Are some weapons better than others at severing limbs?

I've noticed with the starter submachine gun (or whatever it is) I have a very tricky time severing limbs, as opposed to the old fashioned Plasma Cutter. I recall the the bullet based gun taking down human opponents well enough in the first chapter, so I suspect bullets are good against humans (and for head-shots) and the classic "tool" weapons like the Cutter and Line Gun are good for Necromorphs which need their limbs to be severed.

So are "bullet" weapons only suited for human targets? If so, are there exceptions? For instance I suspect a shotgun to be fairly decent at removing limbs, and the Pulse Rifle from the first game wasn't too bad at removing limbs either.

3 Answers

A shotgun weapon is definitely good at removing limbs. Also, it's good at removing the ability of things to move at all. Or be "alive", in the sense that Necromorphs are animated beings that can at least follow some instinctual pattern. Shotguns are a great cure for that.

You are on the right tracks with your line of thinking; "bullet size and shape" is a major factor in determining how a given weapon performs, but remember the damage also matters (load up a save and play with the difficulty settings to really see this in action). The number of pellets and overall damage really give a shotgun a lot of versatility; for closer enemies the "where" of aiming isn't as important. I've been primarily using a shotgun (deconstructed from a peorder gun; the Evangalizer I think) and I adore it.

One could certainly soup up a nice plasma cutter to really enhance it's actual cutting ability. I haven't found a need so far; there are many shotguns but this one is mine and such.

I use a shotgun with burst fire as one gun, and for my other a traditional plasma cutter with a scope and stasis coating for anything big and/or far away. Works well for me.

I happen to like the line gun, because it slices the enemies up, but it reloads a little slowly when you get in heavy melee. I like the shotgun because it's so powerful for close combat. I can just use the line gun for distant shots over like 10ft. away. I love mt force gun, but I can't seem to be able to raise up the upper portion with the plasma core pt. I tried to upgrade it with circuits, but that didn't work.