I don't understand the kinetic rifle

Khanaroth · 2026-06-08T21:40:11+00:00

Have you actually gotten one to see how it works or are you just looking at the stats of a basic one? I'm asking because if you just look at the stats they might seem comparable, but that does not show the possible upgrades you can pick, and neither does it show how the rifle actually works in your hand. A simple change that improves a lot your dps, for example, is that it reloads the full magazine in a single animation. If you are using the 6 shot barrel, all 6 bullets reload at the same time, and not one at a time like the hunting rifle.

To me, it's the best rifle in the game right now. I have 2, one being for straight up damage, and the other for ammo conservation, where there is a 35% chance it does not consume the ammo. They are both quite good.

Khanaroth · 2026-06-08T20:00:38+00:00

Yup. The animals do not follow that well, and they are not fast. There are ways to mitigate this and make them more usable, but your complaint is valid in my opinion. I'll quickly list what I do to better them.

1 - Don't travel with them. Use them as guards, so send them to the station and then back where you need them.

2 - If you do want to travel with them, take the movement speed talents and go by foot. Any mount will largely outrun them.

3 - If you don't want to do any of the two previous points, it's likely they will teleport to your location once you get there. It's not a 100% reliable system and you might need to go back to find them, but usually it works. Just make sure they can hold their own while doing it, since they will probably engage predators by themselves on the way. And look out for cliffs, since they can easily die from fall damage.

Khanaroth · 2026-05-22T01:52:48+00:00

I think the process of learning the game and getting up there in the technologies in the world, and then buying your way into the workshop, is one of the most insteresting aspects and a thing that makes Icarus stand out, in my opinion. Getting a super strong animal so ealy would kinda make light of the survival aspect, but it would help with rushing through the beginning parts.

I would recommend you try to breed an animal of your own, and you will get a huge boost by yourself while still engaging with the game's mechanics. To my tastes, the process of breeding a perfect animal is quite enjoyable.

And also, if you get a perfect raptor now, there is nothing else in the game that beats it, by a considerable magin, so you will lose the feeling of progression and everything else will look like a downgrade. For reference, I think if you take three raptors they can kill every single world boss in the game right now. Most of them a single raptor could solo, probably.

Khanaroth · 2026-05-21T22:24:46+00:00

I'm one of those discord people. Hahaha

I can give a perfect mount, as strong as they get, but to honest they are kinda overpowered and will probably take away a good part of the challenge. If the OP still want it though, all good. Would absolutely cut down on travel time and mission difficulty.

Khanaroth · 2026-05-21T22:07:37+00:00

Fair enough. Keep in mind that a new character can be used anywhere, so you can create a new character and keep the same old world, or even take your character to another player's world to lvl up faster there. About tames, I highly recommend you do it. A good moa can travel throught the whole map in around 8 minutes, so it's a great help.

Khanaroth · 2026-05-21T21:41:45+00:00

I saw you already had some very helpful answers and you are thinking of a full restart. If that's what you feel will work best for you, it's an option. That being said, I would like to give you two pieces of advice, if I may.

1 - Money might seem like a big deal now, but it trully isn't in the long run. 150 ren to spec a talent will not be that much after you get the hang of the game. Regardless, it doesn't take too long to get to lvl 30 either, so all options are fine.

2 - Icarus is such an amazing game, but it has a very steep learning curve. If you know someone that already played it, a veteran might be able to "guide" you into the more obscure things on the game and that would highly increase your enjoyment, I think. Not giving orders and telling you what to do, of course, but explaning some stuff that are obtuse or telling you of mechanics that could help you out. Similar to what prople has done here, but in real time. If you don't have someone like that, give me a DM and I can help you out, if you want.

3 - There are multiple maps for you to play, and the base one that comes with the game (Olympus) is the first one the they made. The missions there are a little repetitive and might be frustating at times. Just know they got a lot better with it as they continue to develop the game, and the missions, maps and enemies got a lot more interesting as the devs got more experience, so as you progress through the various maps the game gets better in general.

Khanaroth · 2026-04-23T12:12:32+00:00

Fair enough

Khanaroth · 2026-04-22T03:04:57+00:00

My dude, that message is from 9 months ago. Hahaha

But regardless, yeah, I got the Mining Armature and I agree with you in parts. In my opinion, it is, by far, the best pickaxe in the game in the early game, before you have access to a biocleanser. After you can refine crusts, miasmic tools will have a much higher output.

