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Darksoul I should have been the one to fill your dark soul with liiiiiiiiiiight!
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The Needlegun is a unique marine firearm which appears in Devil May Cry. It is a burst-fire weapon that fires needles in six-round volleys. It is the only weapon that Dante can use underwater, but it cannot be equipped on dry land.[1] It is found in the hold of the Ghost Ship in Mission 12 or Mission 13.

Design[]

The Needlegun is overall based on an FN Minimi light machine gun with a folding stock typically used on variants designed for paratroopers. To this is added a thick outer assembly resembling the jacket of a World War 1-era water-cooled machine gun, with a conical tip which the six barrels are recessed into. The front grip appears to be loosely based on that of a Thompson submachine gun.

The ammunition depicted on the weapon's belt is similar in form to ammunition for the Soviet APS Underwater Assault Rifle, an AK derivative which uses needle-like 4.7-inch long darts fired from modified 5.45×39mm casings.

Gameplay[]

When Dante is swimming normally, the left stick will make Dante look about the room and the jump button will make him swim the direction he is facing. When holding the lock-on button, the left stick will instead make Dante drift slowly in the direction of the left stick, and pressing the jump button will make Dante "sidestep" in the direction of the left stick. The Needlegun can only be fired while holding the lock-on button; this can leave Dante vulnerable to flanking enemies. The player does not get a crosshair to aim the Needlegun: instead, there is a fairly generous auto-aim area in the general vicinity of the center of the screen to make combat easier. It will preferentially aim for targets closer to Dante, and is quite capable of shooting down a Blade's projectiles as well as attacking the creature itself. It can also destroy certain barrels in the ship's hold for red orbs.

As well as being the only underwater weapon, the Needlegun is also the only automatic weapon in the game. It functions rather oddly: it effectively has six loaded rounds which can all be fired in a full length burst by holding the fire button, or divided up as the player wishes. After a few seconds, the Needlegun's ammo count resets back to six rounds. If all six shots were fired quickly, this means there will be a slight delay where Dante cannot fire at all (holding fire will make Dante fire the next burst as soon as it is ready), but by tapping the fire button slowly it is possible to keep up a constant rate of fire with no pauses at all.

In terms of combat, the Needlegun fires darts with a rather large hitbox. The underwater needles are capable of taking down a swimming Blade quickly if Dante gets a chance to fire uninterrupted. The player will need that damage output, as the underwater portion of levels put Dante at an inherent disadvantage in mobility, and the water also prevents him from using Devil Trigger to restore health. If the player fails to have Dante pick the weapon up, he will be unable to do anything but flee from underwater enemies.

In harder difficulties, the Needlegun does not lose as much of its power compared to other firearms, only taking a couple of extra shots to down enemies.

Trivia[]

  • A weapon called the "Needle Gun" appears in Capcom´s Dino Crisis II's underwater level, though it does not look like the version in Devil May Cry. Like the version in Devil May Cry, it is used to defend against aquatic reptilian creatures.

Gallery[]

References[]

  1. Devil May Cry, Guns — Needlegun: "The only weapon that can be used underwater."
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