Newbie question

[Lord Typh]

I'm guessing I can worry about the hell baron twins after I deal with the lost souls?

[AlterAsc]

Yes. As long as you don't get near second wall (and rocket jump simply can't take you that far) you can do whatever you want.

[Lord Typh]

So I just found a plasma shotgun.

...I feel really good about my life situation now.

It's actually letting me fire more than once, something that the freaking Combat Shotgun lied to me about.

EDIT:  And then, not two minutes later, I got killed by a shambler.  How do you stop those things?

[LuckyDee]

Never trust anything a shotgun says. Chances are, you're drunk.

[Lord Typh]

That's certainly strange, considering I don't drink alcohol.

[Evilpotatoe]

Never trust anything a shotgun says. Chances are, you're drunk.

The Enrichment Center reminds you that the Weighted Combat shotgun will never threaten to stab you and, in fact, cannot speak. ^^

Btw, it's not obvious, but pumping combat shotty only takes 0.2 seconds, which is faster than reloading. I think that pumping + reloading takes 0.2 + 1 seconds, though... which seems quite stupid. @devs : I'd vote for an alternate reload taking 1 sec and doing both, instead of the current useless & dangerous "full reload".

[Lord Typh]

So, which would be better in the long run?  Double-barrel shotgun?  Or Combat Shotgun?

[AlterAsc]

Double shotgun has huge damage dropoff. It's doing good only on very short range. Most of the time combat is better

Pumping + reloading takes 0.2s + reload time, why could it be anything else?

[bfg9001]

Plus, double shotgun with with SM and MAD is absolute overkill.

[Ashannar]

If you have juggler, it can be useful to keep the double shotgun equipped in the ready slot when you're corner shooting hell knights and barons. Fire at them until they get close enough to knock them back properly, then insta-switch to the double shotgun and fire at them. Not only does it do a lot of damage at this range, but a lot of knockback too.

[Lord Typh]

Dear god, I'm getting tired of these Pain and Agony elementals.  They keep spawning monsters and I can't deal with them all...

[Ashannar]

They go down to shotguns like a hot knife through butter. I'm pretty sure they're weak to sharpnel damage. Not to mention that you can get most of them in your cone of fire. (By the way, they're resistant to bullet and fire damage.)

By the way, the City of Skulls is a pretty extreme challenge. You don't have to do it (and probably shouldn't) without at least shottyman and/or a tactical shotgun. Without a shotgun build I'd feel much safer with a super shotgun. Or, you know, a melee build. Or like, a nuclear plasma rifle..

[LuckyDee]

By the way, the City of Skulls is a pretty extreme challenge. You don't have to do it (and probably shouldn't) without at least shottyman and/or a tactical shotgun.

I used to get crunched in CoS every single time, until I started complaining about it on the forum. In a constructive fashion, of course. With a double shotgun and a couple of shellboxes, it's not that bad actually, if you move carefully. Also, having a homing phase helps hugely, since it takes to the stairs on the far right of the level and prevents you from being swarmed.

Find the discussion here.

[Ashannar]

I haven't actually played City of Skulls since the new lost soul AI. Does it change the difficulty or tactics much?

[LuckyDee]

I have no idea, I've only played 4 runs so far and only managed to reach the City twice. But this was on Too Young, so it doesn't really count.