Chainsaw
Chainsaw | ||||||||
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“A gas powered industrial strength chainsaw. This tool may rely on a steady supply of gasoline, but it can cut through a variety of surfaces with ease.” —Trader description
The Chainsaw is a powerful motorized melee weapon for Berserkers. It has two firing modes usable with the primary and secondary fire buttons. Primary has a high rate of attack but low damage, secondary is the opposite; a powerful swing of the chainsaw which can stun specimens and does large amounts of damage while still possessing a relatively high rate of attack. It is the only melee weapon to not give a speed boost and by default is never found in random weapon spawns.
Contents
Statistics[edit]
The Berserker perk gets bonuses and discounts for the chainsaw.
Level | Discount | Price | Sale value | Hit damage | Fire mode DPS | ||
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Primary | Alternate | Primary | Alternate | ||||
Base | £2750 | £2062 | 19 | 270 | 190 | 337 | |
0 | 10% | £2475 | £1855 | 20 | 297 | 209 | 371 |
1 | 20% | £2200 | £1649 | 22 | 324 | 239 | 425 |
2 | 30% | £1925 | £1442 | 26 | 378 | 292 | 519 |
3 | 40% | £1650 | £1236 | 30 | 432 | 334 | 594 |
4 | 50% | £1375 | £1030 | 34 | 486 | 393 | 698 |
5 | 60% | £1100 | £824 | 38 | 540 | 456 | 810 |
6 | 70% | £825 | £617 | 38 | 540 | 475 | 843 |
Price[edit]
The base cost of the chainsaw is £2750, which can be reduced to £825 with the berserker perk. As with all melee weapons there are no maintenance costs for this weapon. It also doesn't require fueling up to function as the trader description made out.
Tactics
As with all Berserker equipment, it is ill advised to encounter Fleshpounds or the Patriarch with it on higher difficulties. Sirens, and to a lesser extent Husks and Bloats, can also be a problem due to their ranged attacks; ambush tactics and hit and run maneuvers can be useful against them. Scrakes and all smaller zeds suffer a stun effect from the chainsaw's alternate fire backstab damage bonus, making them easier to kill and will likely also earn you the Bitter Irony achievement by killing a Scrake.
Fleshpounds require kiting and quick switches back to Knife or any other melee weapon to maintain distance while dealing with them as Berserker. While Chainsaw requires precision, it also lacks movement speed bonus that Berserkers usually get so it's not entirely a weapon of choice while dealing with Fleshpounds. Chainsaw is rather a trash clearing weapon when you stand at a crosspath and distanced yourself from the big specimen just enough. Biggest opportunity and pros of the Chainsaw is how fast its secondary attack is; this allow Berserker to score lots of backstabs without needing any speed bonus. With a Field Medic tossing a heal gas grenade at Fleshpound's feet, it's possible to backstab it to enrage Fleshpound on top of gas that it's vulnerable against. Without healing gas or at least Grenade barrages from other teammates, sheer accuracy of alt fire to the back of Fleshpound's head will not be enough to decapitate it alone at 6 player Hell on Earth game.
Due to their size and speed, a small group of Crawlers are likely to cause a Berserker grief, holding primary fire and aiming at the angle they jump is one solution, another option is to simply swap to a firearm such as Handcannon and deal with them before they get in range. Whilst kiting away, Stalkers or Gorefasts may tangle on you to slow you down on wide straight areas. Try to take the nearest turns or always run past the threats with a melee weapon that grants speed bonus to Berserker.
Advantages & Disadvantages[edit]
Advantages[edit]
- Powerful and has no upkeep cost;
- Quickly decapitates lesser specimens;
- Benefits from backstab multiplier of melee weapons;
- Stuns a Scrake upon alt-fire from behind as level 2+ Berserker;
- Primary fire provides a constant attack stream;
- Primary fire can cancel alt-fire animation;
- Alt-fire only slows the bearer for 50%;
- Alt-fire provides a single powerful hit;
- Alt-fire delay is the fastest between melee weapons;
- Alt-fire has the highest dps among melee weapons.
Disadvantages[edit]
- Heaviest melee weapon available;
- Headshots deal no extra damage;
- Limited range, shorter than Fire axe and Katana;
- Can't stun a Scrake from front, only heavy flinch;
- Can't stun a Scrake on off-perk use, only mini flinch;
- Lacking arc of effect;
- Does not provide the speed boost that other melee weapons have;
- Berserker don't gain a speed boost when wielding it;
- Noise from the chainsaw can conceal the sound of approaching specimens.
Trivia[edit]
- According to unused messages in the game's files (KFMod.int), it seems the chainsaw was originally intended to rely on a finite, refillable gasoline supply.
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