The goal of this guide is to give a hand to those who need and want it. It is meant to be a tool to guide newcomers and returning players to help them find their groove, nothing more, nothing less. I will be covering everything from making your gun somewhat useful to moving faster through the levels. The other guides present, such as the material guides, will cover things that I won't in detail, though I may talk about the subjects that they cover briefly. I'm open to suggestions and will update the guide per new information or corrections.

Your gun will be your primary source of damage for the vast majority of the game. There are effective ways to mold yourself into a blademaster, but that comes later and there will be times where a knife isn't going to cut it (hue) and you'll need to introduce that patrolman with your death-machine. But then you realize it's terrible and then you get hit when you shouldn't have. So go have a chat with Lawless and cook up a killer gun.

Your Gun's Stats and What They Mean

POW- Your gun's raw damage output.
RNG- How far your gun's shots can reach. Comes in Short, Medium, Long, and Extra
SPD- Only for auto and burst-fire guns. Shows how many bullets come out of your gun within a second.
RLD- Your gun's reload speed.
CAP- How many bullets your gun can hold.
ACC- How close your gun is to firing in a straight line from the barrel. The higher the percentage, the more straight the bullet travels. Also determines if your bullet causes a 'clean' hit (white number), 'sloppy' hit (dark gray), or 'critical' hit (big and red).
WT- Your gun's weight.

Elemental Effects

All enemies in the game possess a weakness and (sometimes) resistance to an element.

Fire- The flame symbol. Causes no known special effects. Unarmored enemies are usually weak to this.
Ice- The crystal symbol. Has a chance to freeze your opponents. At the time of writing, no enemies are weak to this.
Acid- The bubbles symbol. Causes no known special effects. Armored enemies are usually weak to this.
Electricity- The bolt symbol. Causes no known special effects. Robots and drones are usually weak to this.

Ammo Compatibility

Depending on the build of your gun, you may be able to equip special ammo types if you hit 100% on that type.

Pierce- This type can travel through walls and foes alike.
Bounce- This type causes your bullet to bounce off of the ground and walls.
Fragment- This type causes your bullet to explode into pieces and hit other enemies.
Large- This type makes your bullet bigger. The size leads to more damage.
Lead- This type creates a spread straight from the barrel. Meant for shotguns, really.
Homing- This type turns your bullets into missiles that track your nearest foe.

Types of Guns and Gun Accessories

Handguns- Your basic sidearm type. Typically lightweight and possess medium range. Comes with a decent intial clip size and allows for fast reload times. Fires as fast as you can.

Shotguns- Your close-quarters killer. Some parts can get on the heavy side and the barrels tend to bring the receivers from short range to medium. Shotgun magazines do exist, which can allow for much-needed extra shots but reload times may be a hassle depending on how you go about your shotgun build. Not only fires as fast as you can, but can also generate enough force to carry you during a jump.

Assault Rifles- Your bullet-hose. Parts will most likely be medium-heavy to heavy but the range they give is typically long. Magazines will allow for the rifle to realze its potential and the reload times shouldn't get too crazy. Since some are automatic, just hold down the button and let the gun do the work for you. If it burst fires instead, it shouldn't be that much of an issue unless you make it one. Auto-rifles can also lift you like the shotguns can.

Submachine Guns- Your other bullet-hose. Almost as lightweight as handguns, though not quite reaching it, and about the same in terms of range as well. Magazines will allow for more death and the reload times aren't too bad. Some are automatic, some are burst. Usually has no carrying ability during jumps.

Snipers- Your long-distance kiss of death. Parts will get heavy but the range will catch up to your foes. Sniper magazines only add a few shots but they'll be all you need or else the reload times will catch you. Single-shot, as fast as you can. Depending on how much kick the gun has, can lift you during jumps.

Machine Guns- Your true bullet-hose. Parts of a complete set will be really heavy and the barrels will give you great range. Oddly enough, there are no MG magazines and adding a magazine from any other type would be bad for your ammo count since the receivers carry a large amount of shots with them to start with. All machine guns are automatic. Can carry mid-air.

Magnums- Your handgun's older sibling. Can get somewhat heavy and gives about the same range as a handgun. Has no magazines, sights, or stock parts. Reload times aren't too bad. Single-shot. Depending on the ammo type, can lift during jumps.

What You Should Shoot For

As you should be aware of, Mercenary Kings allows you to mix and match gun parts with each other to create something better than simply using complete sets. Here are some guidelines and general knowledge about the gun-making process.

