Guntecher Guide - Written by GTs for GTs

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Fanboy's Guide to Gunteching

INTRODUCTION

"Sure I believe in peace. Peace through superior firepower."

The best thing about this thread is I have learned a hell of a lot more about gunteching since I started it. I knew quite a bit, of course, otherwise I wouldn't've bothered authoring it in the first place, but none of us know EVERYTHING.

Which is why we come to forums, to exchange ideas. And now, through the exchange of ideas, I offer you the evolving Guntecher guide. Unlike some fools, I won't tell you it's the 'Perfect' guide; however, I will say that if you bring up a point I haven't considered then I will most definitely test it out for myself and see how it compares.

An important note, however: This is NOT about what race makes the 'best' guntecher, or anything like that.

You'll see a lot of talk (hell, argument that stayed one side of a flamewar) about what race is best later on in this thread. I (personally) think that's because everyone wants to reassure themselves that yes, they picked the best race for the job and didn't waste 300+ hours doing it, so they denigrate other people's choices. Get enough of that in the same thread for long enough and...

But it's all bullshit. Sonic Team did a GREAT job balancing this game; there's no such thing as a 'gimped' class/race combo, and the differences may seem large, all it means is that you play a different way. A newman/human guntecher will focus more on status effects and healing, whereas a cast or beast guntecher will focus more on raw damage.

(I don't know WHY some people have problems giving ST props for balancing the game so well; I guess there are a few folks who wouldn't give the ST members credit for knowing how to flush a urinal...)

But anyway, enough of that.

THE WEAPONS

"Guns, guns, guns. My life would be so dull without them."

For a guntecher, it comes down to a choice between inflicting a status effect or dealing element damage. A good example of this is the Tengouhg - do you whip out a burning bow and try to DOT them (knowing that it's going against their element and will do less damage), or blast ice cards at them til they go under?

Which one you choose to do should depend on the composition of your team, and the level you're playing at. If you're the only guy with an SE4 bow/rifle in an S-rank or higher game, you should try sticking that to the biggest creatures, particularly the ones that hunters have trouble dealing with like Tengouhgs or bugs. Big monsters really hate damage over time (DOT) because 25 or 40% of their HP adds up to a lot of time hunters spend beating on them. Also if enemies are bullet-resistant like robots, Jarbas, Dilzanen, or Polavohras, DOT is by far your best choice.

On the other hand, if others are already covering the DOT or it isn't necessary (like in Mad Creatures or anywhere else without big scary creatures), feel free to blast away with whatever elements you have on hand.

Overall, ice is going to deal the most damage across the planets - fire enemies are EVERYWHERE. Also, it has the highest proportion of mansize or smaller enemies. If you're going to have a main gun as part of your style, pick an ice bullet for it always and level that bad boy up as far as you can.

In point of fact, you should pick a one-handed gun (crossbow, card, or mechgun) and have every element bullet for that one. If you want to pick several guns to have all the elements for, be my guest - but remember, there are more PAs coming out all the time, and you may eventually want to pick a second class but run out of room for all the PAs you want. Nothing hurts more than erasing a PA that you built to level 23. <_<

I personally endorse cards for being that one gun you have all the elements for; at level 30 they have 150-155% damage multiplier and 25% element damage - and 3 bullets. That adds up. Even my newearl guntecher does 750-900 damage per swing of the fan (depending on how I'm buffed and the enemies are debuffed) with 21+ element bullets. Plus, cards level up FAST, compared to the other available bullets. One run using the card almost exclusively should get you at least a level, maybe even two.

But if cards don't suit your style, feel free to pick something else; you might have to attack once more to make up the difference but hey, who cares? It's not like the Fanboy Police are going to knock down your door and kick your ass for playing the game your own way (they're too busy handling all the people who claim to play 'themed' armies in Warhammer 40k as an excuse for getting beaten).

