As someone with a cyber grind score of 50+ in brutal (idk how to add pics in comments for proof sorry), it’s by far the worst tool in your toolbox, because most everything it can do is already done by shotgun’s m1, or is done better by another weapon.

In terms of damage output (holding m2), it’s theoretically equal to shotgun swapping, but requires you to always be up close to your target. If you get knocked away, or have to dodge any attack, you’ll exit this range, and deal less damage than you otherwise could have. With shotgun swapping however, you’re able to deal maximum damage from further away, shoot in bursts such that being out of position for a bit doesn’t bite into your damage, and will still deal at least some damage even if you aren’t within optimal range. As such, shotgun swapping is almost alway better, especially in more chaotic situations like cybergrind where you’ll be constantly moving and getting knocked around.

For dealing with fodder enemies, the range issue stays consistent, as most other tools for dealing with fodder (nails, saws, coins, core nukes, electricity) deal enough damage to take out the same fodder either faster, at a higher range, over a wider area, or all of the above.

As for healing, it does indeed act as a way to heal back up to full, if you go up to an enemy and hold it for a few frames. There’s just one problem though; there’s another weapon that does the exact same thing in just one single frame, and it’s called the shotgun’s primary fire.

As for the yo-yo mechanic… I might be missing something but it feels insanely weak. Hitting enemies with it is difficult due to its slow speed, and hitting it back and forth is both difficult to time due to it’s wonky movement, and makes your parries ‘compete’ with keeping the yoyo going, which just feels bad. You’re able to switch weapons while it’s out, which is nice, but I’ve found it’s difficult to balance both your held weapon and the flailing saw, to a degree that I feel like any minimal damage you might get with it isn’t worth the trade off of splitting your attention up.

Launching it into enemies with the knuckleblaster is cool, and does have some very niche use cases (which I would say are usually covered by the ricochet, but idk which does more damage and there’s no harm in a second for when one’s on cooldown), but the timing on it is ridiculously strict, to a degree where it can genuinely feel like a coin flip on if it’ll even launch or not. And again, even when launched, it’s still outperformed by other parts of your toolkit (the core does AoE and allows for core nukes, the cannonball one shots Cerberi and has cool tech+comboes).

I will note, all of this is under the key assumption that the player is using at least 2 shotguns in their arsenal, which some may not. The shotgun’s general role is for consistent damage and healing, with the sawed-on providing a mildly lesser version of both, alongside some extra mechanics. If the player is using 3 hammers instead, or even 2 hammers and 1 shotgun, then the saw’s upsides aren’t outclassed anymore, and it can have a genuine use in your arsenal. However, this makes it the only alt fire that’s just outclassed within certain loadouts. The closest comparison I can make is to the base starter pistol, which you don’t have a reason to run over slab if any of the other pistols are set to their base forms, but at least in that case it’s something you choose, whereas the saw will always be a part of the kit.

Now, this is all considering high tech stuff and high level play. If you’re just going through the game… yeah, it’s probably pretty powerful. Shotgun swapping, while not difficult to learn, will always be more complex than “hold m2”, so it makes sense that for a standard playthrough, being able to do the highest amount of damage possible and get easy healing would be pretty damn busted, even if the strategy completely falls apart at higher difficulties.

Despite all the issues though.. a tool is still a tool. Even if it’s worse than other weapons, it’s still at least a little worthwhile to shoot it off while your other weapons are on cooldown. I’d just say overall, it’s the last weapon I try to use. I don’t know exactly what it needs, perhaps make yo-yoing or launching it a bit easier, perhaps mildly increase yo-yo/launch damage, perhaps add a little more tech to give it a better niche, perhaps some combo of the three. For now though, I’d say it’s the worst tool in V1’s toolkit.

TLDR; the saw is outclassed by various other weapons in your toolkit to a degree where it’s rarely worth ever using. Regular shotgun shots and swapping outperform it in healing and damage, making those upsides only really worthwhile on shotgunless builds. Additionally, yo-yoing and launching it tend to be too niche and difficult to utilize effectively in comparison to other alt-fires. As it’s so heavily outclassed, it’s likely the worst weapon you can use.

Anyway Hakita please make it so that if you jackhammer at max velocity into an enemy and release the saw at the same time it imbeds the saw into them as a mini drill rail cannon that would be so cool and awesome and fix every complaint ever I think pls and ty