Unused ammo types

[Crater Creator]

On my latest playthrough, I wanted to be more deliberate about my choice of weapons. I went with pistols. That meant 9 mm and magnum rounds were in demand. I also supplemented that with an assault rifle just for horde nights, so rifle rounds had a use too.

 

This latest horde night, Day 49, I didn’t have time to put together much new ammo. To play to my character’s strengths, I had deliberately never touched or spent time on a shotgun, so I had multiple stacks of shotgun shells from looting. The only shotgun I had was a pipe shotgun (also looted), and the single shot plus long reload time wasn’t going to cut it. So I crafted a crummy (for my level of progress) quality 1 double barreled shotgun and threw what mods I had on it. It wasn't great, but unlike my pistols or assault rifle, I had more than enough ‘free’ ammo for it.

 

I’m curious what other people do, especially in single player. Do you also accumulate types of ammo that don’t get used? Or do you use all types of weapons eventually, or stop picking up ammo you won’t use? Do you craft or buy new guns specifically so you can use ammo you have piling up? Do you sell the ammo, or scrap it to turn into something else?

[Vaeliorin]

I accumulate all ammo types, and try to have at least one of each type of gun on horde night (though if I'm not specced into something that uses 9mm/shotgun shells, I'll try to save those for eventual turrets.)

[Maxwar]

I hoard shotgun ammo as I will eventually end up building a shotgun auto turret and this will eat all my unused ammo. In early game I might use diverse ammo types depending on what guns I loot, but I wont go out of my way to use them. Otherwise I typically just sell ammo I do not need. Scrapping them can be ok if you are short on brass but I am never short on brass. 

[beerfly]

Having exact gameplay as you, CC. I keep all of the ammo, for sure. A bit of nerf about the amount of shotgun ammo could be done btw, it shouldn't be that much in the loot.

Strength gameplay with guns is pretty adventurous, but as soon as more radiated and Wrights start to appear I think accumulating all the ammo from loot will be a good plan. Day 62 here, SP. 

[Whorhay]

Hoard it all, and eventually find a use for it when skill points pile up.

[RipClaw]

Currently, my main weapon during Horde night is the sniper rifle. I save 9mm and shotgun shells for turrets, and other ammo I scrap for brass to make AP ammo.

 

[YourMirror]

I only keep ammo for the main weapon(s) i use. Rest gets sold to trader. Good money.

[meilodasreh]

I use DF where you can disassemble ammo and reuse the gunpowder and tips/lead to make more ammo of the type I need.

[Callum123456789]

5 hours ago, Crater Creator said:

On my latest playthrough, I wanted to be more deliberate about my choice of weapons. I went with pistols. That meant 9 mm and magnum rounds were in demand. I also supplemented that with an assault rifle just for horde nights, so rifle rounds had a use too.

 

This latest horde night, Day 49, I didn’t have time to put together much new ammo. To play to my character’s strengths, I had deliberately never touched or spent time on a shotgun, so I had multiple stacks of shotgun shells from looting. The only shotgun I had was a pipe shotgun (also looted), and the single shot plus long reload time wasn’t going to cut it. So I crafted a crummy (for my level of progress) quality 1 double barreled shotgun and threw what mods I had on it. It wasn't great, but unlike my pistols or assault rifle, I had more than enough ‘free’ ammo for it.

 

I’m curious what other people do, especially in single player. Do you also accumulate types of ammo that don’t get used? Or do you use all types of weapons eventually, or stop picking up ammo you won’t use? Do you craft or buy new guns specifically so you can use ammo you have piling up? Do you sell the ammo, or scrap it to turn into something else?

I only use machine guns most times i often only use up 44, shells and 9mm later game as i barely have issues getting 7.62 that and i use whatever weapon i can and save my chosen perked weapons for when its really needed.

[FramFramson]

I usually try to set up my characters so I only carry 2, or at most 3, types of ammunition with me.

 

Not a big fan of selling unused ammo, so yes, sometimes in the early midgame when you're still ammo-hungry you make extra weapons just to have more shots on Horde night. After that I might break down excess ammo or just wait for some other use. Selling it is a last resort, when you have absurd amounts of ammunition.

 

An ammo breakdown mod which returned fewer resources than cost to craft that ammunition would be quite nice. Works better than just loading bullets into the forge (!!!).

