Since late 2021,Gunfire Rebornhas been out in the world as a full release. The game spent more than a year in Early Access, and in that time went through many massive changes, new additions, and revamps of previous systems.
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Because of this, a lot of players returning to the game to check out theVisitors of the Spirit RealmDLC that introduced two new characters (Xing Zhe the monkeyas well asLi the fox) or the new Spiritual Assault Survival Mode are having to rediscover the game again. So, let’s take a look at some key aspects ofGunfire Rebornthat people seem to be missing.
Updated February 3rd, 2023 by Jacob Buchalter:As far as roguelites go, Gunfire Reborn is one of the more creative examples. With a heavy emphasis on Chinese history and folklore, likely because the developers at Duoyi Games are based in China, the mechanics, characters, and general language of Gunfire Reborn are all incredibly unique. But, due to some confusing translations, unexplained mechanics, or just the sheer amount of systems in the game, there’s a lot that people miss. So let’s comb through it all and pick out some of the aspects people seem to be missing the most.
13Pressing F10 Hides The HUD
Now, this isn’t something that will make a huge impact on gameplay overall, but for people who like to game without all these intrusive UI elements getting in their way, Gunfire at least has an easy way to turn the HUD off. During gameplay, at any point, players can press F10 and hide their HUD completely, which is incredibly helpful for taking screenshots. Not only that, it makes it a bit easier to tell what exactly is going on during the more…chaotic moments. That said, players also won’t be able to keep track of their health, but thankfully the pulsing near the edges of the screen when at low health can still give them some clues.
12Giving Up On Run Refunds All Spiritual Essence Spent Refreshing Spiritual Remnant
One of the mechanics that many people coming back toGunfire Reborn(now that it’s entirely ‘released’) are just now discovering are the Spiritual Talents purchased at the Spiritual Remnant NPC. This mushroom-shaped NPC is basically another type of merchant that exclusively offers unique talents to players in exchange for Spiritual Essence. And, depending on the talent picked in combination with the character the player is using, it can create some absurdly powerful builds.
Because of this, a lot of people are finding themselves burning through their stockpile of Spiritual Essence refreshing this shop every time it shows up. Well, thankfully, if players can tell that this run isn’t really ‘worth’ all the Essence invested in it so far, they can just pick the ‘Quit’ option in the pause menu, and they’ll be sent back to the tavern with all their Spirit Essence refunded to them.
11Movement Speed Depends On Weapon-Type
There are a lot of aspects of Gunfire Reborn that players sort of have to figure out through experience rather than trying to look it up or parse it by the aspect’s description. And, one ‘hidden’ mechanic that players probably haven’t noticed is that weapons absolutely have different movement speed modifiers on them. It doesn’t say any of these numbers in the Logbook descriptions of the weapons, but it’s very clear to see (when looking for it) that players move slower while using a Launcher than they do with a Submachine Gun.
So, for characters that benefit from a lot of movement speed, such as Qing Yan, it might be worth it to keep an eye out for lighter weapons while playing them. And, worst case scenario, the Foundry default pistol is always equipped and doesn’t hamper movement speed at all, so players can just switch to this whenever they need to cover some distance quickly.
10The Entire Elemental Fusion System
Gunfirehas an Elemental system, just like a lot of other modern titles such asBorderlands 3orGenshin Impact. These systems usually involve players needing to balance using certain elements against others in combat, sort of likePokemon.
For example, certain enemies inGunfiretake more damage from certain elements. To be more specific,it’s a lot likeBorderlands, actually, where Corrosive damage is great for Armor, Electric damage is perfect against shields, and Fire damage is the best way to tear down red health. And, each of these Elements, when used, has a chance to inflict debuffs as well. There’s
Triggering these elemental effects isn’t a surefire thing, but has a high chance to trigger while the enemy is taking Elemental Damage. And, when the elemental effect is applied and another player applies a different elemental effect, this creates a Fusion Effect. Fusion Effects don’t consume the applied elemental effects when triggered, and the Fusion Effect created depends on the combination of elements on the enemy in question. For example:
So, communicating with teammates is actually more important than before, as making sure to use different elemental types can lead to some pretty broken Fusion Effect usage. Players can also trigger this on their own without having to switch back and forthusing either a Gemini effector by playing Ao Bai.
9Critical Hits Aren’t Lucky Shots & Vice Versa
The Lucky Shot mechanic thatGunfire Rebornis actually not all that new. A lot of games these days seem to have similar mechanics where players can trigger random critical hits but can also fire at enemy weak points for extra damage. In Gunfire specifically, Lucky Shots are triggered randomly based on Lucky Shot Chance and Critical Hits are based on headshots or weak point hits.