Two-handed Guns

Two-handed guns are a problematic thing for the guntecher. On the one hand, they're all useful, deal out good damage, have PAs that you need, etcetera; on the other, they remove your ability to tote a wand.

But you can't fear that. After all, not EVERYTHING can be solved with the one-handed guns.

BOW/RIFLE

Every ranger that can have one, NEEDS an Status Effect 4 inflicting weapon. Dishing out SE4 to some of the biggest creatures can mean the difference between life and death. The choice is simple: Bow or rifle?

Bows ignore armor, raise up in PA levels at least 3x faster, do better elemental % damage, and have higher ATP and ATA.

Rifles have better PP, better range, fire faster, and are quicker on the initial shot which improves strafing ability.

In the end it's a personal choice. Both have advantages and disadvantages, but from a pure damage standpoint the bow is better; from a support stance (provided you have the patience) the rifle is probably superior.

Most guntechers DO use bows, however. The faster PA leveling, plus the increased damage, is the winner by most standards. I know I personally look snobbily on my poor fortegunner cousins who can't use bows....

Another nice thing about bows is on bosses: because they ignore defense, you can hit the boss anywhere for the same amount of damage as if you were nailing his weak point. Kinda nice to lurk behind De Ragnus and hit his tail without risking instant death. The only exception is Onma/Dimma, because they're bullet-immune naturally EXCEPT for their wings.

There are some folks who swear by the phantom/phantomline combo, but overall it only does a few more damage than the bow, is hideously expensive, difficult to equip until later on (60+, usually) and still suffers from that terribly, terribly slow PA raising.

What PAs to get?

Burn or virus. Virus or Burn. One of the two is an ESSENTIAL, and work it up as quickly as you can. SE4 virus/burn means the difference between 3 minutes of whacking a monster with 10k plus HP and 1 minute. Tengoughs (one of the toughest basic monsters) take 1334 a tick on S-rank, and with the knowledge that SS awaits us with even TOUGHER monsters and you'll be thanking your lucky stars you built burn up to 21+.

The difference between the two is interesting. Burn does 25% of the enemy's HP damage over 10 seconds, versus 40% over 20 seconds for virus. On the face of it, burn is the better choice, but SEs can sometimes be... difficult... to apply. The nice thing about virus is that you can stick one big monster with it, if he has buddies you can get them SE'd too, and before it runs out on the first monster you can whirl around and stick him with it again - OR you can switch to an element he's weak against and pound him while the virus does its damage too.

Ice is another solid choice. Onmagoug and De Ragan are fire-based enemies that fly; you probably won't use it much outside of the boss fights but you'll want to be dealing all the damage you can in those fights.

Of the rest, I am unsure; lightning doesn't seem to work on most big enemies, silence doesn't seem to be worth it (I have yet to see a silenced Jarba) and confuse is too unreliable to be SURE that the big creature will stop attacking you and start attacking his buddies. >_> If you do any Dimmagoulus, then lightning WOULD be a good choice; nailing his wings is definitely worthwhile.

TWIN HANDGUNS

Twin handguns are a compromise between DPS and speed. The second-fastest firing weapon in the game, and one of the more mobile - plus, it's our signature weapon. Why would you be without a pair?

With 24% elemental damage at 21+ having the bullets high means you can really stick it to the enemies while dancing around their clumsy attacks, plus with 2 bullets hitting an enemy it multiplies the chance of inflicting the SE, which is just icing on the cake.

Though some would say that by the time you get cards and crossbows these are obsolete, I beg to differ - you can aim these in any direction, unlike the crossbow, and do first-person, unlike the card, and have about equal range to the card. Also, they can do more damage than the bow to average-defense targets (NOT high-defense targets), though at an admittedly inferior range.

Which weapons to get? As mentioned elsewhere, a 6* tenora, properly ground, is stronger than an A-rank with equivalent ATA; just carry around several of them and you'll never run out of PP. However, if you like the way the A-rank looks feel free to buy it; style is above everything else in this game.

Which bullets to get?

