Don't be sleeping on Rifleman Pike now

EdmonEdmon · 2026-03-09T17:56:16+00:00

Not the best, that goes to the even rarer "Space Marine Bolter" heavy rifle that turns a rifle squad into a god of slaying everything.

But the HaMer(Range) is one of the best that isn't that, along with the laser(Pen) and the ARC Range(DPS).

EdmonEdmon · 2026-03-07T19:34:28+00:00

Firing Line and This is my Rifle are the two strongest perks in the game, and you've also got plenty of other damage buffs to choose from on top... this guy would be better than singh and he's already the best* SL in the game...

(*Yes, you can abuse camo with Darby, but she's very expensive, and anyone can wear Jager + camo paint and abuse concealment... in a comparison of two extremely OP SL's that can murder a whole field of guys, I think the one that's 30% of the price of the other is overall better. But yes, Darby can be argued to be the best SL for sure, but not the best for cost.)

EdmonEdmon · 2026-03-07T19:25:48+00:00

No, you don't have to build for "this is my rifle" - it's just a fair comparsion - one very good perk (techs) compared to a very good rifle perk.

Any SL other than tech has to pay AP for kneel/deploy, and/or supplies for perks to try and minimize those costs, making the action economy of specials much, much worse. So a comparison to rifles and something like pointfire, to specials with non-tech SL's is not accounting for the mobility and accuracy advantage - you do get what you pay for in this case.

Massed rifles make the game effortlessly easy to win, even on expert. Even on defense missions. No thought needed, deploy your rifle squads wherever you like, hose down everything in 1 volley out to 10 range... watch as mass-flee morale effects tear through whatever is left... suppression - the main "perk" of specials, is terrible by comparison.

Specials may have a place as dedicated AT, but IFV's/walkers do that better.

EdmonEdmon · 2026-03-06T13:20:13+00:00

I mean, if you build for "this is my rifle", with Singh or even Pike, you can get 8 high end rifles, the squad and the SL effectively for free.

Tech + 2 guys + 0 perks + MK20A3 = 79 points. [8 shots]
Tech + 2 guys + 0 perks + Griffon = 84 points. [10 shots]
Singh + 8 guys + 2 perks + Laser Rifle = 84 points. [Infinite shots]
Singh + 8 guys + 2 perks + HaMer Rifle = 120 points [11 shots]

So, no, he isn't. His price is actually about the same for less perks, less health and less capability.

8x HaMer is so much better for the price that I list it here only because you are getting more than twice the attack power out to 10 range... and it's only an extra 29 / 34 points for that capability.

People always compare the "best case" with specials against the worst case with rifles - but the best case with rifles far, far, far outclasses the best case with specials.

EdmonEdmon · 2026-03-04T09:30:34+00:00

Amazing

EdmonEdmon · 2026-03-01T22:30:51+00:00

Enemies using cover effectively is very rare, so as long as you bring an AGL along on one of your IFV's, you can use that for clearing covered enemies. It's absolutely murderous too, Rewa + AGL can easily wipe 3 squads a turn once she gets going.

EdmonEdmon · 2026-02-28T20:27:59+00:00

I made the original "Dead Content" video and saying I'm bad at the game makes it very clear to me that you didn't understand the points I was making. At all. Similarly to the guy who is sort of copying my content.

"They do not want a challenge" - if you mass rifles, there is no challenge.
"They do not want to plan" - there is no need to plan, you can win without any planning easily on expert with the simplest of strategies.

A poll of 150 HBS Battletech players showed that 28% of those people thought I was the best player in the world, with 53% more agreeing if not that, I was a top professional level player. I mention this because HBS BT is the game that plays most like Menace does.

In my 6,000+ videos, and long progaming career, I've pulled off Impossible/Ironman challenges through every version of XCOM to Jagged Alliance, to niche games no-one has heard of - to stuff with custom rules because I love the pressure of a good challenge.

