A Screwdriver Railcannon Rework

[ImBoredSoHereIAm]

Posting this here in case you're willing to pick it up, it's mostly a copy paste with a few adjustments for formatting and cutting out some stuff. Lmk what you think of it. You're doing God's work btw

This rework idea aims to add a new javelin rush function to the screwdriver (which many have decided not to use) while preserving the original drill cannon. It is somewhat based off of an idea from (The One Thing I'd Change About Ultrakill) and incorporates some of my own desires for movement options.

The new Screwdriver will have two separate firing types that can be changed through the aiming mechanic.

The original drill projectile is shot by aiming and then firing. Aiming charges up the drill projectile over two seconds. The first second of charging will boost the speed and distance the drill travels and increase the impact damage of the projectile by 50%, the next second will turn the drill into a hitscan beam, which has double the original impact damage.

The drill, now being a hitscan weapon, is able to shatter coins, bursting the coin into eight fragmented coins that target enemies and drills into them. The impact deals 0.5x the normal hit damage of a coin shot, but the subsequent drill effect dealing 1.5x the damage of a coin shot over time. This is basically a split shot on super bloody steroids.

But when you hipfire is where the majority of the changes are at. Instead of shooting a projectile, V1 begins a rush attack.

For two seconds V1 gains flight and wherever it aims, V1 will travel without being affected by gravity. After 1.5 seconds, V1 loses flight and is affected by gravity again but will continue to move horizontally for an added 3.5 seconds

Flight time is indicated by the blue railcannon charge meter being overlaid with green (like when overhealed), as you drain your flight meter, the green bar decreases up until it’s empty, which is when it then begins draining your blue meter.

However, when V1 impacts enemies with the drill, the length of the horizontal rush increases by .5 seconds up to a maximum of 4 seconds. This is indicated by the blue meter charging back up, which will not refill the green meter.

Light enemies will be pierced much like a sawblade, heavier enemies like the mindflayers will cause V1 to be stuck to the enemy until they die or V1 disengages by jumping/sliding off.

V1 continues to charge forward for the rest of their rush duration after said enemy dies or the drill runs out

When V1 disengages early, the drill remains stuck to the enemy, inheriting the time left on the drill (5 from the original timer of the drill + [0.5 x enemies killed] up to 9 seconds max)

Enemies killed with this move give the style bonus +HEAVEN PIERCER

The drill once detached can still be punched to refresh the duration, much like the original

You can drift while charging by using A and D, slide once the flight ends, and using dashes during the rush works the same as when using the whiplash

After using the railcannon charge, switching to any other weapon/variant will stop the charge and cause the railcannon to go back on cooldown. Switching back to the screwdriver again will not continue the charge, unlike heatsink canceling

Arms can be used during the charge, so the whiplash is a reliable way to charge into airborne enemies after the flight runs out

Why this? A few reasons In the cybergrind I found myself getting blown off a ton because I liked to stay airborne, and while I could be a wimp and always stick to the ground, that's boring. The whiplash relies on line of sight to an enemy in order to grapple and save yourself, but on custom patterns/maps with high elevation that becomes difficult. Overpumping the shotgun only goes so far until you fall too far below the map to get up. And ultraboosting is pretty tough to do while falling, and I would say I’m decent at coresniping now.

The new Screwdriver is a reflexive tool that can be used in perilous situations to save oneself and gain blood. Paired with a good overpump, this greatly enhances the recovery of V1 to get onto the map. Also, it’s another Tengan Toppa Gurren Lagann reference. Hakita’s songwriter name is one so I thought I might as well since it fits perfectly. Isn't it fucking sick as hell to imagine rushing towards (spoilers minos prime) while they're in the sky? Imagine trimping like the demoknight from TF2 in devil may quake. It’d be awesome.

I thought it would fit well, since the original weapon is preserved while giving a new use to a widely underutilized weapon (as me and many others with don't use it when we have the maurice beam or beeg tazer).

I always wanted another movement option that allowed for upwards vertical movement, but with airdashes being horizontal only and the limitation of avoiding double jumps, I was kinda stumped. But the idea from the video was a great foundation for this concept. It’s a more aggressive tool, and since it’s tied to the cooldown of the railcannons it means it’s not easy to spam and you sacrifice safer damage output for risky but powerful recovery.

Also, the close range nature of the new drill makes it risky as you’re open to being attacked from melee enemies like swordsmachine and cerberus. Trying to dedicate fully into using the whole duration of the close range drill is risky because you can't use any other weapons other than your arms, so a good strat is to charge into a big enemy like cerberus and ditch the drill, then use the feedbacker to refresh the duration of the drill right when you stick it in.