Ice is the top choice. Every planet has fire-based enemies so far (save the station), so multiplying the damage you do to them with that tasty 24% will help you and your team. Also, ALL of the most annoying flying enemies are fire-based, and you need to aim at 'em to hit 'em - and sometimes, rifle and bows don't go off fast enough to hit them.

I no longer endorse virus - it doesn't match up to a virus crossbow. It's still a good choice, however. Silence.... well, silence isn't a BAD idea, but neither is it great. Confuse doesn't work often enough to make it really worthwhile. Lightning... well, lightning is good, but it's just as good on other weapons.

SHOTGUN

I do endorse the shotgun - as a BACKUP weapon. Mainline, it's only decent; while it does a fair amount of damage the card/crossbow does MORE and is far faster, plus it allows wand access.

The one thing a shotgun has, however, is nearly infinite PP; combined with a solid spread, decent damage, reasonable SE, and stylish look it's good to go if you manage to tap out all of your mainline guns or you NEED to hit an enemy with an SE at once. With point-blank range you can give a single enemy an SE almost guaranteed in 2 shots, more likely one.

What bullets?

Lightning. Possibly confuse, again; but the shotgun is topnotch at hitting a lot of low-level enemies at once and giving them an SE, so you want to give them an SE that will help defend your team as much as possible; that's shock.

Confuse can throw any spellcasters for a loop (see the bit on that later), so pointblanking them with 5 shots will almost certainly guarantee a useless spellcaster.

A lot of people say the crossbow is better and they're right, but the nice thing about shotguns is that you can grab one at level 1 and start leveling it right away, so by the time you can buy and use crossbows it'll already be well on its way to 21+.

LASER CANNONS

Um. For most purposes, Laser Cannons simply aren't that good. They deal good damage through a line of enemies, but enemies are rarely nice enough to line up that way. The beam is about body-width, maybe a bit more; it's not exactly narrow but it's strongest in corridors or other narrow places.

Plus, it only does SE1. SE1 is a JOKE.

HOWEVER, see my section below on the Ultimate PAs for an opinion on the Mayalee Prism.

One-handed Guns

For one-handed gun weapons it comes down to the crossbow or the card. Screw handguns, they SUCK compared to crossbow. Sure, they get SE3 just like the crossbow, but it's only 1 shot compared to 3, and that just don't cut it.

Mechguns, on the other hand... have their place. I'll discuss that later.

One-handed guns are very, VERY important for guntechers; while other classes may only dabble in them to add a bit of range, we NEED them for quick wand access. Only fitting that we get the best selection of them.

"But fanboy," you ask, "Which one should I get? Crossbow or card?"

I say both.

CROSSBOW

Crossbows deal excellent damage at CLOSE range. 3 bullets + 15% elemental damage at 21+ + SE3 = some painfully injured enemies. If you're the restaho or the mainline fortetecher is more interested in the whizbangs and shiny things coming out of the end of his rod than in healing his teammates, then the Crossbow lets you stay mobile and deal damage while still being close enough to bounce over and heal someone who's dipping low.

Another fringe benefit is that the elemental % is the lowest of all the GT weapons. This means that it's great for using against same element enemies, if the SE is necessary. Also, it has an SE3 effect on level 21+, so it lasts longer and procs more often once you get it up there.

The danger is that you have to be REALLY close in order to deal good damage with the crossbow - and guntechers aren't exactly paragons of HP or DFP. But your buddies will thank you.

Another depressing thing is that the bow builds up levels slowly, especially compared side-by-side with cards (not as slow as regular bows, however). Also, for levels 11-20, you have a VERY annoying V-shot that makes it quite vexing to use at any distance other than point-blank.

It is worth it, however.

What elements?

Screw suggesting it, VIRUS IS MANDATORY. SE3 means that they DOT for 35% of an enemy's HP, 3 shots means that it spreads across enemy mobs fast, and the damage is high enough that you can blast away and take basic enemies down even without switching to an element they're weak to.

