I didn't originally use them but I had a few orbs and enough crowns to blow off to some random crafting (we've all felt that urge at some point) and I landed a CTR: Med on my shadow driver so I use it more now.

Because alchemers reward you for being a good shot.
If you can hit the right spot on your target you get additional damage from internal rebounds.
If you can hit more than one enemy at the same time, you multiply the rebounds!

...What? You must be confusing me with Grimranger or someone else...

@OP:

I've had a Magma Driver since I was 2* (still my baby), and I recently made a storm driver. Mainly for countering Undeads and Constructs. Storm for fire ones, and fire for shock ones.

EDIT: Wittiness added.

Storm driver with 6 shots like AP. Make it happen. OP gun for the win.

Firotech was my first (handgun investment). It may as well be my last.

It rarely sees action--mainly as flavor or for a personal handicap--but it is unique without being weak. I call it the turret-killer. Use it on a turret on the right in a group, and take them down all at once from a safe distance.

Except I wasn't yelling or being mean in any way possible? :S

cuz OP exploitable ricoche mechanic

You aren't taking into account the gunner patch.

@Khamsin

Wait, did OOO already release the gunner update? No? Did they officially announce what the guns are and what they do? No? Then how do you take the gunner patch into account, other than saying "there may soon be more guns to choose from"?

Alchemers are safe and kind of boring, but I'm glad I picked a few up.

In my opinion, alchemers are among the least boring guns. They take skill to use optimally, and they really reward that skill. It's so gratifying to pull off the ricochets well.

In my opinion, the most boring guns are Argent, Sentenza, Valiance (no thought involved). Medium-interest guns include magnuses (you have to make each shot count), pulsars (managing knockback), and autoguns (shooting without dying). The most interesting guns are alchemers (managing ricochets) and catalyzers (if your party lets you kill anything).

Where/when did OOO say they were going to remove internal ricochets and adding invinciticks?

The closest I could find was: "The Gunner Update aims to make the use of handguns as a primary weapon more viable by balancing existing guns and gun-centric gear as well as some general changes to handgun behaviors."

My magma driver was my first reliable gun. It's still my favorite handgun I have, and I make excellent use of utilizing it with swords. Honestly, I don't use it for the internal ricochets, but rather for my slash and shoot style. I hit an enemy with my sword, shield bump them, then shoot them. The charge shot is also beautiful for the final wave in construct arenas, since the charge shot moves too fast for the mecha knights to shield.

Skepticraven, the exact angle at which the ricochets occur is random on regular attacks. But the ricochets always go in roughly the same direction (e.g. to the west, if you're shooting north), so you can consistently aim at one side of your target (e.g. east side, if you're shooting north), and nail them with ricochets. And the ricochets on the charge attacks are even less random.

Maybe my standards are low (I'm not much of a video game player), but it took me a while to master the ricochets, so I find them satisfying as a game play element (as well as very powerful). Your mileage may vary.

^AP has more range I believe.

Also, Alchemers win because they have the best damage-mobility-bullet speed ratios. Valiance is fast, but lower damage. Supernova is high dmg and mobility, but slow bullets. Callahan is high damage but crap mobility, yet wicked fast bullets. Neutralizer is slow bullets but low damage and ggreat mobility. Peacemaker is fast bullets and movement speed, bt low damage. The onpy reason people use other guns is because the clip for alchemers is annoyingly small, which is sorta cheated by alchemer switching. (As a gunner, I think alchemer switching is a perfectly legit yet op method of gunning. Not like OOO will be able to do anything about it in 10 years, so we have nothing to worry about.)

Alchemers! Boring as crap, but high utility makes up for it! Still not as bad as repeatedly smashing the attack button on polarises. Easily can tell who's an idiot based on that, right? No? Maybe. Ok.

Shadowstarkirby (four posts earlier) what did you say about the Catalyzers? It's one of my favourite guns of choice because:
1. Poison+shadow...what boss do I think of. Also the only other poison+shadow gun have dissappeared into the unknown depths, more enigmatic than the swarm itself.
2. I can stack up real high damage without letting healers notice. Even without poison.
3. It's very satisfying to stack up 15 bullets, activate maskeraith, and release the inferno. The booming inferno.
4. It can OHKO(kind of) something without being OP. Nobody ever complains about how OP it is.
5. The normal bullets of the 4* Toxic catalyzer can kill a t3 normal Gremlin Mender in three shots (the shield does not activate, no UV's). Right now every gremlin dodges backwards and continue running forward, into the bullet. (Buff their dodging!)

