How often do you use the BFG?

I was playing for the first time in a while recently in school. And I noticed that not once have I even considered using the BFG, but I have used every other weapon atleast twice, even including the fists.

Then I thought back, and noticed I rarely ever use it at all, even in rooms full of easy enemies, I stick to all previous weapons.

For me, I just don't like it. I never have. The over all look of it, the gameplay with it. For me, it just seems to defeat the purpose of having any other weapons.

Only on Cybers, Spider Masterminds, and very large groups of anything. Those kinds of groups rarely appear in the IWADS (the only two times I can think of are the two imp horde rooms in Tricks and Traps.)

Rarely. I like to conserve ammo just in case there is a battle where I absolutely have to use it. But that's pretty rare. Sometimes I'll just use it on Cybies and Masterminds or the occasional strong monster horde (mancubus, barons, knights, archies, etc)

Assuming I have an abundance of cells, I reserve the BFG for when there are monsters in excess of 1,000 hit points, which is roughly the point past which using the plasma rifle would become inefficient. Otherwise, I use it on hordes of monsters both intermediate and greater - or lesser if the proximity enforces it - and against select Spider Masterminds and Cyberdemons up front.

The plasma rifle usually comes to the fore in long corridors, where the BFG spray would be rendered mostly ineffective, or when I have a large amount of cells but an opposition of collectively less than 1,000 hit points. Or when I've no idea what's around the corner and I'm very, very nervous.

I don't really keep track how often I use it, but I try to make the tracers worthwhile, because it eats up a lot of energy ammo. It really depends on how uncertain and dangerous what I'm playing is. If I don't feel threatened by a possible lack of ammo, I'm more likely to use it more often. Otherwise, I tend to save it for tougher encounters. When playing maps I'm familiar with, it's easier to optimize its use against clumps of monsters. I do play too conservatively sometimes, and that makes me save too much powerful ammo, but that's a flaw that tends to make the game slower and less fun.

yellowmadness54 said:
For me, it just seems to defeat the purpose of having any other weapons.

I guess I could agree if I generally played with infinite ammo.

It's a great weapon. When it doesn't seem so, there may be something wrong with the levels it was placed in, or with the player's strategy.

yellowmadness54 said: For me, it just seems to defeat the purpose of having any other weapons. [/B]

How so? You'd burn through your cells quickly if you tried to use it as often as any other weapon.

I use it pretty frequently, works great on pain elementals and their hordes of lost souls, large groups of imps, clusters of mancubi or arachnotrons, killing archviles in 1 shot, just to name a few situations.

Marcaek said:

How so? You'd burn through your cells quickly if you tried to use it as often as any other weapon.

There is a large ammount of surplus shells on alot of the maps I play on skulltag. And even without that, mind you, it still kills everything within a room in one shot very quickly.

It just is like... you have super massive weapon, so why even use the other ones?

I only use it on Cybies and Spiders. Sometimes packs of barons, but not even then usually.

All the time. All the time!

Years ago, I used to hold back on powerful weapons (not only BFG, but also PG and RL, sticking to the SG/CG in Doom 1 and SSG in Doom 2) and just like myk says, gameplay often suffered as a result.

Going all out, only falling back on smaller weapons when out of ammo creates more frantic situations and, for me, more thrills.

Of course, that doesn't mean I'll BFG a lone zombieman. Unless he really did something to deserve it.

Phml said:

Of course, that doesn't mean I'll BFG a lone zombieman. Unless he really did something to deserve it.

Nothing quite like watching a zip lock bag of gore shoot across a field to the green of an 800 point detonation.

Only against Cybers and Spiders, and when I'm on low health and need to get out of a situation ASAP.

It completely depends on the map, the weapon and ammo available and the opposition faced.

In non-slaughtery gameplay, I'll use it quite rarely; generally only if I need to dispatch a baron or arch-vile very quickly, or for a large mob of revenant or hell knights that don't provide a lot of room to maneuver. Very often when facing the spider, to give it the kiss of death. Quite often for cyberdemons too.


It also depends on proximity. The BFG is, like the SSG, a hug weapon. If you want it to be efficient, you have to get up close and personal with the target. Don't shoot unless you can count the pixels on their face, this kind of things.


Now of course when the map has a monster count in the thousands and hundreds upon hundreds of cell packs lying around...

