[GUIDE] BFH Weaponry Total Research

Hey fellas, my name is megaLOL and I'm proud to introduce you my BFH Weaponry Total Research!
Pour yourself a good cup of tea, take some soft french croissants and let's get started :)

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Editable .xls-file with the tables:
goo.gl/CzWkk9

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There was tons of usual guides and many of them were rather good (check out my nostalgia thread to see some of them), but I decided to do something never seen on official forum before. I've assembled a consolidated table of weaponry stats to see which of them are overpowered/underpowered not only by mouth speaking but according to digits&numbers.

Each class of weaponry has one table structure, so if you can understand first table, you'll understand all of them, and of course there is an explanation legend. 

There're formulas to calculate some of the fields, so if you would balance weapons manually by changing their stats in the game files, you can use my table in advance to see the results and comparisons. 

The source of data are files from 1.126 version game client. An example of table piece:

Unfortunately, some of the weapons from fantastic sets unfit the main table structure and create unneeded oversizing due to some uniqueness, so I had to review them separately.

There's no explosives cuz I'm too lazy to classify them, sorry. You should just know default RPG is the same as colored and Uber ones, and the difference between regular and named MGLs is grenades of regular stick to the ground and named MGLs' grenades don't stick. Oh, and the number of developers' super RPG is 3018, it's .con-file lays in Objects/Weapons_server/handheld/bri_Test_explosives. More explanations about explosives spared a little bit further.

"Ok", you may ask, "I'm curious about Stolen Golden M-16. How your tables are gonna help me?". So it be:
1. Open attached .xls-file;
2. Click Ctrl+F for search;
3. Type the gun's name or part of it and click Enter;
4. Done! You'll jump to the first found field.

To make my total research more decent and regarding your attention, I've brought out for you some new info and invented an important stat based on it to estimate weapons' effectiveness.

First of all, I've always wanted to reveal the truth about BFH rate of fire. I really don't know why devs fed us with lie from the beginning, but it was pretty obvious The Cheeser and others of a kind doesn't fire 900 rounds per minute. So, after years, I finally managed to measure all ROFs with a stopwatch by myself. Here's the results:

Please note that in case of manual fire mode you can get slightly different results because manual firing on weapons with a ROF-cap requires quite a good timing to do it as fast as possible.

For example, I couldn't shoot with LR Pistol (225rpm declared ROF) faster than 195rpm, but automatic Surreal Super Rifle with same declared ROF gave me real 210rpm. Opposite, sometimes you can achieve shooting speed around 94rpm with Slow Speed Sniper Rifles while their declared ROF is 90.

The only gun with manual firing mode can shoot as fast as you click is Warfighter, and I've picked an average value of 360rpm (6 clicks/sec) to do the maths.

As the second thing here goes my brand new invented statfield named "six second fire" (shortly "6 sec fire").

Why 6 sec? Cuz IMO the most of BFH firefights fit this time period, and also it's a very handy number for calculations. You might guess it's some sort of "damage per second" stat (DPS), which BFH lacks of, and you're right. So maths done in the tables based on 6 sec timescale – rounds per period, criticals, damage output.

The main effectiveness statfield is "6 sec Average Damage". Naturally, it's average damage value you'd get on each range IF ALL BULLETS BY 6 SEC FIRE WOULD HIT THE TARGET. Field's formula accounts probable crit damage. Of course, it's some sort of theoretic-synthetical stat, but quite informative for understanding entire weaponry balance system.

But remember: as weapons have deviation, most likely some bullets'd miss and damage'd be lower, so real damage output highly depends on players' skill and weapon accuracy.

In BFH, by all intents and purposes, deviation is almost significantest parameter, cuz it shows gun's degree of randomness dependence. Not at all surprising best BFH weapons have very small deviation value that gives skilled players a bigger chance of realizing their potential.

For example, The Cheeser would never achieve 100% of value shown in these fields if you don't stand face to face with your target, and Harry's Hand Cannon would deal a very high percent of possible damage on every range regarding to extreme low deviation, and so on.

Thirdly, there's another important thing this research is dedicated to make vivid:

BFH has not so much weapon meta. 

Even expirienced players often confuse about tons of gun names and their variations, and think one gun differs from each other a lot… but actually it's not.

