The Boltshot is one of the best designed weapons in Halo history. Here’s why:
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Balance. Comparable close range threats that you can start with are plasma grenades and a plasma punch (charged up plasma pistol into melee). You lose the massive utility of the plasma pistol in tradeoff for a bit more range on the close kills, and you don’t trade kills as is so often done with the plasma grenades. The Boltshot also does not force you to use a grenade slot for plasmas, though no threat to vehicles is provided.
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High skill cap. The Boltshot is one of the most difficult weapons to use effectively given the charge time, inability to hold charge, short range, and cooldown period after firing charged shots.
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Not just a weak shotgun. Clearly the reason why you are using the Boltshot is to give some short range threat potential (or you’d be using a magnum), but it’s nice that you still have some, albeit weak, potential to put damage at range and even headshot.
Thank you 343i so giving so much attention to the weapon design. It’s a lot of fun to have some new toys to learn to both use and play against. Keep up the good work.