Force Gun — deadspace

"A kinetic booster device, often used for quickly clearing loose debris or breaking up larger ore deposits. However, due to the graviton acceleration functions, overclocking can cause a dangerous gravitational reaction, causing debris and nearby operators to be pulled in."

—Tool description.^[1]

The Handheld Graviton Accelerator, commonly referred to as the Force Gun, is a short-range kinetic booster device. Its function in mining operations is to provide blasting power beyond conventional explosive charges, thus making it suitable for precise terraforming applications. Some practical examples may include shattering rocks into smaller rocks, sending rocks between miners in zero-gravity situations, or deflecting wayward rocks away from miners during space operations.

Operation

In combat, the Force Gun functions much like a shotgun; the primary fire shoots a wide kinetic blast of energy outwards, damaging everything in front of it. The closer an enemy is to this blast, the more damage is caused. Due to its short range, the Force gun is only viable for close-quarter combat. While the Force Gun's primary fire won't blow many of the tougher enemies to pieces, it will knock them back and away, creating breathing room in tough situations.

In Dead Space, the alt-fire shoots a spherical, low-speed projectile (called a Force Bomb) that explodes upon impact with an enemy. If it doesn't come into contact with a foe, it will roll around for a few seconds before exploding. Upgraded, the secondary fire can blow creatures to pieces.

In Dead Space 2, the alt-fire shoots a narrow beam with a brief charge time that can penetrate through multiple Necromorphs.

In Dead Space (2023), the alt-fire shoots a gravity well that pulls in Necromorphs upon contact with a surface and holds them there for a brief period. With upgrades, the well can deal damage over time to enemies trapped inside.

Variants

Bloody Force Gun (DS2, Martial Law Pack [+5% alt-fire damage, +5% firing speed])
Zealot Force Gun (DS2, Collector's Edition [+5% damage bonus, +5% faster reload])
Steampunk Force Gun (DS1, Big Gun Pack)
Military Force Gun (DS1, Military Pack)
Scorpion Force Gun (DS1, Scorpion Pack)
Tank Force Gun (DS1, Tank Pack)
Speed Kills Force Gun (DS1, Speed Kills Pack)

Location

In Dead Space (2023), the Force Gun can be found in the West Grow Chamber of the Hydroponics deck (first accessible in Chapter 6). After entering the West Grow Chamber from Flow Control, there will be a room at the furthest corner to the left with a Level 2 Security Clearance labelled "West Seedling Room A", where the Force Gun can be found beside a dead scientist.

Combat Tips

General

The Force Gun's primary discharge is designed for close-range effectiveness. Use it only when enemies get too close to you, as its destructive power falls away rapidly with distance.
If you knock an enemy to the ground, run up to it and shoot it at point-blank range while it is still getting up; doing so will stun-lock your opponent and allow you to finish it off in short order. However, remember not to allow other enemies to sneak up on you while you're battering your opponent.
The Force Gun's blast is capable of sending items in the vicinity flying away. As a result, be wary of using the Force Gun on an elevated platform if you need ammo or health drops.
One single shot from the Force Gun is enough to entirely dismember a corpse grabbed by an Infector, making the Infector give up from infecting it. However, it's extremely wasteful to use Force Gun shoots to dismember corpses not grabbed yet, since melee attacks would do the job.
It's not a good idea to use the Force Gun on a Pregnant, as the size of the blast radius creates a significant risk of causing the Pregnant to release its payload.
- Conversely, if you do accidentally cause a Pregnant to release its payload, the Force Gun can make short work of anything that comes out with some well-timed use of the primary fire.
The Force Gun is highly effective against a Divider's limbs, as the area of the blast can hit multiple limbs, and its high close-range damage can stop a limb mid jump.
Try to save the Force Gun for situations where it is hard for you to get into a corner or move around freely and use other weapons.

Dead Space

You can perform a combo with the Force Gun; you can knock an enemy back with the primary fire, and then hit them with the alt-fire before they get up. This is an efficient way of killing enemies if you don't want them to get too close so you can actually blow their limbs off, or if you have low health.
The alt-fire is suitable for knocking back charging enemies or taking out Swarmers at a distance where the Primary discharge would have little effect.
Be careful not to fire the grenade too close to Isaac or he'll get knocked back as well from the blast.
Force Bombs can be picked up with Kinesis and launched right into foes. This is useful if, for any reason, you miss your shot on your target. Be careful not to hold on to the bomb for too long, or it will explode in your hands.
In Zero-G areas, Force Bombs will travel in a straight line rather than an arc, since there is no gravity to pull it downward; as a result, a skilled player can shoot a force bomb long distances to hit an enemy. Keep in mind, however, that the bomb moves slowly enough that some enemies may be able to dodge it before it hits, particularly if you are shooting across a long distance, making this a risky tactic.
You can use the alt-fire to check around corners by simply aiming at the opposing wall and bouncing the bomb around the corner; this will either kill or knock out anything around the corner. It can also cause explosives to detonate, increasing the potential damage done, however this is very rare. Obviously, this tactic comes with the trade-off of risking ammo wastage should there be no hostiles around the corner.
If fully upgraded on the Big Gun Download, the weapon can take out several Necromorphs with ease. This is very effective against Twitchers and Slashers, even sometimes tearing their limbs off.
Force Bombs can be extremely useful against Guardians; it takes some quick precise aiming but when a guardian first sees you it will eject all of its tentacles from its stomach, if you can hit the mass of them with the bomb before the guardian attaches them to the wall it is a guaranteed one hit kill.
The Force Gun is a poor choice for use on Drag Tentacles: the primary fire doesn't have enough range to hit the weak point, and the arc of the alt-fire makes it extremely difficult to hit the target. Switch to a weapon with a faster firing rate (and longer range) instead, such as your Plasma Cutter or Pulse Rifle - unless you're a crack shot with the secondary fire.
The Force Gun can knock down the Hunter and buy time for you to make an escape - this is a possible alternative to cutting off its legs or using stasis to immobilize it.
If you are close enough to the Hive Mind's chest when it's open, and fire a Force Bomb, you can take out more than one of its yellow sacs.