-Your gun should obviously do some damage that matters. It doesn't matter how fast your gun can reload or how far it shoots. If you can't take anyone down within a reasonable time frame, then you need to modify your gun.
-Your RLD and CAP should go hand in hand. If your CAP is low, then your RLD should be low (about 1-2secs should be your goal). If your CAP is high, then your RLD should still be somewhat low but still a non-issue (for a 50 bullet CAP, it's okay to have a 3-4secs reload time since your gun should've killed your non-boss target before the clip runs out),
-Expanding on that, if you want to take advantage of the reload bonus, you'll need to give yourself time to react. This can vary from person to person, so experiment.
-WT is important and should not be ignored under any circumstances. If your gun gets too heavy, your character will move much more slowly. Sure, it's not an issue when you're rolling along a long piece of road, but jumping from platform to platform will be an issue. There is a way to bypass this, to an extent, but I will cover that later.
-Equiping magazines will reduce your gun's POW most of the time. You're placing your hopes in the increase of shots to overcome the decrease in damage. Be smart; don't equip a large magazine onto your shotgun build unless you're really sure about it.
-Equiping elemental ammo (and sometime, elemental gun parts) will slightly reduce your POW. This shouldn't be too much of an issue since the elemental damage that gets added usually overcomes the raw damage that gets taken away. Be mindful of enemy strengths and weaknesses.
-Once you start making different ammo types, find the one that works best for your gun. After all, your shotgun isn't really a shotgun if it doesn't have a spread (though it'll still kill fools all the same).

Since there's going to be times where you're going to want to kill an enemy but you can't reload in time, your knife is going to need to pick up the slack in order to hack through these hacks. Talk with Ironside to make some blades that'll pierce CLAW's defenses with ease.

Your Knife's Stats and What They Mean

POW- Your knife's raw damage output. Obviously, bigger numbers are better but they're not totally the most important aspect of your knife.
WT- How heavy your knife is. This is probably one of the two most important weight values in the game since it'll always be with you, no matter what. Luckily, at the time of this writing, no knife in the game will exceed 2.0kg. So there's that.

Knifes can also possess elemental properties that can be used to exploit weaknesses. The general rules are the same as guns in the previous section.

So What's The Deal with the Knife?

-As stated previously, high POW doesn't make or break a knife as there are other factors at play but a high POW is still good to have.
-Your elemental damage can come in handy since knife attacks are really fast and you can cut down enemies with ease if you catch them off-guard.
-Ice-powered knives, based on my experience, have a higher chance of freezing foes from the first hit, allowing you to pass through them or kill them with no problems.
-Your knife can reflect bullets. While your enemy is busy reloading, you can shoot them in their stupid faces.
-If you're in the air and you successfully connect with your knife attack, you will "pop" up a bit. This allows you to land some extra hits on large bosses. You could also charge at someone, they shoot at you, you attack them while knocking the bullet away, kill the man, and land right where they were. You know, in theory.
-Like AP rounds, your knife can go through walls.
-Knives come in short, medium, and long, and they all weigh appropriately for the most part. Experiment with what works best with your gun.

Dr. Bluebell brought back King and Empress from the dead in the story, so that already makes her important. In the game, she can outfit you with Bionic Mods that have all sorts of useful effects. To cover all of them would be incredibly ridiculous but I feel obligated to point out some general tips and the effects of a few mods that I use in order to go to town.

Some pointers
-Mods need materials to build and, just like knives, will most likely need the materials from the same shotgun part you've been meaning to build for a few hours now. Weigh your options carefully.
-Speaking of weight, the WT of mods are very important since, like the knife, they will permanently affect your weight.
-Most mods come with a drawback on top of giving you weight. If the drawback is something you can't deal with, the mod isn't worth it until you can deal with it.
-Usually, there are standard mods and the "+" version of that mod. The + version gets rid of the drawback while keeping the desired effect. They just happen to cost a bit more, is all.
-You can equip two mods at a time, even copies. With the right mods, this is incredibly useful.

Some mods I use

Here, I'll list three of my personal favorites to explain what they do and what it takes to make them. This is to give you a general idea of what dealing with mods is like and what you should expect.

