Since late 2021, Gunfire Reborn has been out in the world as a full release. The game spent more than a year in Early Access, and in that time went through many massive changes, new additions, and revamps of previous systems.
Because of this, a lot of players returning to the game to check out the Visitors of the Spirit Realm DLC that introduced two new characters (Xing Zhe the monkey as well as Li the fox ) or the new Spiritual Assault Survival Mode are having to rediscover the game again. So, let's take a look at some key aspects of Gunfire Reborn that people seem to be missing.
Updated February 3rd, 2023 by Jacob Buchalter:As far as roguelites go, Gunfire Reborn is one of the more creative examples. With a heavy emphasis on Chinese history and folklore, likely because the developers at Duoyi Games are based in China, the mechanics, characters, and general language of Gunfire Reborn are all incredibly unique. But, due to some confusing translations, unexplained mechanics, or just the sheer amount of systems in the game, there's a lot that people miss. So let's comb through it all and pick out some of the aspects people seem to be missing the most.
13 Pressing F10 Hides The HUD
Now, this isn't something that will make a huge impact on gameplay overall, but for people who like to game without all these intrusive UI elements getting in their way, Gunfire at least has an easy way to turn the HUD off. During gameplay, at any point, players can press F10 and hide their HUD completely, which is incredibly helpful for taking screenshots. Not only that, it makes it a bit easier to tell what exactly is going on during the more…chaotic moments. That said, players also won't be able to keep track of their health, but thankfully the pulsing near the edges of the screen when at low health can still give them some clues.
12 Giving Up On Run Refunds All Spiritual Essence Spent Refreshing Spiritual Remnant
One of the mechanics that many people coming back to Gunfire Reborn (now that it's entirely 'released') are just now discovering are the Spiritual Talents purchased at the Spiritual Remnant NPC. This mushroom-shaped NPC is basically another type of merchant that exclusively offers unique talents to players in exchange for Spiritual Essence. And, depending on the talent picked in combination with the character the player is using, it can create some absurdly powerful builds.
Because of this, a lot of people are finding themselves burning through their stockpile of Spiritual Essence refreshing this shop every time it shows up. Well, thankfully, if players can tell that this run isn't really 'worth' all the Essence invested in it so far, they can just pick the 'Quit' option in the pause menu, and they'll be sent back to the tavern with all their Spirit Essence refunded to them.
11 Movement Speed Depends On Weapon-Type
There are a lot of aspects of Gunfire Reborn that players sort of have to figure out through experience rather than trying to look it up or parse it by the aspect's description. And, one 'hidden' mechanic that players probably haven't noticed is that weapons absolutely have different movement speed modifiers on them. It doesn't say any of these numbers in the Logbook descriptions of the weapons, but it's very clear to see (when looking for it) that players move slower while using a Launcher than they do with a Submachine Gun.
So, for characters that benefit from a lot of movement speed, such as Qing Yan, it might be worth it to keep an eye out for lighter weapons while playing them. And, worst case scenario, the Foundry default pistol is always equipped and doesn't hamper movement speed at all, so players can just switch to this whenever they need to cover some distance quickly.
10 The Entire Elemental Fusion System
Gunfire has an Elemental system, just like a lot of other modern titles such as Borderlands 3 or Genshin Impact. These systems usually involve players needing to balance using certain elements against others in combat, sort of like Pokemon.
For example, certain enemies in Gunfire take more damage from certain elements. To be more specific, it's a lot like Borderlands, actually, where Corrosive damage is great for Armor, Electric damage is perfect against shields, and Fire damage is the best way to tear down red health. And, each of these Elements, when used, has a chance to inflict debuffs as well. There's
- Decay for Corrosion Damage
- Burning for Fire Damage
- Shock for Electric Damage
Triggering these elemental effects isn't a surefire thing, but has a high chance to trigger while the enemy is taking Elemental Damage. And, when the elemental effect is applied and another player applies a different elemental effect, this creates a Fusion Effect. Fusion Effects don't consume the applied elemental effects when triggered, and the Fusion Effect created depends on the combination of elements on the enemy in question. For example:
- The Burning and Decay debuffs blend to create the Combustion Fusion Effect.
