Flare Gun


enewmen

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While I was happy to finally get a flare gun in survival mode, I was wondering what the real purpose may be in the game.  I'm guessing if a huge part of Great Bear island went missing, people will notice.  My thought is if you WANT to be rescued, have a flare gun handy and shoot it up when a long-range battery powered (flashlight works on battery power) surveillance drone is coming your way and sees the flare. The drone will make a unique noise and pass over some part of your map very rarely - maybe every ~20 days?    Just thinking of a use other than scaring a wolf with very rare shells.  This is a possible "intended" use for the flare gun.

Has anyone thought of other uses for the flare gun?  Start an emergency campfire? Shoot up and check the wind direction?

Just thinking.

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honestly, I never used the flare gun for anything and even the rifle rarely, bow+arrow are sufficient for pretty much everything, so I just keep that stuff until I run out of natural resources. There may be a time when I run out of saplings so I will use them when it comes to that. also, anything running on electricity runs only during auroras at best and any form of end for a sandbox game seems out of place in my eyes. there's a challenge for that :P

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It seems no one wants to use  the flare gun for rescue (as in the first post).  The flare ammo is much more rare than riffle ammo so it's a waste for scaring or killing.

This makes me think people really enjoy the game and don't want a rescue :)

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Hi. There are no drones, nor there can be, due to the aurora phenomenon. Nobody is coming to save you, you gotta survive till you dont. :)

The Flare gun is a bear killer. But that is just its secondary effect - primarily, and most importantly, the Distress pistol serves as defensive weapon. It will scare off anything. Killing with it is not easy, but it can be done - the flare upon contact with the body does minimal damage, but if you manage to stick the flare into a body of an animal, it causes massive bleeding. Since moose is immune to bleeding, using Distress pistol to try and kill the moose is pointless - but it can still be used to scare em away.

Like I said previously, Distress pistol is a bear killer. When the bear charges you, if you side-step and shoot it to the side, the flare tends to stick to the bear. Try not to shoot it straight away - the flare tends to bounce away if you hit the animal directly. If you manage to hit and stick the flare onto the bear, it will die within an hour. And the flare itself is very useful in tracking the wounded beast.

I would carry a loaded distress pistol in hands whenever I am entering the area where bears roam, to avoid getting mauled which would interfere with my plans. If you intend to actually hunt the bear, you can use it as well - but trying to stick the flare is tricky, so using a bow from a distance might be preferable.

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16 hours ago, kristaok said:

I heard you can kill with the flare gun, but I don't know because I've never tried haha. 

I've killed many, I wait for them to charge and then shoot when they are close. I sometimes wait too much and end up defending/fighting it, hehehe.

 

7 hours ago, enewmen said:

The flare ammo is much more rare than riffle ammo so it's a waste for scaring or killing

In the story, ammo for the flare gun, there are likely no less than 40, I've used many and still have like 15 :)

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On 25/12/2018 at 6:09 PM, Kendov said:

 There may be a time when I run out of saplings so I will use them when it comes to that. also, anything running on electricity runs only during auroras at best and any form of end for a sandbox game seems out of place in my eyes. there's a challenge for that :P

Saplings are renewable by beachcombing, you can't virtually run out of them even if you shoot a lot. :coffee: I agree completely with your post though, industrially made stuff usually serve as decoration at my bases. 

Concerning the OP's post, after the quakes a few years ago, Grey mother mentions that the inhabitants of Great Bear received instructions to go to the coast in a  catastrophic event, because help would come from the sea. I'm pretty sure hopeless rescue draws inspiration from this tidbit of lore of the great collapse and a flare gun would be a great signalling device. The drone idea is pretty good, but as it pertains to the amount of technology left at Great Bear, I'd presume a bush plane would be a far more common sight. 

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Guest jeffpeng

There won't be an ending to Sandbox - ever. This has been stated multiple times. That's what Story Mode is for. 

As for the flare gun and its scarce ammunition: I always refer to it as the ultimate defensive joker. It's a get out of jail free card. Stuck between a bear and a wolf place? Flare your way through it.

Hunting with it really isn't a good idea unless you are Snowballing with no other weaponry available, but it can be done.

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I used it a while ago against a bear. I just killed the moose at Qonset and quartered it. When the stupid bear above decided to patrol through the area. Not wanting to abandon the quickly decaying quarters I scared it off with a flare.

On lower difficulties it's a waste against wolves as you can easily win a struggle against them. Even on Stalker with good clothing you can fight a wolf. But on Interloper it's a good last resort when evading a wolf failed.

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21 hours ago, jeffpeng said:

There won't be an ending to Sandbox - ever. This has been stated multiple times. That's what Story Mode is for.

So it seems like there IS an intended use for the flare gun.  Just need to wait for all the story chapters to finish.

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Guest jeffpeng
4 hours ago, enewmen said:

So it seems like there IS an intended use for the flare gun.  Just need to wait for all the story chapters to finish.

If you put it this way: yes. I find it very much likely the flare gun will be part of some story component at some point.

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

The Aurora isn't some magical thing that allows any electronic device to work. At best it powers batteries, but all the fancy motors and spark plugs required to operate a conventional engine wouldn't work properly in an Aurora. Unless someone comes along in a sailing or steam ship, there's no hope of rescue.

And as others have said before, the flare gun can be used to kill wolves, bears, and even the moose.

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On 19/12/2018 at 6:30 AM, enewmen said:

My thought is if you WANT to be rescued, have a flare gun handy and shoot it up when a long-range battery powered (flashlight works on battery power) surveillance drone is coming your way and sees the flare. The drone will make a unique noise and pass over some part of your map very rarely - maybe every ~20 days?    Just thinking of a use other than scaring a wolf with very rare shells.  This is a possible "intended" use for the flare gun.

I dislike this idea because of that make an end of the survival mode and as say the in-game description, the only end is the death:/

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  • 4 weeks later...
On 1/14/2019 at 12:13 AM, DarKube said:

I dislike this idea because of that make an end of the survival mode and as say the in-game description, the only end is the death:/

@Willy & DarKube

After seeing additional videos, it seems the whole/most of the world goes dark, not just Great Bear (I got the wrong impression at first).  So yes, I now agree there is NO ONE around in survival mode that can rescue and the only end is death.

However, I notice the flare gun must have took a long time to develop and it was done early in the game.  For example, something simple like remapping the stars to Earth constellations will take too much time away from development work.   This makes me think there is an intended purpose for the flair gun and there's more going on with the flare than just killing/scaring wolfs-bears-moose.  There may be something in story mode later not seen yet :)

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Since there are two flare guns in Wintermute (they would be three if the one you load on the plane wouldn't vanish) it may be an important item. By the way, I think it became less accurate after the redux. In the previous version it was a sure-kill overwatch weapon, now it seems more likely to scare off wolves than to actually hit them.

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