Mercury Bow

WPgemerc_gun Name...................................Mercury Bow Ammunition Type.................Ballistic Ammo Magazine Capacity.......................2 rounds Fire Rate..................1 round per 5 seconds Unlike its low-tech namesakes, this "bow" fires a compressed sliver of frozen mercury at ultra-high velocity. Damage comes both from the initial trauma of impact, and subsequent mercury poisoning. Hint: Kills all but the strongest enemies with one shot. The bow must re-freeze after firing, and thus has slow cycle-rate.

The Mercury Bow is essentially Oni's sniper rifle. It shoots lethal projectiles with high velocity and accuracy, but is handicapped by a slow firing rate and a low magazine capacity. An additional handicap comes from the fact that the projectile leaves a visible trail in the air, revealing the location of the shooter. Despite the drawbacks, it is the weapon of choice of Mercenary Snipers (enemies who can be seen fighting both with the TCTF and with Muro). It is also seen wielded by regular TCTF units and Strikers.

Stats and tips

Shown on the right is the "weapon page" (WPge) of the Mercury Bow as it appears in the Weapons section of Konoko's Data Comlink. You can see the WPge of the other weapons listed HERE. The English manual adds the following sentence to the main description of the Mercury Bow:

The Mercury Bow is perfect for long-distance sniping. The fact that it will kill most enemies in one shot makes it good for instantly thinning out packs when opponents decide to gang up on you.

The projectile is the fastest in the original Oni: at 540 m/s it is the only supersonic projectile apart from the fully accelerated plasma rifle shot (about 360 m/s). The average 70 hitpoints of damage (give or take 9) are lower than for many other weapons (WMC beam, point-blank SBG or Black Adder, successful Screaming cell or Scram Cannon swarm), but this damage is dealt much more reliably because of the superior speed and accuracy, especially at medium and long ranges: the shooter basically doesn't have to lead the target at all, and all it takes is good reflexes based on the crosshair. The random damage-dealing factor is often overlooked, even though the max deviation is almost 13% (the statistically relevant deviation is lower).

70 hitpoints is larger than the base health of most enemies on Easy and Normal; this changes considerably on Hard, and is also affected by custom health settings for specific enemies. Basically, on Hard, the generic units that should not be expected to die from a single shot are: Elites, Tankers, Red Strikers, Red Furies, Red Ninjas, Black Ops SWAT, and civilians (especially scientists). The chance of killing a Blue Striker, a Blue Ninja, or a Black Ops Lite is slightly above 50%.

The firing rate of the Mercury Bow is the second slowest (1/5 secs^-1) after the Screaming Cannon (1/10 secs^-1). This is justified by the "technology" used in the weapon: the new "arrow" has to be frozen before it can be shot. The trick of quickly dropping and picking up the weapon is at its most useful for the Mercury Bow: cooldown times are reset for unheld weapons, allowing you to fire the bow again as fast as you can press drop, swap, fire. The cooldown before a reload can be skipped in the same way, but the reloading still takes time. Alternatively, you can use the roughjustice cheat, which increases the rate of fire to 3 shots per 2 seconds.

As far as Oni's ammunition system goes, it is hard to explain (without pushing the in-universe explanation) what mercury doses (or grenades) have to do with the "blank bullets" supposedly encased in the generic red ammo clips. At any rate, 2 mercury doses = 4 grenades = 10 Campbell Equalizer shots = 30 Black Adder shots = 5 Scram missile packs. 2 shots per clip is the lowest capacity in Oni; like the cooldown time, it is probably a gameplay choice to compensate for the reliable accuracy and large amount of damage.

Prone mode and sniper scope

Sniper scope and prone mode are new features developed for the Anniversary Edition. They are new gameplay elements intended primarily for the mercury bow. The player can make accurate long-distance shots shoot from prone or crouching positions, with the help of an automatic zoom. It is also possible to "crawl around" or quickly relocate between two prone poses.

Image gallery

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