Heavy Weapons

Heavy Weapons are the third weapon class in System Shock 2. Heavy Weapons are distinguished by their low ammo capacity, and a very powerful high amount of damage (aside from the Statis Field Generator).

Three weapons exist in the class:

• TC-11 "Brick" Grenade Launcher
• Stasis Field Generator
• TC-5 Fusion Cannon

It is also a combat skill in the game, and depending on the difficulty, one can normally specialize in 1-2 combat skills in a game.

Damage bonus

Whenever a player upgrades a combat skill by one level, each weapon of the same type below that level gains a bonus damage of 15%. For example, when a combat skill reaches level 2 , weapons that required level 1 will gain a 15% extra damage, and weapons that required level 3-6 cannot get any bonus, of course. One should note that level 6 weapons will never obtain any bonus from combat skills.

Requirements

Some weapons require minimum statistics or skill levels to equip and use.

Weapon	Minimum Skills	Minimum Statistics
TC-11 "Brick" Grenade Launcher	Heavy Weapons: 1	-
Stasis Field Generator	Heavy Weapons: 3	Strength: 3
TC-5 Fusion Cannon	Heavy Weapons: 6	Strength: 4

Specializing in Heavy Weapons

Advantages

• The Grenade Launcher is the most deadly weapon in the game, while the Fusion Cannon is also one of the most powerful weapons.
• The Grenade Launcher can apply bonus damage to nearly every type of enemies, and hence will reduce the overall difficulty of the game.
• Nothing can survive two shots from a fully-upgraded, fully-modified Grenade Launcher.
• Prisms, which are used by both the Stasis Field Generator and the Fusion Cannon, are very inexpensive to purchase. In fact, only standard bullets are cheaper than prisms.
• Prisms are common once the player enters the Command Deck.

Disadvantages

• Grenades are relatively rare to find, while prisms-using weapons appear late. Hence, the player must also rely on Standard Weapons on early levels to survive.
• Grenades are very expensive to purchase, therefore running low of grenades could be fatal, especially on higher difficulties.
• The Heavy Weapons skill tree is the only one in the game that does not include a melee weapon; Heavy Weapons specialists can of course still rely on the Wrench for melee, but will not receive bonus skill damage for it unless they specialize in Standard Weapons as well.

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