I'd strongly suggest confuse as well; there are a number of annoying spellcasters like the Gazoran sorcerer-guy and confuse means that they don't use their spells effectively any more - more on that later.

CARDS

Cards deal EXCELLENT damage at decent range (to elemental-weak enemies, my newfemme guntecher deals 600+ damage with all 3 bullets in a single shot), have a good ROF, and home in automatically on your target. While it takes a bit of getting used to, the card is a very, very good weapon for spreading SEs and dealing damage.

Cards should be your primary damage-dealing weapons, actually. They have a 25% elemental effect at 21+, and top out at about 150% damage at level 30 for most of the elements. Also, they level up fairly fast, especially when you're using them as your main weapon.

Cards are a bit tricky to get the hang of, but once you do they're very, very nice - homing in on enemies that are highlighted in red. This means you can whip the blades at one enemy and strafe over until his buddy is highlighted, whip blades at him, then rinse and repeat...

Also, they're very, very easy to dodge with too. Overall, the cards are probably the safest weapon in our arsenal to use.

What elements?

By my recommendation, all of 'em. I said why earlier, but hey, if you've forgotten already flip back up and see.

MECHGUNS

Well, someone hammered me into trying it, and I did it, and found out that mechguns ARE decent choices now.

...But they still lose to cards when it comes to damage dealing. Oh, mechguns are decent, I won't lie there, but they don't match up to cards as a mainline combat gun.

What they ARE good at, however, is drawing aggro. Lots and lots of it. Because each bullet causes a small flinch, you can distract charging enemies from the fortetecher or the fortefighter spamming PAs - more on that later.

The best users of mechguns would be casts, followed by beasts - casts have the ATA to hit almost all the time, and beasts have the power to really make it hurt. Regardless, they don't actually MISS all that much; maybe 1 in 10 shots go astray, provided you're adequately leveled and the bullet is high.

Elements don't really matter here. The SE is a joke, so if you like mechguns just pick whatever elements do the most damage in the areas you like to play.

If you're going to get them, don't skimp on the gear - the best to have are Beam Vulcanics, the 8* Kubara. Ignore the Tenoras, they're garbage. Beam Vulcanics have 120 more PP than a 9*, synth at the same rate as a 9*, and while they lose out a bit on ATP and ATA, the difference is negligible. The one thing to remember, though, is that you need MULTIPLE mechguns, because they empty out fast. Buying 3-4 NPC 8*s is more worthwhile than just having one or two cool Kubara ones.

The Other Weapons

WANDS

Always have wands. Always always always. A properly ground C-rank Tenora is easy to equip and has enough TP to make up for your low GT stat - even if it's only useful for Resta. It's your choice between trying to grind a 6* or simply buying a 7*/8* at the higher levels - I use a Cometara mostly because I'm too lazy to grind and because I think it looks cool.

As of this rewrite, I've gotten a Majimra (9* rod) and if you can get it, DO SO. It makes a HUGE difference in Resta'ing. don't go nuts about it though, as it has a pretty high (for a GT) requirement.

Also, the W'gacros (6* tenora) when ground to 10 has 30 more TP than a Majimra at zero - and the Majimra at 10 only has 40 more TP. The W'gacros fails when comparing the PP, but you can always carry extra wands and Photon Charges.

MELEE

Don't.

Well, not often.

As a general policy, avoid meleeing. You don't have particularly high strength, your melee photon arts are only 10 tops, and you only have two choices: single dagger and single saber.

That being said, there are several circumstances where it can be profitable, most noticably on enemies that have 3 or more hit areas close together, and are resistant to bullets - Strateria, Kog Nadd, and the crocodiles come to mind, but the Polovara can be very vulnerable to melee as well provided you have a GOOD % weapon.

