Intelligent, inquisitive, and maybe just a bit paranoid (but is it paranoia if half the ocean wants you dead?), Gil has always had a reputation as a straight-shooter. Over the last year of Fingeance design, we’ve tried to give Gil abilities that reflect this straightforward, sharpshooting persona. In building Gil’s kit, we’ve tried to keep these ideals in mind:

• Gil must have 100% accuracy and long range on most or all of his weapons. Gil is, first and foremost, a sharpshooter and back-line DPS character, and his gear has to reflect that. He should also demand good aim more than most characters.
• Gil must be capable of highly-rewarding and spectacular shots. A legendary sniper lives to line up the perfect shot. Gil’s weapons, if used to perfection, should allow some amazing moments.

We quickly determined that the simplest way to allow awesome high-skill/high-reward play was to give Gil piercing attacks: if you aim just right, you might be able to score 3-5x damage on every shot! However, we hit a stumbling block: such a character is far weaker when there are few enemies onscreen. Gil was great at fighting swarms, bad at fighting bosses.

Today, we reveal his remade loadout. We’ve given his ship a total makeover to make him the damage dealing champ he was always meant to be!

Meet the Marksman

Gil’s combat role rests on his excellent damage dealing abilities, but is especially defined by how he doles it out. His specialty is decimating all enemies with ease, even if there’s something between him and his chosen target. His unique arsenal allows him to damage enemies cowering behind larger foes, hurt large groups of enemies, and burst down single targets. The massive amount of damage potential comes at a cost, however: Gil lacks any form of damage reducing or avoiding capabilities, so he’ll have to rely on his ship’s innate dodging ability or his team to keep him alive. What’s a better form of damage reduction than a dead enemy anyways?

Gil’s cannon, the Fisherman, fires piercing bullets rapidly, dealing damage to up to two targets. The way to maximize its damage output is to position yourself to hit multiple targets at a time. Try targeting higher priority enemies behind larger targets to kill the major threats while whittling down the protector.

Gil’s Great Hunt

The first of Gil’s new gadgets is the Whale Gun, a powerful tool that fires a large and fast bullet straight in front of him. The Whale Gun can be fired multiple times, but only has four bullets. If he runs out of bullets, he can’t fire again until another ammo recharges after a period of time.

Careful not to use it all, in case you need it!

This gadget can be used to bolster Gil’s already impressive damage output by either providing a steady stream of high powered shots, or a massive damage burst. Use a rhythmic fire pattern when weaker enemies are on screen to increase his DPS, then unleash on dangerous foes to finish them more quickly. Enemies with weak points are especially effective targets for the Whale Gun.

Welcome to the Light Show

Gil’s second gadget is an enhanced Laser Deploy. It creates a drone that fires an extremely deadly laser forward after a short charge period. The laser deals damage to all enemies in front of the drone. The Laser Deploy is best used to deal damage to a large number of enemies as quickly as possible. Because of its long cooldown time and high energy cost, it’s smart to save the gadget for an opportune moment.

The deployed laser drone has about a second of delay time, but is a separate entity, so Gil can use it to deal damage while he moves to a safer space. It can also be used to deal damage to multiple areas of the screen at once, and since the Fisherman can damage multiple enemies, Gil’s range of influence is massive while the Laser Deploy is active. As you might imagine, this gadget gives Gil particular power over bosses that rely on a swarm of tiny minions. The Laser Deploy can effortlessly carve a hole in minion formations while Gil peppers the big target from afar.

Gil can grab augments over the course of a campaign that can grant him even more damage ability, more piercing ability, and even a little defensive benefit if he needs it.

Do you feel Gil is the ultimate underwater marksman? Feeling Gil-ty about doing so much damage? We’d love to hear your thoughts. You can reach us here on the comments of our blog, or find us at our Twitter and Facebook page.