Are they worth using for the skill bonus? Im at the place on the chart that says I should use a Breer 3 but it uses twice the ammo of my current gun and it seems like overkill for what Im hunting. Is the bonus really that great where I would use something less eco?
You should always use a weapon once you have left SIB period. Whatever skill increase bonus there may be (personally I have never noticed one) it is not worth the loss in eco from using an un-maxed weapon. Also, you do not have to use the biggest weapon you can. Its just as important to match your weapon to your bankroll as it is to match it to your skill.
I agree with svena and I think most people would as well. Though you would gain skills faster while in SIB, you are essentially paying for those extra skill gains via poor dmg/pec. Personally I don't touch a (L) gun until I'm at least 95% maxed on it, that way I do get some nice skill gains but don't suffer too bad from the poor dmg/pec. Usually though I only use maxed weapons, because I am not really in a hurry to lose peds As for overkill... You shouldn't hunt small mobs with a big gun, if you do you will lose ped every run. Try to hunt mobs that take 10-15 shots to kill with your gun, and if possible use a smaller finisher weapon that does minimal/zero overkill.
There is one time when you need to use a gun in the SIB period... when you're just starting out. You won't hunt very efficiently until it's maxed ("not anymore") but just keep at it and it'll come soon enough. There are also occasions when it can be OK to use a big gun on small mobs. For example, a weapon that does 14 max damage is not bad for rapid hunting of punies, as long as you use a small finisher for when you don't kill the mob in one shot. Because of the typical damage the weapon does, you're not wasting any more than if you'd used a small weapon for the whole mob. I skilled up longblades rapidly this way on carabok with a labrys.
1.5 hits to kill a mob while in SIB sounds a bit risky. You could potentially MISS 1-2 shots every few mobs, which would make for a significant decrease in dps and dmg/pec as each additional shot/hit adds 100% to the cost to kill (and cannot be expected back in loot). Sounds like a scenario that would end often in 30% returns. But hey perhaps I'm wrong, and I should have been 1 hit killing all along I dunno
I wouldn't try to 1 shot them until you're maxed on the weapon. However, if you miss 10% of your shots using a tiny weapon or 10% of your shots using a big damage weapon, I don't see that it's any difference in the long term. The absolute most eco way to kill them is to find the tiniest weapon you can, which is going to be 1.5-3.0, and you'll still be doing nearly 10% overkill with that. So there's really nothing about punies that's super eco in terms of loot per peds spent, but they are cheap in terms of overall peds spent per hour, and give great skill gains for new players (under level 15).
