Best weapons in Pragmata
Pragmata's weapon system is a bit weird. Aside from your basic Grip pistol (which you'll be able to change later on), every weapon is treated as temporary. As soon as you run out of bullets, the gun is used up and disappears, forcing you to scavenge for another one off the battlefield. While you're pushed to be resourceful in a pinch, knowing the best weapons gives you a better idea of what to equip in your starting loadout, and what to prioritise collecting mid-fight.
You can also improve your guns, and each upgrade gets progressively more expensive. When you're balancing that with suit and tool upgrades, you're going to have to make some sacrifices.
Best Pragmata weapons
Your weapons are split into four categories: primary, attack, tactical, and defensive. Your primary unit regenerates ammo, while your other weapons vanish as soon as they run out. As the category names suggest, attack units are heavy hitters, tactical units typically offer offensive utility, and defensive units are focused on more passive utility.
You'll only be able to carry one of each type of weapon at first, but you'll get an upgrade later on to let you hold two attack and tactical weapons.
Here's what I'd recommend using and upgrading for your loadout:
Slot | First choice | Second choice |
|---|---|---|
Attack | Shockwave gun | Charge Piercer |
Tactical | Sticky Bombs | Stasis Net |
Defensive | Decoy Generator | Drone Hive |
Shockwave Gun
Besides the fact that it fires a blast of energy, the Shockwave Gun is your average shotgun. It's by far my favourite attack weapon in Pragmata purely because of its high damage, stagger power, and ease of use: get up close and let it rip. It's slow-firing, but you can improve it with upgrades or swap to another weapon while it recharges.
Charge Piercer
While the Photon Laser and Homing Missiles have their uses, the Charge Piercer ticks all the boxes for an attack weapon. It can pierce enemies for AoE and deals massive damage in a short window, which is crucial given how limited some of your damage windows are, especially against bosses. The Charge Piercer's only drawback early on is its slow charge time, but you can improve this by upgrading it to levels three and six, further boosting its damage, too.
Stasis Net
A lone robot isn't too much of a challenge, but getting swarmed often spells your doom. The solution is the Stasis Net, which holds enemies in place. It's obviously great for crowd control, it also gives you easy opportunities to hack enemies, which can become quite time-consuming and complicated later on. I'll note that it becomes a lot more useful when you upgrade it to level three, increasing the net radius.
Sticky Bombs
This tactical unit is a must-have in your loadout once you unlock it. Enemies' hacking grids become ever more complex, giving you more things to either pass through or avoid, both of which eat up your time. By attaching bombs to enemies (including bosses), you can temporarily shrink the hacking minigame and remove the clutter. The damage isn't anything to write home about, but it's an invaluable tool and pretty ammo-efficient too.
Code Generator
The Code Generator, earned from getting triple bingo on the Specialist Stamp Board, is a very unique weapon. It doesn't really do any damage by itself, but it makes up for that by boosting hacking damage, removing error nodes, and spawning OPEN nodes to make enemies vulnerable for longer. It's an invaluable tool as you reach the game's final levels and Red Zones.
Decoy Generator
As much as I like the idea of the Drone Hive defensive unit, it's hard to compete with the Decoy Generator. All it does is create a hologram to distract enemies, yet that's all it really needs to do when you're dashing and hacking to survive in a Red Zone. You don't really even need the upgrades if you're being a real penny pincher.
Pulse Carbine
The Pulse Carbine is a primary unit that you'll unlock midway through Sector 3: Terra Dome, after the mandatory Red Zone. I was initially under the impression that this replaced the Grip pistol you start with, but that's not actually the case. You can swap between these two primary units, and they're upgraded separately.
While the Grip Gun deals more damage per shot, it's hard to compete with an assault rifle, really. It deals serious, consistent damage and is a great source of heat generation, which can synergise with certain builds.
My only gripe with the Pulse Carbine is its strong, left-pulling recoil. If you're getting distracted looking at the hacking matrix while firing, you'll inevitably waste some shots.
All Pragmata weapons
Here are all 15 guns in Pragmata and the first time you'll come across them:
Weapon | Type | First Unlocked |
|---|---|---|
Grip Gun | Primary | Starting weapon |
Shockwave Gun | Attack | Sector 1: Solar Panel Plants, Power Distribution Center |
Stasis Net | Tactical | Sector 1: Solar Panel Plants, Power Distribution Center |
Riot Blaster | Tactical | Sector 2: Mass Production Array, Shopping District |
Charge Piercer | Attack | Sector 2: Mass Production Array, Side Alley |
Decoy Generator | Defense | Sector 2: Mass Production Array, Lim Recycling Facility |
Pulse Carbine | Primary | Sector 3: Terra Dome, Plant Factory |
Sticky Bombs | Tactical | Sector 3: Terra Dome, Eco Modeling Lab |
Photon Laser | Attack | Sector 3: Terra Dome, Soil Research |
Homing Missiles | Attack | Sector 4: Lunum Mines, Mine Entrance |
Impact Barrier | Defense | Sector 4: Lunum Mines, Crane Operation Yard |
Drone Hive | Defense | Associate Stamp Board, triple bingo |
Code Generator | Tactical | Specialist Stamp Board, triple bingo |
Hacking Mines | Tactical | Director's Stamp Board, triple bingo |
Jackhammer | Attack | Complete the game |
Pragmata guide: My full guide after nearly 20 hours.
Pragmata Red Zones and Gate Keys: All locations.
Pragmata blue and red crystals: Break these barriers.
Pragmata Sector Guard: Your first boss.
Pragmata Luna Digger: Whack this worm.