If you need a sword to beat the game, I fell sorry for you.

"If you need a sword to beat the game, I fell sorry for you."

Here, let me help you up.

+1 Zeddy

Weapons that require specialized gear to be effective is almost *proof* that said weapon is a sidearm. In real life, primary weapons like rifles are effective in many situations, but to make, say, a saber effective, you really need to sharpen and strengthen it to let it cut through modern armor. Similarly, sidearms like pistols must be buffed or used in specific circumstances in order to be effective enough to compete with rifles.

Note that this isn't proof that any of the above weapons are sidearms, but it is a strong indication of the possibility.

Sidearms weapons in this game are the kind of weapons you can take with you while trying to do Dauntless Delver without switching any of your equipment for the whole run (which is how I got it myself) at arsenal stations because you have no need for equipment bonuses for that sidearm weapon and can use it interchangeably with any setup that has an open weapon space for it.

Weapons I personally use as sidearms in order of preference for versatility include:

• Valiance
• Vanquisher
• Dread Venom (only if I am not already using Venom Veiler)
• GFaust
• Furious Flamberge (only if I am not already using Agni)

After that they usually see more blo- I mean, action than the bombs I would rather be using. I always use bombing armor of some sort (>90% of the time Mad Bomber) and have done so for the past >8 months. I used to activate one or two weapon slots to carry at least two bombs and one sidearm. More than half of the time when I have all four slots open one of them is going to be Valiance. When it comes to being the only person who runs around with a Graviton, Valiance is the thunder to my lightning.

The sidearms you listed were guns and swords. I find that interesting.

Is a rocket launcher a sidearm? It's cumbersome to use, you'd need to lug a goddamn crate around for ammo and probably have men dedicated to reloading the dang thing to be effective. It's not the kind of dedication you'd put to a weapon unless it was a primary pillar in your strategy. Your examples of sidearms involved making the weapons more powerful, but bomber gear is required for it to be convenient to use in the first place.

And yes, I would consider hand-grenades sidearms. The SK equivalent of hand grenades are catalyzers and pulsars.

EV is more of a sidearm than Vortex is. This is proven from the sheer amount of non-bombers bringing EV but not even considering GV. EV is easier to use, but GV does more damage, so you'd only bring GV if your intention is to primariily use it.

Ash of Agni is not a sidearm. >:[

You mean something like a sidearm? :p

Some people think bombs are side arms because... well when you start the game you are only given a gun and a sword. So naturally people start with the impression that "bomb is secondary as you can survive fine with just a sword and a gun".

My guesses on why this arrangement is in place are:

• the Devs have preference for sword and gun. Bombs come a distant third; or
• this game needs ranged attack to advance (to eliminate explosive barrels, to take out ghost blocks, to hit switches). Gun is the intuitive choice. Bomb with flying shards isn't very bomb like. (Someone please introduce frag grenades and claymore mines to the Devs.)
• two weapon slot limitation introduces a natural bias against one particular weapon type. Bomb got the shaft.

It all make sense when you think about it. So pick one of these and move on.

Wait, why do you keep starting these topics when the answer are pretty much well known?

SL is optional. Play it at least once for experience and no more than once unless you want for completion or story line. Bonus point if you like soloing the hardest content in the game.

It's never about the equipment or money unless you feel like wearing Almirian set as an expensive costume. (But seerously there are far better costumes around thanks to the various promotion.)

The Skolver set, in contrast, Not only gives the player pierce defense but also a word damage bonus of Very High.
Word bonus very high...me want

It not worth getting, uses to much ce. Especially if its your first run and key is just to much too!

Seerusly. maybe the snarbo is, BUT NOT THE REST!

Shadow lair armors are really just nice costumes. the only good one is snarby set. The rest are expensive costumes. usually I don't do an SL unless I can craft 2 or more pieces of armor in the sanctuary to get more bang for my key, but eff it. once you have a snarby set you need no more SL gear.

All shadow lair armor is superior, in some way, to the armor that they mimic. All niches filled by shadow lair armor benefit experienced players in particular, as newer players are not meant to attain such benefits at the start of their Spiral career.

Snarbolax armor is better than skolver in that it protects against multiple status effects- it may only give highs for each, but with UVs of med being readily attainable on wolver gear, there is no excuse to let that stop you. The best UVs for most armors are the ones that bump up the resistances that that armor/hat already has on it- for instance, snarbolax with poison med or freeze med would be superior to skolver, however, skolver with med ice would not be nearly as worthwhile as snarbolax with such, and skolver completely lacks the option for poison resistance... shadow makes it viable to get both, and does not hurt/help the armor along.

Ice Cream Clown and Body are both superior in the most obvious way- they give ice resistance rather than sleep resistance... seeing as to that there is no sleep status outside of vials, I feel it is safe to say that ice resistance, which does something, is superior to sleep resistance. In the obvious future that sleep status is re-invented, there would likely be some form of sleep resistant armor given out alongside the event, so as not to force players into crafting jelly armor, although that is altogether uncertain. The problem with this armor is more in that defensive armors in general are awful, not in that it lacks something huge.