The only downside I actually find is that swordies knock away your enemies before you'll be able to kill them, forcing you to use normal bullets.

Please note that I'm talking about pure viability here, the fun weapons are getting no symphony from me with these posts.

Okay, Biohazard Vs. Sentenza/Umbra Driver....

1. Yeah, Biohazard is awesome against JK. That's just about it, it fills a weak niche. Like you've said, there's a new poison + shadow gun in town that puts this to shame with it's larger clip, more damage output, safety, and poison as well. Even if you didn't get Carbine, you'd be better off getting Sentenza over Biohazard cause it kills things much more efficiently and safely.

2. Take into account that they actually do dodge Biohazard charge bullets, so if you miss, you'll very likely regret it. Even if they didn't dodge the bullets, healers are usually spawned with a large mob protecting them. You realistically don't have time to plant 4+ charges, then fire a shot after to get that incredible instant kill when you have Mechaknights following you on your tail, you'd be better off strafing and gradually damaging it instead with an Umbra's strafe ricochets.

3. Sure it's satisfying. But viability wise, it's very dangerous and time consuming. You already know there are less risky ways to destroy mobs.

4. If it were overpowered, I'm certain more people would be using it over any other shadow gun. It isn't, cause it's a late destroyer. With a SK filled with mates that use brandishes, sealed swords, pulsar, alchemers--you know, the stuff that give instant results, the usefulness of this gun flies straight into the fun hipster pile of weapons, it just doesn't compare to the other shadow guns.

5. You're thinking on "Normal", also assuming you're playing alone cause you kill a mender in 3 shots. I'm speaking from a perspective where you're on Elite with multiple members in your party, which is the usually norm of parties. Normal mode, you can get away with absolutely anything, go nuts with whatever you want cause everything kills the enemies decently with their lowered health and damage. Elite mode though emphasizes you use the best you have and Biohazard doesn't reach close to being that compared to other shadow guns. Carbine 1-ups what little Biohazard had going for itself in the first place. Umbra 1-ups Sentenza damage, charge, and mob clearing capabilities like I mentioned earlier.

So yeah, Biohazard is neat, but the reason is obvious why people don't use it over other options. It's very fun though, I'd like to see it brought up to par with the other guns. :)

@Krakaob

Oh, my mistake. The BH is the crapppy one. But....wat?

ZEDDY INVESTIGATION PLS

Blackhawk vs rocket pups

I got a Blackhawk. It works great against howlitzers heads. No joke. Not sure about rocket puppies though. I'll check when I have time to FSC.

I use storm driver because polaris is a kids gun and I still like the shock :)

"Oh no, you can use polaris like a pro, you just gota have the skills"

^ just thought i'd throw that in there so the rest of you wouldn't have to. Only Contri has the skills.. and maybe Sr-Fists. Some people do have the magical power of insiting rage in their opponents with this weapon to almost make them gravitate toward the bullets.

I'm hoping the new guns don't include another polaris type that you can use with your eyes closed... but whatev. We'll deal with it like we always have :).

something like this? It works with every handguns...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSxkAWM1w-8

I explain it in bad english in this page >_>
http://wiki.spiralknights.com/Blitz_Needle_at_Clockworks#Understanding_H...

Blackhawk range is fine, it's just the beginning point where bullets start to appear is way behind the guns, usually behind your own knights body. That makes the range seems shorter.

What Poopsie is showing off is making his bullets explode against the wall, while the rocket is there, thus making the bullet hit the rocket.

I imagine Blackhawk is hitting the rocket 'cause it just happens to stop right where the rocket gets spat out by the puppy.

Gotta figure out how to make a youtube and post a vid.

So it was tough in the beginning; rockets don't actually shoot straight. If I shot at it head-on (after breaking the three blocks) the rocket would jump up 1-2 tiles (tiles being a unit of distance) and continue without being hit. Same happened if I shot from the lower 45 angle. However, I could occasionally hold the rocket in place for a couple of seconds. Then I was able to reliably hit and destroy the rocket from the upper 45 angle as shown in the video. It could have something to do with the way the rocket spawns so I'd like to test what poopsie did.

Oh and my technique was no-AT spam in the general direction of the rocket. Hey, it works with howlitzers heads 95% of the time.

See the second rocket in Poopsie's video? That jump that it did when it was launched kept happening to me. Cost me an emergency revive, 1 chill pill and a vita pill to figure out how to deal with it.