Note: Updated to reflect Devastator and Gemini Laser buffs in 1.12; the buffs make Gear even less useful for these weapons
There are 4 types of Gear available in the game targeting Flying (Scope or Plaster), Ground (Explosive Bullets, Camo Cloak or Metal Detector), Melee (Dum Dum Bullets or Radiation Field) and Ranged (Iron Sights or Shield Generator) enemies
You have two slots and most of the time you would load 2 different items, although it is possible to use two of the same kind.
Gear improves your Damage per Shot by the amount shown with a bonus for Gear Mastery permanent upgrade - for example if you have Exploding Bullets at Rare 40 (it will show “Damage to Ground Enemies +196”) and Gear Mastery at 10% then the extra damage to Ground Enemies will be 215 (i.e. 196 * (1 + 10/100) rounded down)
Because of the way it is calculated, it is more useful for fast/weak guns:
Let’s assume all guns are at the same level and we have a Loadout Attack of 1000
Because each gun has a multiplier (see Weapon-specific Base Damage) , this is how much damage they do per shot and per second (this is without any speed improvements from Nimble Hands, Battle Pass etc., but even with those the relative values would be the same)
| Gun | Damage/shot | Shots/s | Damage/s |
|---|---|---|---|
| Auto Gun | 420 | 3.8 | 1,596 |
| Looper | 700 | 2.3 | 1,610 (+upto ~600 if the boomerang hits on return) |
| Blaster | 1,000 | 1.6 | 1,600 |
| Plasma | 1,600 (blast damage 750) | 1 | 1,600 (+750 from the blast) |
| Gemini Laser (one projectile) | 900 | 0.9 | 810 |
| Laser Rifle | 2,150 | 0.7 | 1,505 |
| Devastator | 2,800 | 0.65 | 1,820 |
If you are using Balanced Gear (e.g. Scope + Explosive Bullets) at Rare 40 with 10% Gear Mastery (as in the previous example), the extra damage would be 215 added after the gun multiplier, which gives this result:
| Gun | Damage/shot | Shots/s | Damage/s |
|---|---|---|---|
| Auto Gun | 635 | 3.8 | 2,413 |
| Looper | 915 | 2.3 | 2,104.5 (+ piercing/boomerang damage) |
| Blaster | 1,215 | 1.6 | 1,944 |
| Plasma | 1,815 | 1 | 1,815 (+ blast damage) |
| Gemini Laser (one projectile) | 1,025 | 0.9 | 922.5 (+ link damage) |
| Laser Rifle | 2,365 | 0.7 | 1,655.5 (+ piercing damage) |
| Devastator | 3,015 | 0.65 | 1,959.75 (+ trail damage) |
Note that the Plasma Cannon’s Blast damage isn’t affected by Gear
When we compare the two, we can see that it’s extremely useful on the AutoGun, very good for the Looper, passable for the Blaster and useless for the Gemini Laser, Plasma Cannon, Laser Rifle and Devastator:
| Gun | Damage/s before Gear | Damage/s after Gear | % Improvement |
|---|---|---|---|
| Auto Gun | 1,596 | 2,413 | 51% |
| Looper | 1,610 | 2,104.5 | 31% |
| Blaster | 1,600 | 1,944 | 22% |
| Plasma | 1600 | 1,815 | 13% |
| Gemini Laser (one projectile) | 810 | 922.5 | 14% |
| Laser Rifle | 1,505 | 1,655 | 10% |
| Devastator | 1,820 | 1,959.75 | 7.6% |
Of course the exact percentages will depend on your gear level and gear mastery upgrade, but it is typically easier to upgrade gear (equipment and upgrade material drop more often) so usually the effect will be at least as pronounced in the example.
If you have bonuses against specific enemies (e.g. Blazia at 20 gives +5% damage against ground enemies) the benefit of Gear (relative to the damage without gear) will be even less; also attack perks (e.g. Big Attack up) don’t increase Gear damage either, so the more of such perks you take, the less difference Gear makes
Note that the Attack bonus we get from Mystery Crates (e.g. +120 in World 9) works in the same way
If you want to see how the comparison is for your loadout, try the Damage Simulator with and without gear
