User blog:Willbachbakal/Singleplayer Weapons: Dart Rifle

Throughout both BioShock games, the sniper weapon has been slightly mishandled: whereas the Crossbow could easily kill anything within eyeshot in a single hit to the body, the Spear Gun was only mildly effective for sniping, unable to kill certain Splicers even on headshot. A compromise between these two extremes could bring about a fully functional sniper weapon, one that would truly be effective at its role without overstepping on anything else in the player's arsenal. So, without further ado, introducing the Dart Rifle.

Description

 * Clip Size: Five Rounds.
 * Ammo Carry Capacity: 20/10/10

Appearance-wise, it's a custom-made, rather long rifle that fires large darts through a spring-propulsion system. Its projectiles still take time to travel and arc slightly. In addition, they deal about as much damage as a Pistol hit on a bodyshot but has a huge headshot multiplier, allowing you to kill any Splicer in a single headshot.

Ammo Types

 * Steel Darts: Standard ammo for the Dart Rifle. Changes to this ammo type are listed above.
 * Trap Darts: Rare ammo for the Dart Rifle. Instead of having the secondary dart pop out once you shoot the main one into the scenery, you get to shoot it out yourself at a location of your choosing. While doing this the cable from the main dart will poke out of your gun and will detonate if it touches anything, or if you shoot or carry it too far.
 * Plasmid Darts: Inventable ammo for the Dart Rifle. The effects of this ammo type depend on which Plasmid you currently have in your hand:
 * Electric Darts: When using Electro Bolt. Upon impact, charge up into a ball of electricity for a second and a half and then violently discharge it in a very large radius, electrifying anything in range for several seconds and dealing heavy electrical damage to machinery and armored enemies.
 * Flaming Darts: When using Incinerate!. Leave a trail of fire behind them, setting anything too close on fire, and upon impact will set the target and anything near them on fire for a few seconds before exploding. Splicers hit by this ammo type run towards other enemies in fear. Basically, they work like the Rocket Spears in BioShock 2.
 * Icy Darts: When using Winter Blast. Chill any enemies around it while in the air, slowing them down and increasing their vulnerability to damage, and upon impact instantly freeze anything in a very large radius, including physics objects and falling enemies which stay locked in mid-air.
 * Hypnotic Darts: When using Hypnotize. Upon impact, cause every organic enemy in its (very large) radius to attack each other and seek others to fight.
 * Decoy Darts: When using: Decoy. Attract the attention of any enemy near its flight path and, upon impact, create three decoys which run around, causing any enemies in range to attack them, and after several seconds run back to the impact point, reunite and explode, severely damaging any nearby enemies.
 * Crackdown Darts: When using Security Command. Create an alarm zone at the point of impact: a swarm of carrier Bots drop several Machine Gun Turrets in the area, and everyone in its radius gets their own personal alarm: not only will they be attacked by every Security Device in the area, but they'll also be chased by an upgraded Security Bot for several seconds. At the end of this ammo type's effects, the deployed Turrets explode.
 * Hurricane Darts: When using Cyclone Trap. Upon impact, create a huge cyclone which, after an enemy steps on it, continuously drags any nearby enemies and objects (including projectiles) towards it before violently ejecting them upwards for several seconds.
 * Infestation Darts: When using Insect Swarm. Upon impact, release a huge queen bee, surrounded by a swarm of smaller bees, who then attack everyone in range. The queen bee will always target the most dangerous enemy in the area, and will also spawn a new swarm of bees everytime it kills someone.
 * Levitation Darts: When using Telekinesis. Drag any object near its flight path towards it (including projectiles) and, upon impact, cause every object in the area to fly around violently, dealing damage to any enemy they hit, for several seconds.
 * Hunter Darts: When using Scout. Allow the player to see enemies through walls when zoomed in. In addition, these darts go through walls and auto-correct their trajectory to hit any enemy around their flight path, dealing very large amounts of damage (i.e. killing Splicers in a single shot and severely damaging armored enemies).
 * Warp Darts: When using Chrono Warp. Slow down time around them while in mid-air and, upon impact, create a bubble of slow time: anything in its radius, including objects, bullets and projectiles, get slowed down in time for several seconds before resuming normal movement. In addition, all surviving enemies caught in the bubble age by several decades, reducing their accuracy, reflexes and movement speed for a short amount of time before reverting to normal.
 * Phaser Darts: When using Teleport. Any enemies caught in the impact radius teleport randomly around the level (you'll be able to hear their screams coming from where they teleported) before reappearing in mid-air around the initial impact location, whereupon they will float around defenseless for a seconds before craching back down.
 * Singularity Darts: When using Gravity Well. Create a room-sized black hole at the impact location, dragging in any enemies, objects and projectiles towards its center whereupon they disappear. After a few seconds the black hole disappears, waits a second, and then violently ejects everything it took in around the area, dealing heavy damage.

Upgrades

 * Upgrade 1: Sniper Scope . Greatly increases the power of your zoom when looking through the weapon's sights. Can use the mousewheel/weapon swap buttons to change the power of the zoom.
 * Upgrade 2: Pressure Booster . Darts no longer arc and also fly instantly to their impact location.
 * Upgrade 3: Silencer . You no longer attract any attention when firing the Dart Rifle. In addition, if you kill an enemy in a single shot with this weapon their death won't alert any nearby Splicers.


 * Upgrade A: Kinetic Darts . The farther your Darts travel through the air, the more damage they deal.
 * Upgrade B: Clockwork Mechanics . Greatly decreases the time between each shot from the Dart Rifle, as well as its reload time.
 * Upgrade C: Poison Injector . Enemies hit by your Darts get poisoned: they take damage over time, and stumble around with severely decreased accuracy. In addition, they don't attract the attention of nearby Splicers.

Whew, this one took some time. Anyway, whaddya think?

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