For information about the other variants, see Railcannon (disambiguation).
The Screwdriver Railcannon is the green variant of the Railcannon, purchasable for 100,000P after obtaining the Electric Railcannon in [ 2-2: DEATH AT 20,000 VOLTS ].
Description[]
Fires a powerful drill that sticks to an enemy and deals damage over time.
The drill causes enemies to bleed continuously with extra healing range.
- The Terminal.
The Screwdriver Railcannon is a large green, silver and light-blue gun that, as its name suggests, resembles a hybrid between a railgun and a cannon. Three yellow-orange wires run from its base to the tip of its barrel, and four horizontal screws run along either side which steadily screw themselves in and spin as the weapon recharges. When fully charged, the light on the top as well as at the base will start to glow, a wheel on the side begins to spin, a green projectile appears within the barrel, and the entire weapon will begin shaking and emitting a noise akin to the whirring of a machine.
The drill appears to be a pure black rod. When stuck into an enemy, it will begin vibrating violently and emitting a large red flash from its top. In addition, blood will begin spurting at high velocity from the wound.
Mechanics[]
Primary Fire[]
Pressing primary fire will launch a gravity-affected drill projectile through the air. Once the drill hits an enemy, it deals 3 damage on impact, embedding and drilling itself on the target while dealing 0.0625 damage in 116 ticks, which totals to an additional 7.25 damage over the course of approximately 7.5 seconds. In addition, as long as they are alive, and for one second after if they die with the drill embedded, the enemy will begin releasing large spurts of blood that will heal the player in a wide radius around them. Compared to the Electric Railcannon and the Malicious Railcannon, the Screwdriver Railcannon's damage potential is limited, making its primary utility the healing blood fountain that it produces upon hitting an enemy.
If the drill kills an enemy with its 3 impact damage, it will subtract that enemy's remaining health from its impact damage and continue traveling, repeating the process until it reaches an enemy with more health than the drill's remaining impact damage, at which point the drill will attach and begin to tick as normal. However, the drill will not lose impact damage if it kills an enemy with exactly as much health as is remaining on the drill. The drill can theoretically kill an infinite line of healthy Filth or Strays, but if any one of them has taken damage from just one or two nails, then it may fail to kill past the 7th Filth or the 3rd Stray due to the drill's durability desynchronizing from multiples of their maximum health.
Alternate Fire[]
Holding alternate fire will halve the player's FOV, zooming in for more precise shots. Railcannon variants are designed to only have a primary fire, but Hakita did not want people bothering him about the absence of an alternate fire, so the function is made deliberately useless.
Drill Juggling[]
If an enemy has a drill in them, then it can be punched using the Feedbacker arm to dislocate the drill, dealing an additional 4 damage + remaining drill damage to the punched enemy and sending the drill flying in the direction of the punch with no vertical dropoff. This can be used to move the drill from one enemy to another, which also resets the timer and impact damage on the drill. While most enemy corpses cannot hold the drill, a notable exception are the corpses of Malicious Faces. If the drill is juggled between enough enemies, then the charge on the attack can reset potentially allowing for several drills to be active at once.
The drill itself does not need to be punched directly; a Feedbacker hit anywhere on an enemy with an embedded drill will bring the drill to the location of the punch, though the drill must impact a different enemy to embed again (e.g., a drill embedded in the eye of The Corpse of King Minos can be dislodged by punching its hand, but punching the drill from its hand back into its head will cause it to pass through with no additional effects).
Though they will not produce a blood fountain, the drill will still embed itself onto sanded and blessed enemies and can still be punched off these enemies into other enemies, allowing them to be used to prolong the drill's lifespan.
Strategy[]
In almost all situations, the Screwdriver Railcannon should not be used for damage alone. Its utility comes from its ability to create an easily accessible source of blood, such as during a boss fight or when there are numerous dangerous enemies in the area that require you to stay on the move. Against extremely mobile bosses such as V2 and Gabriel, Judge of Hell, who are notoriously difficult to get blood from, the Screwdriver Railcannon can indeed be useful. This is less useful for fights with significant emphasis on melee parrying, such as Gabriel, Apostate of Hate and the Prime Souls, as the Screwdriver will still be dislodged by a punch from the Feedbacker, necessitating the use of Shotgun parries to keep the drill embedded. In the Cyber Grind, firing a Screwdriver on a large and tanky target such as a Cerberus makes it a way to replenish health while still remaining mobile. Additionally, the Screwdriver Railcannon has a niche usage where it will prevent a Mindflayer from teleporting, making it easier to hit and kill them. A drill shot slows down V2's general movement speed as well, making it an easier target.
The drill fired from the Screwdriver can be parried out of an enemy for massive amounts of damage. This is mostly found useful for enemies that have a decent amount of health (such as Mindflayers or Insurrectionists) or the Prime Souls. It can also be used to immediately kill enemies such as Virtues or Malicious Faces. Letting the drill linger for a few seconds before parrying results in even more damage as well as healing opportunities.
While having the lowest overall damage and style potential of the three Railcannon variants, the Screwdriver Railcannon has the advantage of simplicity, offering the most up-front single-target damage for a Railcannon charge without the use of combo tech like Railcoining or Core Nuking, and its own Drill Juggling tech only requires use of the Feedbacker and a second enemy to transfer the drill to. In conjunction with its healing utility, this makes the Screwdriver a valuable tool for players still learning to use their movement and arsenal to its fullest potential.
In [ 5-2: WAVES OF THE STARLESS SEA ] and [ 5-4: LEVIATHAN ], enemies with embedded drills are susceptible to being targeted by the levels' periodic lightning strikes. Lightning spawned in this way deals approximately 30 damage, so this can result in mileage on par with the most complex Railcoin setups for the same Railcannon charge while freeing up coins for other applications, though it is inconsistent and only realistically applicable to the Leviathan fight, and the drill is liable to expire during the lightning's startup, canceling the strike.
Trivia[]
- The weapon icon of the Screwdriver Railcannon has a reference to the anime Gurren Lagann. The drill projectile depicted in the icon is based off of the main character's core drill, which acts as a key to his mech.
- The drill has the same model as the Hideous Mass's harpoon projectile
Gallery[]
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