- Burning and Shock debuffs combine to create the Manipulation Fusion Effect.
- And Shock plus Decay equals the Miasma Fusion Effect.
So, communicating with teammates is actually more important than before, as making sure to use different elemental types can lead to some pretty broken Fusion Effect usage. Players can also trigger this on their own without having to switch back and forth using either a Gemini effect or by playing Ao Bai.
9 Critical Hits Aren't Lucky Shots & Vice Versa
The Lucky Shot mechanic that Gunfire Reborn is actually not all that new. A lot of games these days seem to have similar mechanics where players can trigger random critical hits but can also fire at enemy weak points for extra damage. In Gunfire specifically, Lucky Shots are triggered randomly based on Lucky Shot Chance and Critical Hits are based on headshots or weak point hits.
Many players aren't aware of this, and even fewer of them are aware that Lucky Shots can stack on top of Critical Hits, creating some truly astronomical damage numbers. So, players should make sure and keep an eye on both their Critical Hit Chance and Lucky Shot Chance as well as make sure to never get them confused for one another.
8 The Bounty Hunter Talent Is Easily Exploitable
On the second-to-last tier of the shared general Talent Tree (not the Hero-specific Talents on the far right), there's a skill called Bounty Hunter. And, with this Skill, players will receive one copper for each Critical Hit. Now, that might not sound like a lot, but it really adds up, especially if players focus on it during a run.
Not only can players aim for Critical Hits by just aiming at weak points, but with the right type of weapon they can get a ton of lower-damage Critical Hits to trigger in sequence. The Laser and Thunderclap Gloves are perfect examples, as they're low-damage weapons that hit a ton of times in a row, which is perfect for getting this Skill to trigger as often as possible.
7 Some Build Combinations Are Literally Detrimental
So, with the constant bug fixes, patches, and updates Gunfire seems to be consistently getting since it first released (which, kudos to the devs for the consistent support), one might think that the balance of the game is perfect. It isn't, but the unbalanced aspect of it is sort of intentional. Players can quite easily break the mechanics of their chosen Hero to great effect. For example, with the right combinations, Qian Sui never has to put his Tidal Aegis down, meaning he's basically invincible at all times. That said, this imbalance works in both directions, and players can completely destroy their own damage if they aren't careful.
This usually is fixable in a main game run, as players can just drop the scroll or weapon that seems to be countering their character/build. But, in Spiritual Assault, certain Spiritual Ascension and Spiritual Jade combinations can completely ruin a run, even on the default Crown Prince character. For example, if a player is running any of the Conversion Spiritual Jades that convert all of their damage into one elemental type, and then they grab the Elemental Prohibition Ascension, they literally can't do damage with weapons anymore.
6 There Are Tons Of 'Broken' Overpowered Combinations
While the topic of the Occult Scrolls system is being discussed, a good portion of players seemed to miss most if not all the ways certain scrolls can be abused. For example, players can use the same Paranormality Scroll seen in the image above to double their Shield (or Armor in Qing Yan's case) entirely. One would assume that having 1 HP would stop players from being able to open any of the Red Chests that take a certain amount of health as 'payment' for opening.
But the solution is actually simple. Players just need to drop the Paranormality Scroll, open the chest, pick up the scroll, and move on. And, while that's just one example there are a ton of other ways to exploit the game by being clever with the systems in place or with certain scroll combinations, and this was one of the more 'tame' examples.
5 Both The Share & Recycle Features
While Gunfire Reborn was in early access, this system used to involve picking up a Scroll or Weapon, dropping it so that friends in co-op would see it in their instance of the game, and that's how players would share gear. Thankfully, the devs did eventually add a way to do this more naturally with the 'Share' feature.