Of the two choices, dagger and saber, the dagger wins hands-down at level 10 with Buten Shuren-zan. 4 hits quick, along with a jump first to get you into melee range, combines well, particularly if you're moving in with a crossbow or other single-handed gun. Plus, the A-rank dagger has a good PP pool and does a fair amount of damage. The two saber skills only get better at their 2nd combo, which unfortunately guntechers don't get access to.

For elements I'd recommend a good dark % dagger, and maybe an earth one if you do a lot of work on Parum.

TACTICAS

"If you did it and lived, then you probably did it right."

This spot is still under construction; I'll add to it if and when I see more things that need to be added.

ULTIMATE PHOTON BULLETS

With the PAs costing 75 PA frags plus, it's important knowing which ones to get, and what they do, in terms of the guntecher. None of the bullet PAs are "OMFG I IZ A LEET KILLER NOW!" damage dealers; instead, most of them are very useful as a supplement to team play, or in certain areas they really do rule the roost, but in others they're virtually useless.

Very few of them are 'spammin' PAs, as in ones you just keep pumping out to deal more damage, which is good, because all of these PAs are very, VERY expensive.

So, here's an overview of what I've observed.

BOW (75 frags)

Worthless. It enhances damage and accuracy; however, we hardly need an accuracy boost, and the damage boost is negligible when stacked up against 1) an elemental boost and 2) an SE.

RIFLE [90 frags]

I know I'm going to take a lot of flak for this, but this PA is VERY situational and is worthless outside of those situations.

It works on NO enemy larger than medium size (so you can quit trying!), and from what I've seen and heard the only enemies it reliably sticks even at 21+ to are enemies with 14 STA, which are the robots and any of the small enemies (like you need any help killing those). Even with 20 STA enemies like Vahra, it can take a fair few shots to make it stick, and since it costs a whopping 48 PP for us GTs per shot, I'd have to say... there are better ult PAs for one to pick, unless you're intent on soloing Grove of Fanatics to get the stuff for a Deghana Cannon, or your regular group does areas with robots a lot.

It makes ANY area with robots an utter breeze, however, turning them from a ranger's nightmare to a dream. But if you expect it to work regularly anywhere else, you'll be very disappointed.

TWIN HANDGUN [60 frags]

Very good indeed, particularly for solo - otherwise, we're stuck with only SE1 for debuffs, and it's safer than running into the middle of a mob and using your wand while the monsters smack you around.

In team play, too, it's very nice, as it lets you tag and spread around a useful SE. As we get more and more S2 and (when they appear) S3 and S4 missions, debuffs will become more and more important. Remember, for now we only have the equivalent of Very Hard on PSO; just how useful were debuffs in those levels?

Not much else to say about it really; it's kind of a no-brainer for PAs.

SHOTGUN [60 frags]

This is ANOTHER good one, not for solo mind, but for team play, particularly if you have a lot of fortefighter or wartecher friends. I was recently playing my fortefighter and one of my friends was spreading this PA around like it was going out of style, and man... it made a HUGE difference. It's enough to make me mainline zodeel on a wand when I'm in a mixed party.

LASER CANNONS [90 frags]

Well. I knew I was getting this the moment the ult PAs came out, but even I'm surprised at its effectiveness in certain situations. It is, indeed, an adequate replacement for the grenade launcher that we don't get.

It causes knockback on small-medium enemies and staggers larger enemies; it also fires fast enough that you can keep the stagger going on many of the larger enemies. While it does have a fairly large hit on accuracy (46% at first level), GT ATA is generally good enough that you shouldn't worry about it, particularly if you move in from the back or the sides.

HOWEVER, this is a SITUATIONAL PA, not a spammin' PA. It doesn't deal all that much damage; instead, what you should use it on are enemies which are more dangerous standing than they are on the ground like big mobs of buffed Vandas, Gohmons, worms, or Volfu, or to knock flying enemies to the ground so that hunters can get a shot at 'em, or to keep Jarbas staggered so they can't dambarta the poor hunters into submission.

CROSSBOW [75 frags]

Well. Technically, what the SE for this is that it CAN add the difference between your max HP and your current HP to each bullet, much like nosmegid but better because you have 3 shots and therefore 3 chances to add the SE.

