Scrappy Weapon: Difference between revisions

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*** The only point is ever is using a Sentinel beam is against the flood, and even then the shotgun and energy sword do a better job.
*** The SMG itself became something of a scrappy weapon itself, due to its very high kickback, and relatively low maximum range. On its own, anyway--[[Awesome but Impractical|it's designed]] to [[Guns Akimbo|be dual wielded]], which let it strip shields in close combat with incredible speed. Combined with a plasma rifle, it's not half-bad, but terribly outclassed by the Battle Rifle in every other way.
** The Needler has since been [[Rescued Fromfrom the Scrappy Heap]]. While it lost its duel wield-ably, its power got boosted and is far better balanced in Halo 3 and Reach.
** Magnum, while useful in the first game, is nerfed in Halo 2, losing its scope feature and is much weaker in all respects.
** In ''[[Halo 3]]'', the Sentinel Beam is still fairly terrible, and the SMG's power is downgraded as part of a general nerfing of dual-wielding. The flamethrower is very difficult to use effectively, although it's hellaceous when used properly. Perhaps the scrappiest Halo 3 weapon is the Mauler, a single-handed dual-wieldable shotgun that, when dual-wielded, has less power and ammo than the shotgun at the expense of disabling use of grenades and melee. ...yeah. Its sole saving grace is a [[Game Breaking Bug]] that allows you to shoot at melee at the same time, generally considered cheating and annoying as hell.
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== Survival Horror ==
* Proximity Mines in ''[[Resident Evil 5]]'' might be considered this. Though they have some use in Story mode (usually by leading bosses and strong enemies on them), in Mercenaries they are next to useless, since you need to do melee anyway and you can't even use them to clear the mob in a pinch. No reason to bother with bosses. And in Versus, if you happen to be seen placing them, the enemy player can detonate them by shooting while you are still close. This added to the fact that good players won't be caught stepping on them anyway, since it's easy to tell the set mines from the dropped ones.
* The knife from most of the ''[[Resident Evil]]'' series was absurdly weak (usually taking several dozen stabs just to knock over the most basic of enemies), had zero range, and took up valuable inventory space, so was typically dumped in the first item box, unless you were just ''that'' good and wanted to give yourself a [[Self-Imposed Challenge]]. ''[[Resident Evil Code: Veronica|Code Veronica]]'' was the first game to give it even limited usefulness, as one swipe counted as several hits, but it wasn't until ''[[Resident Evil 4]]'' made it as powerful as the handgun, just trading range for unlimited use, that it stopped being a Scrappy Weapon. A skilled player could save a lot of ammo using it, and some bosses were actually easier with the knife. The fact it no longer counted against your inventory space helped as well.
* ''[[Silent Hill 1]]'' has two: the Kitchen Knife and the Hand Axe, the first and last melee weapons you get, respectively. The Kitchen Knife is a mandatory pickup, has zero range and in terms of defense is much worse than simply running from danger, and it's as if the game realizes how worthless it is because you can find the Steel Pipe, one of the game's more useful weapons, ''less than a minute later''. The Hand Axe is a barely-noticeable upgrade to the Kitchen Knife, which is rather unacceptable since by then you're 75% through the game and already have the magnificent and deadly Emergency Hammer. You don't have to get the Axe, though it does have one use: Breaking the lock keeping you from the sewer. Other weapons can break it, but it requires careful positioning and the Axe makes it easier.
 
 
== Tabletop Games ==
* [[Dungeons and& Dragons]] 3.0, 3.5, and [[Pathfinder]] made the heavy crossbow nearly useless. A user could fire it a bit further than a light crossbow and on average did one more point of damage on a hit compared to a longbow or a light crossbow. However, the weapon took an entire round to reload, leaving the character useless for an entire turn. Characters who knew how to use a bow would always do better to use the bow if they planned to make more than one attack in a round or spend more than one round shooting. Characters above first level could almost always afford a bow that let them add their strength to the damage, negating the heavy crossbow's advantage to damage. Characters who couldn't use a bow would usually rather shoot and move with a light crossbow or were spellcasters whose actions in combat were almost always better used casting a spell. Feats (special tricks characters learn) were priceless, and using one to select "Rapid Reload" for a heavy crossbow was generally a terrible choice. Even the range advantage was usually useless due to the metagame; most [[GMs]] who use maps don't set many encounters at distances where the extra range comes into play. If the adventure takes place inside a dungeon of any kind, forget it. Many "subpar" weapons have tons of uses for smart players, but the game's rules render heavy crossbows worthless. Even the siangham (a monk weapon which does less damage than the monk's fist) has its uses.
** The double crossbow in Pathfinder is even more [[Awesome Yet Impractical]]. It fires two bolts with one trigger pull, but penalizes both shots by -20% to hit (even if you know how to shoot it) and costs a feat just to learn to use. It takes two standard actions to reload, meaning a normal character using it would fire once every three rounds unless he dedicates even more precious feats to the weapon. Meanwhile, the Manyshot or Rapid Shot feats applied to many weapons and imparted lower/no penalties to hit and allowed for similar effects for dedicated ranged characters. If the character was a spell-caster or melee fighter, spending a feat to learn to use a double crossbow was a very bad choice, especially compared to repeating crossbows, longbows, or other options available to these characters.
** Bastard swords saw little use, as they were two handed weapons which did less damage than two handed swords or great axes, and only by spending a feat could a character use it in one hand. Feats were too precious to spend to gain the minimal damage bonus a bastard sword had over a longsword. Magical longswords were also far more common to find whether the loot was based on GM whimsy or random rolls, making longswords even more attractive compared to the bastard sword.
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[[Category:YMMV Trope]]
[[Category:Weapons and Wielding Tropes]]
[[Category:Scrappy Weapon{{PAGENAME}}]]