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The in-game descriptions of some Gold Runes don’t always adequately reflect what they do.
I will be explaining their (sometimes hidden) mechanics which I have observed while playing, to the best of my knowledge.
Player Runes
Steel Bone (User Buff)
• Reduces damage taken per hit by exactly 1.
Peace of Mind (Bullet Time Buff)
• Does exactly what it says on the tin – gives you more bullet time meter on kills.
♦ Tip: Good synergy with the “Neo” rune.
Four Leaf Clover (User Buff)
• Doubles the chance of certain other runes’ on hit / on kill effects proccing.
♦ Tip: Only affects the “Recall”, “Fatality”, and “Lucky Arrow Bag” runes.
Rapid (User Buff)
• Does exactly what it says on the tin – renders you immune to slows, and slightly buffs movespeed.
♦ Tip: Speed boost is slight, but significant enough to make disengaging melee enemies easier just by backpedalling.
Shadow (User Buff)
• Does absolutely nothing.
Katana Runes
Bloodthirsty (Katana Slash Buff)
• Katana melee kills give you Inferno Gauntlet ammo proportional to the health value of the unit you killed.
• Katana melee kills heal you for 1 HP.
• Drastically buffs katana melee damage.
• Makes your swords red.
♦ Tip 1: Even though it consumes 100 ammo per shot, you can activate the Inferno Gauntlet with even 1 ammo. This makes melee combat with this rune well worth the risk.
♦ Tip 2: Any kills your “Son of Djookholu” rune minion gets count as melee kills.
Lightning Spear (Katana Throw Buff)
• (Allegedly) increases katana throw damage.
• Killing an enemy with your katana throw will stun all adjacent enemies in a decently large AOE, similarly to your Trap Launcher.
♦ Tip: Even if you max out your katana’s throwing damage, it isn’t going to kill anything lategame in one hit. Soften up enemies prior to throwing so it isn’t wasted.
Recall (Katana Throw Buff)
• Does exactly what it says on the tin – you have a slight chance of your throwing katana returning to your hand upon getting a kill with it.
♦ Chance is doubled with the “Four Leaf Clover” rune.
Weakness (Katana Throw Buff)
• Makes your swords purple.
• I genuinely do not know if this rune does anything besides make your swords purple. Time to kill against hit targets is not significantly reduced from what I can tell.
Melee Body (Katana Buff)
• User takes 40% less damage from all sources when katanas are drawn.
Sidearm Runes
Hellscream (Pistols Replacement)
• Replaces your pistols with a pair of stronger, slower, piercing projectile handcannons that don’t have to reload. Consumes 4 pistol ammo per shot.
♦ Tip: The main reason you would choose this over other runes in the same slot is for comboing with other burst damage weapons.
Bubble Gun (Pistols Replacement)
• Reskinned Hellscreams that deal about 3x the damage and only consume 1 ammo per shot.
♦ Overpowered joke weapon.
Hurricane (SMGs Replacement)
• Replaces your SMGs with dual miniguns, which fire about twice as fast, and don’t have to reload. Damage per bullet consumed is the same, so it’s a direct upgrade.
• Increases total pistol ammo capacity by 100.
♦ Strongest weapon in the game for the brief period you’ll be able to fire it.
♦ Tip: Silver runes which buff your Inferno Gauntlets’ ammo capacity also buff your bullet capacity. You’ll want to use those if you intend to use this.
Bullet Storm (Sidearm Buff)
• Does exactly what it says on the tin – makes you not have to reload your SMGs or pistols.
♦ Made redundant by “Hurricane”.
Ammunition Depot (Sidearm Buff)
• Does exactly what it says on the tin – increases your bullet ammo pool by 200.
Neo (Pistols Buff)
• Does exactly what it says on the tin – massively buffs pistol damage during bullet time.
♦ Tip: Decently strong early-mid game gimmick and boss killer if you use other bullet-time buffing runes.
Shotgun Runes
Sniper Shotgun (Pump Shotgun Buff)
• ̶D̶o̶e̶s̶ ̶e̶x̶a̶c̶t̶l̶y̶ ̶w̶h̶a̶t̶ ̶i̶t̶ ̶s̶a̶y̶s̶ ̶o̶n̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶t̶i̶n̶.̶ Makes the pump shotgun your bread and butter weapon you will use always for everything ever.
Zealot (Super Shotgun Buff)
• Can’t tell if this does anything at all.
♦ If it does, it’s nowhere near strong enough to be worth it.
I Live Again (Super Shotgun Buff)
• Reduces Super Shotgun damage by 33%, but lets you fire twice in rapid succession, only consuming 1 shell per shot.
♦ Good ammo efficiency, if you intend to caveman your way through the game using only one weapon.
Combo Shoot (Shotguns Buff)
• Does absolutely nothing.
Frost Banshee (Pump Shotgun Replacement)
• Increases pump action shotgun damage and slows targets, as described.