Sounds pretty good? Well, it is. The higher your HP the more damage it's capable of doing, and we guntechers are more capable of running in the redline than say fortetechers.

HOWEVER, it is just like any other SE, from what I'm hearing - it doesn't hit all the time, and even 3 bullets landing on a target doesn't guarantee that it'll do more damage. Heck, sometimes I've gone more than 20 firings of a crossbow before landing an SE. Meantime, you're losing out on elemental damage bonus + whatever SEs might be handy for your area.

It's good, don't get me wrong, and if you think you're capable of running the yellow line easily than go for it, but honestly... it's a bit hazardous for newman and even human GTs to run their HP that low in many areas, and as we get more and more dangerous zones added it might be better to just think twice about this one.

MACHINE GUN [75 frags]

Don't.

This PA is meant to knock up and stunlock enemies, and we've already got a perfectly good PA for that don't we?

Mayalee Prism is stronger, MUCH higher ATA, goes through enemies so that you can knock down multiples, and doesn't empty out a cannon as fast as Mayalee Fury empties out a mechgun.

Another thing I've noticed in using this with my fighgunner is when you use it on medium-small enemies, they actually TURN in midair - meaning that you're not shooting at their backs any more, so all you see are more of those infuriating zeroes.

The only edge that Fury has on Prism is that it's one-handed (meaning wand action is possible) and we'll eventually get S-rank mechguns and only have A rank laser cannons... but in case you've been under a flat rock for the last month, we've found out that there isn't a whole world of difference between S-rank mechguns and A-rank.

CARD/HANDGUN

Don't.

HP drain isn't high enough even at 21+ to make it worth losing the card elemental % damage, and the handgun is a terrible weapon to begin with. <_<

TECHNICS

Get Resta and Reverser. Love them. Enough said. Because you have Crossbows/cards/mechguns, you can deal out DPS/SEs while still being able to spot-heal and keep your party alive. Plus, more often than not, you'll find the fortetecher getting frozen/hurt badly and you can just strafe on over to him/her and give a quick heal.

If you're the sole supporter, I'd have 3 wands ready: one with buffs, one with debuffs, and one with resta/reverser. If the area is dangerous and your buddies are taking a pounding, have your main offense gun paired with the resta/reverser wand. If the area is fairly easy, keep your main gun with the debuff wand. If you're in a party with a good WT/FT, only have the debuff and resta wand, and have your main gun on the resta/reverser - the WT/FT will hopefully be handy with the debuffs but might freeze up when moving to his resta stick.

There are quite a few enemies that apply negative SEs frequently - you're in a position to counteract that just as frequently. Using reverser when your buddy's burning, or when all of the fortefighters in the party have contracted a bad case of Jellenitis, will make them all your friend.

For buffs, Shifta and Deband are no-brainers. Raising your damage/defense are quite simply the best things you can do. A close third, if you do a great deal of supporting, would be Retier. ANYTHING that makes your patry Resta stronger is NOT to be passed up.

For debuffs, Jellen is a cinch, as is Zalure, but once the first set of Ult PAs come out you might toss Zalure out in favor of the twin handgun PA (which inflicts better Zalure than you have access to via Technics).

Zodial and Zodeel are necessary in areas where the enemies have high evp, such as HIVE where it's nigh-impossible for hunters to hit the front of a deljaban, or in areas with bugs, or even if you're in an area with enemies that are 20-30+ levels higher than you and your friends. If you're the only supporter and there are fortefighters, they'll bless you for casting these two technics - I have occasionally used these two out instead of deband/zalure when I'm supporting FFs. Though they ARE necessary in the case of Wartechers, that I cannot deny...

