AK-xolotl is a top-down shootfest featuring adorable little axolotls murdering their way through also cute and also very armed woodland critters. What you get is a nails-tough roguelike with plenty of challenges and plenty of weapons.
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PostsWeapons, of course, are a major part of the game and range from relatively realistic to balls-to-the-wall gonzo, and features both melee and ranged weapons. As you shoot your way through the five biomes, you’ll get your pick of weapons, but since you can only get two, you should pick carefully. So if you want to know which you should take with you, then here are some of the best.
9 Scatterer
Shotguns are one of the weaker weapon types in AK-xolotl with their short range, low damage, slow firing, and too-wide shot grouping. Unmodded, they tend to range from middling to outright useless. However, one of the best shotguns in the game becomes available as a starting weapon.
The Scatterer is not only a fantastic shotgun, but one of the better guns in the game. It fires quickly, with tightly grouped shots and even though it only has two in the chamber, firing both shots and reloading happens in a snap. Early on, you can one- or two-shot small mobs and if you choose to upgrade it, it could even scale to the later biomes.
8 Dynamite
Sometimes, modern problems require wild west solutions. In this case, the problem is a group of loosely packed enemies and the solution is a humble stick of dynamite. If it was good enough for gold miners, and cowboys, it works just fine for heavily-armed axolotls.
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PostsThe second best weapon of the Explosive class, Dynamite has it all: high damage, big explosion, decent capacity, and surprisingly quick firing speeds. While other Explosive weapons might look cooler, are more modern, weirder, or the Fireball spell from D&D, Dynamite is just more practical.
7 Motorblade
Melee might seem like one of the dicier ways to play AK-xolotl. After all, it requires you to basically bring a knife to a gunfight. But when you realize that you can swat bullets out of the air, you realize that it might make the game easier than if you stuck to firearms. With a fast enough attack speed, you can literally stand in front of an enemy and swing where the bullets are coming from until they’re dead.
The Motorblade throws all this to the wind. It has such a small attack area that it’s functionally useless for defense. What do you get in return? Incredible damage. The attack speed and power on this thing is unreal, and if you close in on an enemy with this thing, they'll often be dead before they could fire another shot.
6 Moonlight
Any fan of Elden Ring and From Software games should recognize this iconic magical greatsword. But whether you’re a fan or not, the Moonlight is still one of the best melee weapons in the game. Though it’s bigger than you, it’s got a surprisingly spry swing speed, and the slash rivals most shotguns in range. And that’s without the crescent of energy that it sends towards enemies.
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PostsThough it’s not as ponderous as the original, it’s still one of the slower-swinging weapons here. Still with the wide amount of area you slash, with good timing you can still safely swat bullets out of the air, and send back one of your own besides.
5 Zap-Cannon
This thing is a beast, and probably one of the best weapons against groups of enemies. Not so much against big guys, but you can compensate for that by firing it close to enemies so that most of the 10 beams hit, or in the case of bosses, they’re so big that you really can’t miss.
If you scoff at arbitrary concepts like ‘target acquisition’ or ‘trigger discipline’, then you really can’t go wrong with the Zap-Cannon. Its most effective use is to get to a corner away from enemies, pointing it in their direction, and mashing the trigger until your enemies are dead. It even has one of the longest ranges in the game and a speedy reload to facilitate this.
4 Annihilator
Completely opposite of the Zap-Cannon, yet largely operating in the same manner, the Annihilator lives up to its name. It fires a single beam that’s very easy to aim, and ramps up in strength until you stop firing, after which it will reset to its original state.
Basically, the best way to use this thing is to hold down the trigger until all the enemies are dead. A caveat to this is that dodge rolling also resets the count, so for maximum value, you’ll want to dodge bullets the old fashioned way.
It’s well worth it, though, since not only does this thing hurt when it’s fully charged, but also because its ammo consumption is very low. You could conceivably clear multiple waves without letting go of the trigger, and this isn’t even factoring upgrades.
3 Hoggen And Buccaneer
CloseThese two weapons share a spot because though they work quite differently, they both do the same thing: breeze through the early sections, one-shot cannon fodder two biomes in, and with a few upgrades scales all the way to the final boss. Like the Scatterer, these are high-powered starting weapons that outclass most of the options presented in the first two biomes.
Arguably, they can even contend with some A-Class weapons because while they can have one or two parameters that exceed these guns, none of them have the whole package. These have it all: damage, firing speed, clip size, and range, which add up to some really reliable weapons.
2 Big AK
Of course an AK is one of the best weapons in the game, it’s right there in the name. It’s not called Shotgun-lotl after all. It truly lives up to its description, basically operating like its starting weapon equivalent but turned up to 11.
Aside from the excess of bullets this thing spits out, it really does just feel like using the starting AK. Except for the fact that enemies drop much faster and you clear levels much quicker. If you get this and get even one good upgrade, you can largely breeze by the rest of the run.
1 Elephant Gun
If you’re into firearms, you’ll likely know that an Elephant Gun is a huge rifle designed to kill elephants. This is not that. This is quite the opposite, instead summoning them onto the battlefield.Though it’s Precision-class, it arguably works better at shotgun ranges.
If you have the Supernova item, you’ll get a whole herd of elephants travelling in every direction when you reload, which is often because it has a one-bullet magazine capacity.
Now, does it hit hard? Yes, about as hard as being trampled by an elephant. Does the round travel quickly? No, it only moves about as fast as an elephant. Clip capacity? One elephant. How’s the recoil? Surprisingly reasonable for firing an elephant. Does it make sense? No. Is it awesome? Hell. Yes.
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Bullet Hell Roguelike Systems OpenCritic Reviews Top Critic Avg: 69/100 Critics Rec: 31% Released September 14, 2023 ESRB T for Teen - Blood, Violence Developer(s) 2Awesome Studio Publisher(s) Playstack Engine Unity Multiplayer Local Co-OpWHERE TO PLAY
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