When hovering over any Weapon or Scroll in multiplayer, even the ones currently floating above open chests, players should see the 'Share' option underneath the weapon stats. Pressing the 'Share' input will then make that item visible to everyone else in the current multiplayer session. Additionally, too many players are also sleeping on the 'Recycle' feature in the game, again because it's a feature that didn't use to be there. With Recycle, players can turn unwanted Weapons into little pockets of currency, though they won't be able to Recycle any Shared Weapons, since that would sort of break the game balance.
4 Players Can Pause Their Runs In-Between Zones
Wow, a ton of players seemed to have missed or misunderstood how the Resting Points work. Gunfire has some fantastic level design, with each new stage feeling more unique than the last. There are four main "zones" in Gunfire Reborn, with the most recent one coming alongside the Visitors of the Spirit Realm DLC. There's the Longling Tomb, the Anxi Desert, the Duo Fjord, and the Hyperborean Jokul. And, after clearing the boss (whichever one it is) of each zone, players will go through a transition screen that has some sort of well, campfire, or resting area.
Here, they can meet with the Spiritual Remnant NPC and purchase another Spiritual Ascension if they so choose. But, this area is also meant to function as a break area for those in single-player, as it gives them the option to return to the Inn. This is so that players aren't forced to keep the game open or focus on the entire run at once, and can instead break it up into multiple sections without consequence.
3 You Don't Have To Always Switch Past The Foundry Pistol
Yes, the weapon that all players "start" with and are stuck with for at least a room or two (before they unlock the Arms Support Talent) is called The Foundry. And, by default, the Foundry weapon rotation when players are switching between their primary and secondary. Not a huge deal in the grand scheme of things, but it can be annoying for builds that switch back and forth constantly to trigger Fusion Effects.
Luckily, there is a way to get The Foundry out of the rotation in the settings menu. It should be easy to see within the first tab of the options menu 'Game Settings' with an option that states 'Include default weapon when switching weapons'. All players need to do is switch this to 'Off' and the Foundry will never accidentally pop up again. Players can still switch to it if needed by using the Foundry-specific input, but it's nice not to be forced to cycle past it every time.
2 Pop Those Ichthyosaurus Orbs & Use The Wind Against The Wind God
A surprising amount of Gunfire Reborn players still don't seem to be aware that the orbs the Ichthyosaurus Offspring launches from its tail can be shot mid-air. Yes, that's right, these annoying Corrosive spheres can be shot down before they ever have a chance to land and sully the battlefield with annoying puddles of sludge. Again, this seems like something all players would know by the time they unlocked Elite Mode, but there are quite a few that just never picked up on this & just toughed this section of the boss fight out. And, using a beam or explosive weapon during this section is a fantastic way to inflict some real damage while more efficiently getting rid of most if not all of those annoying orbs.
Coincidentally, the other boss of the Anxi Desert, the Wind God, also has a little mechanic like this that not many players are aware of. Throughout the Wind God's battle, they'll summon a variety of smaller tornadoes and sandstorms to frustrate and chase the players while they fight. Not only that, but throughout the fight, little Reverse Vortexes will spawn on the field as well that drag players who step into them into the center and deal constant damage. But, players might not know that if they kite the sandstorms or tornadoes so that they collide with this Vortex, the two opposing winds will cancel each other out, getting rid of both field hazards.
1 Enemy Outlined In Red = Perfect Range
And lastly, here's a little aspect of the UI design that a ton of players didn't pick up on, in fact, there may be some 200+ hour players reading this whose jaws are about to drop in surprise. Simply put, if an enemy is outlined in red while the player's crosshair is trained on them, it means they're within range of whatever weapon the player is using.
That's it, that's the whole tip. It seems like a given, but considering how lightning-fast & chaotic Gunfire Reborn's moment-to-moment gameplay is, a ton of players missed out on this little bit of intuitive design and are constantly missing with certain weapons without understanding why.
Gunfire Reborn is available now for Xbox One, Xbox Series X and Series S, PlayStation 4, Android, Nintendo Switch, and Microsoft Windows.