Retrograde Arena – Weapons Guide

A simple guide to the weapons in this game and how they can be utilised.

Guide to Weapons

Note: Credit goes to MoistPotato

Intro

There are a handful of different weapons in Retrograde, all unique. They all have different fire-rate, speed of projectiles, how hard they knock back you and your enemy, etc. If a weapon has a ‘(?)’ in the section title, it means it can be obtained by touching the question mark symbol (see below). The weapon you get in a question mark pickup is random.

Of course, there are different symbols for getting weapons in DLC gamemodes or you may not get weapon drops at all, instead the gamemode forces you to play one weapon (like Snipers). I’ll be presuming you are playing Last Man Standing.

Basic

The Basic is the default weapon you spawn with. You have infinite ammo, a fairly moderate firerate and low knockback.

Most similar to a pistol, you don’t really want to fight with this so instead, use it mainly as a manoeuvrability tool to get to other weapon drops. You can do this by going one direction and shooting the opposite direction – a method I call gun strafing.

It can also be used to finish off an enemy who’s very close to a red cube.

Get a better gun ASAP.

Shotgun

The shotgun is a powerful weapon at short-range and can cause devastatingly large amounts of knockback. It has 8 clips of multiple pellets.

Due to the shotgun’s large knockback, you can use it to gun strafe to your opponent and blast them into oblivion before they can shoot back.

It can also be used to stop you immediately if you have been hit by a powerful weapon like the sniper or imploder and you’re travelling very fast. Simply shoot the direction you’re travelling and you’ve stopped. This knockback nullification can save you if you’re going into the path of a red cube.

A more advanced tactic could be launching a floating red cube into the enemy (object propulsion).

Machine Gun

The Machine Gun is a formidable weapon. With 35 rounds, a fast fire-rate and fairly moderate cumulative knockback, it can be quite strong.

The machine gun is probably the best gun for gun strafing, having the ability to have the most precise and fastest movement.

It’s also good for spamming around corners by bouncing the bullets off the walls, delaying or potentially even killing your opponents.

Mirror

The mirror is one of the most powerful weapons, I’d say. And it’s not really a weapon either. You have 3 mirrors which are about 3 blocks-wide (takes about half a second to fully extend). It lasts about 10 seconds.

The mirror reflects every weapon. This is a very hard counter for the sniper and imploder, being able to reflect it away and perhaps even onto the enemy.

It can be good for gun strafing, since you can throw a mirror behind you and your enemy can’t hit you unless they shoot around it.

Sniper

The sniper has 3 shots with incredibly fast bullets. The sniper requires you to charge up the weapon. It has considerable knockback.

If you’re against a mirror, you can bait a shot by jiggling the charge – making the enemy think you’re about to shoot. You could also bounce it off the wall but it requires some skill in guessing where to shoot.

Like any other sniper in video games, you want to keep your distance as you’re usually defenceless close-range.

Stay behind a box or wall so you don’t get blasted. Be aware if you’re nearby a red box – they can launch it at you.

Imploder (?)

The imploder is a very strong weapon. It is a ball of energy, which if you’re in the area of effect, which will suck you in with high speed. It is a slow-moving projectile.

The area of effect ignores walls and boxes, meaning you could kill someone while not having direct sight line. Try to get as close as possible to minimise the time your enemy has to react to it but don’t get too close where you could get sucked in.

You can dodge the imploder as it is fairly slow-moving. You could also shoot it away as the ball can be shot away.

Hot War (?)

The Hot War is probably the strongest weapon and most silly. It has 16 ammunition, where you have 4 burst-fire clips. It has incredibly strong knockback in close-quarters.

The hot war is stupendously strong at close range. Try to get all the balls to hit the enemy to send them flying. Beware when trying to gun strafe with it as it might send you flying.

Flak Cannon (?)

The Flak Cannon is a fun weapon to use. It has 8 explosive projectiles which explode on impact of a player. It can bounce an infinite amount of times before exploding by itself which takes about 3 seconds.

The flak cannon is very strong around corners. Run away and utilise the infinite bounces and explosives at bay. Remember that it could bounce back to you and you accidentally die!

Accelerator (?)

The Accelerator is a single-shot weapon. It starts off slow but every time it bounces off a wall, it accelerates. It gets to a point where it becomes insanely fast before fizzling out. The faster the accelerator, the harder you get it.

The accelerator is very unpredictable so there isn’t really a tactic for it. Just try to get out of the path of it.