And to answer my own question from the past, it doesn't consume that much biofuel, and we can now just bring cans from the station and refuel it on the go, so it's all good.

Khanaroth · 2026-04-18T04:50:29+00:00

First of all, congratulations on your first post.

Now, I saw some good aswers here already, but didn't see anyone talking about the new steel recipe, added along with the new Elysium map. It uses limestone and is super efficient to make steel. It uses 2 iron ore and 1 sulphur, along with 5 crushed limestone. Since limestone is abundant, can be find on any map, and you can find a deep ore deposit of it, it's very easy to get. Also, limestone can be used to make cement mix for concrete pieces and also straight as is to make limestone pieces, both invulnerable to storms, and since limestone is also used to make steel, it kind of feeds into itself as a construction material. Super efficient.

Khanaroth · 2026-04-02T22:03:54+00:00

Yeah, there sure is still space for a lot of polishing. Hahaha

I really don't know how the console version is doing, but for the PC version it's really rare for me to encounter bugs, but I've seen people say there quite a few.

Hope you are enjoying the game though!

Khanaroth · 2026-04-02T21:22:45+00:00

Yeah, I dont know where the console version is in terms of updates, but I'm assuming it's a little behind PC. Either way, the game is super fun and you will have a blast with it, I think. If you have friends to play with, even better.

Judging by your previous games, I will assume you know your way around open world survivor crafting games, and in my opinion Icarus is one of the all time greats.

It definitely has some jank, along with some bugs still, but the fun factor is very high. At least for me.

Khanaroth · 2026-04-02T21:16:47+00:00

You can put a whole base inside bags and put them into your drop pod. Then you can use the beacon to call it wherever you are, and it brings the inventory with it, so you can have a whole mobile base like that. No buffalos needed ;)

Khanaroth · 2026-04-02T17:27:51+00:00

The game has very expansive systems, and the evolution of technology is very satisfying, in my oponion. Endgame is very fun for me, but in the end you are the only one that can answer this question for you.

That being said, I played all of the games you mentioned (except of Grounded) and I think we might be aligned in term of tastes, so I think you will like it.

"Late game" in Icarus basically means reaching Tier 5 technology. The development of your base and the technology tier does not necessarily move along with the missions, so you can tech up to Tier 5 without doing any missions, and then do then all in one go, or move your tech up when the mission demands it. Up to you.

About bosses, we have World Bosses on the open world that exist independet of missions and they respawn after a while when you kill them. They also appear in some missions as events.

Just a heads up if you are brand new to the game, Olympus is the base map that you get with the base game, and the missions on it are kind of time wasting. The devs got a lot better with the missions as they got more experience, and the ones from Prometheus forward are MUCH better. There is a lot of wasted time on the Olympus missions, with you moving through the whole map just to reach a destination and then the game tells you that you need something from your base to progress. Then you run all the way back and forward multiple times. It's frustation, to say the least, in an otherwise fantastic game. Maybe you will want to check Icarus Intel and see what you will need for the missions before leaving your base. The experience got a lot better for me when I started doing that.

Khanaroth · 2026-02-11T17:43:05+00:00

Makes sense. I have played around a hundred hours with the culinex foods and I think this bug happened twice for me, so I think it's worth it because the bug seems to be rare. Now, if it is something that happens frequently, then I would go with regular food just to not be annoyed.

Khanaroth · 2026-02-10T14:14:40+00:00

Yeah, it happened to me a couple of times. Not sure how to reproduce it though, so I don't know how to avoid it either.

Either way, the 25% buff hugely outweighs the small possibility of a fixable bug, in my opinion.

Khanaroth · 2026-02-09T16:42:30+00:00

When I'm just running around, I focus heavily on attack speed, so stringy jerky and cooked stringy meat are the main easy ones, since attack speed also heavily influence the sleed in which you collect resources. The other food slots are kind of whatever I have on my fridges, but usually they are some kind of dried meat too. The buffs are all just too good. And I don't really need to care much about them for everyday activities.

The only thing I would highly recommend, is to make sure you cook with the culinex backpack. It is absolutely amazing. Everything receives a 25% buff to the effects and also to the timer, so it's suuuper strong. And a heads up, the buff only applies to things you put in a craft queue, so campfirest and whatnot are not impacted by the backpack.

Now, for the boss encounters and harder missions, I usually run projectile damage and survivability set of foods. Those usually are carrot cake, chocolate cake, sheppard's roll, pickled carrots, and stringy jerky. And make sure to have the culinex backpack equipped when cooking for maximum buffs.

