So im normally a sworder, but i want to try some guns like the pulsar line or catalyzer one. The thing is i dont know which one to choose, i want something both equally useful and kinda fun to support my swords or even try a set with a bomb and a gun....
Anyways which one could be an all-rounder? or at least most useful? I want to see if its worth getting more guns and even farm again the twins for more tokens
I'll say this; Pulsar line are very good all-rounder guns. Very good. Polaris is a beast (Supernova is pretty good too. I have both.). However, if you do not solo A LOT, your team will hate it when you use it... unless you use it really well, and don't screw up everyone else' attack patterns.
Catalyzer is fun, but really hard to use the charge shots. However, when you can place 3-5+ charges on an enemy... they will die in a lovely explosion that rocks the world. It's quite fun, but i will emphasize this point: It's really hard to land that many shots and then set it off. And it takes time.. This is not a gun for quickly killing your enemy. The normal shots do pretty decent damage though, for a gun (I have the most experience with Biohazard, which is great for shadow weak mobs... gremlins dodge it really well though...)
The catalyzer line can be a very powerful addition to your arsenal. The Biohazard has more pure same shadow damage as an Acheron would have, and can far out-damage the Umbra Driver if you know how to use it correctly. The Neutralizer, has more damage than the valiance and is equal in normal damage to the Iron Slug, and is just a little weaker than a Leviathan Blade.
Most people don't use the catalyzer because it's a bit hard to stack up shots with the charge. Best known secret is NOT to use the charge, and just use the first 2 shots of the combo (like valiance). Sure, the gun may be slow, but this could be one of it's greatest assets. Due to the slowness of the gun, you could form a wall of catalyzer shots, or, use a charge and immediately shoot a normal bullet, giving the enemy no time to react.
This gun can also be very deadly in PvP, causing poison, which isn't considered a strong status, most players will just walk through your catalyzer bullets to try and murder you. However, if you can keep dodging their swipes, and firing more bullets, you will be able to weaken/kill them. And if you can score a lucky poison, good for you!
both are ok weps i think but i havent had one since i fell off my dinosaur XD
Er... I'm not trying to be discouraging. Obviously I use them, and obviously I'm in the process of crafting ANOTHER catalyzer... soooo, I'm not discouraging it, I'm simply stating that it's not easy to use to cause a ton of damage, quickly, and easily. I also said "normal shots do pretty decent damage..."
Catz are great guns, they really are, and the normal damage one has a sweet vibrant blue bullet color!
I thought I did a pretty good job of telling how the gun works... I guess not.
what are you talking about?
"The Biohazard has more pure same shadow damage as an Acheron would have"
Acheron should not be compared to Biohazard... it's not even... how do you... why in the... say what? It's a shadow weapon, that is the ONLY similarity. I'm sorry, I'm not angry, I'm just very confused why you are comparing Bio to Acheron. Please explain.
Pulsar vs. Catalyzer
if you want the overall utility, I recommend the normal damage pulsar, aka, the supernova. It has normal damage thus allowing to push the living crap out of any monster in the game. Pulsar's bullets does have its limitation, first off, it is much slower than the blaster, alchy and antigua bullets, dodgy enemies like wolvers and devilites can easily evade if you just shoot pulsar like a moron. Pulsar are, yes, like others have said, is not team friendly, many veterans, in both LD and PvE will scorn you for using it. Pulsar's charge attack is a joke, just don't bother with it.
There are new pulsars with the gunner update coming in a month. Fire and freeze. ANd I would say pulsar over catalyzer. Much more rage inducing in both PvE and PvP. And utility wise, iit can give a good bit of breathing room for you, much faster than catalyzer.
I keep seeing people posting about the guns in the Gunner update, I thought that wasn't allowed on here?
Although if anyone wants to get a hold of me on Steam so that I can see the picture of all the new guns again... :D
EDIT: Also, to reply to the OP: I don't know what pet you have but I haven't needed my 3* shadow catalyzer for poison since I got my maskeraith. I haven't really tried it's normal shots much, but like any gun it's best with gunner gear. As a swordie, if you are just wanting a sidearm, the most common suggestion is an elemental anti-turret gun, or just get a gun that helps against some type of enemy that you often have trouble fighting with a sword. I heavily rely on my gigwatt for getting rid of gun puppies, howlitzers, and even polyps since the expanded shots interrupt their attacks. I'd recommend the Polaris line, as long as you are careful when using it in parties. It's also handy against large groups of fiends if you are low on health, shocking kats to prep them for sword attacks, or pushing away groups of enemies to give you some breathing room.