• Consumes 2 shells per shot.
♦ Tip 1: Slowing enemies makes them much more approachable for melee combat.
♦ Tip 2: Crazy synergy with the “Lethal” rune.
♦ Tip 3: Consider buffing your shell capacity if you intend to use this just for the (de)buffs.
Cutter (Super Shotgun Replacement)
• Switches out the SSG for the Cutter, a close range lasergun that rapidly fires wide, piercing projectiles.
• Has a shell capacity of 9, consuming 3 for each shot.
• Each shot deals about 30%~ more damage than an SSG blast, has no falloff within its effective range, and can reliably hit multiple things at once.
• Range is remarkably short. Projectile phases out of existence very quickly.
♦ Tip: This weapon is extremely powerful, but not very ammo efficient, and subjects you to danger. Use it wisely.
Black Bow Runes
The Archer (Bow Buff)
• Multiple successive hits exponentially increase damage dealt.
• You don’t need to hit the same target repeatedly for the buff to take effect, it’ll carry over to other monsters.
♦ Charging your bow after the initial shot will reduce overall damage output – aim for face and spam left click as fast as humanly possible. Most reliable in Bullet Time.
Blast (Bow Buff)
• Slightly buffs direct damage and adds a blast radius.
• Explosion can damage you.
Lucky Arrow Bag (Bow Buff)
• Hitting an arrow shot has a slight chance of returning an arrow to your quiver.
♦ Chance is doubled with the “Four Leaf Clover” rune.
Execute (Bow Buff)
• Absolutely massive damage buff against enemies with half health or less.
♦ This is your boss killer. Quiver-dumping an adequately damaged boss will hurt them severely.
Ninja Master: Strike (Bow & Katana Buff)
• Slightly buffs damage of bow and katana.
♦ Only use this if you intend to melee enemies. Other bow options do more.
Trap Launcher Runes
Pumpkin Curse (Trap Launcher Buff)
• Does exactly what it says on the tin, in addition to more direct damage. Straight upgrade to the normal trap launcher.
Explosion Trap (Trap Launcher Replacement)
• Trap launcher projectiles now emit several explosions in rapid succession, but don’t stun.
Son of Djookholu (Trap Launcher Replacement)
• Does not directly damage or stun, but sets up a rooted turret where you fire, that deals about half the damage of a shotgun blast for each projectile it shoots off.
• Turret does not draw enemy fire or take damage, but eventually fades out.
• You can set up multiple turrets at once.
• Consumes 2 ammo per shot.
♦ As already mentioned, this has great synergy with the “Bloodthirsty” katana rune, since turret kills count as melee kills, giving you Inferno Fist ammo.
Damage Reduction Shield (Trap Launcher Replacement)
• Does not directly damage or stun, but sets up a temporary barrier of protection. Reduces damage taken by 40% when you stand in its radius.
♦ Damage resistance does not stack with “Melee Body” at all.
Rocket Launcher Runes
Powder Kegs Are Not Toys (Rocket Launcher Buff)
• Does exactly what it says on the barrel.
♦ Which admittedly isn’t much since some levels hardly have barrels, if at all, and blowing them up isn’t even guaranteed to give you anything.
Steel Shield (Rocket Launcher Buff)
• Reduces self damage by 85%.
♦ Completely surpassed by “Icicle” rune.
Icicle (Rocket Launcher Buff)
• Reduces self damage by 100%.
• Increases blast radius of Rocket Launcher.
Fire Wasp (Tri-Rocket Buff)
• Tri-Rocket missles become heatseeking.
• Visual is not required, blind fire works.
• Rockets may not all go toward the same target.
5 (Tri-Rocket… Buff?)
• Tri-Rocket now fires 5 missles per shot, but consumes 5 ammo instead of 3.
♦ Cone of fire is significantly wider to where you can’t even hit some targets point blank.
Inferno Revolver Runes
Fatality (Inferno Revolver Buff)
• Revolver now has a decent chance of instagibbing non-boss monsters.
♦ Chance is doubled with the “Four Leaf Clover” rune.
Lethal (Inferno Revolver Buff)
• Does exactly what it says on the tin – double damage against frozen and stunned targets.
♦ Tip: Crazy synergy with “Frost Banshee”.
Cerberus (Inferno Revolver Buff)
• Every pull of the trigger now fires 3 bullets in rapid succession.
Inferno Fist Runes
Vampire (Inferno Fist Buff)
• Damaging enemies with either of your Inferno Fists will restore a MASSIVE amount of health to the player.
♦ Tip: Works best with the left-handed magenta gauntlet if you’re just aiming to keep your health pool up while consuming minimum superweapon ammo.
Boss Killer (Inferno Fist Buff)
• Does exactly what it says on the tin – turns bosses into a joke.
Hope this has been of some help to someone. If I am factually wrong about any of this information, or you have raw numerical data I neglected to mention, feel free to bring it to my attention.
Thanks for reading.