Offensive technics should be limited to single-enemy, high-Technic multiplier damage: basically, Foie or Diga. Diga does slightly more damage, but is slightly slower than Foie. Basically, make a choice, and it's not like you're stuck with it after all. You won't be using it barely at all anyway; the only enemy I can think of where you'd deal more damage with this than with guns or melee is the dog enemies at the end of the Neudaiz Relics. You could also use it against Strateria - those guys are pretty dangerous to a mere GT close in with a little dagger.

TRAPS

Traps can and will save you time. At this point, the best trap we can use is the Burn G trap; sometimes it's hard to give an SE to a gang of Jarbas or Tengoughs, and they often spawn close together. Dropping a G-level trap and triggering it fast means that you've just saved yourself a bit of time in dishing out the pain and helped your group out immensely.

Save your traps for big enemies, however; you can't carry enough to spam them at little enemies and besides, you can SE those well enough with your guns that you shouldn't need traps. And they're expensive, too.

ARMOR

What a guntecher ideally needs in an armor is a head slot and an arm slot: Head slot for more TP, and arm slot for more ATP. Anything else is just an afterthought. That pretty much leaves the GRM armor (except the Stellaline, at LOW levels) out of the running. Te-senbas and Sori-Senbas have both, but they have really unfortunate elements on them for the low HP guntecher - light and ice means you'll suck down more megids and more damage from fire enemies (the most common, as I've said before). The Rabol Tero has them and comes with 21% dark (and a body slot!), but it also has a DFP req of 63 - I didn't get 63 DFP until something like 58/6 as a newman GT. The Rabol Solid also has those elements, but only beast GTs will have that high of DFP even at 70/10.

Now, for what you could settle for since this isn't a perfect world. If you're a beast or CAST (especially CAST!) you should prioritize a head slot for more TP - yohmei armors generally have head slots so you should shop there. For humans and newmans, the arm slot's the thing - GRM is the way to go. Get a Mega/power.

CAST guntechers shouldn't worry much about SUVs until later on. SUV damage is based off your raw ATP; a cast GT won't ever win any rewards with his ATP until level 60+. There are several armors that have both head and extra slots, however.

A final note on armors: elemental % is FAR more important than anything else. Elemental % reduces damage on a straight formula, for both the spells of that element AND the melee attacks of enemies who have that element. I haven't figured it out yet, but I do know that a 28% dark ageha-senba (4*) reduces damage quite a bit more than a 24% dark midiline (6*) armor. Mega/Rainbow is something else you should have handy, too. I oftentimes carry an armor of each element that the enemies have in an area and swap them as necessary - easier than you might think, as most areas only have 2-3 elemental types and NPC stores sell at least 1-2 armors with elements on each of them. GRM has fire and lightning, Yohmei light and ice,and Tenora earth and dark.

ON DEALING WITH SPELLCASTERS

We all hate them. Gazorans, Deljabans, Gohmon, Vanda, whatever they might be, every world has 'em and they all do very nasty things that ought to be illegal. One of the most useful things you can do on a team is deal with them.

But not with silence. Oh no.

CONFUSE eliminates them as a threat, and for some reason seems to apply a lot more. Confuse makes it so enemies do no damage with spells whatsoever (who knows why? A glitch?) and makes their melee attacks go astray very often as well. Also, whether or not it's shock or silence that prevents Deljabans from flinging megid, confuse throws them for a loop either way, and does increased damage to them to boot.

Because of that, confuse may well be one of your more important SEs to have. If you have the patience, crossbow will do the most good - SE3 will stick often and last longer - but cards will level faster and do just fine themselves. Avoid trying to apply it with mechguns or laser cannons; SE1 is just a joke.

SOLOING

Guntecher is probably one of the better soloing classes, particularly once you get your resta over 400, and as long as you have decent NPCs - Laia and a 410/420 being preferred, as they deal the melee damage you can't and act as very nice meatshields.

Against small human-size or smaller mobs all of the same element, it's best to run past them so that your NPCs get entangled in melee, then hit them with element they're weak against.