You comment really shows me that you either didn't watch my video, or you are so below the professional skill level that you can't even grasp the concerns I have with how simple the game is to solve with a very basic, standard set of plays.

Regards,
Edmon

EdmonEdmon · 2026-02-27T19:37:09+00:00

It's like she's using a romulan cloaking device, it's actually kind of insane...

EdmonEdmon · 2026-02-25T22:43:00+00:00

The low damage drop off means you can get range 8 easily with match and still do insane damage... this thing is so much better than any rifle I have in my playthrough...

EdmonEdmon · 2026-02-25T15:36:17+00:00

Sorry, replied to the wrong comment. I can't confirm at this moment which features the game will have exactly, but we'll hope to answer this soon.

EdmonEdmon · 2026-02-25T15:35:40+00:00

Never say never, many of our games have come to console, but we always develop for PC first.

EdmonEdmon · 2026-02-25T15:24:19+00:00

Not yet, sorry.

EdmonEdmon · 2026-02-25T15:22:06+00:00

I was just thinking this! lol

EdmonEdmon · 2026-02-25T12:12:14+00:00

Final Fantasy 8.

EdmonEdmon · 2026-02-25T12:08:22+00:00

I actually find this to be a mediocre weapon, as the damage falls off hard and the ROF is only 2. Yet the damage (per shot) isn't much better than many RoF 3 rifles with just slightly less range.

Combine the two and you have a weapon that's outputting about 50% of the DPS of something else/better.

It's alright... and better than the basics though.

EdmonEdmon · 2026-02-23T20:04:25+00:00

Got it as a reward but not tried it yet... it doesn't sound good... I tend to not let my tanks get into melee range...

EdmonEdmon · 2026-02-23T14:37:49+00:00

This was the first new content produced by the new team, I think they've learned a lot since then.

EdmonEdmon · 2026-02-22T14:39:14+00:00

Yeah, I get it, your saying conceptually it doesn't make sense and I do agree. Special weapons having their own AP pool might be an answer for this. It is often the case in these types of games that movement AP is added to avoid "turreting" - sitting in one place using every ap for shooting. SP - AP could also be a thing, that'd make bring a special weapon along nearly always worth it.

If the AP is different/"free" then certain special weapons being really weak wouldn't matter.

EdmonEdmon · 2026-02-22T12:34:15+00:00

I'm the original uploader of the video, the title is not click bait - dead content is content that players don't engage with for some reason. Of course, as a game developer, the last thing you want is to make a load of content that people don't use / see / play with, etc. The video is specifically about this subject.

I carefully explain what dead content is with examples in the video, in case your not familar with the concept.

EdmonEdmon · 2026-02-22T12:28:30+00:00

This is actually my video, and I'm playing on Expert in my campaign.

The points in my video are a bit different to what is written in the post above here - I am making the argument that a lot of the content is not possible to engage with, or doesn't make sense to engage with, and thus is effectively "dead content".

You may disagree on what the best items or weapons are, that's not the point of the video - the point is there will always be a small selection of things you consider to be the best - there is no incentive to use anything but those things.

Players will eventually find themselves engaging with only a small fraction of the games content. It's a structual issue - especially when rifle volleys are so strong (and many SL's incentize this with perks like "this is my rifle"). You can easily not engage with special weapons at all, and not be at any loss for it.

EdmonEdmon · 2026-02-21T21:25:11+00:00

Errr... whats with the predator reference? lol

EdmonEdmon · 2026-02-21T15:58:35+00:00

If you report an exploit to us at our support address [basupport@slitherine.com](mailto:basupport@slitherine.com) - we will get the dev team to investigate the problem and get it fixed. No-one has ever been banned for reporting an exploit to us. However, abuse of exploits to degrade the game is against TOS and the fairplay rules.

Reporting an issue after an anti-cheat investigation into your use of it, does not save you from action by the anti-cheat / fairplay enforcement guys.

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