and you'll find weapons that emit all five types, though never at the same time. Weapons are further differentiated by their firing rate, effective range, type of projectile or beam they fire, the requirements that must be met to use them, and the mods you insert into special slots on the weapons, making for nearly infinite weapon possibilities.
One size will not fit all, either. You will not find one supergun and use it always; you'll need to carry a variety of weapons, and switch between them and your custom character skills, as circumstances warrant.
On a more basic level, firing weapons in Hellgate: London isn't about picking up more bullets. It's about using the appropriate weapon at the appropriate time, in conjunction with your character's unique skills. Weapons have different ranges, firing speeds, damage types, cool down times, and requirements, and using them well requires far more skill than simply remembering to click on a box of shotgun shells.
Mods
In addition to the properties you find on weapons, you should plan to make extensive use of mods, since they plan to make extensive use of you.
Most weapons will be found with mod slots, and since you can insert and remove mods without penalty, and use the same mods over and over again, you should stick them into the first things you find, and upgrade from there. Don't just use the weapon you find, while saving mods for later; the game is balanced for weapons with mods in them, and you'll be playing underpowered if you don't take advantage of this feature.
There are 6 different classes of mods:
- Ammo
- Battery
- Fuel
- Rockets
- Relic
- Tech
An item may have no mods slots, or it may have up to 8 slots for mods. Certain weapon types appear with a particular type of mod more often than the others. Although the names of the mods are different, there is a great deal of overlap in what they can do. For instance, you may find a Battery or a Relic that does +12% Spectral damage.
To remove the mods from your item, use the Delux De-Modificator. The price to remove the mods is the same as if you were selling the un-modded item. Nothing is destroyed in the process, so it pays to use them. It will remove all of the mods at once; you cannot remove them individually.
As you advance in levels, you will find mods that are higher level. Be careful when adding a high-level mod to a high-level item - you don't want to create a modded weapon that it too powerful for your character level. Also, if you de-mod an augmented weapon, the mods may be too low level to put back in the weapon.
Targeting
When played from the first person viewpoint (you can zoom up to a 3rd person/overhead view at any time), it won't play like a FPS, since Hellgate: London isn't about pixel-point accuracy. Aiming near your target is required, but perfect aim isn't, and it doesn't guarantee a hit. As an RPG, Hellgate: London places more importance on your character's equipment, stats, and spells than it does on mouse control.
When you play Hellgate: London with a gun in your hands, you will immediately notice a targeting square you control with your mouse. When you sight a monster, the crosshair locks in on it, and follows it around the screen as the monster moves. Thanks to this locked in, soft-guiding feature, it's possible to shoot at a monster that's not right in front of you, once you've acquired a target lock, and so long as the monster is in range.
It is not possible to turn off this soft-aiming feature, but through their own ideas and player feedback, the third faction to be announced, the Hunter, does not have soft aim. He has hard targeting, like you see in most FPS titles, where his aiming reticle is tied to his mouse movement, and his bullets go right where he points them.
Soft vs. Hard Targeting
Hellgate: London has no damage matrix on the body; headshots don't do more damage than toe shots, and you can't shoot an arm and blow it off, though you might see arms fall off as part of a monster's varied and random damage/death animation. So as long as you hit the target anywhere, you're doing the same damage as a perfectly aimed bullet to the temple. Furthermore, the weapons in Hellgate: London aren't that precise. There are some guns that fire single shots, but the vast majority use beams that lock onto the target, or issue clouds of poisonous gas, or throw flames or explosives, or shoot sprays of high speed darts.
The Marksman is playable in first person and third person perspectives. Aiming a gun is more natural in first person, but it can be done in third as well. You still see the aiming reticle while in third person, and you have to use it know where your shots are going to go. Throwing grenades is a bit tougher, since you need to throw them up with an arc to clear obstacles. It can be done, it just takes a bit of guesstimation and practice to get used to it, compared to the almost instant ease of throwing them in first person view.
See the Hunter page for more on the Hunter's unique targeting mechanism.
Weapon Variety
Most of the weapons in Hellgate: London are guns and swords. See the category listings for pistols, rifles, and melee weapons for a full list of each type of weapon.
So yes, guns and swords, but they're not like any guns or swords you've seen before. The Hellgate: London guns fire grappling hooks, fireballs, spectral orbs, lightning bolts that jump from target to target, clusters of rockets, and even swarms of insects.
Every sword in the game is Templar only, and quite a few of the pistols were too. For the Cabalist there were focal devices, and many of the heavy guns. The Hunter also has class-specific guns and rifles.
Damage types and Associated Status Effects
Each damage type in HGL has a chance to inflict a different status effect to its victims like such:
- Physical Damage -> Stuns Target (target cannot move or use skills)
- Fire Damage -> Ignites target (reducing 5% of target's health over time)
- Spectral Damage -> Phases Target (phased target deals 50% less damage and recieves 50% more damage)
- Toxic Damage -> Poisons Target (reduces % of target's health over time and target cannot heal until effect wears off)
- Electric Damage -> Shocks Target (target cannot use skills)
| Direct | Splash | Field | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Physical |  |  | ?? |
| Fire |  |  | 
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| Spectral |  |  | ?? |
| Toxic |  |  | 
|
| Electrical |  |  | 
|
| Damage* |  | ?? | ?? |
| *This damage type appears on Cabalist weapons and appears to have no status effect. | |||
Uniques, Sets, Rares, and More
Magical item quality is denoted by three things: number of stars, rarity tag, and color of the item name. The catagories are broken down as below:
- 1-Star/Enhanced/Green
- 2-Star/Rare/Blue
- 3-Star/Legendary/Orange
- 5-Star/Unique/Gold/Yellow
Notice that 4-Star items have not yet been found and could be reserved for set items.
Dual Wielding
Why use just one sword when you can use two? And as everyone who has ever seen a John Woo movie knows, that goes double for guns. Dual wielding works with every one-handed gun (note Focus Items require Evokers to have the Dual Focus skill to dual wield; summoners can't). You can even dual wield a gun with a sword, and in some cases it's almost required, such as when using the Grappler, a gun that doesn't deal damage, but fires a hook that catches monsters and drags them into your chopping range.
All swords are one-handed. At the same level of modification, two-handed rifles are almost always more powerful than one-handed pistols. Compare the Harp Rifle to the Harp Pistol, for example.
Weapon Appearance
Since you see your character's hand holding the weapon whenever you are in the first person view mode, the developers spent a lot of time making the non-business end of their pistols and rifles look interesting. You can see dozens more in our screenshot gallery.
Something you can't see in these screenshots is the animation. Lots of guns have moving parts, and as you fire you'll see hammers cock, gears spin (those wheels on the back of the Plague Thrower on the left, for instance), knobs turn, tesla coils rotate, shotguns load via pump action, and much more. None of it essential; all of it nice eye candy.
| Item Navigation | |||
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| Weapons & Shields | Armor | Mods | Other |
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Categories: Stubs | Basics | Items | Weapons