There's a small bunch of weapon types in each category, and the models of type share absolutely identical stats, they differ only (in most cases) with appearance and sound. The popularest weapon type is Slow Speed Sniper Rifle – there're 11 pairs of reskins! So relax, take it easy.

Fourthly, weapon ranges. It's the trickiest thing about proper usage and dealing much more damage as possible. You should always remember there is no straight range borders for entire weaponry, it differs from type to type… and it is the main reason Moderate Range guns is so underpowered and unpopular.

In a matter of a fact, the majority of them have such an uncomfortable and small area to deal maximum possible damage that it is way too simplier to use Short and Long Range guns, which also work good at Moderate Range.

The brightest example of it is MR Western Pistol (Hermoso's Hexshot), it has very good stats, but 0-6-14 range borders. The most effective damage area is too complicate to maintain in the direct fight due to only 8 meters length.

And the last one point is a critical chance. It was a hell of discussion about crit mechanics and even guide authors were spreading a little bit wrong explanations… I'll try to make it strict:

The crit chance is calculated for each shot you fire. Crit damage is added to base damage, so when you see yellow damage number, it already is a sum of base and crit. If your weapon has 3% of crit chance, each shot has 3% possibility to attach a crit… and here goes popular fallacy "if your gun's crit chance is high, you can get crits by every shot".

Well, there really is a possibility to get half of shots critted, just like you're possible to win a lottery – it's not a rule, but an exclusion. According to Probability Theory, on a big amount of shots fired you'd get exact number of crits that is specified for your weapon. For example, for 3% crit chance you'll always get around 300 crits on a row of 10000 shots fired.

Sorry to say, but I don't know much about headshot criticals mechanics and how it collides with an action of Piercing Shot ability. I mean, I know that when PS is active you get no crits when hit the body, but what about PS+headcrits? I'll be very glad if someone make it clear in the comments :)

Now let's dig into some history and read small part of old M1k3ol's guide about knifes and explosives mechanics… (sweet 2009, eh)
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People asking "why I always get more/less damage?". Well, what about knives… The Knife have a set amount of damage, that goes from 28 to 35. The answer is in the attack itself - the Knife attack works like a explosion, it comes from the tip of the knife and surrounds a 2/3m(uber) area around it.

You get the highest damage by trying to get the enemy in the center of the hit, the farther you land the attack, the lowest the damage output will be (regardless from the lowest damage of 28, this works based on the "landed damage", and decreases that value based on distance).

Damage decreases by distance from the 2/3m radius central point, and that's how you get the weird low damages, it is not random and also, it works from the sides too and lag can make you miss those hits while running to get the enemy. That's why back stabs damage is so good - if you catch the enemy off ward, you land the hits close to the enemy and even with the chance of landing a critical hit bonus.

Now the explosives damage. 1st of all, the explosives have a splash damage, it works the same fancy way as it does the knife - the farther the enemy is from the central explosion, the less damage you'll deal. But also the explosives have an extra code, besides the common one, that it's something like a "vehicle like" code, which affects the interaction between the explosive and a vehicle specifically.

TNT is the only explosive weapon with a "vehicle like" code, it works like attaching a "vehicle" to another vehicle, or like launching a tank against another one, including a blast radius that affects infantry with other values. The only one weapon with a physical damage rate along with a splash damage, is the RPG.

RPGs and grenades doesn't have that full vehicle like code, but they do have their own code, in the explosives department that is, a code like this "ObjectTemplate.detonation.explosionMaterial 52", along with a explosion depth value. These are some of the modifiers to hit vehicles, and the reason behind hitting infantry with one value and hitting vehicles with another high one.

Vehicles have their own material composition of their own parts, this is also what determines the amount of damage they receive on their weak points (rear and bottom). Velocity it's also an important factor while damaging tanks, the material+speed of the cannon shell can impact the total damage dealt to a tank.

Also remember, the points you see on screen is not the damage you did per unit, it's the total amount dealt with that action (like an explosion), 4xmpl, throw a keg at a group of enemies, and you'll see something like 180-200 points.

This also works with tanks. If the tank has a passenger or another soldier around, the explosion will damage them and the damage you deal to them will get added to the tank damage points and show as a whole number in your points (like 96+15+4). RPG and tank shells do more damage with long shots both to infantry and to vehicles.

