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A soldier has a wide selection of weapons available, including an assortment of demolition devices such as the grenade/proximity bomb LAM, EMP grenades, gas grenades, and scramble grenades. As previously mentioned in this section, it's wise for you to choose a particular class of firearm and begin improving your skills. Also, use weapon modifications, typically purchased or found in locked cabinets and crates, to improve your favorite weapons. Don't use modifications on weapons you think you may give up on - you'll just waste their benefits! Weapons: Low-Tech A soldier probably won't have much time for low-tech melee weapons; however, don't overlook their usefulness. If you're having trouble maintaining your health status or gathering ammunition, it would be to your benefit to incapacitate enemies with low-tech weapons, which, for the most part, don't require ammunition. The prod is probably one of the most effective low-tech weapons, but it requires prod charges. Hand weapons, such as the sword, crowbar, and baton, can be effective, but they require combat strength augmentation to reach their potential. Weapons: Pistol The pistol class of weapons is nice because they don't take up much room in your inventory slots. But the trade-off is that they simply aren't that powerful. Pistol ammo is plentiful, but it takes many shots to finish off an enemy troop. During that time you're likely to take damage, or worse, because the enemy has time to switch on an alarm or alert other troops to your presence. The minicrossbows are good for stealth attacks, and the tranquilizer dart is extremely effective if you have an escape route where you retreat from the irritated, and quite drugged, guard. Weapons: Rifle The midrange rifle weapons could be considered the most diverse. Rifles take up far less room than the heavy weapons (but considerably more than pistols) and can inflict enough damage to incapacitate an enemy relatively quickly. Assault rifles can be a soldier's bread and butter with their ballistic and grenade ammunition. Use the ballistics against organic guards and the grenades against tougher commandos, men in black, and bots. Shotguns are extremely powerful at close range (the sawed-off version being the most effective) and also include ammunition (sabot rounds) that's effective against mechanized bots. The sniper rifle can be deadly in the right hands but requires improvement (either rifle skill or a weapon modification) to reach its potential. Without improvements, the sniper rifle's jittery nature can be trouble. Weapons: Heavy The most powerful weapons also take up the most room in your inventory slots. Placing even one heavy weapon - such as the flamethrower, light antitank weapon, GEP rocket launcher, and plasma rifle - can consume enough inventory slots to force you to sacrifice useful items, such as grenades, armor, or hazmat suits. It's a tough decision, because the heavy weapons are extremely powerful, and most are able to take down organic enemies in a single burst. Let's start with the light antitank weapon, or the LAW. Whenever you uncover a LAW, which possesses a single shot, you should immediately empty enough inventory slots to snag it. Scout the area to find a good place to use the LAW, typically against a security or military bot, a tough enemy like a commando or man in black, or even a pesky turret. Use the LAW, then return to your dropped items and recover them into your now-open inventory slots. The flamethrower and plasma rifle are excellent against organic targets, but their ammunition (napalm canisters and plasma clips) is quite rare. It's possible you'll spend most of the game lugging the weapon around with little or no ammunition. The flamethrower can be very effective when being surrounded by troops. One quick and wide spread should make short work of any group of enemies. The GEP gun is perhaps the all-purpose heavy weapon that can assist in nearly every Deus Ex situation. Its homing rockets can knock out guards and commandos in a single shot. If you shoot into a crowd, you can take down multiple guards in a single burst - one shot will take down a camera, turret, or spider bot, and two shots can take down the heaviest of military bots. Should you have the inventory slots available, grabbing a GEP gun early (as early as the first mission) can make tough situations very easy. Plus, if you can't find a way through that locked door, often it's possible to blow it apart with the GEP gun.
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