When you say "neutral", you're saying the damage will report grey still? That doesn't seem right. The damage the gun does even when watching the damage numbers doesn't seem to play out that way either.

Guys, the grey numbers are somewhat unreliable.

Look at the actual numbers.

On Gremlin healers, for example, my mega magnus (which does piercing damage which they are neutral to) shows grey numbers, however the damage isn't actually reduced. My Shadow driver shows blue (normal) damage, even though they're weak to shadow. I suspect this is because the healers have very, very slight defensive buffs which don't change the numbers much, but change them just enough to report "down" a class of damage.

With split damage weapons the issue is even murkier.

It is very important that you either read this entire post or don't read any of it. Half formed conclusions are dangerous and misleading.

As for damaging beasts with a silver six, yes, that will produce "low" damage numbers. Let's look at why.

I'm still trying to work out the math (since it either varies by enemy class or isn't a flat percentage) but mobs being "weak" to a damage type generally leads to an increase of 20-50% damage. If a mob is strong vs a damage type however you do about 75% less damage.

With a split damage weapon you're looking at one or both of these numbers being scaled. Lets breakdown the silversix.

vs. Undead: 0.5*1.2 bonus elemental + 0.5*1 piercing = 1.1x "normal" damage.
vs. Fiend: 0.5*1 elemental + 0.5*1.2 bonus piercing = 1.1x "normal" damage.

Both of these are probably below the threshold to display "Gold" numbers so they show as blue even though they're higher than normal.

vs beast: 0.5*0.25 weak elemental + 0.5*1.2 bonus piercing = .725x "normal" damage
vs construct: same as beast, switch the numbers. .725x normaldamage

Here these probably both report as "low damage" grey numbers even though they're much higher than your typical grey numbers.

vs gremlin/jelly: 0.5*0.25 weak damage + 0.5*1 neutral damage = .625x normal damage

Now, at first glance this looks awful, and indeed seeing all those grey numbers can be discouraging. However, let's look at the bigger picture.

The average damage the silversix does to a random enemy monster is 0.816%. The average damage an alchemer or magnus does to an enemy monster is 0.816%.

The silversix damage model essentially moves some of its damage away from strong and neutral attacks to weak attacks. This makes it a very well rounded gun, and an excellent choice for anyone who isn't carrying 3 guns, one of each type. Need to shoot something at short notice? That's your best bet.

Moreover, the overall damage that a Silversix does is still better than most other guns. Yes, it hits for a little less but it also hits a lot faster, hits 6x before reloading, and the antigua line guns have the best charge attacks hands down.

The other side of the coin is that these guns are beastly in PVP. When we're not looking at mob defenses but player armor, almost no one has decent armor against both piercing and shadow/elemental. Again, a pure gunner who carries a callahan, umbra driver, and magma driver will do slightly more damage per shot, but at a cost of mobility, refire rate, and flexibility.

These guns are really for people who are also carrying the DA and only pull their gun out to deal with those pesky gunners/bombers.

In conclusion, these guns aren't bad, the grey numbers are just misleading.

I was doing some comparisons between my Antigua and my Blackhawk before I upgraded it, and while the numbers are still grey, the Blackhawk is doing what I would call average damage.

I believe it's because the Blackhawk is hitting some that is strong against Piercing and weak against Shadow and vice-versa, but it has no way of displaying that eventuality as something other than a "this is weak" grey number. I'm constantly shooting Oilers with my Blackhawk -- since everything else in my arsenal is fire-based, derp -- and getting grey numbers from the Piercing damage, but remember that Slimes are weak to Shadow so it evens out. The game simply doesn't show it with the damage animation.

Don't worry, your guns aren't broken or anything. Just look at the damage numbers until this issue is fixed (and I'm quite sure it's an issue that needs fixing, OOO).

...Unless you're upset that your Silversix on Tier 2 is only doing average damage around 30, in which case I'll just tell you to suck it up, because that's what it's supposed to do. A single combo of six shots doing a total of 180 damage on Tier 2 is actually pretty damn good from a gun that doesn't restrict movement.

One of my friends invited me into a party, into the Firestorm Citadel. My Level 10 Silversix was doing gold damage, 76s, left and right against the burning skeletons. My friend's antigua was only hitting 22s.