This is something I've been saying for quite some time, just it's usually as a reply to something else or a footnote in my own threads.
I figured it was time to make it an actual topic of discussion and see what people think.

It was about how all equipment has the same effectiveness, regardless of it's type.
That means swords, guns and bombs are all equal, because they've based the game around this whole level flexibility business, that lets you beat any level with any weapon type.

It really only recently came to my attention that the only time I ever felt rewarded by this game was when I beat a certain, broken level. It was a little over three months ago and it only existed for a day or two.

The Original Plazamonium

Back when it was first introduced, the bottom left gate didn't go down when you stood on the party switch.
Because of a minor mistake, it was actually connected to the switches on the other side of the gate that you couldn't actually shoot or attack by normal means.

Instead, you had to go into the bottom right room and try to ricochet Alchemer bullets down the hallway along the left wall to hit the switch there.
I managed to beat it after a solid 10 minutes of trying, just because people in Haven kept going on about how it was 'unbeatable' and 'impossible'.

It wasn't, it just took a specific tool, the Alchemer, fired from an exacting location at just the right angle. This was a weapon that just about everybody owned at the time, mind you.

Now you might be thinking, "What does that have to do with anything?"
And I'll tell you.

Because of the way this game was designed, there are no puzzles that require any exact timing or precision with a particular weapon to beat.
There aren't any monsters that you have to tactically approach, because all your weapons can hurt them.
The only real difficulty for me comes from a ping that spikes to well over 600ms, which makes the game entirely unplayable at Tier 3.

Even if I was able to maintain a stable connection to the server, I still wouldn't be playing Spiral Knights right now, because it just lacks all the things that makes other games of it's type fun and interesting.

Every weapon and every item is just as equally effective on everything. All the monsters might as well be the same in the end.

There's no truly difficult levels, just levels with more monsters than any other. There's no truly difficult boss battles, just monsters that fire more bullets and deal more damage than the others.
There's nothing inspired about the true meat of this game, the gameplay itself.
It's so dumbed down, that if it weren't for the art and music (and a few select people I like annoying), I probably wouldn't even be typing this message up right now.

The only thing that can really change this, is to not make all weapon types equal.
And the only way to ensure that players have the right tool for the job, when that job comes around, is to make sure that they always have that tool with them.

So I am going to propose that every player must have:

Their helmet, armour and shield.
As well as one bomb, one sword and one gun.
Otherwise you cannot enter the Clockworks.

Now this change doesn't remove any flexibility. It would actually make it more flexible, because your designs wouldn't need to pander to every single type of weapon and item in the game.
Nothing could be beaten by just one weapon or using the same boring tactics, over and over Anne Dover.

Any level designer worth their Rock Salt can already see the advantages of adding these standards to the game.

It would actually take some semblance of skill to get to the core.

It would also mean that weapon slots aren't necessary anymore.
And it might mean that trinkets can become something more interesting than just boring grey discs.
And bombs wouldn't need to be charge only anymore, because you wouldn't be able to equip four bombs and run around dropping them forever.

This isn't the only thing wrong with the game, but it's easily one of the biggest problems that I can see.

Anyway, time to discuss.