Last Updated on by Samuel Franklin
This Killing Floor 2 Gunslinger build guide provides the ideal combination of perks and weapon loadout. Combining single and dual pistol options the Gunslinger mixes headshot damage, movement and ammunition reserves that is highly effective in solo and multiplayer.
This KF2 Gunslinger guide includes tips, strategies, perk skills and weapon loadout for different maps, difficulties and party dynamics. While there are several builds discussed below my recommended default is a perk build of RLRLR while using Dual .50 Desert Eagles, Dual M1911 Pistols (or .500 Magnums) and a Single AF-2011 for weapon loadout.
Table of Contents:
– Gunslinger Strategy and Tips
– Gunslinger Perks Build
– Gunslinger Weapons Loadout
Killing Floor 2 Gunslinger Strategy and Tips
To play the Gunslinger at a high level use the following tips:
- Jack Of All Trades: The Gunslinger can be a jack of all trades in Killing Floor 2 which makes you able to pivot to your team needs or tackle solo successfully. The Gunslinger can adjust their build between a large ZED killer, generalist or small ZED killer although the latter is your weakest role and there are other classes that simply do it better due to ammo economy issues on even your basic pistols.
- Reload Cancel: With your core pistol archetypes having weak reload times learning how to effectively reload cancel as the Gunslinger is critical.
- Stay Safe: As a Gunslinger you are a squishy class that also needs to be in close range to use pistols effectively. As a result careful positioning is critical while utilising your additional movement speed and enemy slow debuff through perk skills to stay safe amongst the chaos.
- Headshot Stacking: Rack ’em Up is a key perk to your overall damage output and players should consider the surrounding ZEDs to maximise the effectiveness. The most common situation is using some easy to hit ZEDs often of a lower tier to build up your stacks before using the damage boost on a different durable ZED opponent that might be difficult to stack hits on.
- Save Ammo: With your lower ammo magazine size be careful with every shot when playing as the Gunslinger. Often a steady and patient trigger finger that waits for a headshot will be more effective than spamming your pistols which will quickly leave you with no ammo.
Killing Floor 2 Gunslinger Perks Build
The Gunslinger has the following perk bonuses at maximum level:
- 25% perk weapon damage (1% per level)
- 30% bullet resistance (5% base and 1% per level)
- 20% movement speed (0.8% per level)
- 25% recoil reduction (1% per level)
- 75% ZED time reload speed (3% per level)
The Gunslinger has the following active perk skills to select from:
| Perk Category | Left (L) Option | Right (R) Option |
|---|---|---|
| Techniques | Steady: Ignore movement speed penalty and increase perk weapons damage 7.5% when using iron sights. Drastically reduce weapon bob with perk weapons. | Quick Draw: Reduce recoil penalty for shooting from the hip, increase movement speed 5%, and switch perk weapons 50% faster. |
| Skill | Rack ’em Up: Consecutive headshots with perk weapons increases damage 10%, to a maximum of 50%. | Bone Breaker: Increase damage with perk weapons 20% and inflict 30% more damage to arms and legs. |
| Advanced Techniques | Line ’em Up: Suffer no damage reduction from shooting through ZEDs to hit other ZEDs and increase penetration with perk weapons. |
Speedloader: Increase reload speed with perk weapons. |
| Critical Hits | Skullcracker: Headshots with perk weapons slow ZEDs 30%. | Knock ’em Down: Shooting sprinting ZEDs in the legs massively increases knockdown power. Shooting ZEDs in the chest with perk weapons massively increases stumble power. |
| Master Techniques | ZED TIME – Whirlwind of Load: During ZED Time, your perk weapons can’t run out of ammo. | ZED Time – Fan Fire: During ZED Time, your perk weapons will shoot faster and reload in real-time. |
Notable active perk skills when playing as the Gunslinger are:
- Techniques: This tier offers players two different Gunslinger playstyles with many in the community favouring the right hand side Quick Draw. This enables you to confidently fire from the hip with your weapons, boost your movement speed to kite away from enemies and switch between your weapons faster. Meanwhile on the left hand side you can aim down sights without being slowed down along with a small damage buff when doing so.
