This guide, as you probably already know by the thread title, is a weapon guide for Gunstar Heroes (for the Sega Genesis).

Primary Weapons (Base Weapons)

Weapon 1. Normal Weapon (Rapidfire)/Force

Weapon number 1 is no more than a regular rapid-fire gun. I usually do not pick this, as it doesn't have any special abilities.

Weapon 2. Laser/Lightning

This weapon is pretty good, in my opinion. It shoots a long, blue laser that pierces through enemies and other objects. It deals medium damage, so if you're shooting at a line of enemies, this is perfect.

Weapon 3. Homing/Chaser

This is my personal favorite. I choose this weapon almost every time. Why? Simply because you don't have to aim. This weapon rapidly fires green arrows that seek out the enemy. It does between small and medium damage, too, so this weapon is very effective. I give this an official "TFW Weapon of Choice" silver medal. Yay!

Weapon 4. Flame

I don't usually use this weapon, but it is a pretty good one. Although this weapon has a short-range, it is very powerful. It deals high damage, so you won't regret having a weapon with short range as much.

~

Secondary Weapons (Combination Weapons)

This is where it gets awesome. If you carry 2 weapon types at a time, you get a combination weapons, which are almost always superior to base weapons.

Force +...

Force

All this does is, well, it just makes your Force shots better. You shoot larger beams, your shots are even more rapid, too. Another bonus, your beam is a Y shape. It comes out of your gun straight, then breaks into 2 paths. Yep.

Lightning

All this weapon does is scatters lightning beams in multiple directions. Nothing interesting here.

Chaser

This is even worse than the Force + Lightning combo. All you get is a force beam that bends towards your enemy. It doesn't actually seek your enemy, it bends towards it so it only hits 50% of the time.

Flame

This is possibly the most powerful weapon in the game. It shoots large fireballs that explode, then duplicate into smaller fireballs on contact with a solid object. So, yeah, it's basically a gun that creates large, powerful explosions.

Lightning +...

Lightning

Basically, all you get is a lightning beam that shoots across the stage. When you shoot, it makes it so you can't move and your beam goes across the screen. That's it. Laaame.

Chaser

This is it. The single best weapon in the entire game, in my opinion. You have lightning moving in the shape of a small square. When enemies come on the screen, the lightning instantly flies towards them and goes into the square shape again. It completely drains the enemies health very quickly. So, yeah, it's a weapon that you don't have to aim with that deals massive amounts of damage. This is another weapon that earns the "TFW Weapon of Choice" medal. This time, the medal is platinum (or diamond, whichever you prefer). So if you ever have lightning/chaser and you find a chaser/lightning, pick it up for the ultimate weapon.

Flame

One of the strongest weapons in the game, yet shorter than a plain flame. You get a wimpy looking laser sword (basically a lightsabre) that, well, isn't so wimpy as you may already know. It's hard to attack some things with this due to its size, but the immense damage is worth it.

Chaser +...

Chaser

Another one of the best weapons. Your chaser beam gets changed to stars that are larger than the arrows. It also deals much more damage and can give you a forcefield that can, awesomely, shoot towards your enemies as a ring of stars. This is pretty much the "Lightning + Chaser" but a teensy bit different. This weapon gets the "TFW Weapon of Choice" golden medal. Woohoo!

Flame

This weapon is pretty cool, actually. Your gun shoots out a flame that attacks your enemies. It moves really slow, though, so you would want to use it in a smaller group of enemies. However, you can control where your flame goes with the D-Pad, and if you keep pressing the direction you want the flame to go rapidly, the speed increases.

Flame + Flame

Last but not least, the "Flame + Flame" combo. Wait, did I say not least? This is probably the worst combo in the entire game. All it is is a longer flame. That's all.

~

Top 3 Weapons:

3. Chaser
2. Chaser + Chaser
1. Chaser + Lightning

~

That's all to my weapon guide! Thank you for reading!

~TFW~

TheFadedWarrior : Hey man! Awesome name by the way!

This was a descriptive and in-depth WT! Awesome stuff! You carefully laid out your work which is very nice to see, it made it very easy to see what you meant! 

Great WT! It was detailed, although I wouldn't benefit from it

Awesome job man! You said everything that needed to be said with great detail! It was easy to read and you made everything correct. Awesome job! I will read others of yours!

Hi! thanks for the post.

Unfortunately, I find it lacking very important info about weapons' damage and quirks. I am surely still missing some details, but feel free to add what I've discovered by myself to the post:

Forcex2: Y-shape shot is a confusing term, I would say the shot spreads towards the end, which means more covered area by the shots.


Force+Lightning: this combo also lets you steer the beams toward dead angles. Most shots on this game can only be aimed in 8 angles around the player, which makes it tricky to shoot enemies in some weird angles (Ex: while descending the pyramid in the jungle level, where the enemies are falling and you can only shoot in 2 efective angles!), but with the steering, you can cover those dead angles! a very useful trick.

Force+Chaser: yeah, it's that bad. The stream works good if there's one objective in screen, but gets confused quickly when there is multiple objectives. Not recommended.

Force+Fire: you can also manually detonate the shots by releasing the shoot button. By far the best weapon for Run n' Gun parts.

Lightningx2: Are you sure you didn't change to fixed shooting when testing this one? You definitely can move while shooting this one. This combo makes the shot be a constant flow of beams instead of an intermittent stream, which greatly enhances fire rate and general damage.

Lightning+fire: it actually does the same damage as basic fire shot (which is still high damage). What really makes the lightsaber overpowered is the fact that he can Block almost every projectile in the game. (By far my favorite weapon)

Chaser+Fire: this projectile can also block some projectiles, not sure if all of them, but it definitely can block anything from Crab Force and Gun Force. Highly recommended for that boss.

Fire+Fire: this combo adds more range to the flamethrower, and also lets you release the fire stream as a projectile that mitigates its weakness (it is done by releasing the shoot button)

Nitottu: I made this guide over 12 years ago... Half of my entire life has passed since then lol. Thanks for the feedback nevertheless

TheFadedWarrior: I can tell hahahah. I hope everything went well in that time.

I really wanted to add the info I've collected since there is not a lot of it throughout the internet, this is the most detailed post about Weapon Combos in Gunstar Heroes. I like to think in a future someone will find out about this amazing game and will thank us for this guide.