As Bopp said, both guns aren't good if you're a swordie.
Pulsars have knockback but Polaris (Trollaris, because it makes everyone rage) shocks enemies and cancels its own knockback. It seems powerful but it's weak. Supernova is superior because it doesn't inflict shock, which means you get more knockback. Its damage is better than Trollaris too: Trollaris deals more damage only vs. Undead and Constructs while Supernova outdamages it against Fiends, Slimes, Gremlins and Beasts.
About Catalyzers, the situation about their damage is the same. Biohazard (shadow Catalyzer) outdamages Neutralizer (normal Catalyzer) only vs. Slimes and Gremlins, and inflicts Poison but Bio isn't useful against Gremlins. Neutralizer doesn't posion but outdamages Biohazard against Undead, Fiends, Constructs and Beasts.
Supernova vs. Neutralizer: Neutralizer (N) has slower bullets than Supernova (S). On normal shots, Supernova's bullets must travel more than half of their travel distance to outdamage N's bullets. Otherwise, N outdamages S. S has useless charge attack while N has a very powerful, very fast and fun-to-use charge attack. N fires a slow bullet (looks exactly like the normal ones) that sticks to your enemy for 18 secons. In this time, you just need to fire a normal shot to detonate the charge: a powerful AOE explosion that can hit many enemies, it has knockback and a chance to hit 2-3 times a monster and OHKO it.
Well, pulsar is mainly about pushing monsters away.
Catalyzer is about inflicting huge amounts of damage at a go.
Pulsar=party support
Catalyzer= solo
Pulsars are great for soloing because of interruption+area+damage+status+mobility. They screw your party over because of the hard to control knockback.
Catalyzers, meanwhile, are the most advanced weapons in the game with highly controlable knockback so long as you don't bombard everything with charges. For example, shooting a charge on an enemy and then shooting a detonating shot as soon as possible has a predictable result. Any proper Catalyzer user should know that result. The knight closest to mastering Catalyzers I've seen is Sir Fehzor. She knows plenty about using them well, and how to use them in groups of mindless swordsmen.
That said, the oh so rare Catalyzer user should be more worried about being screwed over by their teammates rather than the other way around, as it is with Pulsars. If a group is informed, Catalyzers are tremendous tools that can cooporate with all kinds of crowd control and deal sick damage, rather than shooting four charge bullets that fail to detonate because brainless sowrdsmen who know how to press their attack button kill the wrong enemies.
The best part about Catalyzers is using several of them, no matter. It's surprisingly effective and tons of fun.
The pulsar can be highly utilized to either a good or bad extent. The pulsar's knock back can be effective when dealing with crowding enemies, usually around bottlenecks and can be helpful when a knight or group of knights are trapped in a room. Well, pulsar does annoy many when pushing back enemies while ppl are trying to hit them with swords, so it really depends on how you use it.
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If I had to choose either of these guns for a Swordie, the choice would be Pulsar, though Alchemers and Antigua lines are less of an annoyance on your party members so I highly suggest changing your options. If you don't know how to restrain yourself from spamming it, people will hate you, no matter how effective it is in destroying enemies. The knockback makes the area unnecessarily dangerous against enemies that aren't bolted to the ground.
Catalyzer fills a niche purpose and shouldn't be used by a Swordie under any circumstance unless you want to have fun with it, or are a Gunslinger that's dual switching guns (Val + Bio/Neut is a very nice Gunslinger combo in both PvE and PvP).
I'll say Pulsar and leave before I get banned for spoilers.
You'll thank me later.
For your specific question: Google pulsar catalyzer site:forums.spiralknights.com. It's been asked so many times, you see.
Since you said that you want guns to support a sworder lifestyle: I wouldn't recommend either Pulsar or Catalyzer. To see what I would recommend, try the Mixing Weapon Types section of my detailed sword guide.