Didn't someone make a thread akin to this not so long ago, wondering how the BFG is unbalanced/overpowered? Turned out he was under the premise of cheating/infinite ammo.

depends on how much ammo i'm given. slaughter maps use to throw cells at the player by the truckload, but also enough monsters to overrun you if you're using anything but the bfg.

on lower difficulty maps (about doom2-like) i use to hoard cells for the big fight that never comes, i'm reluctant with using cells. however, i like using it against multiple targets with ball + damage cone, or against cybers since it works faster than plasma, uses less ammo for 2 shots and obscures the view less.

I love to BFg if I've got the ammo for it. Arch-vile that needs dispatching? Spidermastermind? Cyberdemon(s) in a reasonable environment? Hordes of enemies? Couple of Barons if I'm feeling lazy? They'd all get it, and more.

Against Cyberdemons, Spider Masterminds and Arch-Viles.

I almost never use it, it just feels like a very boring and bland weapon. I mean, despite all of it's power, it's just unsatisfying to use. It's slow, and only fires one slow projectile.

If they had kept the beta one, I'd use it a lot more, just because it looks cool.

I like exploiting the mechanics of the BFG, and I find satisfaction in how its effective usage requires different skills and allows different sorts of gameplay than the rest of the game's weapons. I admit that it doesn't have the same sort of immediate 'visceral' feel as the shotgun or the chaingun, though.

The beta BFG's basic weapon role of "projectile spam" is already fulfilled by the plasma gun, so giving the final game's super weapon the same gimmick would've been lame in my eyes. Catacomb 3D (or was it just the later trilogy?) already had a powerup that made you spam your regular projectiles all over the place for a few seconds, so I think that gimmick was already old by then anyway. Originality doesn't always equate to quality, but I still like it when a game has a weapon or two whose workings aren't so simplistic or obvious.

Depends on the situation, but usually use it against large monster hordes or powerful monsters. Killing Spider Mastermind, Cyberdemon and archviles will definety use it, sometimes may use against revenents too.

I love using the bfg, it requires a different skill as Mithran pointed out, and the delay it has makes it feel even more powerful and over the top.

I also used to save ammo but that was a bad habit that slows down gameplay and leads to you finishing a mapset with 300 cells. ;)

Only on bosses with the regular DOOM, but with Scaliano's 677 Shuffle, barely.

Gonna have to disagree with the OP on this one.

The BFG is a fantastic tactical option for a number of reasons. It allows the player to inflict a LOT of damage all at once, which helps in certain situations. It's good for hordes, which has already been said. Also to quickly take out Arch-Vile which can resurrect other monsters, which someone also pointed out.

Another thing is the BFG is kind of a special deal, ammo-wise. You get an attack which, if done correctly could inflict MASSIVE damage, for only 40 cells. Shooting 40 cells from a plasma rifle will never equal the damage potential of a well-timed BFG blast. So the BFG can be viewed as an ammo-saver in certain situations.

it depends on ammo dispositions, but usually on any larger crowd containing stronger monsters, especially barons. using bfg on 3 imps to waste ammo and jistify picking up a cell pack... that's not good enough.

I use the BFG whenever I want to get rid of an Archvile before it has a chance to revive anything. I avoid using the BFG on a full-health cyberdemon because it will just blast me in the face instantly. I spend about 15 SSG shots on it before I finish one off with the BFG.

Wagi said:

I use the BFG whenever I want to get rid of an Archvile before it has a chance to revive anything.

...And on Cyberdemons and Spider Masterminds. If there are a shit load of Pain Elementals.

I very rarely play wads that have situations in which using a BFG would be more likely to save my life than a plasma gun would.

I use the BFG pretty much how everyone else does. I will say that getting a proper Cyberdemon bump with it, knocking the jerk back an incredible distance, is a great visceral thrill. The BFG was my best friend in Hell Revealed, next to the rocket launcher.

40oz said:

I very rarely play wads that have situations in which using a BFG would be more likely to save my life than a plasma gun would.

Yeah, wading through tides of monsters while blasting out 600 cells of BFG is cool, like, the first time you play Doom. After that there is nothing novel about it. And it's pretty unfortunate that people continue to make wads that are ENTIRELY BASED AROUND THIS GAMEPLAY MECHANIC.

Singleplayer: rarely.

DM: Any legit Map01 player knows how to totally whore out the BFG; acquiring it is a high priority. That said, there isn't a weapon in the game's arsenal (other than melee/chainsaw) that doesn't have a frequent time and place they should be used.