The Pulse Rifle is a weapon manufactured by Megacorp in Going Commando. It is a long-range sniper rifle equipped with very high range and damage but low rate of fire and limited ammunition. It also features a scope, which can be zoomed in and out with 
and 
respectively.
The Pulse Rifle becomes available upon reaching Endako for 20,000 bolts from a Megacorp vendor. It can be upgraded to the Vaporizer with use. Upon reaching challenge mode, the Vaporizer can be upgraded to the Mega Vaporizer from any Megacorp vendor, and in turn to the Ultra Vaporizer with use.
Characteristics[]
The Pulse Rifle is a green and silver sniper rifle. It has a long barrel, a green scope and a left-hand grip. When fired, it fires a single bullet leaving a long green trail, and the barrel of the weapon moved backwards to compensate the recoil.
The Vaporizer is a sleeker looking red and silver sniper rifle. It features a slightly shorter red scope, and leaves behind a red trail when fired.
Gameplay[]
The Pulse Rifle fires a single, powerful bullet which deals heavy damage. It is most effective when aimed down its scope from afar, as while it deals heavy damage, it should be aimed precisely to hit enemies or the ammunition is wasted. It can prove very strategic due to its range and zoom function, but rather niche due to its weakness in combat. Upon upgrading to the Vaporizer, its damage will increase, and the weapon will not fundamentally change.
Ratchet using the Pulse Rifle.
The weapon can be used destroy some larger enemies from a distance before engaging in combat with a group of enemies to reduce the threat. However, its greatest strength is also its greatest weakness while in combat, as it is nigh impossible to aim the weapon at enemies without taking damage from them. Furthermore, its limited ammunition and its small radius make firing it at larger mobs of smaller enemies wasteful (though it can destroy their spawners if present). The weapon can also be useful against bosses as they are often large enough to be hit by the weapon while strafing and it does deal good damage.
The Pulse Rifle has only one weapon mod available: the Shock Mod. This allows electricity from the target hit to damage surrounding enemies, and increases the damage dealt overall. The Shock Mod can slightly alleviate the issues of the Pulse Rifle's low radius, and makes it stronger when fired against large enemies close together when sniping from a distance, though it does not fundamentally change how the weapon should be used and has minor benefit.
Behind the scenes[]
The Pusle Rifle's zooming led to several difficulties due to the level of detail that was required on enemies when zooming up close. Enemies further from Ratchet had fewer polygons rendered the further away he was, but when zooming with the Pulse Rifle, the player would have to see the level of detail rendered as if they were up close. During development, enemies therefore looked bad when zooming in on them.[1]
Gallery[]
Citations[]
- ↑ Stout, Garcia 2011 9:47
References[]
- Insomniac Games (2003). Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando [Game]. Sony Computer Entertainment. PlayStation 2.
- Stout, Mike; Garcia, Tony (2011, July 1). Ratchet & Clank 2 Dev Commentary: 13B - Definitive Ratchet Enemy Setups [Video]. YouTube.