EARTH DEFENSE FORCE 4.1 The Shadow of New Despair

EARTH DEFENSE FORCE 4.1 The Shadow of New Despair

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Weapon Secrets & Tactics
By Freed
Guide to weapons that have 'special' functionality. Right now just for Fencer.
   
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Flame Revolvers
You might use these and immediately think the recoil is totally uncontrollable - but there's a secret interaction available here I've noticed: the recoil can be controlled no problem if your other weapon is also from the automatic artillery artillery category or the CC piercer category (tested so far). After the initial spinup + fire, pulse fire briefly to bring the recoil under control, and then you can control it without much more recoil that the gatling guns! I'm not 100% sure but it seems like strafing left or right (either) seems to help bring the recoil under control. After it's under control you can even boost jump and retain excellent recoil control - use that time to wipe out encroaching enemies or simply shoot straight down to melt anything you jump over.

These weapons deal absolutely face melting amounts of damage and they seem to infinitely pierce targets out to their maximum range - once you get the hang of this you can just kinda wave the death-stream around and wipe stuff out. The highest level FR can even stagger-lock the mighty Erginus; the damage of these things is truly crazy!
Sliding
If you have enough momentum (such as from dashing), many weapons let you slide across the ground while attacking. Depending on how fast you get going, this can be used as a form of evasion while you attack simultaneously, and you can dodge a lot of incoming damage this way. My personal favorite is a CC piercer + a Cannon Shot: you can zip and slide around mobs dishing out crowd-mulching shotgun blasts.
Multiple missiles on a single target with Guide Beacon or Guide Laser
An interesting thing about Air Raider's Guide equipment is that it lets you lock multiple missiles onto the same target - when normally you can't do that. This works with any Fencer Missile Launchers that fire multiple missiles. Air Raiders can use this to spread out a lot of beacons to kill several targets, or focus all the damage onto one.
"Just keep shooting!"
Many Fencer weapons have large enough ammo capacity that you can time one weapon to reload while the other has yet to run out. Once you get the pattern established, just hold both fire buttons down and don't let go. The result is an endless wall of damage. This doesn't deal as much raw damage as firing both weapons as fast as possible, but this strategy is really useful for locking down a horde or any tough enemy that can be staggered (which is most of them). Just make sure you keep an eye on your radar so you aren't flanked. My personal favorite pair are the automatic shotguns, but there are many possibilities.
Note on Projectile Reflection
Many mob-type enemies dish out way more damage than they can take - especially spiders. It's kind of situational, but you can totally equip two shields. Especially with two reflector type shields, you can almost create a reflective wall that kills anything shooting at it. Bug Invasion is a great mission to see this in action on higher difficulties.
16 Comments
Minterfresh 7 May, 2019 @ 7:15pm 
You can parry the large purple artillery shots from hectors, very valuable to defend allies.
Kreldin Starfeather 5 Feb, 2019 @ 11:34pm 
The javelin catapults, I've noticed, can be absurdly overpowered in certain situations - tilting the camera down 45-60 degrees causes them to fire straight ahead of you, like a direct fire projectile. With their rate of fire, they do simply staggering amounts of damage at close range, though are very hard to aim, since you can't actually see where they're going. the VR mod another guide mentions might actually make this semi-viable.
Freed  [author] 6 May, 2017 @ 2:51pm 
for the flame revolvers: what I mean is simply let a few bursts of flame go, then you can hold down fire and the recoil will be greatly reduced. Your other weapon HAS to be one of the mentioned categories though, or the recoil will not taper off. Is that clearer?
Freed  [author] 6 May, 2017 @ 2:48pm 
Aiming even with the horizon, javelins will fall right about at the inner circle on your minimap. Closer than that, they fall right about where the top of your screen is. Even so, they're really not very good weapons in my opinion.
Raiga Cross 4 May, 2017 @ 11:06pm 
any idea on the javelins? i used a pair of javelin storm on a mission and the result can be quite devastating if you align your shots correctly, but the aiming part can be quite hard since they dun have anything to guide your shots like rangers throwing grenades or raider throwing their flares
Sparrow 2 Sep, 2016 @ 3:19am 
could someone re-explain that flare revolver trick to me? I don't really understand what you mean.
Saturn 31 Aug, 2016 @ 7:33pm 
with the heavy grenades (the ones that you take a running start with before throwing) switching weapons as soon as the grenade leaves your hand cuts the animation short

this can also save you from blowing yourself up if you switch BEFORE you release the grenade
02 28 Aug, 2016 @ 8:03pm 
Javelin launcher can cancel dash, melee and some recoil-refire animations.
Faster than shields, at the exchange of defense.
Double shield is godlike against Silver Wolf Spiders on Inferno.
Diver can reload passively.
Novus Niveus 808 28 Aug, 2016 @ 10:46am 
P.S; I've found the best shield for this technique is the Ion Mirror Shield, as it has a very fast deflection animation, so you can dash again as soon as possible.
Novus Niveus 808 28 Aug, 2016 @ 10:44am 
Pairing a shield with a melee weapon is a good way to move about quickly with the fencer. Just use your dash and then the shield's secondary fire (deflection) and you can dash again immediately with no loss of speed.

Do this repeatedly and you can zoom around the map whenever you're not shooting.