The Laser is not often used as a weapon, as it does not do much damage - but it's a useful tool to move around the map, because it has a significant push. The 'explosion' from its projectile will push you and other players around a lot. The trick to using it to move around is to use this push to gain speed or to do huge jumps. For an easy start, take the Laser, look down at the floor, and press fire. It will push you high into the air. If you press jump and fire at the same time, you will get even higher - but it depends on the timing, and, for more advanced jumps, also on the angle you fire at the floor, as well as how fast and in which direction you move. For example if you just run forwards, look down and press fire it will catapult you forward with great speed. Play around with it, and watch others, and you will learn a very useful skill in Nexuiz. The secondary fire mode of the Laser switches back to the last used weapon. The Laser does not use up any ammo.
The Shotgun is very similar to that of other games. It shoots several bullets with a high spread, so it does very high damage at close range, but becomes very inaccurate at distance. It is also very useful to knock opponents out after you already hit them hard with a rocket or another projectile, and subsequently closed to a distance because it's hard to miss with the Shotgun at close range. The primary fire mode fires once with a short reload, while the secondary fire mode shoots three very quick shots, but with a long reload afterwards. The secondary firemode also has a higher spread so the primary is useful for a longer distance than the secondary firemode. The Shotgun uses shell ammo which is not shared with any other weapons.
The Machine Gun is also quite self-explanatory. It shoots bullets at a high rate of fire, and can do significant damage. The primary fire mode has a high spread and is thus quite inaccurate - but it fires very fast and deals more damage per second than most other weapons. It is therefore devastating when used at close quarters. One of the Machine Gun's unique features is that the first bullet after pressing fire has less spread and does more damage than the rest - keep this in mind when using it. The secondary fire mode is much slower, but its the same as the primary modes first bullets. This firemode is therefore very useful as an improvised sniper weapon for mid range kills. Like the Shotgun, it is an excellent finishing weapon, but its effective use relies heavily on a good, steady aim. The Machine Gun uses bullet ammo just as the camping rifle.
The Rifle is a kind of mixture of a sniper rifle and an assault gun. The primary mode is quite similar to the nex but fires a bullet. The rate of fire is quite moderate. The secondary mode can be used to empty the whole magazine of bullets in an quick burst. This firemode is less wall piercing and has some spread to it but is deadly at mid-to-close range. The magazine is reloaded automatically if you equip the Rifle. It is also the only gun that can do headshots which cause extra damage, so aim with care, as this gun can out-perform the nex. The Rifle uses the same bullet ammo as the Machine Gun.
The Mortar is a grenade-launcher on steroids. Both firing modes shoot a fast-moving projectile grenade which is influenced by gravity, and thus moves in a parabolic trajectory. The primary fire mode shoots grenades that explode on impact while the secondary fire mode shoots grenades which will bounce off objects, and either explode on contact with an other player, or after a few seconds if they are not triggered. The grenades' arc makes them harder to aim, but also hard to dodge. Since they deal quite high damage, with an excellent rate of fire, the Mortar is a solid all-round weapon once you've got the hang of aiming it. The Mortar uses rocket ammo which is shared with the Rocket Launcher, T.A.G. and the Hagar.
The Electro is a rather underestimated gun. Contrary to its name, it does not deal electricity damage, but rather fires plasma - understanding this will help you to use it well. The primary fire mode shoots a plasma projectile which does quite high damage on impact. It also explodes rather like a rocket or grenade, and is quite comparable in use to the Quake 2 rocket launcher. The secondary fire mode spits out balls of contained plasma that will bounce like grenades, and deal similarly high damage. Those blobs have a short trajectory and so do not get very far - but they're useful for blocking a way, or for spamming around your opponent so that he is hedged in by them. If you use the primary fire mode to hit these contained plasma blobs, they will explode more violently than without, causing a lot of extra damage. This combo is very effective in corridors and small rooms. The Electro uses cell ammo which is shared with the Crylink, HLAC and the (Minsta)Nex.
The Crylink is comparable to the Shotgun but shoots slow plasma projectiles; so it's harder to aim but they also do more damage. The primary fire mode shoots several bouncing projectiles at a high rate of fire and narrow spread. Each bounce causes splash damage so try to hit the floor near someone for damage from both the splash and the bullets themselves. The secondary fire mode has a wider, horizontal spread and lower rate of fire. This mode does not bounce but does more damage and is sometimes easier to aim. The Crylink uses cell ammo which is shared with the Electro, HLAC and the (Minsta)Nex.
The Heavy Laser Assault Cannon (HLAC) is a similar gun but fires highly accelerated Laser bolts at an insane refire rate. The bolts explode on impact and for some extra damage the secondary mode fires several of them at once. This is only gun that has reduced spread when crouching! Beware of your cell ammo (shared with the Electro, Crylink and (Minsta)Nex), this baby eats it like crazy.
The Nex is a powerful sniper weapon. Its primary fire mode fires a hitscan antimatter lance for significant damage, but requires a very precise aim, and has a relatively long reload time. The secondary fire mode activates zoom. The Nex uses cell ammo which is shared with the HLAC, Crylink, MinstaNex and the Electro.
The MinstaNex is a sniper's wet dream. Similar to the nex but MUCH more powerful. One hit, one kill, no kidding! The secondary firemode is identical to the Laser's primary shot. Back in the glory days this gun was used solely in Minstagib to train steady aim and fast movement, now this gun can spread fear in every gamemode. Cell ammo is also used by Nex, Crylink, HLAC and Electro.
The Hagar can be compared to the plasma gun from Quake3. It has a very high rate of fire, with moderate damage, and some splash damage. The primary fire mode shoots small missiles at high speed and an extraordinary rate of fire. The secondary fire mode shoots the same missiles, but at a slower speed and rate of fire, and without the instant trigger. This means that they will bounce once when hitting a floor or a wall, giving you the opportunity to fire around corners, or double your chances to hit someone by spamming an area. The Hagar uses rocket ammo which is shared with the Mortar, T.A.G. and the Rocket Launcher.
The Rocket Launcher is a little different from that of other games, in that the rockets move relatively slowly. The primary fire mode shoots a slow-moving, high-damage rocket projectile at a medium rate of fire. The secondary fire mode will explode all your flying rockets at once. This means that you don't need to hit your opponent directly - just get the rocket near him, and use the secondary fire to cause splash damage which will badly hurt him. The Rocket Launcher uses rocket ammo which is shared with the Mortar, T.A.G. and the Hagar.
The Port-O-Launch is the perfection of movement. The grenade it launches creates two portals. On the first impact it creates the entrance portal, on the second impact the exit portal. If you enter the first one you (or others players and also projectiles!!) will be teleported to the second portal. As the first portal will teleport everything it can't be hit but the second portal is quite fragile and, because of the used wormhole technology, will take the other portal along if it lost too much energy. The wormhole is also the reason why the portals energy decays after some time. You can replenish the energy by simply teleporting something through it.
The Grappling Hook is an other movement tool. The primary mode attaches itself to all sorts of solid objects and will pull you there to move through the map like spider man. You can get very fast that way or reach spots you would not get to by other means. The secondary firemode drops a small gravity bomb that will affect enemy players and also releases a lot of smoke which will make you harder to see and hit. The gravity bomb uses cell ammo. There is also a mutator that adds a off-hand hook which can be used all the time, uses no ammo but only does the pulling part.
