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Also see Shotgun (disambiguation).
The Jackhammer [1] (also known as the Impact Hammer) is the alternate variant of the Shotgun. It can be found in a hidden underground tunnel in [ 7-2: LIGHT UP THE NIGHT ], the entrance to which is opened by activating all three of the slabs hidden throughout the level.
Behavioral Differences[]
The Jackhammer fires no projectiles and is instead more of a pseudo-melee weapon. It deals higher damage based on the user's velocity and current movement type. It has three levels of strength, indicated by the left side of the gauge. Each level on the gauge multiplies its damage. (Green = 1×, Yellow = 2×, Red = 3⅓×)
Primary Fire[]
The piston pulls back and releases after a slight delay. Holding primary fire keeps the piston held back until it is released. There is a very slight delay in between shots; however, if hitting an enemy while the gauge is in the red, the Jackhammer variant used for the hit will be forced to cool down for seven seconds, which cannot be reset by switching.
Damage, recoil, and Hitstop length scale based on how fast V1 is moving, indicated by the gauge on the left side of the weapon. The gauge has 3 levels: Green (Slow), Yellow (Fast), and Red (Mach Fuck).
| Gauge level | Speed required | Damage & effects |
|---|---|---|
| Green |
|
3 damage
On hit: tiny recoil |
| Yellow |
|
6 damage
On hit: heavy recoil, minor Hitstop (about 0.2 seconds) |
| Red |
|
10 damage
On hit: extreme recoil, major Hitstop (about 0.5 seconds), overheat |
Note that the gauge can take a moment to catch up to V1's speed if it accelerates quickly, since the needle can only move so fast. It certainly won't match the instant acceleration of a slam, so you'd need a decent amount of height to get your gauge to Red before hitting the ground. Fortunately, when you lose the speed necessary to maintain a Yellow or Red gauge, there is a brief delay before the gauge level actually drops. During this delay, the gauge light blinks rapidly.
The player can rotate the camera during the Jackhammer's Hitstop, giving a control to where V1 will be knocked back.
Hitting a Red shot will cause the Jackhammer to overheat, putting the primary fire on a 7 second cooldown before it can be used again. Similarly to the Alternate Revolver, this cooldown will only apply to the current variant: other Jackhammer variants have their own separate cooldowns. The alternate fire can still be used freely during the cooldown. Overheating does not happen when the player targeted an Idol.
Striking a Core or Rocket with the Jackhammer will turn them into explosive hitscan attacks which can be chained off of coins. Empowered rocket beams create red explosions. If this beam is chained into another core/rocket, it will create a massive explosion. Landmines can also be launched by the Jackhammer, although they don't become hitscan.
Similarly to the Shotgun, it is possible to Parry parriable non projectile attacks with the Jackhammer, by striking the enemy with the primary fire within the parry window. This can deal massive damage when combined with a red gauge strike. Additionally, the range you can parry from using the Jackhammer seems to be longer than with either the Feedbacker or Shotgun.
Core Eject[]
Instantly fires a core with very little force. Though the strength cannot be charged, the core inherits most of V1's velocity when fired, which combine to make it very easy to set up core hammering.
Pump Charge[]
Instead of firing additional pellets, Pump Charge increases the pressure within the Jackhammer, making it create a damaging shockwave similar to that of the Knuckleblaster; unlike its baseline counterpart, the first two pumps increase the radius of the blast, rather than its damage, which stays at 3.5. However, when overpumped the shockwave becomes a self-damaging red explosion dealing twice the damage and launching you backwards. It has a slower pump rate than a shotgun but it deals less damage on overpump than the default shotgun.
Sawed-On[]
Has a chainsaw, which behaves the same as the standard variant. Unlike the regular shotgun, the primary fire and alt fire can be used independently of each other. While the chainsaw is out, hitting it with the primary fire can bounce it back.
Weapon Location[]
The Jackhammer can be found in [ 7-2: LIGHT UP THE NIGHT ]. At the train checkpoint with 2 Guttermen, there is a hole in the building's roof that can be entered. The door will open once the three slabs have been activated:
- Slab I is directly before the Gutterman boss encounter, visible through a grated panel on your left.
- Slab II is in the obstacle course inside the train station, after the first arena fight. You must complete the obstacle course quickly (the timer starts when you whiplash the first yellow hookpoint) and right before the room with the gate controls should be a hole on your right, usually blocked by a small grate.
- Slab III is in the same area as the payload, visible through a grated window in the main lobby near the red pedestal. You must complete the course to the payload fast (the timer starts as you whiplash the first yellow hookpoint) and when you're in the room where the payload is there should be a hole in the wall usually covered by a grated door. This one can uniquely be cheesed, ignoring the entire obstacle course ;)
Activating the slabs will reveal a tunnel that contains a destroyed yellow machine from which the weapon is taken.
Pros and Cons[]
Pros:[]
- Deals extremely high damage in optimal conditions.
- Jackhammer cores inherit V1's speed.
- Launches backwards to safety after hitting an enemy at high speed.
- Can break Idols and Gutterman shields with the primary fire.
- Is able to OHKO a Guttertank in optimal conditions.
