Daily Weapon Discussion Day 16: The Romero 77 (+ Variants)

Howdy Hunters!

Lets throw in a shotgun for today. Another one by popular request. The ol' boomstick, the Romero 77!

Today i wanted to talk about the Romero and its 3 slot variants, namely the Alamo and the Talon. I was debating on wether or not to give the Alamo its own post, but it is so similar in terms of stats that i decided to include it here. Lets look at the base Romero first, then at its variants, ammo, pairings and finally perks.

The Romero is a 3 slot, single shot shotgun that is tied for longest 1 tap range in the game along with the Drilling. Its also the cheapest full size shotgun. It offers a relatively fast reload and it allows you to take 2 types of ammo. These special ammo's include pennyshot, slugs, dragons breath and shivers starshell.

I like the base Romero as a cheap but effective gun that can hold its own as long as your positioning is good and your aim is true, because the buckshot offers an impressive 13 meter kill range. At the same time it has some glaring weaknesses. The single shot is a big deal. If you dont kill with it you are in a world of trouble. The reload isnt super slow but it will still be a death sentence when the enemy is in your face. Overall i think its a good budget/beginner weapon that you will probably drop for the first strong weapon one of your killed opponents drops.

The Talon covers a bit of this weakness by making your heavy attack a cruching overhead swing that deals massive damage. Great for fighting bosses with as always, but it also give you a backup plan for when your shot doesnt kill or when there is more than 1 opponent and reloading is not an option. Another cool thing is that this can quickly break down barricades doors, which is nice if you are doing a shotgun breach. For only 18 dollars more this is just a better Romero. Besides wanting to rock some skins id always pick this variant.

Finally there is the Alamo... oh the Alamo. Such an intense hatred i have for you. On paper this might seem good. You get 5 shots that cycle 0.8 seconds faster than a normal reload at no downside to damage or spread. HOWEVER, after firing those shots you get a painfully 18.2 seconds full reload where every shell is carefully pushed into that tube... This basically means game over in a prolonged fight. 5 shells might seem like enough but in chaotic server fights it really isnt. Im sorry to anyone who likes the Alamo and i know there is some of you out there, but to me its absolute gutter tier garbage.

Ammo types next. i already covered buckshot a bit earlier. In short, its good. very good actually and its my default ammo here.

Dragons breath is a meme. Damage is pretty awfull, burning downed hunters can be done just as easily by a flare pistol or even a fuse and getting hunters to catch fire is inconsistent. Hard skip unless you like to meme.

Slugs then. The Romero falls into the 'long barrel' category of shotguns which means that slugs here will kill to the chest up to around 15 meters. This is good and a 2 meter upgrade over buckshot. It also gives you some headshotting capability up to 26 meters. Its a straight upgrade imo at the cost of being harder to resupply and costing as many dollars as the base gun, which kind of defeats the budget role for me. Its certainly strong though and if you are minmaxing you would want to take this, but i would question why you would run the Romero in the first place if that was the case.

Then we have starshell.... sigh why is this still in the game? Why does this cost additional money over buckshot? I really dont want to talk about starshell. Next.

Finally pennyshot is a bit of a weird one. Unlike the Drilling this one stops reliably killing at 9 meters instead of the Drillings 11. Basically dont use this on hunters, but its good for bosses. Get very close and blast them in the face for massive damage. Since you can bring 2 ammo types anyway i think bringing 1 slot of pennyshot is actually pretty nice, especially if you running the base version and not the talon to deal with bosses.

For pairings i would say get any pistol that can cover a bit of range. Trueshot and uppercut are the obvious choices, but a spitfire with high velo or fmj and the conversion pistol with fmj are also solid sleeper options. Especially when you are on a budget. One other neat trick you can do is if you bring pennyshot you can pool ammo with the pennyshot derringer. Something that may be worth doing. With quartermaster you can pick any of the long ammo options that i always recommend or even a Winfield Vandal / Centennial Shorty if you want to stick to that low budget loadout.

Finally perks and this is another great thing about the Romero. Nothing interacts with it at all. Get conduit if you run the Talon version but otherwise its great for a lv 1 hunter. Very low commitment with this and the potential gains are massive.

That was my 2 cents. Let me know if you still play the Romero or if this was really just a beginner gun for you. As always i look forward to your input and let me know if there is anything i missed! Happy hunting and until tomorrow!

Below you will find a table of all previously covered weapons (if you are on mobile swipe left to see the full table)