If it's a mixed element mob, pull out your Dark crossbow or Dark dual handgun (preferably at 21+ for the crossbow) and spread DOTs - hitting them for 30-35% of their HP will go a long way towards crampign their style.

If it's a large beastie, give it a DOT from your bow/rifle while your NPCs beat them up. Then, if it's a monster with multiple hit areas (like a Kog Nadd or Strateria) or one that's strong against bullets (like the Dilzanen) MELEE! Pull out that tasty elemental dagger and Buten Shuren-zan until it drops or the DOT runs out. If it's vulnerable to bullets, peg it with the element it's weak to.

DRAWING AGGRO

For those of you who don't know this already, monsters don't like being shot. It makes them angry, and when they get angry they charge.

"Aww, but I hate that!" you whine. "I hit them with one or two rifle bullets and they jump all over me!"

But you haven't thought of the tactical opportunities here. You can save your hunter buddy's butt by distracting half of the mob that's charging him, and lead them on a merry goose chase through the block while he smashes them from behind. Or you can draw the monsters into nice, tight groups for ra/gi/di spells, or even barta if your fortetecher buddy likes it for some reason.

Also, you can dodge very, very easily while doing this too - just release the strafe button and run away, to reposition yourself so you've got plenty more backwalking room.

For the aggro-baiter, the best gun is the mechgun, hands down. Heck, you don't even have to have the strafe button held in - just blast away until you have to run, and then release!

LEVELING GUIDE

PART ONE: ROAD TO GUNTECHER

Guntecher is fairly easy to get to; you only need to be a Ranger 5/Force 3. If you do plenty of Valley/HIVE C you should reach those limits at around level 25.

When leveling your ranger, focus on using double handguns and the lightning shotgun - if you picked that. The nice thing about both of those is that boards for 2* twin handguns, as well as 2* shotguns, drop on Valley C-rank, so you don't have to spend too much money outfitting yourself if you're a beginner - and if you're leveling a GT as a second character, you should have them falling out your rear. You can level rifle, if you want to use it eventually, but as I said earlier it's accepted that bow is the better choice, and rangers can't use bows.

When leveling force, stick mostly to healing and tag with a handgun or with foie/diga (whichever is your technic of choice). Also, grab a bow and start leveling it early on - as I said, virus is probably topnotch, as is ice.

Grind up a few C-rank wands. Odds are that it'll be the best you can use for a while as a GT, so you'll want to have some good ones. Grab two Yohmei wands for buffs/debuffs (the more PP the better), and get a couple of tenora wands for resta-ing.

PART 2: THE LOW-LEVEL GUNTECHER

Well, now you're a GT. If you're a newman/CAST you probably won't be far away from using cards and crossbows; if you're not you might still have a ways to go. Either way, level up what you can and try to tag as much as possible. There's not that much TOO dangerous here, particularly in Agata B or HIVE B. Despite how ineffective they might seem to be, try to level up your bow as much as possible, as well as any other bullets you might have. You're stuck with C-rank wands, but you'll probably only be healing yourself anyway so 100-150 will be a fair amount.

PART 3: THE MIDLEVEL GUNTECHER

Once you hit level 35 and have access to S-rank missions, grab some friends and do 'em! Great exp and decent MP means that you'll finally be moving up the ladder to using some of the better stuff, particularly B-rank wands and crossbows/cards. Here is where debuffs and SEs come in to their own - stay alert, because you can get one-hitted fairly easily early in your career.

CONCLUSION

Give SEs to enemies. Burn the big ones, shock the little/midsize ones, heal if the fortetecher isn't paying attention, debuff, and above all DON'T worry about DPS.

You aren't playing a DPS class. Fortegunners and guntechers, while we can deal quite a bit of damage, can't match the amount that a fortefighter with an axe, or a fortetecher with dambarta, or even a wartecher with dus daggas, can dish out.

But you are playing the best class in the game, one that is indespensible to those other classes and one that they'll beg you to play over and over and over again, once you get good at playing it.

Enjoy it.

Guide by: imfanboy