- Can parry enemies from a greater distance than the Feedbacker or Shotgun.(Verify)
- Can turn rockets and Core Eject cores into powerful explosive hitscan attacks with a very short cooldown.
- Primary Fire can be used while charging the Sawed-on Chainsaw without launching it.
- Pump Charge variant can be used to release a Knuckleblaster-Like shockwave instantly if pre-charged.
- Overpump explosion only deals 35 damage instead of 50.
- Overpumping also releases a red explosion.
- It looks cool.
- Lazier parry, but still deals more damage than the Feedbacker.
Cons:[]
- Delay between input and shot being fired if it is not charged in advance.
- Must cool down if it strikes an enemy at full velocity.
- Very short range.
- Maximizing speed for damage can be hard in some situations.
- No Projectile Boosting.
- Shotgun Swapping becomes more difficult, or impossible, depending on the number of Jackhammers equipped.
- This can be circumvented by equipping one Jackhammer and using the new "Switch to Previous Variant" keybind, allowing one to still shotgun swap between their regular shotguns while keeping the benefits of having a Jackhammer.
- The heavy self-knockback on hit can be a double edged sword, as it may launch V1 into nearby area hazards, or off of the map on The Cyber Grind.
Strategy[]
Any variant[]
- At full speed, any Jackhammer variation can insta-kill Malicious Faces, Virtues, Sentries, and Mannequins.
- Even during yellow charge level, the Jackhammer is powerful enough to splatter smaller enemies, granting full health.
- Any Jackhammer variation can break a Gutterman's shield.
- Reeling towards a heavy enemy with the Whiplash forces V1 to yellow speed. However, if you stop reeling right before you make contact, you're able to reach max speed.
- V1 can easily reach full speed if it dash jumps, allowing for easy setups.
- The input delay can be partially mitigated by holding down the fire key, causing it to fire immediately when the key is released.
- If standing still it will take 3 ground slam to reach max speed.
- By equipping 2 regular shotguns and 1 alternate shotgun, one is able to use the new swap to previous weapon keybind to still shotgun swap while also keeping the benefits of having an alternate shotgun.
- If the player positions themselves correctly, they can effectively use the self-knockback to boost themselves from one enemy to another very quickly.
- The player can essentially perform a consistent (although rather ineffective) pogo stick sort of action in which the player looks down, holds forward, and spam clicks the primary fire button causing the player to bounce around like the aforementioned pogo stick
Core Eject[]
- When using the Core Eject Jackhammer, it is possible to hit both a rocket and a core with one attack, launching them both out as hitscans with only one shot. This is most easily done by riding a rocket straight upward, firing a core down, aiming forward, then releasing the primary fire key. Though there is no community name for this yet, Dual-Eject may be used to refer to this.
Pump-Charge[]
- At one pump and full speed, the Pump Charge variant can deal enough damage to halve the health of a Swordsmachine, Cerberus, Mindflayer or Guttertank.
- Overpump Boosting with the Pump Charge variant launches the player in the same manner as the Shotgun but only deals 35 self-damage (22 if Jamblasting), allowing it to be used as a very effective movement option.
- As the Pump Charge variant's shockwave grows with added pumps, it can clear Idols in a slightly wider radius than the Knuckleblaster.
- Furthermore, as the shockwave occurs at the same time as the attack, it does not have the Knuckleblaster's risk of V1 being knocked back before it can break more than one.
Sawed-On[]
- The alt-fire of the Sawed-on variant can help compensate for some of the jackhammer's weaknesses compared to the shotgun, namely its lack of healing potential against high-health enemies and unreliability during frantic close-quarters combat.
- Launching the chainsaw at the same time as the Jackhammer hits results in extra damage and health gain.
- You can, however do this with the regular shotgun by simply punching immediately at release.
Trivia[]
- Unless the "Weapon Position" option is counted (and the Spawner Arm), the Jackhammer is the first right arm in the game.
- During the full speed hitstop, V1 can still punch; this is likely unintended. Working a Knuckleblaster hit into the Hitstop of an attack allows for a two-shot on a Gutterman with a second full speed attack.
- A clean version of the Excavator's textures are unused in the game files.
- The vent mechanism on the elbow portion of the Jackhammer resembles the vents on the side of the Knuckleblaster. This could be implied that, who (or what) ever made V1 and V2 had at least some influence in the designing of the Excavator. However, this is unlikely.
- Its name in the files is a reference to the weapon of the same name from the Unreal Tournament series.
- The flag on top of the Excavator's remains states "Vegter van die Volk," which means "Fighter of the People" in Afrikaans, confirming this sad little robot was made in South Africa.
- When considering the actual size of the character models, the Jackhammer (including the arm) appears to be nearly twice the size of V1.
- This is pretty badass.
- Often the gauge level depends on types of movement rather than the actual speed. For an example, sliding is slower than dashing but puts the gauge to yellow level while the dashing alone will not make the gauge go beyond green.
- As of Patch 15c, there are colored lights on the Jackhammer depending on the variant. (ex: sawed-on = red lights)
- The Jackhammer is believed to operate using compressed air, which explains why the weapon's attack becomes more powerful, the faster the player is moving. The gauge present on the side of the weapon could be an indicator of the pressure inside of the weapon's "firing chamber".
Gallery[]
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