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Okay, now when we've learned some basics, let's get to the main part: stats and expositions. Be sure I'm talking about Uber version when I mention some weapon type or model,

The table explanation legend:

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MACHINEGUNS

The best all-around MG setup is SR MG+LR MG, I think the majority would agree with that. Of course, in combination with highest level of Frenzy Fire to decrease their deviation.

The Cheeser&reskins have the biggest possible damage output of all weapons, but also have high deviation, so real dealt damage will be decreasing catastrophically as you go farther from target. But, overall, it's brilliant weapon every gunner must have. As you go 10 meters far, you might just switch to LR MG, which is also very good at moderate range.

The main problem of MR MG is exactly what I mentioned before – it's range borders. It has only 7 meters gap to deal maximum damage, bigger deviation and smaller clip than LR MG, so there is no reasons to pick it.

All of the special MGs are or complete disaster like the Alternate Fire MG, and the grenade launcher as an attachment does not significantly improve it's efficiency, either just rather bad like Battle Arm MG with two fire modes of short and long ranges.

Here goes the separate comparation table for fantastic machineguns:

Space MG (Omega Beamer) also known as "lazor amgee" has two major advantages - it's low deviation and very high rate of fire. As damage values rule, it's a pure Moderate Range weapon, you should stay in the gap between 15 and 30 meters to do your best.

Remember, you can realize low deviation excel only if you would use Frenzy Fire ability at it's highest level and strictly maintain moderate range gap. In that case your damage realization and healing speed would easily overpower ones of other weapons. But without FF5 combo Lazor is barely worth using it, and, of course, it is not overpowered. 

It's altfire mode mechanics has the elements of melee weapons like Swords - it doesn' work at face to face, you have to be a little bit farther, and after 7 meters it also do no harm. Nevertheless, it has rather good damage output and does a little assistance against filthy knifers and also can destroy a tank... if both of you and tank driver would show some patience :)

Halloween MG (Underworld Relic) is more an moderate range "autoshotgun", you can not treat it like a usual machinegun. The projectile of it has 2 pellets and sub-deviation of it, and also very small range and velocity of 175 m/s. Yep, no plane hunting.

As the Lazor, it has reduced deviation of 1 and could deal very nasty damage on a distance bigger than 15m when conjuncted with FF5. Also it might slightly desorient your target with smokes and flashes. But overall it more likely concedes to usual LR MG due to narrow-focused nature.

After revealing full stats and 6 sec damage output of the Hot'n'Cold MG (Colin's Cooler), I can say it definitely is overpowered. Just look at the damage, it's freaking huge! These values are absolutely beyond competition at all means, at 12 meters distance Freezer obliterates the god himself with area attack (you don't have to aim) and slowing effect (the target won't escape). In addition, it has a gigantic clip of 160 and rather good crit chance. Honestly, I won't take The Cheeser instead of this beast...

The last one is Alien MG (Homer's Homing Gun). It's more an a toy than a real competitive weapon, the only notable excel of it is when you lock on to a target, you don’t have to aim precisely, but just spam projectiles. It can kick ass at the moderate range, but weak at short and absolutely useless at very long. Flaws are obvious - small clip, velocity and total reach, and necessity to lock on your target. Fun and variety, no more reasons to grab this gun.

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SUBMACHINEGUNS

Numbers tell us that at short range there is no competition for Tommy's Typewriter&reskins, especially Nailer, which has an underbarrel shotgun attached. It has really comfortable 15 meters short range gap, and it's strong at moderate range too. No wonder it's soldiers №1 to equip among SMGs.

Another unique in terms of effectiveness firearm of the Soldier class is Battlerifle and Warfighter. They are very deadly at all ranges mostly due to their pinpoint accuracy of 0.2 (say hi to LR Pistol), high damage values and underbarrel grenade launcher attached.
The only flaws balance their wonderness are recoil and manual firing mode, but it's not so hard to handle if you want to dominate. Some training could be useful. If you are really good at fastclicking and aim maintaining, the Warfighter transforms you to a godlike killing machine, just look at the stats and you'd get it.

What about the others… MR SMGs are just useless, don't even bother to try them out cuz you'd get raped.
LR SMGs after nerf is also no match, even Uber version is surely underpowered, mostly cuz of it's low damage values and odd range borders (0-22-35).

A soldiers' version of Civil War rifle (North Infantry's Repeater) is a natural stupid crap of the stupidest craps, I don't know why it even have been related to SMG-type while it acts like a shotgun - manual firing mode and impossibility to apply Burning Bullets.

