Gear - Scope, Explosive Bullets, Iron Sights, Dum Dum Bullets, Plaster, Camo Cloak, Metal Detector, Radiation Field, Shield Generator

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

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