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Many players aren’t aware of this, and even fewer of them are aware that Lucky Shots can stack on top of Critical Hits, creating some truly astronomical damage numbers. So, players should make sure and keep an eye on both their Critical Hit Chance and Lucky Shot Chance as well as make sure to never get them confused for one another.
8The Bounty Hunter Talent Is Easily Exploitable
On the second-to-last tierof the shared general Talent Tree(not the Hero-specific Talents on the far right), there’s a skill called Bounty Hunter. And, with this Skill, players will receive one copper for each Critical Hit. Now, that might not sound like a lot, but it really adds up, especially if players focus on it during a run.
Not only can players aim for Critical Hits by just aiming at weak points, but with the right type of weapon they can get a ton of lower-damage Critical Hits to trigger in sequence. The Laser and Thunderclap Gloves are perfect examples, as they’re low-damage weapons that hit a ton of times in a row, which is perfect for getting this Skill to trigger as often as possible.
7Some Build Combinations Are Literally Detrimental
So, with the constant bug fixes, patches, and updatesGunfireseems to be consistently getting since it first released (which, kudos to the devs for the consistent support), one might think that the balance of the game is perfect. It isn’t, but the unbalanced aspect of it is sort of intentional. Players can quite easily break themechanics of their chosen Heroto great effect. For example, with the right combinations, Qian Sui never has to put his Tidal Aegis down, meaning he’s basically invincible at all times. That said, this imbalance works in both directions, and players can completely destroy their own damage if they aren’t careful.
This usually is fixable in a main game run, as players can just drop the scroll or weapon that seems to be countering their character/build. But, in Spiritual Assault, certain Spiritual Ascension and Spiritual Jade combinations can completely ruin a run, evenon the default Crown Prince character. For example, if a player is running any of the Conversion Spiritual Jades that convert all of their damage into one elemental type, and then they grab the Elemental Prohibition Ascension, they literally can’t do damage with weapons anymore.
6There Are Tons Of ‘Broken’ Overpowered Combinations
While the topic of the Occult Scrolls system is being discussed, a good portion of players seemed to miss most if not all the ways certain scrolls can be abused. For example, players can use the same Paranormality Scroll seen in the image above to double their Shield (or Armor in Qing Yan’s case) entirely. One would assume that having 1 HP would stop players from being able to open any of the Red Chests that take a certain amount of health as ‘payment’ for opening.
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But the solution is actually simple. Players just need to drop the Paranormality Scroll, open the chest, pick up the scroll, and move on. And, while that’s just one example there are a ton of other ways to exploit the game by being clever with the systems in place or with certain scroll combinations, and this was one of the more ‘tame’ examples.
5Both The Share & Recycle Features
WhileGunfire Rebornwas in early access, this system used to involve picking up a Scroll or Weapon, dropping it so that friends in co-op would see it in their instance of the game, and that’s how players would share gear. Thankfully, the devs did eventually add a way to do this more naturally with the ‘Share’ feature.
When hovering over any Weapon or Scroll in multiplayer, even the ones currently floating above open chests, players should see the ‘Share’ option underneath the weapon stats. Pressing the ‘Share’ input will then make that item visible to everyone else in the current multiplayer session. Additionally, too many players are also sleeping on the ‘Recycle’ feature in the game, again because it’s a feature that didn’t use to be there. With Recycle,players can turn unwanted Weaponsinto little pockets of currency, though they won’t be able to Recycle any Shared Weapons, since that would sort of break the game balance.
4Players Can Pause Their Runs In-Between Zones
Wow, a ton of players seemed to have missed or misunderstood how the Resting Points work.Gunfirehas some fantastic level design, with each new stage feeling more unique than the last. There are four main “zones” inGunfire Reborn, with the most recent one coming alongside the Visitors of the Spirit Realm DLC. There’s the Longling Tomb, the Anxi Desert, the Duo Fjord, and the Hyperborean Jokul. And, after clearing the boss (whichever one it is) of each zone, players will go through a transition screen that has some sort of well, campfire, or resting area.
Here, they can meet with the Spiritual Remnant NPC and purchase another Spiritual Ascension if they so choose. But, this area is also meant to function as a break area for those in single-player, as it gives them the option to return to the Inn. This is so that players aren’t forced to keep the game open or focus on the entire run at once, and can instead break it up into multiple sections without consequence.
