First alarm of R2B3 with various loadouts.

I did this when I wanted to shoot stuff but didnt want to play a full mission. Its a good way of practicing aim/knife and testing loadouts, tho. You can reach the alarm in 2min, and finish in under 4-6 min. I also did something similar for the first R6AX alarm. R6AX is usually longer by a minute or two.

R2B3 has long sightlines, so long-range waveclear is helpful. Difficulty can be made easier/harder by you deciding what doors to open and whether to use sentry. It can be harder if you dont find fog repellers, or if you try to funnel but have bad luck and enemies break the door to flank you.

Meanwhile, R6AX is closer quarters and has bigger waves (imo, its harder)

The nice thing is that both have medpacks, so you can speed recklessly through clearing, and have a buffer for mistakes to be at 100% health when you start the alarm.

originally i was planning on doing a bunch more loadouts and commentating them but now, ehh. throwing this up before i delete it off my PC for storage space. also in hindsight i shouldnt have fast-forwarded all the opening parts, just cut them (or at least had a consistent fast-forward speed).

Slug Shotgun // Combat Shotgun
Slug shotgun is fun, but I always thought of it as a poor main. The runs here went well though, it can do long-range waveclear, 1-shot headshotting both strikers and shooters. Compared to DMR, it still has less range and is less forgiving when missing. But it is a bit easier to use when enemies get up-close, since you only need bodyshots for strikers. Combat Shotgun is of course a super dependable and strong close-range waveclear gun, so I can use slug shotgun peacefully knowing that I have combat shotgun to cover me when the enemy advances.

Sawed-Off // Revolver
Revolver does long range waveclear, sawed-off does giants and quickly cleaning up things that get too close. The latter is critical, since revolver is terrible at close range waveclear; you need headshots, but at close range you have less time to react and aim carefully, and if you miss or if theres multiple enemies, theres big recoil and stuffs.

Hel Shotgun // High Caliber Pistol
This was my go-to loadout for most of these solo/duo runs. Originally I used DMR + Pump Shotgun for my generic solo runs, then switched to trying HCP for more range + ammo once they buffed its ammo; then tried HAR, combat shotgun. Ended up favoring combat shotgun over pump almost entirely. I no longer see what an advantage of pump over combat, it reloads faster and does 30dmg but thats about all, but the firerate is so slow that it cant easily solo hold a long scan without moving to dodge. Way less ammo too. Anyway, HCP does shooters at range, and is also easier than DMR to do shooters when they get close since you can just bodyshot them. HCP does giants at range (HCP is close range for 4-shotting giants, but can 5 shot at long range and insta stagger at long range too), scouts, chargers, long range wavepicking, kinda does a bit of many things. Then Hel Shotgun covers you when the strikers break through and you need a sustained burst of close range waveclear.

DMR // Pump Shotgun
The original loadout I used when I first started soloing, because it was the loadout Hinoki and T-nenpi used a lot. DMR is fantastic for shooters which can really build up on you in solo and because a hazard, and it also does long-range waveclear very well, very fast. Pump is decent for giant killing and close range waveclear, tho imo not as much as combat. But back in those days for that was like ALT R2, so a lot of weapons werent out or had totally different balance, and I think pump shotgun was a better pick back then compared to now.

Chokemod: I wish it were more useful, its a cool gun. But it feels like every niche chokemod hits, something else hits better while also doing other things (e.g. scatter for bosses. actually scatter is just kinda wack. wish it wasnt so strong even tho scatter is fun to use). Altho chokemod did come in handy on R8B4 duo, for something that Idiotnet could use to both help with flyers but also to combo with hel shotgun and let him semi-consistently instakill a sleeping mother.

PDW: thermal scope can be critically useful on solo/duo runs. even without that, it has a mega fast reload and great hipfire. Now that sawed-off so strong Id pretty much never pick PDW over sawed off unless I want the thermal, but it still has a soft spot in my heart.

ok now i kinda wanna journal my final thoughts on weapons before i forget everything. actually i already forgot a lot of GTFO weapon stuff. eh nvm im too lazy/busy anyway.
here, top solo/duo mains imo: sawed-off, hel shotgun, DMR, PDW.
others, i wouldnt reach for aside from a few for specialized threats (or for fun)
top secondaries: hel rifle, HCP, HAR, combat shotgun, scattergun.

0:00 Slug // CS
9:30 DMR // Pump
17:24 PDW // Chokemod
29:00 Pistol // BC
37:00 Rifle // BC
40:40 Sawed-Off // Revolver
54:50 Slug// Scattergun