- Skill: An easy decision at this tier with Rack ’em Up central to our damage and further leans into your class design of headshots. If you are struggling to keep up headshot streaks while learning this class you can temporarily run the Bone Breaker side as its a flat 20% but you’ll want to work towards maintaining the 50% of Rack ’em Up as you practice. Bone Breaker can also be an option for boss waves given you are unlikely to be able to keep up stacks of headshots against most bosses. Like the Sharpshooter you’ll have a visual indication in the middle of your screen for the current number of stacks and players can build up these stacks on any ZED which makes gaining stacks on lower tier ZEDs before using your 50% boost on larger ZEDs a common tactic.
- Advanced Techniques: While Line ’em Up is a unique Killing Floor 2 perk and has some fantastic potential to assist with our ammo economy issues it is simply not consistent enough to skip the right hand side that covers a similar weakness. This right side is a buff to reload speed that we desperately need given our small magazine sizes across weapon options that require constantly reloading and can still help after you learn reload cancelling in case you miss the timing.
- Critical Hits: Combining the left hand side Skullcracker with Rack ’em Up gives additional breathing room when up close to enemies to land our shots which makes it the preferred option and combines perfectly with our other sources of improved movement speed. While Knock ’em Down on the right side isn’t terrible it just doesn’t suit our class theme as the Gunslinger compared to the left hand side option.
- Master Techniques: While both options support your character damage output the choice here will dramatically impact your ZED time goals. On the left Whirlwind of Load provides endless ammunition which removes your need to reload for clearing waves or hitting headshot after headshot. The right hand side is also perfectly designed for the Gunslinger with faster shooting and instant reloading turning us into a damage machine and while the faster shooting speed does impact our ability to land accurate headshots the raw damage output is significant and the default choice.
The Gunslinger best perks setup is RLRLR as your default option. For the Gunslinger there are only a small number of niche (often temporary) reasons to change this setup which are noted above.
Killing Floor 2 Gunslinger Weapons Loadout Guide
As the Gunslinger your pistols include single and dual wield options with the best options including the .500 Magnum Revolvers, .50 Desert Eagles, M1911 Pistols, AF2011-A1s, HMTech-101 Pistol and SPX 464 Centerfire. While pistols deal high headshot damage and allow the Gunslinger to be a nimble class this weapon archetype does suffer from low ammo capacity. The best loadout combinations are:
- Dual .50 Desert Eagles, Dual M1911 Pistols (or .500 Magnums) and a Single AF-2011: The standard choice that gives plenty of ammunition and damage to handle ZED waves. The hard hitting penetration power of the Desert Eagles (Deagles) have good ammo economy and fire rate that is unmatched for medium and large ZED killing and a staple of many Gunslinger loadouts. The dual M1911s (or Magnums) also have hard hitting damage output ideal for large and medium ZEDs and can be selected based on your preferencs of fire rates and magazine capacity. Lastly the single AF-2011 pistol fits into our remaining loadout weight to provide a reliable weapon for weak ZEDs without wasting the ammo of the harder hitting pistols.
- Dual .50 Desert Eagles, Dual M1911 Pistols, Dual Magnums and HM-TECH 101 Pistol: A loadout with a massive 7 pistols worth of ammo and also adds some utility through the healing darts of the Field Medic pistol. While this number of guns does limit upgrade choices due to weight limits players can still complete some upgrades as there are several one level upgrades for these weapons that don’t add weight to your kit.
- Dual .50 Desert Eagles, Dual Magnums and SPX 464 Centerfire: While similar to the first Gunslinger build players will be using a weapon beyond pistols to enhance your large ZED killing power. The SPX is also effective at giving you some additional range in your kit that can be a welcome addition on larger maps with long sight lines.