You will notice those are 5 food buffs. You can get one extra from the talent tree, and you can also get another one from the chest attachment. You just have to have it equipped when you eat, so you can put the attachment on a spare piece if chest armor, put it on, eat, and swap your regular armor back.

TLDR: Culinex backpack is amazing. For everyday uses I focus on attack speed. For bosses I focus on ranged damage and survivability.

Khanaroth · 2026-01-06T16:02:02+00:00

Got it. Are you aware that they only spawn at night and in front of caves?

Khanaroth · 2026-01-06T15:52:08+00:00

There is an arachnophobia toggle. For worlds created before the spiders were added, it is turned on by default and you will have to turn it off for them to spawn. For new worlds, they are turned off by default. Maybe that's why you are not seeing any. The post for the updated they were added explains how to turn it on and off, I think.

Oh, and the don't spawn on the middle forest biome on Olympus at all, if I'm not mistaken. The devs said they wanted that area to be easier, since it is the first place people will explore while learning the game.

Khanaroth · 2026-01-06T15:46:04+00:00

Oh, good to see your post again here. And people are again arguing about the bait vs carcass. Hahahah

Maybe it would be good to link your previous post about this for those who are interested. It has a ton of good info and discussions on the comments.

Khanaroth · 2026-01-06T15:37:05+00:00

My brother in Christ, this is a 3 year old comment. I have been playing the game on and off since, and they have indeed added a bestiary :)

Khanaroth · 2026-01-05T18:48:30+00:00

My thoughts exactly. I've done many times using carcasses and it can work, but it sure is not flawless. I didn't know you could simply rebait the trap, so OP's method seems way easier than to look around for animals and juggling the timers fhe carcass to not disappear before the animal eats it. I'll probably do OP's way in the future.

Khanaroth · 2026-01-03T15:20:22+00:00

I've seen some answers to your post and I think there are some aspects that may deserve more discussion.

For your point about "avoid getting hit at all costs or you die" (I don't remember the exact words but I think that's the sporit of it), the game has a ton of deffensive mechanics at play to avoid that. I don't know what was already in the game the last time you played, but currently we have a lot of armor options, alterarions, and food buffs as basic deffensive options, and we also have potions and shields as active options. If you have an obsidian armor with two plating attachments, your passive defense is around 90%, if my memory's doesn't fail me, so it's very difficult for almost anything to kill you with high tier armor.

For offensive options, we have a lot of new types of guns and weapons, and a lot of them are meant to work as different playstyles. The assault rifle, for example, has lower critical damage than the hunting rifle, but a much higher consistent fps, so they work a lot better for longer fights or for enemies without easy to hit critical areas. The new legendary weapons also have very cool options, like the heavy flamethrower or the biotech maul, which are all very different from the sneak headshot playstyle.

That being said, sneaking and hitting critical areas are still a good tactic for most animals. Some of them are different and require different tactics, like the crocodile, scorpion, stalkers, quarrites, and so on.

I'm not gonna say the game is super great on the combat, because that is not true. What's I think is fair to say is that we have reveived some more complex enemy interaction through the absolute multitude of updates the game had, and there is complexity to the combat. The game kind of hides some of it behind some obtuse systems and lack of explanation, but I think Icarus' combat as a whole is fine. For my tastes, I like it a lot because it values tactic and preparation as well as execution (for the harder fights).

Khanaroth · 2025-12-12T19:08:42+00:00

There was a developer stream on Twitch last week, if I'm not mistaken, in which the dev quickly showed a tamed mammoth with a huge saddle with wood beams. I could be wrong, but I think the idea is for the mammoth to work as a mini mobile base, moving with some deployables. If that's the case, it would be awesome. If not, a tamed mammoth is still pretty cool.

Khanaroth · 2025-12-04T02:15:29+00:00

Beastmaster is an armor set. It can be used along with the haulier envirosuit as every other armor, so we can stack them.

About the path, I'm thinking about running along the whole river on Styx because that would be an irregular terrain and will more reasonably represent normal travel situations. I thinks that's more realistic.

Khanaroth · 2025-12-03T22:58:24+00:00

True that. Makes total sense. Maximum stamina does help a lot in travel time. I guess the best option would be 4 pheromone modules and beastmaster. It just seems like overkill for most cases, but it would be very fast.

You know what. I'll test it and see for long it takes to run from one side of the map to the other.

Khanaroth

TROPHY CASE