Mercurial demo parallels bombastic armor, though could be seen as paralleling volcanic demo as well. The major advantage that it gives is the unique bonus known as MSI- vastly improving ones capacity to bomb, while still giving some bonuses so as to allow for UVs and trinkets to grant CTR. Again, most players entering shadow lairs are or should be capable of crafting UVs and affording trinkets, and thus should be able to utilize merc demo. MSI also allows for benefits not even related to bombing, such as improved strafing ability- the elemental defense that this gives may not bring much to the demo table, but it certain does bring something to the collection of MSI armors.

Heavenly iron armor offers an odd set of bonuses, that, while not always optimal, is still better than Valkyrie and skolver alike, in many scenarios. It allows the user to bring and fully utilize swords like leviathan to fight things that would otherwise give the user trouble- while still giving enough of a boost against fiends to justify using other weapons. It is also important to note that it has no weakness to fire. Valkyrie offers no protection from such a thing, while divine veil only covers your head and lacks the all-important normal defense. Likewise, players going through shadow lairs probably already have the trite bonuses that skolver has to offer, and could potentially welcome such a change.

Any experienced player can tell you that slimes and beasts are tied together often in the levels of Spiral Knights. They share many level themes and also appear alongside one another on in stratums marked towards one or other other. Likewise, Vog is prefered over snarbolax when visiting FSC, due to the prevalence of elemental damage during the boss fight, but also due to the large amount of fire damage that occurs, and this is for a reason: sonic mode. Sonic mode refers to the fact that when hit, the knight cannot be directly KO'd unless at a low health value. Fire breaks this law, making it possible to be "saved" at a low health value after one hit, and then die immediately to the flames- resisting fire lowers the chances of being lit, and so saves the knight. Elemental resistance also helps the knight when dodging bullets from gun-puppies, which also inhabit many levels where such bonuses, and may provide more of a threat than beasts which are quite frankly almost non-existant as a threat. This is the strength of Arcane Salamander... which, might I add, has slightly more elemental defense than volcanic salamander.

Finally, the heavily criticized Almirian armor. While the cost effectiveness of the armor is more than questionable, the amount of swag that comes with it is incredibly rewarding. It is a huge step above azure guardian as well, and can serve the important social role of building respect. This social advantage serves just as much, if not more, of a purpose than any other.

Regarding the cost of such armor- If you're running a SL entirely for the armor, then you're not doing it right. Most pieces of 5* gear come with the ability to craft multiple copies- SL gear comes with a unique, generally memorable, experience that beats pressing "Craft" in Haven and then logging off for the day. Consider SL gear to be next to free- would you buy a key and run a shadow lair if it didn't have any reward associated with it? I certainly would, just for the challenge, for the thrill. In the regard that you will, at some point, want to run one regardless of your need for cool armor, SL armor is 25K cr cheaper than typical 5* gear.

There comes a point, relatively early on, at which the player makes all of the weapons that they will need to play the game- at this point, the next logical step is to progress to content marked specifically as "dangerous"- and it is here where those players will find that they require specialized gear. Kat hats would not be neccessary if not for Heart of Ice- fire trinkets would not be needed if not for C42, and shock whisp immunity would be entirely useless if not for the likes of GitM. It is just beyond this point that the player has time for finding those armors that maximize their chances for success- which, might I add, are far easier to attain than maximum unique variants, which can go for absurd numbers on the auction house and forums. The need might not be immediate, but given time and a minute amount of motivation, most players will eventually find themselves using some form of offset gear.

Once offset gear is accepted into an arsenal, new combinations of gear arise. Deadshot+mercurial demo provides a good set for bombing+gunning through shock themed undead levels. SL armor fits very well into this- when you've got uneven UVs on all of your gear, then boosting them in exact ways is going to benefit you greatly. There is also that future content could, as I mentioned before, immediately turn the tide and make any one setup more practical- before C42, dragon scale mail was almost never seen. But people don't use dragon scale mail, do they? They use vog and things with fire resistance. But what if they don't have enough fire resistance on their vog? Maybe they'll make something else... like volcanic or heaven forbid arcane salamander, providing the necessary fire UV. I had shock UVs on my shock gear.. and when GitM came out, I was more than ready.

Even if the player has no desire to run the SL, the price of doing such a run is relatively similar to other armor costs, though SLs still usually serve as a trial of the player's ability to both organize a party and fight through enemies.

best costumes tho

Shadow lair armor not really too much worth getting............for a gunner/gunslinger/gunuser/userusegun/shooter/rangekiller/rangeattacker.

But still,gunner/gunslinger/gunuser/userusegun/shooter/rangekiller/rangeattacker can use arcane set,iron set,and ice sets, just not benefit much for gunner .

In general arcane set,snarby set,mercurial set is the higher set worth getting from the other.....IMO.