[binf_shinana]

序盤はマシンガンの弾を買うためにそれ以外の弾は売ってしまいます。

中盤以降はBMHでもマシンガンを使い続けると自分で弾を作る必要が出てくるため、BMHのみマグナムやSMGを使っている場合があります。

 

In the early stages, you will sell all other bullets to buy machine gun bullets.
After the middle stage, if you keep using machine guns even in BMH, you will need to make your own bullets, so I sometimes use magnums or SMGs only in BMH.

[Crater Creator]

It’s interesting to read the variety of responses. Turrets were the big thing I was forgetting. I like to directly kill as many zombies as I can, in part to get the ‘full credit’ for killing them in terms of experience points. But turrets would be a good supplement and a way to use the ammo I already have... once I get everything powered, which always seems to be one of my last priorities.

 

In prior alphas, I was content to let my specializations emerge organically. First come across a big farm, and then spend points on Living Off the Land. First start a treasure quest, and then spend points on Treasure Hunter. And first find a relatively good gun, and then spend points on the skill for it. A21 doesn’t seem geared to do that. You need to invest in the skill first, so that your chances of finding parts/crafting magazines for that gun improve. It’s required an adjustment in how I play, away from a survivalist mindset of using what comes my way, and a miserly mindset of hoarding my points, questioning if I really need to spend them.

[BFT2020]

I use the majority of ammo in the game that you find in the loot, even go as far as modding in the HP and AP ammo into higher tier loot containers.  I also changed the ammo types of a few starting weapons (and one rifle) so I modded in 44 cal to start dropping as loot on Day 1.

 

I always use a bow weapon in game, regardless if I am perked into them or now.  Though typically I go with bow / compound bow if I am focused on agility vs crossbow / compound crossbow for non agility builds.  The ammo for the type of bow I am not using I generally scrap or melt down in the forge.

 

Right now, my current playthrough is Agility build with no perks in other weapons.  But my day to day loadout includes a desert vulture, a pump shotgun, and a lever action rifle.  I am saving my 9mm for the SMG if I got enough to take it with me or  using it in my auto turret for horde night.

 

The only ammo I haven't use yet in A21 is breaching rounds in the shotgun.  With the nerf of shotguns to blocks and the buff to breaching rounds against doors, I haven't come across any to purchase yet (or made any) to see if it would be worth it to "breach" a POI in that manner.

[Riamus]

I never use shotgun ammo except for turrets because I just don't like shotguns.  So I always have a lot of it until I get turrets.  .44 and 7.62 will pile up until mid game as I'll stick mostly to melee (spear) and pistol until then.  Later, I'll start using .44 combined with melee for normal use and save the 9mm for turrets and use 7.62 on horde night.  The only ammo I never use are the crossbow bolts and the arrows.  Ammo doesn't seem to pile up as much in A21 as it did in A20, though.

[meganoth]

I must confess I always forget to turn down loot abundance in SP (something I really should do). Because I use melee and bows a lot I usually have a lot of ammo left for my main gun and in horde night I usually don't spray and pray.

 

In other words, I have plenty of everything and have not much reason to economize.

 

[avalonnn]

I play at 150% loot and have plenty of everything but I can burn through a lot in a top tier POI. 

[pApA^LeGBa]

In the last SP playtrough it was shotgun shells and 9mm for Turrets at the horde base. Ammo for the magnum got scraped to brass, 

 

Playing MP we simply use different weapons so every type is getting used.

[Ramethzer0]

On 10/4/2023 at 12:08 PM, Crater Creator said:

I’m curious what other people do, especially in single player. Do you also accumulate types of ammo that don’t get used? Or do you use all types of weapons eventually, or stop picking up ammo you won’t use? Do you craft or buy new guns specifically so you can use ammo you have piling up? Do you sell the ammo, or scrap it to turn into something else?

 

 

A true zed shredder ignores no weapons, and thus ignores no ammo.   I don't even care if I have perks or not, and this includes explosives.