And now another separate comparsion table for futuristic submachineguns:

As you can see, another Space series laser-alike weapon (Space-night Special) is a nothingburger in matters of effectiveness. Generally, it is upgraded MR SMG with very competitive damage at the gap between 15 and 25 meters and almost useless secondary firemode notable only for it alpha-strike. At short and long ranges it sucks even more serious ass than regular MR SMG. Nuff said...

Big deal awaits us with one more Hot'n'Cold set piece - Flanagan's Flame. Gunners have their massive short range area eradicator, and soldiers got one too. Flamethrower damage output at all 12 meters of it's distance is ultimatively huge for soldier class and it is even more and annoying with the burning effect (+10 additional damage-over-time). Don't forget it can be also combined with the Burning Bullets ability...

Well, I can definitely say, it's The Soldiers' Cheeser and poor knifers have not even a single chance not to be cooked in a second. The only obstacle keeps me from claiming Flamethrower overpowered is Soldier class isn't suited best for face-to-face combat, and if you see someone wields it, you can just push back a lil' to counter.

The last one is rare Plasmaballer of Robotic-2 set. Please don't mix it up with the laser one, they are completely different in any cases.
Actually, Surreal Super Rifle is an LR Uber SMG with so needed ROF and damage buff. It has a very... umm... pleasant secondary fire mode looks like a BFG-9000 exhaust that takes enemy really high in the sky (there is piece of Common SMG underbarrel GL-stats to the right in the table for visual comparison).
But in terms of pure effectiveness nor a buff, neither an underbarrel BFG don't make this weapon an equal option to replace Battlerifle or LR Uber Pistol.

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SHOTGUNS

Foremost, if you look in the table you notice few odd weapon types, it's an underbarrel shotgun attachments, just for the info.

All other types are good-ol' boomsticks, c'mon y'alls. SR SG is a very deadly point blank weapon if you're good at aiming, MR SG is a version of the previous with slight ROF and accuracy change, and LR SG is good at all ranges due to less sub-deviation and extraordinary crit chance.

Demonic Charge of Halloween set basically is a Stewart's Super Shotty with buffed damage values in a very small moderate range gap, twiced critical chance of 14% and batch of 6 (as you may know, the less pellets - the less of them may miss the target). Also it might slightly desorient your target with a smokes and flashes.
The one biggest drawback is reduced projectile velocity, it is twice smaller than regular shotguns have, so it demands more deflexion skill.

Notable unique side of weird Alien set shottie Steve's Sonic Boom (scroll down for it's table, I've combined it with modded SR one) is making enemy bounce when hit. Fire - hit - he bounces - fire - hit - bounces again - etc etc. For me, it is really irritating both for the target and shooter, cuz it looks like primary weapon tries badly to cosplay underbarrel GL (which is also attached to this shotgun, lol).

The stats of it seems to be based on No Crit Shotguns, but I couldn't find exact numbers, sorry. As I've seen ingame, it has really big sub-deviation and damage highly depends on random. It's completely opposite to main excel of Punk/Assault shotties that have a very tight spread and gameplay stability. 
So, unfortunately, this shotgun has significant flaws of two weapon types and no real advantages. Use it as a fun toy.

Controversial ones are No Crit Shotguns (Assault, Punk, etc). They have as many excels as a flaws, and you should be a shottie master to use them properly. And here comes trouble…

I rated weapon types implying sole acting of each, as it anticipated by game mechanics. But almost everyone's aware of synergy of Dual LR SG setup combined with a glitch usage to avoid single bullet reload, (((thanx))) to and malvadomanso and Kruszacus for popularizing this glitchy shit.

This combo creates overpowered shottie with twice bigger ROF and damage output, and it's a problem crying out loud to be solved. It touches every setup that includes LR and No Crit Shotgun models, so if you going to balance in some way, you should remember about changing reskin files too.

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SNIPER RIFLES

Easiest pick. You go right for Slow Rifle or you go left for Fast one, depending on your playstyle and sniping skill. Be aware that Subcanon Rifle of the Punk-2 set strangely has recoil value of regular SS Slow Rifle and ammo of Uber version (hint: it sucks).