Dead Space 2

Even when fully upgraded on Normal, a single blast is not sufficient to kill a slasher at close range. The primary fire is best used for knocking down enemies to give you time to use the alt-fire, or switch to a different weapon.

The alt-fire beam can penetrate through multiple Necromorphs, so try to line them up in narrow areas.
- An efficient tactic when faced with multiple enemies approaching from the front is to stasis and then run to their side, aiming so that all of their upheld arms are in the line-of-fire; this will allow for multiple instant kills with a single shot. The many remaining floating claws (slowed in their falling by stasis) provide a quick and easy supply of lethal projectiles for kinesis.
The beam is broad enough that aiming for the center-of-mass can shear multiple limbs at once. By contrast, the primary fire has a very small effective range due to damage fall off and is generally best used for clearing Isaac's personal space or knocking down an enemy for a follow-up kill.
The Force gun is highly effective against the Pack, taking out multiple members with one shot.
The Force Gun is very effective against charging Stalkers due to the knockback effect, fast rate of fire and inexpensive ammunition.
On Zealot difficulty, a fully upgraded (primary firing) Force Gun can completely dismember the Ubermorph in 2-3 well placed shots. Just knock it off its feet with the first shot, walk up on top of it and fire 1-2 more times depending on how far the first shot was fired from, then stasis the creature and move on.
The Force Gun is not a good idea to use during the Brute train encounter. The short ranged kinetic blast is far too short ranged to reach the yellow weak spots on the Brute's arms. Additionally, for reasons unknown, you cannot use the secondary function when you are trying to kill the Brute.
Like the Contact Beam's primary function, the Force Gun's secondary function can be canceled while charging up.

Dead Space 3

In Dead Space 3, the Force Gun's damage has been nerfed so much that even upgraded as much as possible (with 4 +3 Damage Circuits and the Damage Support attachment) it still does not have enough damage to effectively deal with basic enemies such as Slashers on higher difficulties, meaning using it as a primary weapon is ill-advised.
- However, due to the large area of effect, the Force Gun in Dead Space 3 is still a great choice against the small, hard to hit swarms of Swarms.
It is advised to use the Force Gun as a lower tool to easily push away enemies if they get too close for you to easily dispatch them.

Dead Space (2023)

The Force Gun is extremely effective against Twitchers due to its knockback effect and a well placed shot can hit the Twitcher's stasis unit leaving it vulnerable to damage from other weapons.
The usefulness of the Force Gun's Gravity Well shines when dealing with groups of enemies as shooting it near them will pull them to that location making them vulnerable to other attacks. It can also give the player an opportunity to escape.
- The Gravity Well does very low damage, even when fully upgraded. It is intended primarily for crowd control by temporarily disabling Necromorphs. Enemies trapped in a Gravity Well should be finished off or escaped from quickly as they will almost certainly survive If they were undamaged before the shot.
A single shot from the primary fire can take out an entire group of Swarmers.
The Force Gun's primary fire will remove entire layers of skin/muscles from Necromorphs now, eventually leaving them almost skeletal. This seems to be mostly a visual effect however as Necromorphs will still only die to damage or dismemberment, not lack of skin/muscle.

Update

Trivia

The Force Gun is the only engineering tool in the game that is not given a technical name. The Dead Space art book features a tool catalogue that describes the Force Gun as a "Handheld Graviton Accelerator."
The Force Gun, like the Ripper and Seeker Rifle, has a rather strange "reloading" animation. The handle above the gun's barrel is pulled back and then pushed forward immediately without any ammo being ejected/inserted.
- It is possible that it is some sort of re-pressurizing mechanism given the Force Gun's mode of fire, but that still does not explain why no Force Energy cartridges are ejected from or inserted into the gun.
Similar to the Kinesis module, the Force Gun utilizes gravity around it to give the blast effect.
The Force Gun is one of the five guns available as secondary weapons in Dead Space 2 Multiplayer.
It is impossible for the Force Gun's primary fire to detonate an Exploder or Crawler; however, it can still detonate explosive canisters.
In Dead Space, the targets of the Target Practice shooting range on the 9th chapter cannot be hit with the Force Gun, not even the secondary fire.
In Dead Space, Isaac holds the Force Gun close to his waist when aiming. In Dead Space 2, He holds it like a rifle, aiming down the "sight".
- Adding to this, the Force Gun used in Dead Space 2 seems to be smaller than the one from Dead Space.
The DS2 variant of the Force Gun can be constructed in Dead Space 3 by placing a default-tipped Plasma Core as an Upper Tool on a Heavy Frame, with a compressor-tip plasma core as the lower tool.
- The DS variant can be somewhat recreated with a default-tip Survey Charge as the Lower Tool, though this is an imperfect recreation as the grenades are a different shape and explode on contact with any surface, not just enemies.

Gallery

Sources

↑ Dead Space Official Site - Weapons

[1] Dead Space Official Site - Weapons

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