 

 

[RStarphoenix]

I never really run into a situation where I have unused ammo, outside of the iron arrows & iron bolts (I like flaming & exploding archery)
I run magnum as my default weapon, especially once I get the Magnum Enforcer perk for traders.
I run 9mm or shotgun as a secondary for Infested quests and/or Tier 4 & Tier 5.
I generally use my 7.62 machine guns for horde night and my suppressed sniper for night time wanderings or for standing on top of my base to snipe the odd wandering horde and/or animals I see.
Timed charges I use in place of lockpicks unless I'm being sneaky. Mollies are good no matter your gamestage level (fire hurts). Pipe bombs are cost-effective room clears. Contact nades are just too much fun on horde nights. Rocket launchers when I remember them (probably my most underused ammo). Regular nades I keep as last resort base defense and dynamite.... well, i use that when i went hell to spawn next to me or if I really want to annihilate a concrete or steel structure for double looting.

[Old Crow]

For my group and I, we typically skip the HiPower/Breaching Slugs. The damage increase just isn't worth it, especially for the materials required. We figure it's better to just make the AP rounds/slugs.

 

Stone arrows and bolts don't get used for long, fire bolts/arrows NEVER get used (again, kind of worthless), but we'll gladly use iron arrows/bolts as they are found, and will craft and use steel arrows/bolts and exploding arrows/bolts.

[Darthjake]

On 10/5/2023 at 7:31 AM, Crater Creator said:

It’s interesting to read the variety of responses. Turrets were the big thing I was forgetting. I like to directly kill as many zombies as I can, in part to get the ‘full credit’ for killing them in terms of experience points. But turrets would be a good supplement and a way to use the ammo I already have... once I get everything powered, which always seems to be one of my last priorities.

 

In prior alphas, I was content to let my specializations emerge organically. First come across a big farm, and then spend points on Living Off the Land. First start a treasure quest, and then spend points on Treasure Hunter. And first find a relatively good gun, and then spend points on the skill for it. A21 doesn’t seem geared to do that. You need to invest in the skill first, so that your chances of finding parts/crafting magazines for that gun improve. It’s required an adjustment in how I play, away from a survivalist mindset of using what comes my way, and a miserly mindset of hoarding my points, questioning if I really need to spend them.

I set my shotgun turrets to deal with vultures on horde night, the rest of the time I can deal with everything else no problem.

[Rotor]

I never have enough stone arrows :).

 

In my longest playthrough 100 and some odd game days, I struggled to keep enough 7.62 for horde nights.  Is why I switched from 30 min to 60 min days.

[FranticDan]

I wish we could dismantle ammo into their base resources so we can convert them into other ammo (for a 20% loss to not exploit the bundle crafting)

[Adam the Waster]

Really the only ammo that issue used that much is 9mm and 44 but 9mm has much more uses then 44. A suggestion is make a weapon mod simply called 

44 receiver and the 9mm receiver 

 

The 44 and 9mm receiver can be placed on the Tactical AR, Lever action and SMG

 

9mm holds more ammo but deals less damage.  Adds 14 rounds for the lever action and 32 to the TAR 

 

44 deals much more damage but damages the gun more. The lever action holds 12 and the TAR holds 25 rounds.  And 20 for the SMG

It has a piercing abilities 

 

You may say! But there is no automatic rifle that shoots 44 Adam! You stupid 

 

My response.  The game is set in the future. Maybe then someone will make ether a SMG or an assault carbine in 44. Plus saves gives more uses for other guns 

Edited October 8 by Adam the Waster (see edit history)

[pApA^LeGBa]

On 10/8/2023 at 12:32 AM, Old Crow said:

For my group and I, we typically skip the HiPower/Breaching Slugs. The damage increase just isn't worth it, especially for the materials required. We figure it's better to just make the AP rounds/slugs.

 

Stone arrows and bolts don't get used for long, fire bolts/arrows NEVER get used (again, kind of worthless), but we'll gladly use iron arrows/bolts as they are found, and will craft and use steel arrows/bolts and exploding arrows/bolts.

 

Playing on survivalist/insane (depending wich mod or mods) i very much welcome fire arrows/bolts to soften them up from a distance. Sneak shots aren´t guaranteed to kill on those difficulties even when perked. Fire does some decent damage over time and doesn´t generate as much heat as an explosive arrow and doesn´t wake up the whole room.

 

Explosive ones are more fun though, especially since we now have body parts flying around.

Edited October 8 by pApA^LeGBa (see edit history)