Weapons and Ammo

Weapons in Last Frontier are not just "damage numbers." A gun’s class determines which skill drives it, how it fires, what ammo it needs, and who it’s effective against. Let’s go through it in order: weapon classes, fire modes, and ammunition.

Weapon classes

Every weapon is tied to a single combat skill — that’s what determines its accuracy and the abilities available in its branch. There are currently four classes in the game:

• Light weapons — pistols, rifles, shotguns, such as the "PVK" rifle and the SEC M-19/05 pistol. This branch boosts accuracy, reloading, and shooting on the move.
• Heavy weapons — machine guns and energy weapons: the minigun, the SEC MG-7 machine gun, the laser rifle. It comes into its own through burst control and suppression. A weapon names its class right in its description, on a "Skill" line, so there is no need to pick a gun up to find out what it runs on. One exception is deliberate: the starter "Self-loading laser" counts as a light weapon rather than a heavy one — a beginner needs a gun that runs on the skill they are already using.
• Melee — bladed and blunt weapons, such as the bayonet knife. It works through damage, penetration, bleeding, and critical strikes.
• Explosives — grenades, mines, and charges (the RPU-5 grenade). This branch is about blast radius, secondary effects, and working with mines.

Important: weapons are not locked behind character level. Progress is expressed through skill checks, unlocked abilities, access to recipes and tools, rarity, price, weight, reliability, and ammunition. A high level on its own doesn’t "hand you" a better gun.

Rare guns arrive with a trade route, not with a level. The latest example is the «Jagger» family, pulled off an all-terrain vehicle: a bow rifle for light weapons, a turret machine gun for heavy, and two variants with an underbarrel grenade launcher that fires a rocket. All four are rare, a weapon trader keeps one of each, and a belt feed with a heavy barrel shroud is weight in your hands, not just a damage line.

Damage and its type

Once a shot has passed the accuracy and evasion checks, damage is calculated deterministically — not by a random roll, but as the rounded-up midpoint of the weapon’s range, multiplied by the number of hits.

Every attack has a damage type: physical, cold, radiation, poison, energy, or fire. Most firearms and melee weapons deal physical damage; the laser rifle and Self-loading laser deal energy damage. The starter Self-loading laser therefore uses the target’s energy protection even though it belongs to light weapons. Compare protection against your attack’s actual type: armor that holds up well against bullets may be weaker against energy.

Fire modes

Three modes are actually implemented: auto, single, and burst. Which of them are available is set by the gun itself: the "PVK" can do single and burst, while the SEC M-19/05 and the "Popgun" (a homemade shotgun) — single only.

Burst is pressure, but it isn’t free:

• Rounds are grouped into tracer lines and can hit several targets along the line.
• In exchange, this mode pays a fixed accuracy penalty (−25 by default), unless the fighter has an ability that removes it.
• A burst usually takes more time than a single shot.

A single shot and ordinary rounds hit several enemies at once only if the ammunition has the pass-through property.

Ammunition and caliber

Weapons that consume ammunition need a matching caliber: the weapon’s caliber and the round’s must agree. For example, the PVK requires a 7.62 mm round, while the laser rifle runs on batteries. The Self-loading laser’s autonomous power source lets it fire without spending ammunition; the trade-offs are its slow firing pace and weight.

• Magazine capacity is set by the weapon: 30 for the "PVK," 6 for the SEC M-19/05, 100 for the minigun.
• Ammo use per shot depends on the weapon and the mode. The "PVK" uses one round in single mode and five per burst; the minigun — 20 per burst.

Armor-piercing rounds

Some ammunition is armor-piercing — for example the "7.62mm BB/A cartridge" next to the ordinary "7.62mm A cartridge." Such a round provides a high penetration score: if total penetration reaches the threshold (25 by default), the contribution of worn armor to defense is ignored.

But penetration is not a "defense off switch." It only bypasses armor as an item; the target’s own resistances and its vulnerabilities to a specific damage type remain. The armor-piercing approach is good against thick armor, but it doesn’t settle the question of what exactly you intend to finish the target off with.

A gun’s accuracy and reliability

Every weapon has its own accuracy modifier: for precise guns it’s zero, for crude ones it’s negative. For the "PVK" and the SEC MG-7 machine gun it’s −20, for the homemade "Popgun" it’s −30, and you feel it. Accuracy is also affected by distance, the shooter’s perception, movement, the condition of the hands, and the selected combat move. A move can be selected for one attack, repeated with ∞, or queued with +.

Weapons wear down. Wear does not change damage or reliability until the breakage threshold — but a broken gun automatically moves to the inventory, and it can’t be equipped until you repair it. A shot may also fail to go off: out of ammo, the weapon is broken, or it has jammed — each case stops the attack. A jam is cleared by reloading or unloading.

The takeaway is simple: pick your weapon and ammo to match the enemy, not your habit. If a fight feels like it’s dragging on, the problem often isn’t your character but the wrong tool for that target.

Repeating and queuing moves

The main button selects one accepted attack; pressing it again cancels selection, and another move replaces it. On the right, ∞ repeats one move in subsequent attacks; press ∞ again to stop. + appends one attack in click order, up to 99: head, head, slow down, head executes in that order. +N shows how many attacks with that move remain, and the tooltip shows the order. The main button and ∞ clear the queue. Repeating uses your existing attack cycle against the chosen target; selection itself does not attack.

An accepted attack consumes one entry even if it misses; rejection consumes none. Attacks become ordinary when the queue ends. A special move waits for its cooldown, stamina, and a working loaded weapon. A basic move works without its enhancement and, in repeat or queue mode, uses it again when ready. A single basic selection does not upgrade itself after a cooldown. Every attack pays its own full stamina and cooldowns; building the program is free. Pausing and changing targets preserve it; changing weapons, hands, attack mode, map, dying, ending the session, or switching characters clears it.