It's pretty evident that Roderick Rifle&reskins in conjunction with level 5 Piercing Shot are a rampaging railguns due to a low recoil and ability to dispatch 3 bullets in one second, you might even not aim to the head and get easy frags. And oh yesssss ssssilencccced resssskinnnn my preccccciousssss.

The Moderate Range Sniper Rifle is not bad though, but it's always number 3 out of two primary slots, sorry, Oscar. 

Mayhem/Antitank Rifle is an interesting thing, some kinda scoped Pirate Tank Hurting Pistol. Huge alpha-strike and long reload makes it somewhat of a "glass cannon" kind. I strongly hope we will never see the return of the notorius Workbench, which helped a lot to make this rifle disgusting unbalanced shit campers paired to use a bullet reload avoiding glitch.

Soldiers got shitty not-SMG-not-so-shotgun Civil War rifle, mandos got their not-so-sniper Marksman's Repeater.
But opposite to soldier's crap, mando version can be combined with a Piercing Shot and deal mindblowing alpha-damage up to 80 at moderate range, though require good aim and concentration due to lack of the scope and pistol crosshair.

The Bow, a part of Halloween set, definitely is the most weird BFH weapon. Despite it belongs to a sniper rifle-category, it has projectile speed seven times slower than regular SRs, a bulletdrop, which is also very bad for sniping, no clip at all (you just shoot and shoot and shoot) and... no scope. Funny, huh? Sniper rifle which absolutely isn't intended for sniping.

Naturally, Arcus Root is moderate range weapon for mandos who like to be in a center of the battle, some kinda an Uber LRP replacement option which can be combined with Piercing Shot ability, like a Repeater. It is very quiet, leaves no trail, hasn't clip reload delay and has dignified alpha-strike/damage per second ratio.
But steady Bonebow usage requires really good aiming and precisioning skill to level it's serious flaws, and I personally doubt worthness of this weapon.

Opposite, the gameplay of Hyper Drive Rifle is simple as a shit - shoot'n'run. It has no scope too, but small dot as a crosshair (similar to Warfighter's), and it gives this gun significant accuracy buff in case you don't stand too far from the target.
Mostly based on more than average regular Slow Speed SR, The Railgun was brilliantly buffed - now it has muuuuuch less recoil, reload delay of 2 seconds, and slightly bigger damage. So I consider it's competitive weapon which also don't require standard scope-based sniping skills. A good choice for players who don't like to camp.

Here's one more comparison table, now for modded sniper rifle... and the Alien Shottie, sorry for inconvenience, but I don't want to overfill the guide structure with lone table pieces.

Although Hot'n'Cold Sniper Rifle (The Frostbite) is a complete reskin of Moderate Range Uber SR, it has wonderful upgrade - the slowing effect on the enemies, and it also cancels their Leg It and Elixir abilities. Of course, it could be considered as OP... but it's base-SR is underpowered a bit, so I guess it might be surprisingly ok.

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PISTOLS

Hail to the king, baby. Uber version of the Harry's Hand Cannon have changed BFH gameplay forever, and I won't forgive EAsy for that. With a deviation of 0.2, clip of 11 and critical chance of 13% it became absolutely indispensable choice for every soldier and mando. It has literally zero downsides, if only necessity to click a mousebutton for each shot isn't a flaw for you.

As if this is not enough, physical model of a hero standing with pistol allows it use "shoot over a wall"-glitch with very ease… Generally, there is an Uber LRP and all other stuff.

Other pistols aren't that bad though. Most notable and underused is SR Pistol, a flesh tearing bad mother ducker at point blank fights, and I already mentioned somewhat worthness of the Western MR Pistol has one serious downside of small effective range area. And Pirate Pistol, huh... you know it, don't you. It was really unbalanced right after came up because of 0.2 deviation, but the 1.126-version of it seems fair for me.

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KNIVES

Not much to say about knives. It's effective type of weapon only at low levels, and twenties-thirties mostly win duels against knifers accounting on developed abilities and battle expirience.

So I recommend only pick Uber Knife or Machete, combine it with the Poison Blade-ability, and use it to complete related missions before you reach 18-20 level, or for pure fun.

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Well, oophhh, that's it! I hope you enjoyed reading and my research would be some kinda useful for you. Will be very glad to see your comments or maybe even additions'n'fixes to the theme!

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Editable .xls-file with the tables:
goo.gl/CzWkk9
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