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Today, a little "PSA" went up on the Anthem subreddit that says clearly that the level 1 weapons players start the game with are the most powerful weapons in the game.
If you think that doesn't make much sense, you would be correct but there are multiple confirmations showing that this is indeed what is going on. Reddit user YeetLordSupreme found that a level 1 common Defender rifle can take down a basic enemy in just four shots. Meanwhile, they found that their level 45 masterwork "Ralner's Blaze" rifle takes six shots to take down the very same enemy.
This is in spite of the basic weapon showing damage of just 286 per shot compared to the 1184 damage per shot with the level 45 weapon.
So I was just fucking around with various guns and components, trying to quantify their damage amounts, when I stumbled upon something rather strange. It seems that the default weapon you get when creating a new loadout, is better than any other weapon in the game!
Components used during this test are Airborne Advantage, Convergence Core, Defensive Bulwark and Firearm Calibration Core. All are Ranger components which increase weapon damage. Anyway as for the test itself:
-With my Level 1 common Defender rifle, one bullet does 286 damage against a normal scar trooper.
-With my Level 45 masterwork Ralner's Blaze rifle, one bullet does 1184 damage against a normal scar trooper.
Given these numbers, you might (reasonably) assume that the MW weapon will kill enemies faster, since it does more damage. This is NOT the case!
Going back to the scar troopers, the MW rifle takes 6 bullets to kill our scar friend. Given the damage numbers, our level 1 rifle should take around 5x more bullets to do the job. Guess how many it actually takes?
4
That's right. 4 bullets!!! Not 4x as many. Literally 4 rounds. Our level 1 rifle is somehow more effective than our level 45 masterwork, despite what our damage pop-ups are telling us.
I have tested this with various weapons and enemies, and while the numbers vary, the results are always the same: the level 1 defender rifle is by far the most effective weapon in my inventory. It melts literally fucking everything!
Components used during this test are Airborne Advantage, Convergence Core, Defensive Bulwark and Firearm Calibration Core. All are Ranger components which increase weapon damage. Anyway as for the test itself:
-With my Level 1 common Defender rifle, one bullet does 286 damage against a normal scar trooper.
-With my Level 45 masterwork Ralner's Blaze rifle, one bullet does 1184 damage against a normal scar trooper.
Given these numbers, you might (reasonably) assume that the MW weapon will kill enemies faster, since it does more damage. This is NOT the case!
Going back to the scar troopers, the MW rifle takes 6 bullets to kill our scar friend. Given the damage numbers, our level 1 rifle should take around 5x more bullets to do the job. Guess how many it actually takes?
4
That's right. 4 bullets!!! Not 4x as many. Literally 4 rounds. Our level 1 rifle is somehow more effective than our level 45 masterwork, despite what our damage pop-ups are telling us.
I have tested this with various weapons and enemies, and while the numbers vary, the results are always the same: the level 1 defender rifle is by far the most effective weapon in my inventory. It melts literally fucking everything!
That's going to be a yikes from me. BioWare devs did respond a few times to the Reddit thread. In short, they found out quickly that this is a bug. Specifically, it seems like there is an issue with how the game scales player damage, which allows low level players to play with higher level friends. In some cases, this bug manifests itself when using the basic weapons in conjunction with higher level gear.
Hey everyone – Thanks for the feedback on this. I have confirmed with the team that this is in fact a bug related specifically to the default items on a loadout in combination with higher level gear you have equipped. It’s not functioning as intended and the team is working on it for an upcoming fix.