Kage
This mod bumps up your knife damage by 200% at the cost of losing 1 bullet from your magazine. With the right knife, you can down many bosses as quickly as you can with some potential late-game gun builds. You just need to get close first. You'll need $1,749.95, 4 Blade Shards, 2 pieces of Silicon, 1 Blade Tooth, and 1 cup of Burning Blood.
Magazine
This mod doubles your magazine size while making reloads take 25% longer. Using Machine Gun-type receivers with this mod means that you'll be firing for quite some time. Just don't botch your reload. You'll need $1349.95, 8 pieces of Quality Aluminum, 4 chunks of Lead, 2 pieces of Silicon, and 2 Regular Bolts.
Lucky Penny
This mod make rare materials more common from enemy drops at the expense of your potential cash gain upon completing a mission. Note that this does NOT increase enemy drops in general. I think it may have an effect on bonus materials you get from finishing missions but I'm not certain and, with the stuff you're going to get on the field, it's not going to matter much. You'll need $99.95, 2 pieces of Silicon, 2 pieces of Lithium, and 10 pieces of Copper.

Aside from all of that, there's not much I can say beyond "Be smart about what you want to build and install inside of you."

Golden Gate is your merchant. She's got all sorts of goodies and lets you sell your excess materials and, if you're weird, your gun parts and knives. But what matters most are the items she's selling you because they're going to be the difference between a good run and a bad run. Also, while the items have weight as well, they won't be of much consequence since you'll be (presumably) using them anyway.

Rations- Cheap and useful for getting back a chunk of health back. You can carry 5 at a time.
Adrenaline Shots- Your revival item, it refills a small chunk of health to get you back into the fight. If you go down, you'll automatically use it. If your partner goes down, you've got 30 seconds to bring them back to their feet. You can carry only 2 at a time.
Hand Grenades- Use these to flush out punks in trenched areas or to cause havok. You can only carry 3 at a time.
Shock Bombs- Useful for locking foes in place for a quick kill. Needed for capture missions. You can take 3.
Riot Shields- Stop projectiles from hurting you. Pretty great if you have issues with dodging. You can only take 1.
C4- High-powered explosive charges that can take out barriers guns can't. You can only take 1 with you.
First Aid- Fully heals you, no matter how much HP you have. You can only carry 2.

If you've ever wondered why you're moving so slow, this section will cover that and more.

Types of Movement Speeds

Based on the total weight of your gun, knife, bionic mods, and consumable items, you will be placed in one of five movement speeds.

Very Slow- In the time it takes you to get from point A to point B, that boss you were chasing down is on the other side of the arena. Jumps will also be harder to make since you weigh so much. (11.1kg and above)
Slow- Sure, you can make the jumps that the Very Slow speed can't even dream to make, but you're still somewhat slow. (8.1~11.0kg)
Normal- Exactly what it is. (5.1~8.0kg)
Fast- You don't have to roll as often anymore. You can also have more air control while falling from ledges you roll/jump off of. (2.1~5.0kg)
Very Fast- It's like you can fly jump good. Probably isn't going to happen unless you carry some really light items with you (or from something else that I'll cover.) (2.0kg and under)

FLASH FACT: Putting your gun away actually reduces your weight. So if a jump is hard, just set your gun aside and reach for the stars.

What about rolling?

Rolling is NOT effected by movement speed whatsoever. The distance, speed, and length of time it takes for the roll will never change bar a future update where that becomes possible. It outclasses both Very Slow and Slow quite easily and gives Normal pause. There are some invincibility frames in the opening stages of the roll, but you're open to anything beyond that. If you're rolling in an enclosed space (i.e. rolling through an area that forces you to roll) and you take damage, you will not be halted and only take the damage as a result. Rolling has its places but reckless rolling can lead to setbacks like rolling off of a ledge that's difficult to get to in the first place or misjudging your distance and landing right into a spike pit. In short, be smart about rolling.

To be quite honest, there's a guide that already exist here that covers proficiencies in a manner that I never could without repeating myself. You can find it here.

- The Shock Bombs, when not capturing, allow you to deal double damage for about 10 seconds or so on top of you taking no damage on contact anymore. This is good for speedrunning and other things.
- The Riot Shield nullifies all damage from the front but you're still wide open from the back. In theory, if your back is to the wall, you are invinicible. This doesn't matter much, however, as you can't do squat for as long as you're holding the shield up. It also means giving up a valuable item slot.
- If you fall/jump from a high spot, you kneel after landing. This is a hard landing. You can cancel the recovery frames by either rolling or timing another jump carefully to do a hop.
- If you're in a party, note that everyone shares the three extra lives. Make sure your teammates aren't jerks or bad (or god forbid, both).